So my Shadowdancer wants to take a new rogue talent. I noticed the 'Sneak Training' talent from Pathfinder Adventure Path #130: City in the Lion's Eye. It states: The rogue counts as having the sneak attack class feature of a rogue of her level for the purpose of meeting prestige class requirements, although this talent doesn’t improve the rogue’s existing sneak attack ability or grant her the sneak attack class feature if she doesn’t already have it. This talent is most useful for rogues that lack the sneak attack class feature, such as those with the phantom thief archetype. Does this mean I can use sneak attack or not?
No, you don’t actually gain sneak attack. The talent is only to allow you to take a prestige class that has a prerequisite of sneak attack. From what I can see it does not actually work. Most classes requiring sneak attack list a specific dice of sneak attack as a prerequisite. The talent only grants you the class ability but does not mention any dice. RAW if the prestige class requires 2d6 sneak attack the talent does not satisfy it. I am not aware of any prestige class this talent would let you qualify for. I can see a GM allowing it to, but that is going to be a house rule.
There may be a FAQ or clarification I am not aware of, but this talent looks to be absolutely useless.
From what I can see it does not actually work. Most classes requiring sneak attack list a specific dice of sneak attack as a prerequisite. The talent only grants you the class ability but does not mention any dice. RAW if the prestige class requires 2d6 sneak attack the talent does not satisfy it.
"The rogue counts as having the sneak attack class feature of a rogue of her level"
If you're, say, 3rd level, "the sneak attack class feature of a rogue of [your] level" has 2d6, and thus this is what you're treated as having.
You do not actually have sneak attack. You are not doing any sneak attack damage when you fight. You are just treated as if you have the ability in order to qualify to take a prestige class.
I guess it isn't as useless-seeming to me as the Bardic Pretender talent.
Both exist purely to give characters the prerequisites to take the Lion Blade prestige class, which is thematic for the AP that they are in. Sadly it is a rubbish prestige class - our party playing through War For the Crown included a bard, a rogue and a vigilante, all of whom looked at it and all of whom realised it wasn't as good as sticking with their base class.
From what I can see it does not actually work. Most classes requiring sneak attack list a specific dice of sneak attack as a prerequisite. The talent only grants you the class ability but does not mention any dice. RAW if the prestige class requires 2d6 sneak attack the talent does not satisfy it."The rogue counts as having the sneak attack class feature of a rogue of her level"
If you're, say, 3rd level, "the sneak attack class feature of a rogue of [your] level" has 2d6, and thus this is what you're treated as having.
I'm not a rogue. I'm a shadowdancer. They get rogue talents, but specifically NOT sneak attack. That's why I questioned this talent, it was ambiguous.
I'm not a rogue. I'm a shadowdancer. They get rogue talents, but specifically NOT sneak attack. That's why I questioned this talent, it was ambiguous.From what I can see it does not actually work. Most classes requiring sneak attack list a specific dice of sneak attack as a prerequisite. The talent only grants you the class ability but does not mention any dice. RAW if the prestige class requires 2d6 sneak attack the talent does not satisfy it."The rogue counts as having the sneak attack class feature of a rogue of her level"
If you're, say, 3rd level, "the sneak attack class feature of a rogue of [your] level" has 2d6, and thus this is what you're treated as having.
Aside from the fact you aren't actually getting sneak dice, you would get to replace "rogue level" in the talent with "shadowdancer level". So as a Shadowdancer 5, you would be treated as having 3d6 sneak attack for qualifying for another prestige class, but you don't actually have 3d6 sneak attack.
And now I'm wondering what happens after taking the PrC. If the PrC increases Sneak Attack dice, but you used that talent to qualify, do you then get the Sneak Attack of a level one Rogue?