Bard archaelogist: free rogue trick at level 4?

[Necro_y2k]

Hi!, if i had a Bard 3 and I take the next level on Bard Archaeologist I get a rogue combat trick, but i doesn't seems to have any cost, it doesn't replaces any ability like the other archetype's abilities. What are the cons? why it isn't a archetype taken by every bard?

[Cheapy]

Well, you don't 'take' an archetype at any given level. You choose your archetype(s) when you make the character.

For the archaeologist, the cost for this free rogue talent is that they can't affect anyone else with their performances. And they lose all of their performances.

[Necro_y2k]

oops, I misunderstood a lot of rules, thanks. i'll read them again.

[Mudfoot]

It's a stupidly written rule. It implies that because individual elements of an archetype replace individual class features, they can be swapped in and out as desired. But it doesn't work like that: the archetype replaces {this bunch of features} and replaces them with {this other bunch of features}. So all the text about "This ability replaces X" is quite irrelevant and misleading.

[Zhayne]

Presumably, that bit of text is there to accomodate the fact that one can take multiple archetypes, provided they don't try to replace the same class feature.