APG Focus Spells unavailable in PFS


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Unless I'm missing something, ALL of the Advanced Players Guide focus spells are uncommon and therefore not useable in PFS.

While this MAY be intentional for the monk, bard etc it pretty much CAN NOT be intentional for the witch and oracle.

So, please tell me that I missed something somewhere.

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I don't have my book in front of my right now, but from what I recall.

A) They are all uncommon.
B) They are all listed as standard availability according to the sanctioning doc.
C) The feats that grant the focus spells are NOT uncommon.

Therefore choosing the feat that grants the spell grants access. Combined with them being listed as standard availability, means everything is all right.

Silver Crusade 5/5 5/5 **

That is rather precise rules lawyering (although I'll take it :-)).

But in that case, I HAVE to ask what the heck the point was in making them uncommon in the first place?

[Pedantic mode] I completely accept that you're right on the intent as it is the only thing that makes sense. But I see absolutely no words that show how that interpretation applies to Focus Spells (which are NOT gained by feats in the case of the Oracle) but dies NOT apply to normal spells [/pedantic mode]

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The point in making them uncommon was ensuring you ONLY get access to them through the feat that grants them. Not through Learn a Spell, not through things that say any common spell, etc The designers do not want people cherry-picking focus spells without having access to the feats (which also implies access through the class/multi-class dedications).

I would hesitate to consider this as rules-lawyering -- its a key/fundamental bit of how rarity, access, and availability work in PFS2.

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Basically, focus spells )like the cantrip Inspire Courage) are some of the most awesome and flavorful in PF2. To keep them special to the classes who get them, they're uncommon. If you have the right class / archetype and gain access, they're available to you.

Hmm

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Oracle and witch both grant the focus spells through class features (and then through class feats that allow picking an extra item from the list), so you still have uncommon spells that you gain access to through your class.

Looking at non-focus spells, we have some uncommon spells that there are no in-game access paths to, but PFS has given access to some via the ACP exclusive/esoteric/whichever word they chose boon.

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Eric Nielsen wrote:

Oracle and witch both grant the focus spells through class features (and then through class feats that allow picking an extra item from the list), so you still have uncommon spells that you gain access to through your class.

.

As I said, the following is my just being pedantic. I am TOTALLY accepting that is what Paizo thinks that it has said and that therefore IS the ruling in PFS. No need to convince me of that.

And I completely agree with the rationale for keeping Focus spells as limited to the class or by archetype.

But in what conceivable way do the written words differentiate the Oracle getting access, via a class feature, to the Uncommon spell Life Link (legal) and NOT getting access, via a class feature, to the Uncommon spell Ghostly Tragedy?

For the record, when I first posted this, I was NOT trying to be pedantic. I thought that Paizo had made an oopsie and had accidentally made the Oracle Revelations not accessible in PFS. I still think that their words mean that EITHER both Life Link and Ghostly Tragedy are accessible OR they both are inaccessible. I think both readings are plausible. But, again unless I'm missing something, I find it impossible to read the words in such a way as to make Life Link PFS legal and Ghostly Tragedy PFS illegal (without an additional source).

But I'm being pedantic because I'm trying to put off doing some house cleaning :-). So I'll shut up now and go clean the kitchen :-) :-)

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With those examples:

Life link is an initial revelation spell.

Under reading a Mystery Entry:
"Revelation Spells You automatically gain your mystery’s initial
revelation spell at 1st level and can gain more by selecting the
Advanced Revelation, Greater Revelation, and Diverse Mystery
oracle feats. These spells appear starting on page 229."

Ghostly Tragedy is not listed as being granted by any class feature I can find. So I think that's the difference.


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All of the focus spells in the Core Rulebook are uncommon, too.

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pauljathome wrote:
That is rather precise rules lawyering (although I'll take it :-)).

This isn't rules lawyering, it's rules reading. All Focus Spells are Uncommon, and access to all of them is granted by specific Class and Archetype options, because that's how Uncommon options and Access funtions. That's how the game has worked since day one.

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Uncommon means cannot pick freely, unfortunately this covers numerous different situations and causes confusion.

Sometimes that means ask your GM (or buy a boon in PFS) like Uncommon ancestries.

Other times it means only get when you choose a specific feature (most Focus Spells)

Other times it means spend a feat to access (most uncommon weapons)

Other times it means be from a specific region/belong to a specific group (most Uncommon archetypes, maybe some weapons some of the time?)

Other times it means this element could be disruptive to certain storytelling ask your GM (unavailable in PFS or maybe purchasable via boon)

There are also weird bits that don't fit nicely into their broader category.

---

Ghostly Tragedy, like most mystery solving divinations is listed as uncommon so that GMs could run mysteries without having to do all the work required to prevent spells like that from solving the mystery too easily. (Although Ghostly Tragedy does it in a really cool way, that avoids some of the most problematic mystery side stepping bits)

At the moment there's no way to access it in PFS, but that could change. It could show up on a chronicle sheet (although maybe we're not doing that any more??) or be purchasable by a future AcP boon.

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