What can you do while holding the charge of a touch spell?

[Varalash]

Hello,

Hope this in the right section, though not sure where else it would go other then advice?

So I'm playing a monk/cleric and was wondering how holding the charge of touch spells interacts with domain powers and his day to day life. Mostly it comes down to the order of activation of abilities though, with the other things being secondary.

Basic concept is an archer with buff/debuff spells that likes helping allied spell casters get through saves and the like. This is largely going to be done through the Chaos and Madness domain touch abilities and bestow curse.

Since you can hold a charge indefinitely, lets say I wake up and cast a persistent bestow curse (5th level spell, forces reroll on successful save). I can then hold that spell until I touch someone?- in the text it says if you touch any creature or object the spell will be discharged... Does this mean:
- that scratching my nose results in me casting it on myself?
- can I hold a charge and still use a bow, or will I cast bestow curse on an arrow when I grab it?
- As a monk I could make a melee IUAS and discharge it, since I can do that with any part of my body, is there a set limb I have to hold the charge with? (main/offhand, foot leg elbow etc..) or is my entire body charged?
- If holding on say my elbow does end up being valid, back to using a bow?

And the next thing I was trying to figure out was how does this interact with my domain powers? They're a standard action to activate, but I could deliver them through a punch rather than a touch couldn't I? difference of touch ac vs normal ac.
-Could I use Vision of madness as an attack and trigger bestow curse at the same time?
-What order would they occur?
-Just to complicate it further, with the domain strike feat, could I also trigger touch of Chaos?

Holding the Charge:

Holding the Charge: If you don't discharge the spell in the round when you cast the spell, you can hold the charge indefinitely. You can continue to make touch attacks round after round. If you touch anything or anyone while holding a charge, even unintentionally, the spell discharges. If you cast another spell, the touch spell dissipates. You can touch one friend as a standard action or up to six friends as a full-round action. Alternatively, you may make a normal unarmed attack (or an attack with a natural weapon) while holding a charge. In this case, you aren't considered armed and you provoke attacks of opportunity as normal for the attack. If your unarmed attack or natural weapon attack normally doesn't provoke attacks of opportunity, neither does this attack. If the attack hits, you deal normal damage for your unarmed attack or natural weapon and the spell discharges. If the attack misses, you are still holding the charge.

Vision of madness:

Vision of Madness (Sp): You can give a creature a vision of madness as a melee touch attack. Choose one of the following: attack rolls, saving throws, or skill checks. The target receives a bonus to the chosen rolls equal to 1/2 your cleric level (minimum +1) and a penalty to the other two types of rolls equal to 1/2 your cleric level (minimum –1). This effect fades after 3 rounds. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Wisdom modifier.

Touch of Chaos:

Touch of Chaos (Sp): You can imbue a target with chaos as a melee touch attack. For the next round, anytime the target rolls a d20, he must roll twice and take the less favorable result. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Wisdom modifier.

domain strike:

When you gain this feat, choose one domain-granted power that you can use to affect no more than one opponent. If you make a successful unarmed strike against an opponent, in addition to dealing your unarmed strike damage, you can use a swift action to deliver the effects of the chosen granted power to that opponent. Doing so provokes no attacks of opportunity.

Persistent spell:

Whenever a creature targeted by a persistent spell or within its area succeeds on its saving throw against the spell, it must make another saving throw against the effect. If a creature fails this second saving throw, it suffers the full effects of the spell, as if it had failed its first saving throw.

How does it unfold?:

So lets assume he has the ability to cast 5th level spells, so Monk 3/Cleric 10 (awhile off, but my ultimate vision for this concept)

I'm holding the charge for persistent bestow curse, I walk up to BBEG and use my standard action to activate my vision of madness ability, and kick him in the nads (or ovaries, which ever...) and hit against normal AC. How does it all unfold from there, assuming domain strike is tied to Touch of Chaos?

Best case - My swift action activates, triggering touch of chaos, forcing him to roll twice for the lower result, followed by vision of madness give him -5 attack and saves, with +5 craft(failure), and finally bestow curse, which he has to effectively save against 4 times (between persistent and touch of chaos) at the -5?

Worst case - bestow first, followed by everything else?

Between - Madness first, followed by bestow, and finally my swift action happening last, touch of chaos?

Just trying to figure out how to make saves suck and what order things happen in...

Thanks for any input!

[Rynjin]

Touching yourself doesn't trigger touch spells (nor does necessarily touching another person, say if they deflect the attack). Touching anything else you're not already holding does. Drawing an arrow would discharge it, as would drawing a weapon not already in-hand, drawing a scroll, wand, or potion, taking any item out of your pack, and so on.

[Varalash]

What does it do when you cast it on an item? Just fizzle?
That seems almost arbitrary - if I had arrows in hand when casting the spell like This guy I'd be fine to use them?

[Rynjin]

You can't hold a charge at all if you don't have a hand free (arrow in one hand, bow in the other hand...nope. No free hands), so the point is moot.

Even if it weren't, you'd touch fingers to bowstring trying to nock the arrow...and it'd discharge.

The charge holding rules only require you to use common sense. No more, no less.

[Varalash]

ok, so how does it apply to the domain powers?

[kestral287]

You can't deliver Domain Powers with a punch. They're not touch spells, they don't have the various effects (like holding the charge) that come with that. Domain Strike is the closest you can get to that.

The two don't really interact at all. If you happen to have a touch spell pre-cast and you use a domain power that requires a melee touch attack, then yes, you touched somebody and the spell discharges. That's the closest they have to any kind of interaction.