Shadowcraft Weapon + Illegal PFS weapons

[Dark Deed]

So, I recently discovered such thing as "Shadowcraft weapon".
It says in description:
A shadowcraft weapon can assume the form of any masterwork weapon that shares its type and handedness, regardless of its categorization as simple, martial, or exotic.
Campaign clarifications says:
Page 22—Firearms and techological weapons are not legal options for shadowcraft weapons.

So... Does that mean I can form it into Butchering Axe or Orc Hornbow?

[CraziFuzzy]

pretty sure it just means you can't make shadowcraft firearms or tech weapons. Any other 'legal' pfs weapons should be viable.

[Belafon]

No.

In general if you think you found a loophole in PFS rules based on a technicality . . . then yes, you did find a loophole based on a technicality. But that doesn’t make the exploit legal. The hornbow and butchering axe are not legal unless you find one in a chronicle. Just because the writers of the additional resources and campaign clarifications documents didn’t spot a loophole (shadowcraft, greater transformative, etc.), that doesn’t mean we can use it to work around the ban.

[Starglim]

The Campaign Clarification doesn't explicitly say that if a weapon is not legal for play, it's not legal for play as a shadowcraft, no. Why would it have to?

[RealAlchemy]

Starglim wrote:

The Campaign Clarification doesn't explicitly say that if a weapon is not legal for play, it's not legal for play as a shadowcraft, no. Why would it have to?

Suppose you have a chronicle that says, "This character can use a butchering axe?" (Or a chainsaw, or railgun, etc)

[JDDyslexia]

Assuming this is the chronicle you are talking about:

Season 9:

#9-11: The Jarlsblood Witch Saga

This boon does not give you access to the weapon in general (because it doesn't say, as you stated above "this character can use XXX weapon"). It's allowing you to spend Prestige to retrain feats so you can be proficient in the weapon, but then the chronicle sheet gives you access to a specificly-enchanted Butching Axe or Orc Hornbow.

How I would read this (and if anybody cares to correct me, please do) would be:

As such, only those specific weapons are legal for you to use. As an example, you couldn't buy a masterwork version of these weapons and enchant them as you see fit (because the weapon itself is still technically not legal for PFS use), nor could you put any improvements to the weapons as printed in the loot on the chronicle sheet.

[Kalindlara]

Joe Bouchard wrote:

...nor could you put any improvements to the weapons as printed in the loot on the chronicle sheet.

This is the only point where I found myself dubious about your position. It's not impossible, I suppose, though I'd expect some pretty heavy table variation on that. (And I know I wouldn't let it go easy if it were my character potentially getting punished by GM rulings after the fact - stuff like "your weapon is illegal, so you have to fix it and permanently alter your records".)

[Ferious Thune]

I see no reason why you couldn’t improve the items from that chronicle (in fact I have done so with the bow adding adaptive to it). Once you own the item, you own the item. You have to purchase the one from the chronicle, but beyond that they are not named magic items, and as such there is no rule restricting upgrading them further.

[GreatGraySkwid]

I have specifically been told by my VO that adding enchantments to the items from that chronicle is A-OK, so...

[JDDyslexia]

For ease of reference, here's the full text of the first part of the boon in question:

Rare Weapons:

You have recovered several exotic weapons, both of which appear in the available items below. These appear on page 8 of Pathfinder Player Companion: Adventurer’s Armory 2, and their abilities are provided below. You can spend 2 Prestige Points to replace one of your feats with Exotic Weapon Proficiency (butchering axe) or Exotic Weapon Proficiency (orc hornbow). When you do so, you may change the weapon or weapon group selected for any other feat or class feature you have (e.g. Weapon Focus or a fighter’s weapon training) for 2 Prestige Points each.

My line of thinking is that the two different weapons themselves (orc hornbow and butchering axe) are, generally speaking, not PFS legal. The boon seems to imply that "Ok, you can spend some Prestige to retrain some feats/class abilities so you can make use of the two items below that are now available to you." The way I would interpret this is that the two items listed below are specifically legal (including the option on the hornbow, per the boon description, to add composite ratings at the time of purchase). The second you modify these weapons in any way, they no longer match the weapon on your chronicle sheet and thus are no longer legal for play.

I'm not saying I'm right or wrong, I'm just saying that's how I interpret this situation considering the fact that the boon isn't worded in a way that says these two weapons are now legal for your character to use in PFS (which is the usual wording in situations like this).

I did go skim the GM Discussion thread and there was no definitive answer from Paizo listed there, either. It sounds like the general guidelines were:

--You have to buy the weapon(s) as is.
--Most people think that it's perfectly fine to improve upon the item beyond as it appears on the chronicle sheet
--There's some question whether other magical items can utilize access to these weapons (there is a discussion of getting the weapon proficiency via ioun stone).

[Ferious Thune]

You’ll have noticed I’m part of those conversations, then. And that’s how I ended up where i am. You have to buy those specific weapons, but from there you follow the normal rules for upgrading. Since they are not named magic items, there are no restrictions on upgrading.

I’m still unsure on the Ioun Stone issue. I’m not going to deny it as a GM, but I don’t know if I’ll purchase it myself. The character who has the bow spent the prestige to retrain per the boon. The character who would use the axe probably won’t get to a level he can afford it anytime soon, if ever.