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No.
When retraining, you generally can’t make choices you couldn’t make when you selected the original option. For instance, you can’t exchange a 2nd-level skill feat for a 4th-level one, or for one that requires prerequisites you didn’t meet at the time you took the original feat. If you don’t remember whether you met the prerequisites at the time, ask your GM to make the call. If you cease to meet the prerequisites for an ability due to retraining, you can’t use that ability. You might need to retrain several abilities in sequence in order to get all the abilities you want.
Effectively, yes. It's clear they don't want you to use an L2 class feat slot for an L4 just because you're higher level. However, your skill scenario is achievable with a combination of retraining not a misuse of feat levels, so yes, there is a way to do it.
The adopted ancestry scenario is fine in my opinion as a GM. I don't see a problem so long as you aren't misusing level-restricted feats, and in this case you're swapping an A1 for an A1. Other GMs may be more strict about this.
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It's kind of rare, but in some cases you might be able to shuffle things around to qualify at the exact levels you need. When doing this, it's best to create a character plan document that shows at which level you picked what option so that you can transparently communicate your choices with your GM.
In general, however, it's unlikely to be able to just happen to meet a prerequisite now that you didn't before that would apply retroactively.
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The way that I run it is that if it is possible to rebuild the character from the ground up and end up with the result that you want, then it is a legal retraining (barring required choices like ability score boosts, class, and ancestry that can't be retrained). And you only have to actually spend the time retraining the things that actually change between your existing character build and the desired final result.
So your specific case of a skill choice requirement to qualify for a feat is very likely to work. As long as you don't have a bunch of different skill feat choices that also have skill training requirements, or got a bunch of skill training from an ancestry feat at a higher level. Things like that may cause an impossibility to get all the skill training that you need early enough.
On the other hand, the idea of adopted ancestry at 3rd level and picking an ancestry feat from that adopted ancestry at 1st level is never going to work.
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"There is no such thing as a build that is legal with retraining but not legal without retraining" is the simplest accurate summary.
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Yeah you'll see a variety of opinions on exactly what you can Retrain into or Retrain away. The examples given seem pretty clear. You couldn't Retrain away the General Feat you earned at 3rd for one that requires being 7th. But outside of that, PF2 seems really lenient on what you can do with Retraining.
I'm of the opinion that you can (for the most part) Retrain Feats or Skill Training you earned through your Ancestry, Background or Class. As long as the option you're Retraining into was something you could choose at 1st Level, you should be good. This is particularly useful if your ABC combo gives you duplicate Feats that grant you no benefit.
It didn't make much sense to me that my Cliffscale Iruxi had Breath Control. He isn't one of those swamp-dwelling frillbacks, after all. So I Retrained it for Toughness, another 1st Level General Feat. I'll be doing the same for my 10 Int Bard, Retraining his Bard-granted Occultism for something more useful.
But, obviously, expect table variation.
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It didn't make much sense to me that my Cliffscale Iruxi had Breath Control. He isn't one of those swamp-dwelling frillbacks, after all. So I Retrained it for Toughness, another 1st Level General Feat. I'll be doing the same for my 10 Int Bard, Retraining his Bard-granted Occultism for something more useful.
These are two examples of things you specifically cannot retrain out of by RAW, as there are no other legal options (specific feat granted by ancestry, and specific skill granted at trained level by class, with no alternative options for either).
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Like I said, expect table variation.
When retraining, you generally can’t make choices you couldn’t make when you selected the original option. For instance, you can’t exchange a 2nd-level skill feat for a 4th-level one, or for one that requires prerequisites you didn’t meet at the time you took the original feat.
Neither of those restrictions suggest you can't swap out an ABC feat.
You can also spend a week to retrain an initial trained skill you gained during character creation.
This makes it pretty clear that you can swap out your ABC skills.
