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I find it really frustrating to have to spend an ancestry feat to acquire an ancestral weapon that is supposed to be iconic of my character's people. Spending the feat to change proficiency is perfectly fine, of course, but having to burn an ancestry feat to acquire an elven curve blade that my elven fighter already knows how to use seems antithetical to how the PF2 commonality system is supposed to work. I'm an elf! This is an elven weapon! Why is it so hard for me to get my hands on one?!
(As a sidebar, in my home games, sharing an ancestry trait with a piece of uncommon equipment automatically fulfills the access requirement for that equipment. But that's a home game, not PFS.)
Since the Powers That Be don't seem inclined to change the access system accordingly, though, it seems like the Achievement Boon system might offer a compromise. How about a fairly cheap AcP boon that would give a character access to the uncommon gear of their ancestry? No change to proficiency, so it doesn't step on the toes of the ancestral weapon feats, but this way you don't have to burn one of the three or so ancestry feats your PFS character will ever get to use on just being allowed to buy a thematically-appropriate weapon.
Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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I agree, this would be a welcome change.
As far as I can tell, the intent behind uncommon ancestry weapons is not that you need a feat to even get them. Rather, the point of the feat is to improve proficiencies. The feat also gives you access, but that's just an insurance that "I spent a feat to use this weapon, I can now be 100% sure I can actually get the weapon". It was never meant to be the only or main way to get the weapon.
If you're an elf who spent half a year of downtime in between missions hanging out with his family in the elven homelands, you should be able to pick up a curve blade without needing a feat. Likewise if you're making a fresh new character who's just come from Kyonin, feel free to buy a curve blade.
Uncommon means you can't get it off the shelf in every store, there should be some minor questing or searching involved. AcP boons have been used for similar "roleplaying requirements" like belonging to some organization to get access to an archetype (Secondary Initiation -> Lastwall Sentry). It makes sense to also apply it here.
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For example:
* Accessing a weapon with your own ancestry trait: pretty cheap boon
* Accessing a weapon with an ancestry trait you don't have: more expensive boon
* Uncommon weapon without an ancestry trait: maybe should be assumed to have a "human" trait, just like we don't bother printing "common" traits.
By keeping this nice and generic, it also doesn't require as much updating the next time a new book contains new weapons.
Venture-Lieutenant, Finland—Turku
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spend an ancestry feat to acquire an ancestral weapon
I don't see anything wrong with this. If the game presumed that gnomes always had access to gnome hooked hammers, the rules would say so. Instead, gnomes have a feat that gives them access to the flick mace and hooked hammer.
I think it's a misconception to think that every elf is running around with elven curved blades. They are elven made weapons, sure, but they are still uncommon and aren't widely distributed. Just like bladed scarves are -more- common in varisia, they are still uncommon - it's not like every scarf in there has blades sewn in.
Further, we already have consistent and easy way to access these ancestral weapons: The feat. OR, if you aren't a member of that ancestry, two feats. (Or one if you're human). There's really no reason to make them "more accessible" than they already are, when they are already very easily accessible. That you aren't willing to spend a feat to gain a weapon that is often superior compared to similar weapons, is not a game design issue.
What we would need, though, is a way to gain access to the uncommon weapons that currently can not be accessed -at all- (aside from deity favored weapons), like shears, naginata, wakizashi. I think a reasonable solution would be to pay a few AcP + a feat slot to keep them in line with other uncommon weapon accesses.
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That you aren't willing to spend a feat to gain a weapon that is often superior compared to similar weapons, is not a game design issue.
Disagree with the bolded clause. They are sometimes different with interesting combinations of traits. I would argue that the elven curveblade (two handed, finesse, firceful) is inferior to the rapier (one handed, finesse, and deadly) or glaive (reach, forceful, and deadly). The halfling sling staff is better than a crossbow where it matters (propulsive vs. non-propulsive) and the composite shortbow is far better if more expensive. However, I would argue "superior" should be the realm of Advanced weapons. As more source books are released, I think the designers are beginning to--inappropriately in my opinion--mix the two concepts when it comes to weapons: Uncommon vs. Advanced.
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Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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To an extent, this already exists in the form of "Avid collector" So I don't see this as being an unreasonable boon. I might scale the price based on simple / martial / Advanced were it my decision to make.
Yeah I think it would be good to take Avid Collector as a starting point, but make it more generic so it doesn't need constant manual work to adjust to new books.
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That you aren't willing to spend a feat to gain a weapon that is often superior compared to similar weapons, is not a game design issue.Disagree with the bolded clause. They are sometimes different with interesting combinations of traits. I would argue that the elven curveblade (two handed, finesse, firceful) is inferior to the rapier (one handed, finesse, and deadly) or glaive (reach, forceful, and deadly). The halfling sling staff is better than a crossbow where it matters (propulsive vs. non-propulsive) and the composite shortbow is far better if more expensive. However, I would argue "superior" should be the realm of Advanced weapons. As more source books are released, I think the designers are beginning to--inappropriately in my opinion--mix the two concepts when it comes to weapons: Uncommon vs. Advanced.
Exactly. Better weapons are supposed to be Advanced, not Uncommon. I have zero issue with needing a feat to easily use an Advanced Weapon. But Uncommon Martial and Simple weapons are not supposed to be better than their Common counterparts. If they are, that's an errata issue, not a commonality one. Either way, changing commonality isn't worth a feat on its own.