Hello there fellow Pathfinder players.
I was reading about the Slayer Advanced Talents, more specifically the Rogue and Ninja Advanced Talents. Let me quote the entry:
Rogue and Ninja Advanced Talents: A slayer can select any of the following advanced ninja or rogue talents in place of an advanced slayer talent: deadly sneak, evasion, hunter's surprise, knock-out blow, master of disguise, opportunist, and stealthy sniper. A slayer can select this advanced talent multiple times
Unlike the Rogue Talent under the Slayer Talents, the Advanced Talents lacks the following text:
If the rogue talent has a prerequisite (such as the major magic rogue talent requiring the minor magic talent), the slayer must fulfill the prerequisite before taking that rogue talent. This talent can be selected multiple times; each time, it grants the slayer a new rogue talent.
So, can I select the Deadly Sneak Rogue Talent with a 10th level Slayer without meeting the prerequisites?
Thanks.
Sounds legit.
No.
While it doesn't state that it is explicitly required, it's pretty obviously intended to work that way since the normal rogue talents require you to meet the prereqs.
Also, based on the list of advanced talents you have available the only one that would have a prereq anyways is powerful sneak.
But just so you know, deadly sneak and powerful sneak actually make you worse at dealing damage. The average damage goes from 3.5 to 4.5, but imposes a -2 penalty to your attack rolls. Trading one point of damage for a -2 to attack is really really bad. The accepted tradeoff for attack to damage is 2 points of damage are required for every -1 penalty to attack. In order for Powerful/Deadly Sneak to actually be good it would need to increase your average damage by 4.
Also, to point out how hilarious this would be if you really wanted to argue for the "RAW", lets assume you don't need Powerful Sneak talent to pick up Deadly Sneak. The Deadly Sneak talent however says "Whenever a rogue with this talent uses the powerful sneak rogue talent" which you don't have so you can't use, and ergo could never use Deadly Sneak.
The default is that all prereqs must be met. Unless there is text specifically waiving prereqs, you must meet the prereqs to take an ability. The text stating "the slayer must fulfill the prerequisite before taking that rogue talent" is just a reminder.
Thanks for the clarification, guys. Peace.