Learned Duelist fighter archetype

[swoosh]

Am I missing something or does the archetype level 13 feature literally do nothing at all?

Quote:

At 13th level, a Learned duelist is able to apply his specialized knowledge of anatomy and physiology to his bladework. The duelist can make dirty trick, disarm, and trip combat maneuvers using any one-handed piercing or slashing weapon.

The FAQ, however, clarifies that you can perform these maneuvers with any weapon at all by default.

So... what exactly does this feature give a fighter?

[Face_P0lluti0n]

As I understand it, it allows the Fighter to add any enhancement or other weapon-specific bonuses from his or her weapon to CMB, even if the weapon normally would not do that.

IIRC, you can normally only add weapon-related bonuses to CMB if the weapon is a designated weapon for that maneuver.

So normally, making a trip attempt with a short sword or rapier would mean that nothing in the weapon's stats is added to CMB, but using a sickle would add enhancement bonus, weapon finesse, weapon training, etc, to trip. A Learned Duelist could attempt a trip maneuver with a short sword and add all short sword bonuses such as weapon focus, weapon training, magic weapon bonuses, etc, to that trip attempt.

[swoosh]

That actually sounds pretty nifty, but I wish the text made that explicit.