Track feat x2 -- what's the rule?

[Alefiend]

I recently built a character that gets Track as a feat from the first level of a PrC, and had to work very hard to make the prereqs work out. It would have been a little easier with a level of Ranger, but I didn't go for it because I felt doubling up on Track would be a waste.

It only occurred to me after reading an unrelated thread that I might have had an easy out. Many classes have the rule that, if the character already possesses a feat it would grant, then the character may instead choose another feat for which s/he qualifies. Would this be the case with Track from Ranger plus Track from PrC?

[Heliomance]

Only if it's explicitly spelled out as such in the class description. If not, you're out of luck.

[Greenish]

If the class says you get to pick another feat if you already have Track, then you get to pick another feat if you already have Track. They often give some options and limits on what said track ought to be.

If it doesn't say so, you'll have to ask your DM nicely.

[sreservoir]

no. but you can trade in ranger track for something else that may or may not be useful with its plentiful acfs.

[Draz74]

no. but you can trade in ranger track for something else that may or may not be useful with its plentiful acfs.

This.

Specifically, the main ACF that trades out Track is the Dungeonscape feature that gets rid of Track and Swift Tracker, in favor of Trapfinding and adding Disable Device to your skill list.

[CTrees]

As has been said, you only get to trade it out if the classes say so, unless your DM agrees as a specific exception.

If I were a DM with a player that ran into this issue, I suspect I'd allow the double track to upgrade to swift tracker (as with evasion/improved evasion), or possibly grant a rangery (by fluff) feat - Skill Focus: Survival, Self Sufficient, etc. Are those good feats? Nope. But Track is generally a plot device, rather than a "strong" class feature, so... seems fair.

[Flickerdart]

If I were a DM with a player that ran into this issue, I suspect I'd allow the double track to upgrade to swift tracker (as with evasion/improved evasion)
Mraap! You're thinking of Uncanny Dodge. Evasion doesn't work like that, and in fact Improved Evasion is not so easy to get.

[Darrin]

This.

Specifically, the main ACF that trades out Track is the Dungeonscape feature that gets rid of Track and Swift Tracker, in favor of Trapfinding and adding Disable Device to your skill list.

There's another way to swap Track for something else. If you become a Dragonborn of Bahumat, you can swap one of your existing feats for a 1st-level only dragonblood feat. Actually, there's only three of those, one of which is kobold-only, but either Dragon Tail or Dragon Wings would be much better than taking Track twice.

[Curmudgeon]

If you've got the gold (4,900 gp per feat swapped), you can also hire an NPC spellcaster to do the Dark Chaos Shuffle. This uses a couple of spells in Fiendish Codex I:

Embrace the Dark Chaos (Fiendish Codex I, page 92) swaps an existing feat for an Abyssal Heritor feat (see Fiendish Codex I, page 82) the subject qualifies for.
The spell Shun the Dark Chaos (Fiendish Codex I, page 95) swaps an existing Abyssal Heritor feat for any other feat the subject qualifies for.
Just pick one Abyssal Heritor feat as an intermediary, and you can have them swap the extra Track feat for something you want.

[CTrees]

Mraap! You're thinking of Uncanny Dodge. Evasion doesn't work like that, and in fact Improved Evasion is not so easy to get.

Yep, that's what I meant!

[Alefiend]

Thanks, everybody. Looks like I made the right choice after all.

[Okizruin]

Thanks, everybody. Looks like I made the right choice after all.

What was the right choice?

[Alefiend]

What was the right choice?

Not using Ranger to get the character started.