...out of luck unless the GM decides to throw them a bone in saying they can actually acquire the weapons of their people.That's you misunderstanding the text describing how uncommon elements can be acquired. Elf weapons are available in elf settlements, and if your GM says otherwise that's them ruling differently than the book does.
Sure, if you happen to be in an Elf settlement (and the GM agrees to loosen the Uncommon restriction because of that, which keep in mind they can just as easily say no, you can't in fact find this traditional Elven weapon in the Elven homeland unless you took the feat) you're golden. Here's the thing though, Elves leave Elf settlements. But unless you've taken a specific feat or your GM decides to throw you that bone, you can't have taken a Curve Blade with you when you did. And even if you spent the last century living among other elves, if you didn't take that feat you don't have the foggiest clue how to get one unless you make a side trip to Kyonin or something. And given how many people in this very thread are arguing that having Access just means you can spend downtime traveling to somewhere (including, if I'm not mistaken, the idea of traveling to Elven lands) to get one, that implies that possibly not even then. I guess Elves just have a really strict Customs department or something?
And then there's items like Throwing Knives, Scorpion Whips, and Alchemical Crossbows (and other stuff, like a slew of archetypes and such) that are Uncommon because...?The weapons you've listed are uncommon because they are "better" in certain ways so a GM might not want to have them be commonly available. Archetypes getting marked as uncommon helps illustrate that not just anyone anywhere on the world picking up the specialized training of, for example, a particular jungle-dwelling sect of mages makes sense, and encourages players to look at mechanical options as also being things with a narrative behind them.
Emphasis mine.
A specific jungle-dwelling sect of mages, sure. But you know what else is Uncommon tagged? Juggling. Both the Skill Feat and the Archetype that focuses on it. It, much like throwing knives (which you say are better, but compared to a standard dagger it costs 50 percent more and only has 1 damage type instead of 2, and in exchange can be thrown as far a most thrown weapons already manage and gets +1 damage per die on the attacks already less likely to hit. Doesn't seem that much stronger), is on the list of things introduced in Extinction Curse, which I can see no actual reason for it to be listed as such other than, as mentioned, it was introduced in an AP.
As for the bit about "encourages players to look at mechanical options as also being things with a narrative behind them" it doesn't matter how much narrative you put behind something if your GM just decides not to let you pick up that option, because it has the Uncommon tag, no built in Access, and they don't feel like writing in a side-quest so you can find someone to teach the apparently rare skill of juggling.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
So in the context of Extinction Curse, here's how you get access to juggling:
"My character ran away to join the circus to be a juggler, I've got juggling lore and everything- can I take the archetype?"
-or-
"My character joined the circus to avoid the attention of the authorities, but they're really quick with their hands so can they follow some jugglers around to learn their craft to fit in with the circus better?"
If we're talking about a campaign that has absolutely nothing to do with juggling, it does merit questioning stuff like "where exactly did your character find time to learn to juggle given they've been running away from demons in the jungle for the past few weeks."
If we're talking about a campaign that has absolutely nothing to do with juggling, it does merit questioning stuff like "where exactly did your character find time to learn to juggle given they've been running away from demons in the jungle for the past few weeks."
How does that follow? The past few weeks spent fleeing demons prior to the start of gameplay isn't the character's entire backstory. If we go that route, we might as well ask "Where exactly did your character find time to learn to cast arcane spells as a Wizard given they've been running away from demons in the jungle for the past few weeks?" Or "unlock the secrets of alchemy" or "get ordained into the priesthood" or any other class with an "instructed" background.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Juggling being uncommon seems more like a "adventurers who juggle their way to victory in combat don't jive well with all types of adventures"-uncommon.
Normal juggling doesn't exactly require feats or anything either - just a performance check.
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
Remember, when attacked by a troop of clowns, go for the juggler!