Feat Class Traits and Prerequisites

[willot]

If a feat has a class trait like 'Rogue' does that mean it call only be used by rogues, and if so why isn't it given the perquisite of "Must have the Rogue Class"?

[Cordell Kintner]

Class traits on feats mean it can only be taken by that class. This way a Fighter can't take Nimble Dodge. Archetype Feats are different, and if an archetype says you can take a feat that's normally a class feat, you can take it, and it loses that trait. That's covered here.

Adding a trait is easier than adding a prerequisite to every single class feat.

[thenobledrake]

Cordell is kind of correct, and kind of not... the class trait isn't a prerequisite so much as it is a thing that the feat inherits by being on the list of feats the class can take, but only the trait of the class you actually are is applied to the feat.

This is why if you open your core book and check Quick Draw you find it with just the Ranger trait on page 172, and with just the Rogue trait on page 184, though Archives of Nethys will list both traits on the feat in both class sections (because they only enter the feat once and reference it, rather than it being re-entered as it is in the book layout).

But no, you can't just grab whatever feat you want from whatever class list so long as it's the appropriate level and doesn't list a prerequisite you don't have, so in that way it is kind of a prerequisite.

[PossibleCabbage]

If you look at the class features chart for, say, Rogues you'll see that the odd levels don't say "feat" they say "rogue feat"- meaning that you can use those feats to select feats with the rogue trait (but no other feats.)

It's the archetype rules that enable you to spend a "rogue feat" on something other than a feat with the rogue trait.