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I'm playing a catfolk rogue in my current campaign and I noticed something recently about one of their unique rogue talents.
This is what it says in the book:
Catfolk rogue talent: Deadly scratch: "A caltfolk rogue with this talent can apply poison to her claws without accidentally poisoning herself. a catfolk rogue must have the cat's claws racial trait and the poison use class feature before taking this talent."
While this would be an incredible talent, it's undone by one thing. The poison use class feature requirement.
If the player had poison use he would be able to apply poison to his claws anyway. It would be a waste of a talent.
However, if instead it was, "AS IF he had the poison use rogue talent" then it would be an amazing talent to have. And would allow minor poison use without using the poisoner archetype.
I don't know if this the right area for this or if we can even make a request like this one. But, can this be changed?
I copied this from my original thread to put it in a FAQ format, which can be found here. http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2qktt?Regarding-one-of-the-catfolk-rogue-talent s#3
No FAQ spamming intended, when I posted my original thread I was not aware it was used in that way.
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I'm pretty sure what that's implying is that smearing poison on your body is usually a pretty bad idea, but this lets you do it safely.
However, the RAW of Poison Use makes this ability worthless. It would not be the first completely worthless Rogue Talent, and it certainly won't be the last. Paizo is incapable of writing good Rogue Talents for some reason.
Most rules aren't written with natural weapons in mind (something the devs REALLY should see about remedying considering all the confusion it causes), so that's probably the root cause. Poison Use was intended for manufactured weapons only, but they forgot to add that part. Then forgot that they had forgotten and went on ahead assuming they had done so.
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Yeah what you are missing this talent allows you to use any poison, including contact poison. Putting contact poison on your natural weapons will definitely poison you. That's frankly one of the only advantage of the poison that I can think of. I don't even think most of the contact poisons are that good.
They don't want to errata things unless they're literally nonfunctional in most cases.
I suppose there is precedent from how they fixed Prone Shooter, so this may have a shot, since like the original Prone Shooter, this is completely worthless.
If you make a new thread with a clear, FAQ-able question (like "As written, Deadly Scratch has no benefit. Is it intended to work another way?") or some such I'll FAQ it.
Do you think they would listen to the fans?
Oh my, that's a dangerous question isn't it?
Paizo is incapable of writing good Rogue Talents for some reason.
I don't agree with this. There was a RIDICULOUSLY good one in Magical Marketplace. The one that lets drop your sneak attack damage for a free combat maneuver check. The list includes combat maneuvers that you couldn't normally use during a full attack action without a special feat, like dirty tricks.
Super, super awesome.
Paizo is incapable of writing good Rogue Talents for some reason.I don't agree with this. There was a RIDICULOUSLY good one in Magical Marketplace. The one that lets drop your sneak attack damage for a free combat maneuver check. The list includes combat maneuvers that you couldn't normally use during a full attack action without a special feat, like dirty tricks.
Super, super awesome.
However it requires you to use a rogue for the CMB. They aren't well known for succeeding those are they?
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I took a quick look at Deadly Scratch and it makes sense to me (and maybe in my deluded craziness, only to me!).
The Use Poison rogue talent lets you apply poison to a "weapon" without risk of poisoning yourself.
The formal definition of a Catfolk's claws is "natural attacks", not "weapon".
Claws are a body part. Putting poison on your own body parts is even more dangerous that putting them on a weapon.
Thus, Deadly Scratch lets you apply poison to a body part (your claws) without risk of poisoning yourself, but you need Use Poison first as a stepping stone (or talent tax, if you prefer).
As an aside, keep in mind that even with the Adder Strike feat (which lets you apply poison to your body parts for the purposes of conducting unarmed attacks) you still need to protect yourself from the poison. Deadly Scratch lets a Catfolk apply poison to a body part without taking extra steps to avoid poisoning themselves.
Hope this helps.
Oh yeah, and you wouldn't need Deadly Scratch for the Claw Blades because you can use Use Poison as the Claw Blades are a "weapon".
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Poison Use (Ex): At 1st level, a poisoner is trained in the use of poison and cannot accidentally poison herself when applying poison to a blade. This ability replaces trapfinding.
Poison use allow you to apply poison to a blade only, not to your claws. So it don't allow you to put venom on your claws safely.
Claw Blades: These subtle blades can only be used by catfolk with the cat's claws racial trait.
On the other hand claw blades are blades, so Poison use should work with them (and Deadly scratch wouldn't).
Edit: most class with the poison use ability can apply the poison only to a blade. Races with the poison use ability can apply it to a weapon.
Natural weapons count as light weapons, so, if you get the version of poison use that allow you to put the venom on a weapon and not only a blade it should allow you to apply the poison to your claws (an your teeth if you have a bite attack .... [mind numbing]).
The Poison Use description is inconsistent. Alchemists and Ninjas just say "a weapon". Assassins and Poisoners use "a blade" (which I had previously missed, my mistake).
So it seems like suggesting he FAQ this was premature, since it actually does have a use now (allowing a Poisoner Catfolk Rogue apply poison to his claws).
A very weak and highly specific usage, yes, but that's Rogue Talents for ya. Sorry Jar.
