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I posted this on Reddit and was encouraged to bring it up here, so figured I'd give it a go.
This is kindof a complicated question so I'll try to explain everything as concisely as possible.
The Halfling and Orc weapon familiarity feats are worded as "For you martial [ancestry] weapons ARE simple weapons and advanced [ancestry] weapons ARE martial weapons.
Every other ancestry weapon familiarity is worded as "For the purpose of determining your proficiency, martial [ancestry] weapons are simple weapons and advanced [ancestry] weapons are martial weapons.
There may be other situations where this could come into play, but the biggest instance of inconsistency that pops into my mind is Ruffian Racket Rogues. Per these rules, a Half Orc with feat could get backstab damage with Orc Knuckle daggers, because for him they are a simple weapon. However, a Goblin with feat could not get backstab damage with a Horsechopper, because it's only a simple weapon for proficiency purposes.
My question is has it been clarified if these wording differences were intentional, or if all the familiarities were supposed to work in one way or the other? This is also going to factor in more as they release more ancestries/ancestry weapons going forward.
Thanks to anybody who may be able to shed light on this, if there's something I'm missing.
I noticed this on day one and worked out if you changed the wording on Half-Orc and Halfing to the same as every other ancestry then it wouldn’t make a difference with the current weapon options. The Orc Knuckle Daggers for instance are agile so you can use them for sneak attack already, so getting treated as simple in terms of proficiency allows you to wield them just as well as them being straight up simple weapons.
Where as if you went the other way and made all the other ancestries work like Half-Orc and Halfing you suddenly get a lot more ruffian options. The Horsehopper being one such increasingly powerful upgrade. So it’s probably not going to be done this way.
Ruffians only get their crit specialization with simple weapons, not any agile/finesse, which I assume is what Dustpan refers to.
So a Half Orc with a Knuckle Dagger would get it.
But a Goblin with a Dogslicer would not.
This does seem like an inconsistency that doesn't make much sense.
Edit : I misread the OP.
The goblin treating the Horsechopper as a Simple for proficiency and a Martial for everything else does mean that he won't be able to SA with it : ruffians only get to sneak attack with non-finesse/agile simple weapons, the Horsechopper is not one...despite using simple proficiency.
Gnome Hooked Hammer is the same, too.
If Orcs had a martial, non-finesse, non-agile weapon however, they could use it. Say if their Skull Ram makes a come back later on.
I'd say it's not a huge deal right now, but for future-proofing purposes I feel consistency would be a good thing.
My other point still stands though.
I'd say it's not a huge deal right now, but for future-proofing purposes I feel consistency would be a good thing.
This is what I was considering mainly, we'll have 3 more ancestry options coming soon, and it would be good to know the proper way it's supposed to work.