What happens when you roll a 1 on a spell touch attack?

Question

I rolled a 1 on a spell touch attack. Game is Pathfinder. I am a cleric (Divine magic). What happens?

Answer 1

You miss the target, but the spell does not discharge yet.

In Pathfinder, if you attack and the number on the d20 is a 1, then you fail the attack roll. Your spell touch attack roll is considered to be an attack roll. According to the combat rules:

Automatic Misses and Hits

A natural 1 (the d20 comes up 1) on an attack roll is always a miss. A natural 20 (the d20 comes up 20) is always a hit. A natural 20 is also a threat—a possible critical hit (see the attack action).

Whenever a creature attacks, regardless of a their attack bonus (the number that they add to the d20 roll), there is always a 5% chance of rolling a natural 1 and the attack missing anyway.

However, touch spells (i.e., the spell's target is "Touch") are special. First you 1. cast the spell, then you 2. hold the "charge" in your hand, and then 3. roll to touch your target with this charge. If you successfully touch the target, then the spell discharges and its effects happen. But if you fail to hit, and don't touch anything, then the charge for the spell is still in your hand. Unlike other spells, such as ranged attack spells, your touch spell has not discharged yet.

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.

In other words, your cleric continues to hold the spell charge, until you touch something else or cast another spell. If you are still holding the charge during the next time you can attack, then you can make another touch attack roll to touch the charge to your target.

Answer 2

A hard 1 on the d20 will always result in a miss, no matter your attack modifier, no matter if the target is helpless or not. That all said, you mentioned specifically that it's a Touch attack. Touch attacks always retain their charge until something is touched.

So if the first round, you use a 1st level spell slot to cast Cure Light Wounds to harm an Undead, and roll a hard 1, you will miss the target, but you never touched them, so you still have the charge. That charge can be used next turn without taking another spell cast from you and can be used to harm the Undead again, to heal an ally, or to use on yourself after taking the hit that the Undead will probably hit you with after that miss, or you can keep retaining it until it's needed again. That said, no other spell can be cast until the spell is discharged. It is automatically discharged if you attempt to cast another spell, even if you fail a Spell Failure roll, or fail a Concentration check.

Regular spells don't do this, anything that is Ranged (even Ranged Touch) is consumed on use, whether it's a hit or miss, hard 20 or hard 1.