Target touch AC as a Fighter?

[soulnova]

What options do I have as a fighter to target Touch AC? I'm not trying to specialize or optimize this, but say, if I was dealing with a big enemy like a dragon and the regular AC is way too high to hit... I would normally only be hitting on a crit.

[Ventnor]

Firearms are one way. Fighters get plenty of Combat Feats, so spending one to get guns will get you several weapons which target Touch AC/

[Heather 540]

There's also a Fighter archetype called Trench Fighter that gets dex to damage with firearms at level 3. You lose armor training. But literally everything else stays the same so you might want to dip in Gunslinger to grab proficiency and Gunsmithing if you do decide to go that route.

[Name Violation]

dye arrows. deal no damage, but do target touch ac

if the fighter can only hit on a nat 20, thats GM code for "you're out of your league"

[avr]

Name Violation's right. Any trick to do this (firearms, alchemical weapons, caltrop beads, pinpoint targeting, scrolls operated via UMD etc.) on hard targets is likely to drop your DPR as a fighter to the point that you won't win the resulting fight. Don't fight out-of-your-league dragons with your backup weapon. Though having one of these for odd situations might still be useful.

[Firebug]

Name Violation wrote:

dye arrows. deal no damage, but do target touch ac

if the fighter can only hit on a nat 20, thats GM code for "you're out of your league"

Tangleshot Arrows also target touch and have the benefit of also lowering the target's AC due to entanglement.

falling under scrolls, Flame Blade/Gozreh's Trident could work. A non-magical version could be a Flame Fountain Firework. An interesting point is that all of these are 'wielded as if it were' a type of weapon (scimitar/trident/heavy mace) so some of your feats/class features/etc may actually still apply.

[Wonderstell]

Firebug wrote:

An interesting point is that all of these are 'wielded as if it were' a type of weapon (scimitar/trident/heavy mace) so some of your feats/class features/etc may actually still apply.

One of these days I'm gonna make an Occultist with Weapon Versatility, Master Alchemist, and like 5-7 Scabbard of Vigor. "Shift your grip" on the flame fountain to deal physical damage, draw it from a scabbard to apply an enhancement bonus, and further buff it with the Legacy Weapon focus power.

Probably not very effective, but sometimes you just want to target touch while using a +4 Bane firecracker that somehow deals physical damage.

[Firebug]

Wonderstell wrote:

Firebug wrote:

An interesting point is that all of these are 'wielded as if it were' a type of weapon (scimitar/trident/heavy mace) so some of your feats/class features/etc may actually still apply.

One of these days I'm gonna make an Occultist with Weapon Versatility, Master Alchemist, and like 5-7 Scabbard of Vigor. "Shift your grip" on the flame fountain to deal physical damage, draw it from a scabbard to apply an enhancement bonus, and further buff it with the Legacy Weapon focus power.

Probably not very effective, but sometimes you just want to target touch while using a +4 Bane firecracker that somehow deals physical damage.

I have a Sacred Huntsman Inquisitor build around a battle poi (with flaming), blistering feint, bane and planar focus(fire). Unfortunately, iy suffers from needing too many swift actions to get everything running. But still isn't bad 1-12.

You can also get into the debate of whether the damage type is important or the rulebook entry for Swashbucklers (referring to Gozreh's Trident vs weapon versatility). Either Weapon Versatility to change a piercing weapon to blunt still works for Swashbuckler (rulebook entry) or a non-piercing weapon (say a hammer) can be weapon versatility into piercing damage to allow a swashbuckler to use it.

[MrCharisma]

There's PINPOINT TARGETING (which I just realised has a 16 BAB requirement ... Rangers get it earlier). It's not great because it's a standard action, but it's something. There might be other options out there.

Honestly though, NameViolation and avr are probably right though, if the Fighter is having problems hitting then the party is in trouble.

[soulnova]

This would be a Fighter lvl13 (str+4) vs an ancient white dragon (cr15). Dipping on other classes or archetypes wont be possible. There are spellcasters in the party that can target touch but I dont think we have enough firepower to bring it down quickly. I was thinking guns to at least help with some damage but I'm not sure I'll be allowed to buy one. In any case, I have seen a gunslinger that ended dragon encounters by making them crash with targeting wing when they were doing a flyby attack. Then ganged on them before their next turn.

Short of someone dropping a necklace of fireballs on the dragon and me shooting it to make it explode I'm not sure what else I could do. xD

[Firebug]

Ancient White Dragon, AC 37.
Fighter 13: 13 BAB, Weapon Training +3, Strength +4 (seems really low), Advanced Weapon Training(Warrior Spirit for Bane Dragons) for another +2
Wealth by level says level 13 should have about 140,000 gp. So we can probably easily assume a +3 weapon (18k, or 13% of total wealth). Gloves of Dueling +2 to Weapon Training (15k), +1 to hit Ioun Stone(4k), chug a potion of Heroism for another +2(750gp). Haste for another +1 (from Boots of Speed, 12k)
That's about 50k of the 140k spent. And we are at +31 to hit vs 37 so hitting on 6s with the first 2 attacks (counting haste).

So this sounds more like a lack of gold then needing touch weapons.
Throw in some entanglement... like a net... and you are hitting on 4s.
Now, the dragon has Displacement and Shield listed so maybe they buffed up a little.

[Firebug]

Oh, throw in Weapon Focus and Greater Weapon Focus (because fighter) for another +2.
A supportive party (flanking, Outflank and Menacing, Faerie Fire to get rid of Displacement) for another +6 and no miss chance.

Now you are hitting on 2s even when the Dragon had 2 rounds to buff.

[Elena Endari]

Thank you. We definitely are low on magic items/treasure. We usually make due with buff spells but other than that most of our stuff is +1 with a few extra effects. I'll ask around if we can get at least some of those items.

[EyeOfTheBeerholder]

Variant Multiclass Magus gives you an Arcane Pool. You could than proceed to pick the Accurate Strike Arcana.

You could also use a Wand with some spells, that give you multiple Touch Attacks to full attack with. Produce Flame or Chill Touch would be a weak touch attack, that's usable multiple times per turn, but there might be similar spells, that would give you a stronger one.

A scroll of Undead Anatomy IV can turn you into an Incorporeal Undead, that attacks with Touch Attacks.