The confusion with Point-Blank Shot for me comes from this line;
You get a +1 bonus on attack and damage rolls with ranged weapons at ranges of up to 30 feet.
Also, Precise Shot has a similar line that makes me question it;
You can shoot or throw ranged weapons at an opponent engaged in melee without taking the standard –4 penalty on your attack roll.
All emphasis mine.
I can't determine if that means that only ranged weapons get the bonuses or all ranged attacks.
Would a ranged touch attack get the bonus on attack rolls from either of these feats and similar other ones? What about the bonus damage from Point-Blank Shot?
Best Answer
Yes, ranged attacks from spells are typically considered to be "weapon-like". This is definitely true of rays (and almost all ranged touch attack spells are rays) since from the rules:
The rules further clarify that rays function as weapons for several other purposes, and the FAQ makes this very explicit:
Most ranged touch attacks which aren't rays are things like acid splash -- spells where you actually throw or aim a physical object. Those are even more "weapon-like" than rays, so it's probably simplest to say all ranged touch attacks work like this.
There's another FAQ that indicates you can take "Weapon Focus (ray)" and the like; strictly speaking I guess those wouldn't apply to orb spells like acid splash.
This is all following the precedent set by 3.5; in Complete Arcane it specifies that rays and touch attack spells are "weapon-like" and thus interact with feats in the same way that other weapons do, with a split between ranged/melee type spells.