Sorcerer Celestial Bloodline feature: Heavenly Fire

[Ezzard]

To start I will post the feature and it's rules in full.

Heavenly Fire (Sp): Starting at 1st level, you can unleash a ray of heavenly fire as a standard action, targeting any foe within 30 feet as a ranged touch attack. Against evil creatures, this ray deals 1d4 points of damage + 1 for every two sorcerer levels you possess. This damage is divine and not subject to energy resistance or immunity. This ray heals good creatures of 1d4 points of damage + 1 for every two sorcerer levels you possess. A good creature cannot benefit from your heavenly fire more than once per day. Neutral creatures are neither harmed nor healed by this effect. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Charisma modifier.

The text I want to focus on is this: *targeting any foe within 30 feet as a ranged touch attack*

Does this mean I can only target foes? If so am I not able to heal anyone except foes who's alignment is good? Many, when discussing this ability, speak of it as an additional method of out of combat healing. Is this generally recognized as a typo?

[avr]

To start with there's nothing stopping you from saying "Alice, I never liked you. You are now my foe, feel the fires of heaven."

Outside that, what purpose would an ability which can only heal your enemies serve? It's clearly a benefit and even referred to as such, why would you use it on enemies?

[Sandslice]

The main reason it's worded that way is because, with the sometimes awkward way combat rules are worded, you can't actually ATTACK allies.

You can attack people you normally consider allies; but for the purpose of the act, they are foes. Why does this matter? Some game mechanics, such as spells like Vanish, Invisbility, or Sanctuary, care about whether the spell's target does an attack or other action that targets a foe.

By saying that Heavenly Fire is "targeting any foe... with a ranged touch attack", we're saying that it's an attack that targets a foe, and thus interacts with mechanics that care about ally or foe status.

If you're Vanished, and you want to heal your paladin husband with Heavenly Fire, you need to attack him (a "foe") with a ranged touch attack. This will heal him provided it hits, and it will drop you out of Vanish because you attacked.

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Or it could just be copy-pasted mechanics from every other Level 1 Bloodline Ray. *shrug*