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A rogue with this talent may treat her intitiative roll as a 20 for a surprise round, regardless of her initiative, but she may only take an attack action with a ranged weapon. Her normal initiative roll is used in subsequent rounds. If two or more rogues possess this talent, their initiative determines the order in which they act, but they all go before any other creature. If a rogue is prevented from acting in the surprise round, this talent has no effect.
Case 1: What if someone else rolls higher than 20?
Case 2: What if there are two rogues with snap shot and someone else rolls higher than 20?RAW it seems that in case 1 the person with the higher init will go first, in case 2 both the rogues will go first. Am I missing something?
Where I play a 20 init frequently will have you going last.
You cannot roll a d20 and get higher than a 20.
Were you mistakenly thinking that you didn't still add you bonuses to the roll?
If your initiative is +12, and you roll a 13 on the d20, snap shot lets you act in the surprise round as if you had a 32 initiative, but after the surprise round is over, you continue in the initiative order based on your actual roll, and so you would have a 25 initiative moving forward.
I understand this to mean that the initiative roll is considered a 20, then any initiative modifiers are added to this number. I don't consider the wording to mean that the rogue's total initiative result is a 20.
Also, note that this is a special case (a surprise round) and it states that the rogues with this talent go before any other creature. So other creatures may have higher initiative in subsequent rounds, but the rogue acts first in the surprise round. So, I'd say that the two rogues with this talent would go first in the suprise round.
That's my view for what it's worth
1. You treat your "roll" as a 20, you still add your modifiers. If someone else still gets a higher initiative, then someone else will go before you.
2. Same as number 1.
You're right, the wording seems to be awkward, but I assume it means they still get a surprise round and go before everyone else who doesn't act in the surprise round.
Nothing about this feat says "Oh, yeah, you also totally screw up the initiative rolls of other people who roll better than you." Well, nothing except that awkward bit of wording.
So if two rogues with this talent roll a 19 and 15 for their initiatives, but because of this talent they get to be on 28 and 26 in the surprise round, but the quick little wizard is able to act in the surprise round and roll a 30 for his initiative, then the wizard is still first, even in the surprise round.
Where I play a 20 init frequently will have you going last.
Again, it says you treat your "roll" as a 20, not your "total initiative result" - so you guarantee that you get a natural 20 on the initiative roll THEN you add your modifiers - but only for the surprise round; for the rest of the combat you use whatever you actually rolled.
The RAW is definitely broken here. I'm not sure if it is intended to have the Rogue always go first or just treat their initiative as maxed. My guess is that it used to be always first, but changed in development and the 'two or more Rogues' line was not updated.
I personally favor the count the roll as a 20 interpretation. Mostly because I can't see a level 2 rogue automatically going before a level 20 diviner with heightened awareness, anticipate peril and moment of prescience.
The "they all go before any other creature" is hard to get around from the "two or more rogue" clause though.
Strictly as written it seems immensely better when at least two rogues have it.