Specific vs General: Frozen Shadow Ninja

[StygianRose]

Hi! So, I am at a bit of a loss with this archetype released in Inner Sea Intrigue-

Frozen Shadow (Ninja Archetype):

Frozen shadows belong to a rare ninja clan operating in
Avistan, having migrated to the Lands of the Linnorm
Kings decades ago. Most members are Tian, Ulfen, and
Varki humans, and they work as thieves, power brokers,
and spies loosely guided by secretive masters with
unknown agendas.
Class Skills: A frozen shadow adds Survival to his list of
class skills, instead of Diplomacy
This ability alters the ninja’s class skills.

Hardy Killer (Ex): At 2nd level, a frozen shadow has become incredibly inured to his surrounding climate. At the beginning of any day, the frozen shadow can spend 1 point from his ki pool to benefit from the effects of an endure elements spell. The frozen shadow does not treat any Acrobatics skill check to jump as if he had a running start, and at 10th level he cannot reduce the DC of Acrobatics skill checks made to jump by half.
This ability alters ki pool.

Track Victim (Ex): Starting at 4th level, a frozen shadow adds half his ninja level on Survival checks to follow tracks and on Perception checks to see through disguises. Additionally, if the frozen shadow sees a creature that has changed its appearance using the Disguise skill, he can always attempt a Perception check to see through the disguise, even if the disguised creature did nothing to draw attention to itself. The frozen shadow also gains a +2 bonus to Will saving throws when attempting to disbelieve an illusion affecting a creature or creatures.
This ability replaces uncanny dodge.

Swift Tracker (Ex): At 8th level, a frozen shadow can move at his normal speed while using Survival to follow tracks without taking the normal –5 penalty. He takes only a –10 penalty (instead of the normal
–20) when moving up to twice his normal speed while tracking. Additionally, his bonus
on Will saving throws to disbelieve illusions affecting a creature or creatures increases to +4.
This replaces improved uncanny dodge.

Ninja Tricks: The following ninja tricks complement the frozen
shadow archetype: bleeding attackUC, darkvisionUC, deadly rangeUC, fast stealthUC, hidden weaponsUC, sudden disguiseUC, vanishing trickUC, and wall climberUC.

Advanced Ninja Tricks: The following advanced ninja tricks complement the frozen shadow archetype: assassinateUC, ghost stepUC, invisible bladeUC, master disguiseUC, and see the unseenUC.

I am hoping someone can tell me if the bolded section is specific or general for the following tricks and talents:
High Jumper
Acrobatic Master
Expert Leaper

My present understanding is that the Tricks/Talents are more specific than the archetype feature, as I can't possibly believe that it is intended that the DC is doubled for every single Acrobatics Check to Jump for my character's [i]entire life[/url].

If this is not the case, then I am very sad that Paizo printed another garbage archetype and hope they have better Quality Assurance in the future.

[Fuzzy-Wuzzy]

It doesn't double your jumping DCs. It just doesn't let you cut them in half like a normal ninja. You have the same DCs as the rest of the party. Similarly, you get the usual running-start bonus if you have an actual running start, you just don't get it the rest of the time.

And the tricks work just fine. The bolded part doesn't mean "you can never cut a DC in half." It means "at 10th level you do not gain the ability to cut DCs in half all the time." Specific vs general doesn't come into it. The bolded parts are very poorly written.

As for garbage... you know that jumping well is not typically the cornerstone of a ninja's career, right?

[StygianRose]

Fuzzy-Wuzzy wrote:

It doesn't double your jumping DCs. It just doesn't let you cut them in half like a normal ninja. You have the same DCs as the rest of the party. Similarly, you get the usual running-start bonus if you have an actual running start, you just don't get it the rest of the time.

And the tricks work just fine. The bolded part doesn't mean "you can never cut a DC in half." It means "at 10th level you do not gain the ability to cut DCs in half all the time." Specific vs general doesn't come into it. The bolded parts are very poorly written.

As for garbage... you know that jumping well is not typically the cornerstone of a ninja's career, right?

While I am aware of that last bit, I saw the following on the page for Acrobatics, quoted below:

Acrobatics wrote:

These DCs double if you do not have at least 10 feet of space to get a running start.

I was most worried about the interaction that the archetype says never considered to have running start and the talent says always considered to have a running start

[Fuzzy-Wuzzy]

Parse it as "(The frozen shadow does not) (treat any Acrobatics skill check to jump as if he had a running start)" and not the more normal "(The frozen shadow does not treat) (any Acrobatics skill check to jump) as if he had a running start."

That is, it's really "The frozen shadow does not immediately get the usual ninja ability to automatically treat all jumps as if he had a running start" just really poorly phrased. (To the point where I wonder if this had a proofreader, let alone an editor.) Taking an "always have a running start" trick will do what you want. And before you have such a trick, having an actual running start will get you its usual benefits---you're never worse off than a normal person.

[StygianRose]

Thank you! One last question:
Since the feat Rugged Northerner allows you to treat extreme cold (<-20 degrees) as severe cold (-20 degrees to 0 degrees), am I correct that this feat will allow Endure Elements to protect me still even when the environment is <-50 degrees, as even -51 degrees and less is treated as -20 degrees to 0 degrees?

[Fuzzy-Wuzzy]

I would say those should play well together under reasonable conditions, but I'd be hard-pressed to prove it if the GM disagreed.

It does get a bit silly as you approach absolute zero, the atmosphere has literally congealed and frozen into a solid layer on the landscape a few feet thick, and you're still saying "mmm, brisk!" As a GM, I'd probably rule that if you got into truly "super-extreme" cold (to be defined by fiat) then Rugged Northerner reduces it to merely extreme cold, which endure elements does not protect against. (Though I'd also rule that endure elements does further reduce the harmful effects to those of merely severe cold, which is definitely not RAW.)

Oops, missed that endure elements doesn't put its boundary temperature at the extreme/severe boundary. Well, just split the new category in two and it should be fine.

[Saethori]

I would certainly allow it, but as written it would seem to imply that you only treat the conditions themselves as lesser, not the temperature ranges at which you would normally be subject to those conditions.

[Fuzzy-Wuzzy]

The various cold conditions are the temperature ranges, by definition.

[SodiumTelluride]

The wording could have been better. A less ambiguous writing of your bolded part might be "The frozen shadow does not gain the ability to treat Acrobatics skill checks to jump as if he had a running start, and at 10th level his ki pool does not reduce the DC of Acrobatics skill checks made to jump by half." You can still take the tricks you mentioned, and they function as normal.