So...the Spectral Hand spell describes the spell as an incorporeal construction made from your life force. You use it to deliver touch spells at a distance. It grants a +2 bonus on your melee touch attacks.
Since the Spectral Hand is itself incorporeal, do you make attacks with this as incorporeal touch attack? I suspect in most cases the distinction will not be meaningful. On the other hand, in those cases where it is meaningful (say for instance, a target is allowed to apply its shield bonus to touch AC) it would be nice to know.
I can't see a situation where it would matter since a touch attack and incorporeal status ignore the same thing, armor.
If a situation came up and I was the DM I would say that because the had in incorporeal you could make melee touch attacks against incorporeal creatures, move the incorporeal hand through the first 5ft of walls, and would be stopped by force effects.
However, I'd say that even if someone has buffed themselves with Mage Armor and Shield, they would not have a higher AC against the Spectral Hand because the spell specifically says you make a *Melee Touch Attack* which would not normally be affected by these force spells.
My logic for this is that because the mage armor and shield spells are attached to you, then if you get touched by the hand delivering the touch spell then it still gets delivered. Even though the attacker hasn't touched your physical person, the spell is still delivered so I don't think it should be different for the Spectral Hand.
Beldaru, it is admittedly a narrow issue but there are ways to add shield bonuses to touch AC. For instance, the shielded fighter archetype gets a capstone ability that (among other things) adds shield bonus to touch AC. Would that apply against an incorporeal touch? More to the point, is Spectral Hand an incorporeal touch in the first place? That was the initial question...it seems like a reasonable way to interpret the text of the spell (it mentions the hand, which delivers the touch spell, as being incorporeal.) On the other hand, the text also says you get a +2 bonus to the melee touch attack to deliver the spell rather than saying you get a +2 bonus to the incorporeal touch attack to deliver the spell.
Greetings!
First, lets call forth the description of our tricky little friend.
A ghostly hand shaped from your life force materializes and moves as you desire, allowing you to deliver low-level, touch range spells at a distance. On casting the spell, you lose 1d4 hit points that return when the spell ends (even if it is dispelled), but not if the hand is destroyed. (The hit points can be healed as normal.) For as long as the spell lasts, any touch range spell of 4th level or lower that you cast can be delivered by the spectral hand. The spell gives you a +2 bonus on your melee touch attack roll, and attacking with the hand counts normally as an attack. The hand always strikes from your direction. The hand cannot flank targets like a creature can. After it delivers a spell, or if it goes beyond the spell range or goes out of your sight, the hand returns to you and hovers.
The hand is incorporeal and thus cannot be harmed by normal weapons. It has improved evasion (half damage on a failed Reflex save and no damage on a successful save), your save bonuses, and an AC of 22 (+8 size, +4 natural armor). Your Intelligence modifier applies to the hand's AC as if it were the hand's Dexterity modifier. The hand has 1 to 4 hit points, the same number that you lost in creating it.
First bolded sentence. You didn't ask for it, but I think it's worth the mention, because this happened to me. It clarifies that the hand isn't an independent tiny creature attacking, just a way to deliver an attack, a touch spell. Meaning, the hand don't provoke AoO when delivering the spell.
Secondly, the word "Incorporeal". This might be the most confusing part, where I think it's just a defensive condition to make the hand not so easy to destroy. At this point if we still agree that the hand is not a creature itself then the attack is in fact a melee touch attack as other spells.