I'm debating multi-classing my current character into the new Slayer Class, and since he's a ranged weapon specialist (crossbow), the Sniper Archetype has some appeal, however looking thru the adjustments made to the base class, specifically the Deadly Range Talent/"Class Ability", a problem formed...
As written the Talent is thus:
Deadly Range (Ex): A slayer with this talent increases the range at which he can deal sneak attack damage by 10 feet. A slayer can select this talent more than once; its effects stack. A slayer must be at least 4th level before selecting this talent.
While the Class Ability states the following:
At 2nd level, a sniper increases the range at which he can apply his sneak attack damage by 10 feet. Whenever the sniper is able to select a new slayer talent, he can instead choose to increase this range by an additional 5 feet.
Now while the initial range increase is identical, the enhancement for choosing the same skill twice in halved for the sniper. Seems all well and good when taking into consideration that the actual talent cannot be chosen until 4th level. However, IF a Slayer chooses the talent twice his range is increased by 20' total at level 6, while the Sniper only gets a 15' enhancement at level 4, and 20' at level 6, which effectively costs him 3 "talents", for as a Class Skill it replaces the Talent gained at 2nd level.
Why would a "Class Ability" be essentially weaker/less advantageous than a "Talent"? Most Class Abilities improve automatically every so many levels (qv. Studied Target Class Ability), why is the Sniper's Deadly Range Class Ability an apparent exception to this guideline?
