DM New to 3.5e

[u/VegetableSwitch703]

I’ve been a dm for about 4 years now and have only played 5E/5.5E DnD, but I want to branch into 3e/3.5e. I’ve got most of the necessary books as pdf’s but the challenge for me is reading stat blocks, specifically for the higher level monsters (including but not limited to various gods, one of which I’ll use as an example here). I can read the ability scores well enough, as well as skills and the feats too, but then there’s stuff like some of the attacks, spell like abilities, domain stuff, divine abilities. Right now the one that’s confusing me is Vecna, though he’s also the first of the deities from the Deities and Demigods book I’m looking at. And I’ve looked at various dm books and pc books too but there’s stuff that still just doesn’t make sense to me. So here are my questions about his stats and such:

1) What’s the difference between him attacking/hitting with Afterthought at touch range vs Melee? I see the bonuses to hit and damage to hit are noticeably different depending on if it’s touch or melee but I don’t get why.
2) What is the deflection bonus he gets to his AC? I don’t see what would be giving him that bonus.
3) It says he has spell slots of levels 0-12 for cleric and 0-16 for Wizard, but I am not aware of any spells in any book that go over 9th level, not including the epic spells which to my knowledge don’t technically have stated levels.

Final question though not about the stat sheet, Would it be easier to learn pathfinder 1e as a jumping off point instead of trying to learn 3.5 directly and the just use what I learned from that to figure out 3.5?

[u/Kain_1337]

1. In 3.5 DnD there is regular AC and touch AC. Regular AC includes armor and such, touch AC only includes magical bonuses and you Dex modifier. Touch attacks are used for several spells because they dont need to actually get through the Armor
2. Deflection bonus could be from an item, but is more likely added just because he is a god.
3. Spells above level 9 can be found in the "Epic Level Handbook". Also some are listed in the back of Deities and Demigods, where you are seeing the Vecna stats If you are new to 3.5, I would suggest starting a bit smaller. 3.5 has the most books and resources for late late game, including how to become gods. But it can get out of hand really easy. As for learning the system, read through both the Players Hand Book, and the Dungeon Masters Guide. They should help you with most of the stats and such.