Advice on how to make firearms more common

[Green Eyed Liar]

I feel like I remember that way back in 1e Firearms could be declared as readily available by the GM, and this would basically make them available to all characters. Is there a similar rule in Pathfinder 2e? If there is, I have missed it, and I really want to allow the guns.

If there is no such rule, would it be game breaking if I declared all Uncommon Firearms to be Common? Or, if I Simple and Martial weapon proficiencies to also grant access to Firearms with the appropriate tags?

My game is set in Ustalav, and I love the idea of allowing the PCs to carry guns.

[Squark]

Rarity is entirely the purvue of the GM. If you want an item to be available in large quantities, it can be.

[BotBrain]

Nope, no balance issues at all. Guns aren't balanced to be any stronger than the next weapon of their tier.

Also, simple and martial profiencies already give profiency in those firearms. There's no seperate firearm profiency.

So to make firearms more common it is as simple as telling your players to treat any firearm as though they are common!

[Ascalaphus]

Yeah especially in Ustalav it makes sense, it's a fairly tech savvy country. I rather like the aesthetic of guns vs. undead; the new vs. the age-old threats.

[Tridus]

Firearms are uncommon, so they're available if the GM says they are. Say they're available and you're done. They're just normal weapons otherwise, there's no special proficiencies or anything unless you want to craft ammunition, in which case you need Alchemical Crafting.

[Finoan]

Yeah, the rule isn't specific to firearms, it is a general rule called Rarity. Everything has a rarity trait - if it isn't listed, then it is 'Common' and is always available. 'Uncommon' is for things that are not thematic for every campaign or may trivialize certain types of challenges. 'Rare' is for things that may need more than normal amounts of GM adjudication to make them work in all of the edge cases or for things that may be a bit of a balance problem in certain circumstances. 'Unique' is for individual creatures or items that are built for a specific purpose in a particular campaign.

The GM should work with the players to decide which of the non-Common items and abilities a character or campaign should have.

For myself, I generally allow most Uncommon things as long as there is some sort of thematic reason why the character should have it. Rare they are going to have to make a better case for.

Note that rarity is separate from proficiency. Rarity determines if the character can encounter the item in the game world. Proficiency determines if they can use it effectively. A Martial proficiency firearm is still a Martial proficiency weapon. Any character that has the rarity access to the item will determine whether they can use it based on their class's weapon proficiency ratings.

Also note that some Common rarity choices give Uncommon abilities. The one that comes to mind to me first is focus spells. Many classes give focus spells by default and nearly all focus spells are tagged with Uncommon rarity. The player shouldn't need to ask for GM permission to actually get the thing that the Common build option says that they get.

[Zoken44]

One thing I like about the game is that Rarity is not about power. Mechanical power is very carefully balanced across most things. Rarity is about how it fits certain settings and campaigns. the more rare it is the more likely it is to not fit most general campaigns. to be a 13th Warrior, if you know the reference. Which is why the only gate on Rare items is regional and DM fiat. as long as the DM says it's okay for their campaign, you are good to go.

If you are looking for in Lore reasons to make fire arms more common, a decorated scholar has been working with a team to recreate the amazing devices that have trickled out of the Alkenstar Duchy, and a major break through was recently made.

[Dragonchess Player]

Zoken44 wrote:

If you are looking for in Lore reasons to make fire arms more common, a decorated scholar has been working with a team to recreate the amazing devices that have trickled out of the Alkenstar Duchy, and a major break through was recently made.

As mentioned, the Uncommon and Rare tags are mostly just an indication that it might not suit every campaign or that not every character should have access automatically (such as the clan dagger for dwarves, curve blade for elves, hooked hammer for gnomes, etc.).

As far as Golarion-specific lore to "allow" firearms in Ustalav, note that Stasian tech is smuggled out of Irissen to Ustalav. Queen Anastasia also has guards from Russia with c. 1917-1918 firearms, so it could also make sense for some of the "more primitive" Earth firearms (equivalent to some of the "basic" ones from Alkenstar, such as coat pistol, flintlock musket or pistol, arquebus, blunderbuss, dueling pistol, etc.) to be smuggled as well.

[Red Griffyn]

Paizo's assigned rarity is explicitly about availability/frequency of occurence in the context of Golarion's Inner Sea Region around the main city of Absalom. In any other part of Golarion, a slight homebrew of Golarion, or custom setting rarity for any option is what the GM declares it to be. In the rarity rules, there is an example of how Katana's are uncommon in the inner sea region of Golarion BUT would be common in Tian Xia (i.e., the other big continent on the planet). So while guns may be uncommon in the inner sea region around Absalom if you were to play Paizo's primary setting cannonically, there is nothing stopping a GM from adjusting that to support a gunslinger player or add themes/items they want.

If you want a mild canonical variation reason why they might be common, these are a few off the top of my head:

- Alkenstar Factories scale up and mass produce weapons.
- Numeria technology advancements from crashed alien ships leads to more widespread technology deployment/market penetration
- Perhaps the invention of guns was initiated earlier in the timeline by Aroden and spread across the continent by one of the many Taldoran exploratory campaigns that effectively conquered most of the inner sea region for Taldor/humanity.
- Maybe as part of selling their souls to Asmodeus, Cheliax also snuck into the deal full manufacturing lines/engineering for guns to give them a competitive advantage over their neighbours to secure their borders. But they weren't able to keep a lid on the designs and so the stolen designs have leaked to surrounding areas.
- Maybe Baba Yaga, as someone that came from Earth/Russia brought some soldiers/arms into Golarion that became a prolific design.

In general, paizo shouldn't, but does sometimes use Rare/Unique rarities to GM lock specific themes (e.g., teleportation spells, necromancy to raise undead, etc.) because those specific themes do not necessarily play well in any setting for every GM. These things aren't about power, although many rare/unique options can help to solve specific problem sets (e.g., teleportation vs. travel or environmental hazards).

In terms of rare/unique options, many of these do come from adventure paths/modules that get less game designer oversight (vs. major setting or rules books) and are more likely to pass something that is not balanced or got somehow changed on an editorial pass that ends up making it mechanically stronger or weaker than the baseline. I wouldn't worry too much about rarity translating to power as in 99% cases it doesn't and historically the worst offenders are well known in the community and/or have already been errata'd. I let most rare items into my games and haven't had any significant issue, and it can often be a decent sidequest plot hook for the party to explore.

If you're worried about balance there is an easy 'test'. Do a reddit/paizo forum search for the item and no one has talked about it, it is likely not overpowered. If it is from a lost omens setting/main rule book, it is likely perfectly fine. If its from a campaign/adventure path/module/etc. give it a second glance.