My apologies if this seems an obvious observation and already been discussed elsewhere, but I wanted to bring it up for future updates.
In our playtesting Pbp, when my character leveled, I got a chance to study the new Rogue Talents. This one seemed a little ambiguous to me:
Combat Trick: A rogue may gain a combat maneuver feat in place of a rogue talent.
So:
a)What would be considered a combat manuever feat? Improved Trip?, Improved Feint?, Improved Disarm?, Improved Grapple?, Improved Bull Rush, etc? Any others besides the "Improved" ones?
b)Also, some of these feats have prerequisites - are they bypassed if you choose these feats as a Rogue Talent?
So basic conclusion/observations:
a)It's misworded - it should just say "combat feat" - nothing has been delineated specifcally as a "combat maneuveur feat." My guess was based on what they call "Combat Manuevers" in the section on the CMB. They describe actions involving: Bullrush, Disarm, Grapple, Overrun, Sunder, Trip, and Feint.
So, the assumption would be that any Feat that describes these specific actions could be picked. Essentially the seven "Improved" feats in the SRD.
b)It seems that based on the fact that it's an ability, any prerequisite the feat might have is bypassed. There was some question of this being unbalanced. I'm concluding that the design process thinking is that:
1)You can only pick one of these feats
2)It's a one time choice on the Rogue Talents list
Therefore, it can't be too unbalanced - maybe.
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My suggestion for the Paizo folks:
1) Please clarify what is considered a Combat Manuever ability for this Rogue Talent. A list would be nice. This was done with two other Rogue Talents by specifying Weapon Focus and Weapon Finesse.
2) Please make sure to note whether the Feat's prerequisites must be incorporated if the Rogue wishes to pick that feat. Otherwise, perhaps a Feats listing (again), with requirements conditional to taking it as Talent.
That's all I got for now. I hope this is helpful. Any thoughts on this? Does it seem obvious to everyone else how the talent works?
Thanks to FabesMinis, Tarren Dei, Nspicer, and Wicht for helping me with their observations.
***Crickets chirping***
OK, maybe it was just me that was confused.
If no one disagrees with the suggestion or observation, can I at least get someone from Paizo to say, "Thanks, we'll take it under consideration," when they have some time.