Gendarme Cavaliers and their bonus feats

[Arassuil]

I realize this topic has come up before, but there hasn't been any official resolution. So I figured I'd post it again.

The list of bonus feats for the Gendarme archetype of the Cavalier states (emphasis mine):

Gendarme wrote:

A gendarme trains to be a mounted terror, almost to the exclusion of all other abilities. He gains bonus feats at 1st level, 5th level, and then every three levels thereafter, but must select these bonus feats from the following list: Improved Bull Rush, Mounted Combat, Power Attack, Ride-by Attack, Spirited Charge, Spring Attack, and Unseat. If the gendarme has already selected all of the listed feats, then he may select his bonus feats from those feats listed as Combat Feats.

This ability replaces tactician, greater tactician, master tactician, and the standard cavalier’s selection of bonus feats.

Having Spring Attack in that list seems peculiar, especially when the archetype doesn't even offer Dodge or Mobility as options to be selected.

The more I look at it, the more I think Spring Attack is an error. Out of the Core Rulebook feats, the only ones that aren't listed are Mounted Archery and Trample (all of the other feats that are listed are available within the Core Rulebook). Given the flavour of the archetype, I think that Spring Attack should be replaced with Trample. It fits thematically and avoids the issue of needing to take 2 feats to avoid becoming gimped at higher levels (i.e. only feat left to take is Spring Attack, but since I don't meet the prerequisites, I'm SOL).

Of course, for a home game, this is easily modified. But for things like PFS, it needs an errata.

Hopefully, this can be errata'd/clarified sometime soon (but since there's a lot of material that is being worked on, I can understand it not happening in the short term).

[Charlie Bell]

Agreed that it should be errata'd, but it doesn't much matter for PFS since that caps at 12. I concede that you could come up with a wacky cavalier build that manages to get all those feats except Spring Attack before 12th, but that's really a corner case.

[Arassuil]

Charlie Bell wrote:

Agreed that it should be errata'd, but it doesn't much matter for PFS since that caps at 12. I concede that you could come up with a wacky cavalier build that manages to get all those feats except Spring Attack before 12th, but that's really a corner case.

Thanks for the support.

And it's only wacky if you stay a straight-classed Cavalier. As soon as you multiclass, it causes the issue to come up sooner:

1) Fighter 1: Mounted Combat, Ride-By Attack
2) Fighter 2: Spirited Charge
3) Cavalier 1: Boon Companion, Power Attack
4) Cavalier 2:
5) Cavalier 3: Improved Bull Rush
6) Cavalier 4:
7) Cavalier 5: Skill Focus (Ride), Unseat
8) Cavalier 6:
9) Cavalier 7: Trick Riding
10) Cavalier 8: ???

Granted, that's only at level 10, which still affects someone within PFS, albeit at a high level. You *could* run into the issue at level 7 if you decided to take Unseat as your general feat.