Does Wall of Blades (Warblade maneuver) work against touch attacks?

Question

The maneuver Wall of Blades reads:

When an enemy makes a melee attack or ranged attack against you, you can initiate this counter to oppose that attack by making an attack roll with any melee weapon you are holding. Use the higher of your AC or your attack roll as your effective AC against the incoming attack Tome of Battle, p. 70

Do the attacks mentioned here include touch attacks and ranged touch attacks or would they have to be specifically mentioned?

In case ranged touch attacks are legal targets of this counter I suspect that you could deflect rays with this maneuver, right?

Answer 1

Yes, it does.

These are the touch attack rules:

Some attacks disregard armor, including shields and natural armor. In these cases, the attacker makes a touch attack roll (either ranged or melee).

A touch attack is still a kind of attack, since there is an attack roll. So it doesn't get around wall of blades the same way that, say, a fog cloud spell would (since the latter doesn't have an attack roll, so it's not an attack).

When you are the target of a touch attack, your AC doesn’t include any armor bonus, shield bonus, or natural armor bonus.

A touch attack is defined by what it ignores, rather than by what it allows. Wall of blades does not provide an armor bonus, shield bonus, or natural armor bonus. Indeed, it's not a bonus at all. Therefore, the full AC you get from wall of blades applies against touch attacks.

Yes, this means you can block lasers with your sword.