[RPG] Does the Sniper Archetype of the slayer get a talent at level 2

alternate-class-featurepathfinder-1e

The PFSRD does not mention it being replaced by the level 2 ability, but HeroForge does not give me the level 2 talent.

Best Answer

What the other answers have missed is that the Sniper archetype received an errata five months before the question was asked. Here is the errata:

Page 120—Replace the Sniper archetype's Deadly Range ability with "Deadly Sniper (Ex): At 2nd level, when the sniper makes an attack against a target who is within his weapon’s first range increment and completely unaware of his presence, that attack ignores the 30 foot range limit on ranged sneak attacks, and if it is a sneak attack, he adds his sniper level as a bonus on his sneak attack damage roll. After this first attack, the target is aware of the sniper’s presence."

Notice that unlike with Deadly Range, there is nothing in the new ability that says "this replaces the talent gained at 2nd level." So that's where the question comes from.

The RAW answer, then, is that the Sniper does get a talent at level 2. Old copies of the ACG wouldn't reflect this change, nor would the table on PFSRD (because the table wasn't updated when the errata was released, even though the archetype's page was). HeroForge is probably making the same mistake in assuming that Deadly Sniper replaces the talent gained at level 2 the same way that Deadly Range did.

(That said, it's probably RAI that the talent is replaced by the archetype. But again, the strict RAW answer is that the talent is not replaced.)