At level 2 the Bloody-Knuckled Rowdy gets
At 2nd level, a bloody-knuckled rowdy gains a bonus feat. This bonus feat must be a style feat or a feat with a style feat as a prerequisite. The bloody-knuckled rowdy treats his bloodrager levels as monk levels when qualifying for and calculating the effects of style feats and feats that have style feats as prerequisites.
At 5th level, the bloody-knuckled rowdy gains the Combat Style Master feat. He doesn’t need to meet the prerequisites for this feat.
This ability replaces uncanny dodge and improved uncanny dodge.
and according to James Jacobs:
If a class grants you a feat as a bonus feat, you never need the prerequisites unless it says specifically that you do.Many classes/archetypes have class features that grant bonus feats. Some say you need to have prerequisites to gain the feat, some say you can ignore any prerequisites for a chosen feat, some just say you gain the feat with no mention of the prerequisites.
Which is the default rule on meeting the prerequisites for any feats gained when there is no specific language in the class feature's description instructing to do otherwise?
I could take Dragon Style there without the need for 3 ranks in Acrobatics.
Now the way Combat Style Student is worded:
"This bonus feat must be a style feat or a feat with a style feat as a prerequisite."
Could imply that I can select Dragon Ferocity at second level.
Note: I understand the wording of Dragon Ferocity means I get no benefit until I also have Dragon Style
By taking Dragon Ferocity at second level I ignore the skill prerequisites as well as Stunning Fist. Then pick Dragon Style with my level 3 feat and it all works.
These seems too easy? What am I missing? Or can I really do it this way?
Given that the only listed restrictions for Style Student is that the feat selected must either A) be a style feat, or B) have a style feat as a prerequisite...
RAW: yes, you very much could take Dragon Ferocity as your bonus feat, and then pick up Dragon Style as your 3rd level feat.
RAI: this is unlikely to have been the intended use of this bonus feat.
It's not the first time a bonus feat from a class has enabled the possibility of taking one feat earlier than another feat that is required for the first feat to even function. Ranger combat styles are quite notorious for this interaction in fact.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
What James Jacobs wrote is not an official rule. In this case, what you're taking from it is not even what's intended.
RAW: Unless something says you can ignore prereqs, you need to fulfill them.
RAI: For everything where you make a selection, the above is true. If you are given a prereq without any selection, what James Jacobs said is true.
Since Combat Style Student lets you pick a feat, you need to fulfill the prereqs.
JJ was talking about a feature granting a feat by name, as a bonus feat. For class features that grant a feat without mentioning the feat’s name, you still need to qualify for that feat.
JJ isn’t a rules guy and doesn’t naturally word responses like this in the legalistic way that seems to be expected by many who frequent this board.