[RPG] Can Slayers pick the Combat Trick talent multiple times

pathfinder-1erogue

Can Slayers pick the rogue talent Combat Trick multiple times or not? I've seen long debates about this, but never found a good answer.

Best Answer

No, you cannot take Combat Trick multiple times.

The reason for this has nothing to do with anything in the Slayer class description; it has to do with the Rogue Talent class feature description.

A rogue cannot select an individual talent more than once. Source.

Some Rogue Talents, such as the Terrain Mastery talent, can be taken multiple times because they explicitly say so.

Special: A rogue can take this ability multiple times, each time applying it to a new terrain. Source.

Combat Trick does not contain any permission to take it multiple times, so it cannot be taken multiple times. That applies to anyone who can take Rogue Talents, not just Rogues themselves.

Whether Slayer talents can be used to take the same Rogue Talent multiple times if the Rogue Talent allows it depends on your interpretation of "it grants the slayer a new rogue talent," as discussed in Hey I Can Chan's answer. I would argue that each time a Rogue can pick a new Rogue Talent, even if he repeatedly takes Terrain Mastery, he is gaining new Rogue Talents each time. In my mind it works much like Weapon Focus: you take Terrain Mastery(Forest) as one Talent and later decide you want Terrain Mastery(Plains). They are in that sense separate talents. This is an interpretation, however, and there is no exact rules-as-written answer like there is for Combat Trick.