Advanced Rogue Talent: Feat

[Austin Gellner]

What is the intended use of the Advanced Rogue Talent: Feat?

I understand that the common interpretation is that the player chooses Advanced Rogue Talent and gains a bonus feat. However, that's not what the talent says.

The talent allows a player to select a feat "in place of" a rogue talent. Now, this is a distinctly different wording from Combat Trick, which quite clearly just gives the player a bonus combat feat.

The talent uses the same wording that allows a rogue to select advanced talents beginning at level 10, which gives rise to another potential interpretation:

At level 10, the rogue selects Advanced Rogue Talent: Feat. He gains no immediate benefit, but from now on, whenever he gains access to a new rogue talent, he has the option of taking an advanced rogue talent or a feat in place of it.

The rogue in question chose Advanced Rogue Talent: Feat at level 10, so he is not able to take a feat "in place of" a talent at that level - he already chose his talent. Instead, he has to wait until level 12, then he can gain a feat in place of that talent.

As this is likely not an intended use of the talent, perhaps the wording should be changed to something more closely resembling Combat Trick. Something along the lines of "A rogue who selects this talent gains a bonus feat."

[Ciaran Barnes]

Your interpretation is correct.

[fretgod99]

Combat Trick Rogue Talent wrote:

A rogue that selects this talent gains a bonus combat feat (see Feats).

Feat Advanced Rogue Talent wrote:

A rogue may gain any feat that she qualifies for in place of a rogue talent.

I don't see any appreciable difference, and I don't think anybody has really been confusing this in the last 7 years or so.

One says gain a specific kind of feat one time. One says gain any feat you could ordinarily take, whenever you can take a rogue talent.

Could it be written a little more precisely? Sure. But since it doesn't appear to have confused anybody at this point, I don't see the need to clarify.

*shrug*