Same skill feat granted by multiple sources

[RuneRW]

Let's suppose someone wants to make a dwarf blacksmith/craftsman type of character. When choosing a heritage, they of course go with Anvil Dwarf - it grants a free Specialty Crafting skill feat! Next up, when choosing a background, they go with Artisan, it only makes sense. But now there's a problem. You've gained specialty crafting from two different sources. What happens in a case like this one, exactly? The skill feat itself doesn't say it can be taken more than once and neither the heritage nor the background states that you can go with a different one if you'd gain the skill feat from another source.

A few rulings come to mind. You can say that it's fine, it's not big difference if you have two specialties (from Anvil Dwarf) or three (from both sources combined). You could also say that same ruling applies as for skills from multiple sources - you can trade one for a different skill feat. Alternatively, same thing happens as if you got say martial weapon proficiency from multiple sources. You only get it once. You could also take the path of least resistance and go with a different background.

Now I don't want to sound presumptuous, but I'm not interested in how would someone rule this one in their home game. I can make that call as well. What I'm interested in however, is how would this apply for a strictly Rules as Written case, for example, in Pathfinder Society?

[thenobledrake]

You cannot take the same feat more than once unless it explicitly says you can (this is established on page 18 of the core rulebook, under "Reading Rules").

There is no reason to believe that this rule is overridden by any other rule unless that rule explicitly states a difference.

thus the RAW answer here is clear: If you're an Anvil Dwarf, you can't gain the Specialty Crafting feat from the Artisan background (or any other source) because you already have it. So don't take that background.

The rule you mention that lets you pick a different skill is actually specifically to ensure that the skill training that is built-in to each class does not result in a player choice making them have fewer total trained skills (i.e. a wizard character always has arcana, so gaining arcana from a background must allow for choosing something else because there's no choice for the player to not be trained in arcana from the wizard class) - there is no equivalent to skill feats because the player always has the option to choose something else.

[Taja the Barbarian]

Earlier thread on this sort of thing (before it dived into a retraining debate): https://paizo.com/threads/rzs434d1?Duplicate-Feats-at-1st-Level
General conclusion: You'll end up with a 'dead feat' so you probably should take a different background or heritage...

[Claxon]

What Taja said.

[HumbleGamer]

Custom Background might be a solution.

I tend to consider most of the base background something generic which could fit different characters, but if something but the lore gives issues, I suggest players to make their own.

For example, the warrior background says

Quote:

In your younger days, you waded into battle as a mercenary, a warrior defending a nomadic people, or a member of a militia or army. You might have wanted to break out from the regimented structure of these forces, or you could have always been as independent a warrior as you are now.

Which might fit for many characters.

It also says:

Quote:

Choose two ability boosts. One must be to Strength or Constitution, and one is a free ability boost.

You're trained in the Intimidation skill, and the Warfare Lore skill. You gain the Intimidating Glare skill feat.

So, if for what concerns the character/bg lore it's ok, while something else it's not, I push players to make their own simply taking a cue on the existing ones.

You'd like to have Dex as bonus stat?
You prefer diplomacy over intimidate?
You prefer a different skill feat?

Simply do it.
There are no issue ( 2 stats, 1 lore, 1 skill, 1 skill feat tied to the bonus skill ).

[Taja the Barbarian]

HumbleGamer wrote:

Custom Background might be a solution.

...
Simply do it.
There are no issue ( 2 stats, 1 lore, 1 skill, 1 skill feat tied to the bonus skill ).

The OP is specifically looking for the official RAW, such as would be used in PFS, so making your own background in not really an option:

RuneRW wrote:

Now I don't want to sound presumptuous, but I'm not interested in how would someone rule this one in their home game. I can make that call as well. What I'm interested in however, is how would this apply for a strictly Rules as Written case, for example, in Pathfinder Society?