Phantom Thief's Refined Education ability.

[MasterGeese]

For Reference, the ability states:

Quote:

A phantom thief adds Handle Animal, Heal, Ride, Spellcraft, Survival, and all Knowledge skills to her list of class skills. Furthermore, she selects one of her rogue class skills and adds half her rogue level on all skill checks using that skill. At 3rd level and every 2 rogue levels thereafter, she selects an additional rogue class skill and adds half her rogue level on all skill checks using that skill as well. Starting at 4th level, if the phantom thief is an unchained rogue, she gains rogue’s edge skill unlocks with each of these skills rather than selecting one skill every 5 levels, and she adds half her rogue level to her number of ranks to determine when she receives a skill unlock (so a 7th level rogue (phantom thief ) with 7 ranks in a chosen skill would count as having 10 ranks and receive the second skill unlock).

For a (chained) Rogue, it looks pretty straightforward. At every odd level you pick a new skill to specialize in and add half your level to it. (but no minimum +1 bonus, for some reason).

But how does this work for an Unchained Rogue? It looks like the ability is saying that every 5 levels you don't get to specialize in an extra skill, but you wouldn't normally get to choose a new skill at 10th or 20th level anyway. How is this supposed to be interpreted?

[willuwontu]

You get a skill unlock at 3,5,7,9,11,13,15,17,19 instead of 5,10,15,20

You also get half your level counted as additional ranks for the purpose of skill unlocks, so at level 10 with a skill you have 10 ranks in, you'd get the 15 rank skill unlock (10 from actual ranks, 5 from phantom thief)

[Gloom]

How does this interact with feats and Rogue Talents that grant you additional skill unlocks such as Cutting Edge?

[Dasrak]

Cutting Edge just gives you two additional talents. So however many you had, you now have two more. You still meet the prerequisite because the archetype only alters Rogue's Edge and doesn't replace it.

[blahpers]

MasterGeese wrote:

(but no minimum +1 bonus, for some reason)

In this case, it's unnecessary, as the ability only comes into play at 3rd level.

[Gloom]

Dasrak wrote:

Cutting Edge just gives you two additional talents. So however many you had, you now have two more. You still meet the prerequisite because the archetype only alters Rogue's Edge and doesn't replace it.

Does this mean that the Phantom Thief goes from having up to 10 skills with Refined Education to 12?