Melee touch attacks?

[Morph Bark]

Y'know, I never really thought about it since I never used them as a DM or as a player before, but now that I am planning on making a Binder/Sorcerer/Anima Mage who might have some of them and I can't help but wonder about them, specifically one thing:

Do melee touch attacks use your Str or Dex modifier?

I started to kind of assume Dex, since in every build I've ever seen Str was dumped and Dex was always portrayed as a secondary priority after the casting stat (and Con tertiary), but all other melee is Str, except for Weapon Finesse with the weapons it applies to.

[ngilop]

If its a melee touch you still apply STR. the reason why STR is less valued is becuase Touch attacks are basicaly auot-hits for all intents and purposes

range and melee touch attacks follow the same rules as regualr melee and ranges attacks, teh only difference bwteen the two set is the targets AC.

[eggynack]

Generally, people dump strength while pumping dex because ranged touch attacks are ranged. Generally speaking, a caster would rather not hang out within touch range of an enemy attempting to use spells. Those kinds of spells have their purpose, but unlike rays and orbs they're situational enough to not be worth building around. Moreover, pumping dex also gets a higher initiative and ac, while a higher strength does virtually nothing.

[Spuddles]

A downside to having a poor BAB and dumping strength means your melee touch attacks will have difficulty landing. Of course, if you're in melee trying to land a touch attack, something bad has happened.

You can always have an (invisible) familiar deploy touch attacks for you, if you kept your familiar, if you really need to land a touch attack. Most familiars come with weapon finesse and a tiny size.

[Lonely Tylenol]

Melee touch attacks are STR-based, which means that a level 20 Wizard with poor BAB from 1-20 and 8 STR only has a +9 to hit with them even at later levels. It just so happens that all the things they need to hit at that level are Huge and have DEX penalties, so their touch AC is, like, 6. (A CR 20 Tarrasque has an AC of 35, flat-footed of 32... And a touch of 5.)

If I recall, touch attacks are also finessable, so if you want to make a low-level combat caster, Weapon Finesse and an unseemly DEX will do it even for melee touches (but Spectral Hand is a level 2 spell and Obtain Familiar is a feat even if you traded out the one you got at level 1, so by level 3 you have *options* for subverting this if you so choose).

[Averis Vol]

i always figured it was like an unarmed strike, base is str based and if you have finesse you could use dex instead. but thats up to your DM i guess.

[Downysole]

It's implied, but not spelled out in the PHB, but clarified to agree with the posters above in the Rules Compendium, page 16.