Vital Strke and Hand of the aprentice

[wujenta]

I have a Wizard/fighter/eldritch knight using a Greatsword, and was wondering if I can use Vital Strke when I throw my weapon using Hand of the aprentice... I know there are better things to do, but its a cool thing to do from time to time...

[Diego Rossi]

"As a standard action, you can make a single attack using a melee weapon at a range of 30 feet. This attack is treated as a ranged attack with a thrown weapon, except that you add your Intelligence modifier on the attack roll instead of your Dexterity modifier (damage still relies on Strength)."

"Vital Strike (Combat)
Benefit: When you use the attack action,"

I fear RAW it will not work. It is not a attack action, it is a standard action that is an attack.
I would allow it, but officially it is disallowed.

[wujenta]

I was thinking that as it is treated as a ranged attack it could be done, but as you say it, it´s not exactly an attack, its a standard that its treated as an atack.

The character is for Society, so I wanted to check it before using it. I will not change the feat, as I use vital strike plenty of times in melee, but it would have been cool to do it when throwing the greatsword.

[Zhayne]

Hand says 'as a standard action'.
Vital Strike says 'when you use the attack action'.

Hand is not an attack action, therefore you cannot use Vital Strike.

[James Risner]

Hand of the Apprentice is a standard action to activate.
Vital Strike is a standard action to activate.

Both allow single attacks, but neither are single attacks themselves.