When errata nerfs an item

[Reg06]

What do we do when errata completely changes an item? Do we get the gold back?

The item in question is a Courageous weapon, which I purchased for my Barbarian. The printed version is very strong, and it's basically a no-brainer for Barbarians. The June 5th errata completely removes the reason why I purchased the item and I would never spend gold on the current version.

Am I just stuck with an enchantment I no longer use? This was the +4 purchase so at this point I can't really afford any more enchantments on the weapon.

[The Morphling]

I don't have my rules in front of me, but I am fairly certain that if an item is changed, you can sell it back for full value. The massive nerf to Courageous (making the enchantment from a "must pick" choice into a "useless trash" option) definitely counts as a change, so you should be able to get a full refund on the enchantment.

[zefig]

http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2sbxz?Courageous-FAQ#5

You're good to sell back for full price!

Ninja vanish!

[John Compton]

Sometimes we look at an errata and agree that allowing no change would not be to the campaign's benefit, such as we did a month ago.

[Zoomba]

In general the default is that unless Paizo or PFS staff specifically say so, getting the gold back is not automatically allowed.

In this case however, you're in luck! You can sell back your courageous weapon for full cost.

Michael Brock wrote:

Since this is actually changing the text of the enhancement and not just clarifying how it works, the PFS team is inclined to let people with it sell back the item at full cost. Go for it.

Link

EDIT: Beaten by John.

[Reg06]

That's fantastic. Thanks for the reference.

[Andrew Christian]

In many cases of errata, changes, clarifications, and such, the Guide to Organized play has a rather conservative set of options for retraining and rebuilding. Typically, it has to invalidate (or make them illegal to the campaign) the options you've chosen before you can rebuild them.

But in several circumstances, the rules in the Guide and Additional Resources don't cover or come into conflict with one another, what happens when a clarification, errata or change is made. (e.g. the Warpriest primary ability score changing. Additional resources indicated a certain level of change allowed, that came into conflict with the Guide allowing a full rebuild because of an ability score change. PFS campaign leadership eventually clarified that in the case of the Warpriest you could use the Guide retrain rules rather than the additional resources rule.)

So, in the case of rebuilds, as always, look to the Guide or Additional Resources for how it should work. In some corner cases, those rules don't work well or don't apply, and so asking on the forums for clarification for what is allowed is always a good option.

In this case, you are lucky, that the PFS leadership team felt the change was big enough to allow for a full refund of that enchantment if you so desired.