I feel really silly asking about this, but I cant seem to locate the rules for what bonuses you get when attacking with touch attacks or ranged touch attacks. I have always played in pathfinder that melee touch attacks use your BAB + Str, and ranged touch attacks use BAB + Dex. But I cant actually find rules which says this is how it works.
There are a number of questions (1,2,3) which asks a similar question, but I dont feel like they are asking what I am or have been answered incorrectly.
On the combat rules page we have the following subsections which could relate:
- Attack Roll, this specifically talks about weapons. Touch spells are not actually weapons and thus are not affected by these rules. This is also where melee attacks are defined as BAB + Str, and ranged attacks as BAB + Dex.
- Attack, talks about "armed" unarmed attacks, this says that a spell caster delivering a touch spell counts as an armed attack.
- Touch attacks, mentions that they are attacks and they make a touch attack roll (either ranged or melee), but the link points back to this paragraph. It then goes on to say what things make up an AC against touch attacks, but not what actually gets used for the attack roll.
- Casting a spell, has a subsection called "touch spells in combat" but no direct link. It says to touch an opponent, you must succeed on an attack roll. Which is the first link I detailed.
Under the magic rules page we have
- Range, which is where we find out the rules that touch spells can be critical hits on natural rolls of 20, but fail to mention any bonuses to the roll, but never actually mentions an attack roll.
- Aiming a spell, it first talks about the target(s) of the spell but does not talk about the attack roll. A little bit down it also talks about rays, spread, and area.
Rays
Some effects are rays. You aim a ray as if using a ranged weapon, though typically you make a ranged touch attack rather than a normal ranged attack. As with a ranged weapon, you can fire into the dark or at an invisible creature and hope you hit something. You don't have to see the creature you're trying to hit, as you do with a targeted spell. Intervening creatures and obstacles, however, can block your line of sight or provide cover for the creature at which you're aiming.
But nowhere does it actually mention what is used for these attack rolls. Im pretty sure that I am just being overly picky about wording, but I would rather make sure I am not missing the rules somewhere.