Qi Adept Plasma Blast & AoO Rules Clarification

[SpiderOrc]

Hi there,

Running a Threefold Conspiracy campaign and one of the players has a Qi Adept character with the Aesthetic Warrior alternate class feature. He also has Natural Weapons.

We have some questions about the Plasma Blast ability he gains in a few more levels. We've looked at the COM Errata already, where it specifies that this ability is "a special ranged unarmed strike that targets KAC, requires one hand, is not archaic, has a range increment of 30 feet, deals lethal electricity and fire damage, and has the stunned critical hit effect".

Question 1: is this attack made with DEX or STR?
Question 2: Is this 100% defined as a ranged attack, and thus, NOT a valid candidate for making AoO against opponents? i.e. it doesn't "threaten" at a range of 30 feet, like some sort of super-reach?
Question 3: Based on the Errata'd text, it would appear that only this "special ranged unarmed strike" deals Fire and Electric, and NOT all of the PC's unarmed strikes, as in the original COM text. Correct?

Would appreciate any insight on these applications of the ability.

[Pantshandshake]

1: This is a ranged attack, so you’d use Dex.
2: Correct, you cannot take an AoO with a ranged attack, nor do ranged weapons threated.
3: Seems correct. I mean, you could use this ability to attack an adjacent target so as to do the modified damage types, but you’d also provoke an AoO.

[Dracomicron]

Plasma Blast: You condense your body’s qi into a beam of superheated plasma, allowing you to make unarmed attacks at range, with a range increment of 30 feet. All your unarmed attacks deal electricity and fire damage and gain the stunned critical hit effect.

Hmm, interesting. Under the old text, while you have Plasma Blast activated, you CAN make unarmed attacks at range, but there was nothing stopping you from attacking fire/plasma in melee.

You condense your body’s qi into a beam of superheated plasma, allowing you to make a special ranged unarmed strike that targets KAC, requires one hand, is not archaic, has a range increment of 30 feet, deals lethal electricity and fire damage, and has the stunned critical hit effect. For the duration of this ability, you gain a special version of the Weapon Specialization feat that adds 1-1/2 times your level to the damage of this unarmed strike (rather than adding your level).

Under the new text, that isn't an option. It's a pure hadoken now... which is fine, I guess.