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I've played every scenario through 1-22 (currently on 1-23) and none of them grant access to those.
Thanks Nefreet.
I will give up on getting protection for Rufous, despite the fact that there is no spell better suited for his character.
I must admit that I'm feeling frustrated by this. Protection seems like such a classic spell, especially for divine casters. I would be no more surprised if Paizo had made magic missile an uncommon spell and PFS had no great avenue to unlock it.
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Ok, so I did misunderstand that about items. Thank you.
I know that the common/uncommon thing is not a Society rule. My questions are more about how it is implemented in Society.
In a home game, a good GM would ask players for a list of uncommon items/spells/formulas/etc. that they would like to eventually gain access to. PFS doesn't have that for obvious reasons. I just had hoped that access to some of these iconic spells would be easier than "play a bunch of scenarios and hope that one of them eventually has the spell you want, AND you happened to play it with the correct character."
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As people tend to mention, uncommon covers at least three different types of rarity -- 'regional/world level rarity', 'things that can heavily impact types of stories'. Spells have a third cateogry as well -- 'focus spells for a class'.
I don't think we'll ever see a way to grab another class's focus spell on a chronicle.
For the first two types, the spells that have been printed so far, skew more towards the second bucket than the first. Most things are uncommon if they a) invalidate travel (teleports), b) short-circuit investigations (scrying/divintion), c) deal with the alignment-system too much (making it easier for people to remove alignment if they want).
The regional/world rarity type of things I would expect to see appear on chronicles from time to time, we just don't have a lot of examples published in that category for them to pull from. For the 'game-changing spells' I don't think they'd add my a) or b). They might add c).
Some of the 'Power Word' line of spells feel like they might be the 'uncommon in the world' type of rarity rather than the 'warning to the GM this breaks types of stories', so I think I could envision them showing up on a chronicle at some point. But from my quick scan I wasn't seeing others that felt fit that bucket.
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As people tend to mention, uncommon covers at least three different types of rarity -- 'regional/world level rarity', 'things that can heavily impact types of stories'. Spells have a third cateogry as well -- 'focus spells for a class'.
I don't think we'll ever see a way to grab another class's focus spell on a chronicle.
For the first two types, the spells that have been printed so far, skew more towards the second bucket than the first. Most things are uncommon if they a) invalidate travel (teleports), b) short-circuit investigations (scrying/divintion), c) deal with the alignment-system too much (making it easier for people to remove alignment if they want).
The regional/world rarity type of things I would expect to see appear on chronicles from time to time, we just don't have a lot of examples published in that category for them to pull from. For the 'game-changing spells' I don't think they'd add my a) or b). They might add c).
Some of the 'Power Word' line of spells feel like they might be the 'uncommon in the world' type of rarity rather than the 'warning to the GM this breaks types of stories', so I think I could envision them showing up on a chronicle at some point. But from my quick scan I wasn't seeing others that felt fit that bucket.
I'm not here to debate the wisdom of the choices for which spells are uncommon/rare. I wanted to know how to access uncommon spells. I got my answer: you basically can't.
I'm disappointed, and I like PFS less for it, but it is what it is.
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Honestly, if you really go look at the list of uncommon spells it makes a lot of sense.
As Eric said, the majority of the uncommon spells break or bypass narratives. They give you things like the ability to teleport right past story, or use a quick casting divination to solve the mystery of a plot.
They're really hard to write a narrative around and limit what GMs (or authors in PFS's case) can do. By limiting access to them it opens up a world of additional story options for scenarios in PFS. And if you consider that you might like PFS more because that can make the games you play in much more interesting.
And as Nefreet said, we don't even know what uncommon spells are going to be accessible.
I've found there hasn't been a single spell I looked at and decided I really wanted that wasn't common. Unless you're super into divination magic, I think you'll find it's pretty rare for yourself as well.
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Honestly, if you really go look at the list of uncommon spells it makes a lot of sense.
As Eric said, the majority of the uncommon spells break or bypass narratives. They give you things like the ability to teleport right past story, or use a quick casting divination to solve the mystery of a plot.
They're really hard to write a narrative around and limit what GMs (or authors in PFS's case) can do. By limiting access to them it opens up a world of additional story options for scenarios in PFS. And if you consider that you might like PFS more because that can make the games you play in much more interesting.
And as Nefreet said, we don't even know what uncommon spells are going to be accessible.
I've found there hasn't been a single spell I looked at and decided I really wanted that wasn't common. Unless you're super into divination magic, I think you'll find it's pretty rare for yourself as well.
Again, my disappointment is NOT which spells are listed as uncommon. It is that accessing them is difficult in PFS.
However, since I'm being pressed on this: Yes, I like the divination spells. The diviner is a legit archetype in fantasy RPGs. I have a harrower character in PFS1. I'd like to make a harrower for PFS2, and currently that is difficult to impossible.
But that isn't even what started the thought-train for me. It is the spell protection. That spell does not fall into any of the categories that Eric has diligently explained.
I'm totally bored of this conversation. I came to ask how I can gain access to uncommon spells. That question has been answered ("You can't"). I have accepted that answer. Please stop telling me why I should not be disappointed -- or worse, that I should be happy about it.
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I would be surprised if protection showed up on a Chronicle. I would definitely expect it on the curated spells you can gain by AcP. However, I could easily be wrong.
Some niche Uncommon or Rare spell might show up on a Chronicle, but anything ubiquitously useful would generate significant Chronicle fishing. Where placing an AcP cost on a ubiquitously useful spell would allow anyone to access it after a certain amount of game investment.
A point to note about AcP curated spells or other things is that you don't need to accumulate the AcP on the character accessing the spell/thing. For example, if you've been playing a Rogue for 5 scenarios and then decide to make a spellcaster and the level 1 spell you wanted is AcP-locked, you can probably buy it already.
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More importantly, circle of protection is also on that list and, when hightened to level 4, lasts for an hour.
Yeah, I have to decide which of those two my multiclass Bard wants to learn; only knowing one spell per level makes it a tough choice.
I suspect I will pay up, AcP-wise, and get my Wizard both.