Looking at the level 2 spell Burning Arc, there is nothing in the text that says it's a ranged touch attack. Given the power of this spell, should each target get a ranged touch attack check?
2 Answers
The spell allows Reflex saves for half, permitting Evasion to negate and Improved Evasion to halve the damage. It doesn't seem overpowered. For comparison at 2nd level (testing at CL3, CL6, and CL20), using average damage values.
Burning Arc does 10.5/21/35 damage to the primary target and 3.5/14/32.5 damage divided unevenly between 1/2/3 secondary target(s), with saves for half, Evasion, SR, and the most popular resistance/immunity (fire) applying.
Acid Arrow (one of the core go-to 2nd level damage spells) does 10/15/35 damage, allowing only touch AC (much less likely to avoid damage than a Reflex save and scales to levels better) and acid resistance (although acid arrow is much less capable of overcoming acid resistance than burning arc is fire resistance).
Fire Breath does 22.5/22.5/22.5 damage to every target in a 15 ft. cone, assuming you hit them all with it all three times, subject to exactly the same resistance methods as burning arc.
Scorching Ray (the other core go-to 2nd level damage spell) does 14/28(at 7th, slightly misleading but less so than another 14 would be)/70 damage to either a single target or divided how you choose between multiple targets, subject to fire resistance, touch AC, and SR.
Flaming Sphere does 31.5/63/210 damage over time, either to a single target or divided between targets how you choose (mostly), allowing only Reflex saves (which only negate 10.5 damage per save), SR, and getting the heck away from it to prevent the damage (making it, incidentally, an amazing battlefield-control spell), with an additional cost of typically taking the caster's move actions for the duration to make sure it keeps doing its damage.
This list does not include spells with difficult to determine damage values or instant-removal effects, such as Arrow Eruption, Instant Immolation, or Aboleth's Lung.
On comparison with other 2nd level damage spells, this spell appears roughly balanced as is and does not need to also require attack rolls on top the granted Reflex saves.
The spell does not require an attack roll from the caster. The caster simply selects targets and those targets take damage. If they succeed in their Reflex saves and/or have feats in the Evasion tree they take less damage. Not every spell requires an attack roll.
This answer to a similar question enumerates the concept of spells without attack rolls further.