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Yeah, seems pretty clear to me that items you weren't given a choice to take can't be retrained into something else:It didn't make much sense to me that my Cliffscale Iruxi had Breath Control. He isn't one of those swamp-dwelling frillbacks, after all. So I Retrained it for Toughness, another 1st Level General Feat. I'll be doing the same for my 10 Int Bard, Retraining his Bard-granted Occultism for something more useful.These are two examples of things you specifically cannot retrain out of by RAW, as there are no other legal options (specific feat granted by ancestry, and specific skill granted at trained level by class, with no alternative options for either).
Core Rulebook pg. 481 2.0 Retraining offers a way to alter some of your character choices, which is helpful when you want to take your character in a new direction or change decisions that didn’t meet your expectations. You can retrain feats, skills, and some selectable class features. You can’t retrain your ancestry, heritage, background, class, or ability scores. You can’t perform other downtime activities while retraining.Source
Retraining usually requires you to spend time learning from a teacher, whether that entails physical training, studying at a library, or falling into shared magical trances. Your GM determines whether you can get proper training or whether something can be retrained at all. In some cases, you’ll have to pay your instructor.
Some abilities can be difficult or impossible to retrain (for instance, a sorcerer can retrain their bloodline only in extraordinary circumstances).
When retraining, you generally can’t make choices you couldn’t make when you selected the original option. For instance, you can’t exchange a 2nd-level skill feat for a 4th-level one, or for one that requires prerequisites you didn’t meet at the time you took the original feat. If you don’t remember whether you met the prerequisites at the time, ask your GM to make the call. If you cease to meet the prerequisites for an ability due to retraining, you can’t use that ability. You might need to retrain several abilities in sequence in order to get all the abilities you want.
Lizardfolk get a specific feat, not a choice of any 1st level general feat, so they can't retrain Breath Control into Toughness because it wasn't ever an option.
Likewise, you can't completely retrain out of a skill you automatically get as trained from your class.
Taja is correct here. That setup could only happen by the GM overriding the normal rules.
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Which, to be honest, is an idea I would entertain as a GM if a player really wanted to do it.
Say you wanted to retrain a feat and you now meet the requirements but didn't when you took it. So a level 1 feat (say) that required you be trained in some skill, but you weren't trained until level 3. Or if you take Adopted Ancestry at level 3, can you retrain your level 1 ancestry feat for that race?No.
The intention is that a character's level 1 feat slot must be filled with a level 1 feat.
You can't use retraining to end up with only cool high-level feats once you reach level 20.
I think you misread the question a bit. This is not about putting a level 3 feat in a level 1 slot. It's about putting a level 1 feat that you didn't qualify for at level 1 into a level 1 slot. Still doesn't work, but for a different reason.
Taja is correct here. That setup could only happen by the GM overriding the normal rules.
The one place I'm inclined to make an exception is like "you're an Elf Rogue who wants to be an Aldori Duelist." You cannot possibly get the aldori sword proficiency before you get two general feats to spend on weapon proficiency (so 7th), but a human can get the proficiency at level 1 (with versatile heritage and general training). Since I feel like a five level discrepancy because you chose the "wrong" ancestry is undesirable, I would be inclined to, if "this person is a heritage/ancestry other than versatile human" is important to the character concept, to let the player retrain their 2nd level feat to the Aldori dedication once they get the weapon proficiency they need.
Something like a house rule for "you may consider all of your general, skill, and ancestry feats up to your current level when retraining your class feats."
Depends on the requirements.
If it's an access thing, such as being from a certain faction or having completed a certain task (such as defeating an appropriate level Devil in solo combat) or requiring a certain type of trainer, then yes.
If it's based upon not meeting feat requirements, like a certain amount of Strength, or not having proficiency in a weapon, no, those are checked at the level you are retraining for, not the level you are retraining at. You could not retrain a 4th level feat in a 1st level feat slot, as one example, because you are retraining for 1st level, not 4th level. You also could not retrain a 2nd level Dedication feat, even if you gained enough attributes at 5th level to qualify, because you do not meet those requirements by 2nd level, which is the level of feat slot you are retraining for.