Weapon Groups

As noted in previous chapters, weapons can be classified into tight and broad groups. All weapons in a tight group are considered to be related to one another; a character proficient in one automatically has familiarity with the rest. Note that a weapon proficiency includes stone or bone versions of the same weapon.

In the listing below, broad groups are noted under the red bold type, and tight groups are in italics.

Axes, Picks, and Hammers

Axes: battle axe, hand/throwing axe, hatchet, two-handed axe, sword-axe, mace-axe

Picks: horseman’s pick, footman’s pick, pick

Hammers: warhammer, maul, sledge

Unrelated: adze

Bows: short bow, composite short bow, long bow, composite long bow

Clubs, Maces, and Flails

Maces: footman’s mace, horseman’s mace, mace-axe

Clubs: club, great club, war club, ankus, morning star

Flails: horseman’s flail, footman’s flail

Crossbows: hand crossbow, light crossbow, heavy crossbow, pellet bow, cho-ku-no

Daggers & Knives: dagger, stiletto, jambiya, main-gauche, parrying dagger, knife, katar

Lances: Light, medium, heavy, jousting

Polearms

Spear-like polearms: awl pike, partisan, ranseur, spetum

Poleaxes: bardiche, halberd, voulge

Bills: bill, bill-guisarme, glaive-guisarme, guisarme-voulge, hook fauchard

Glaives: glaive, fauchard, naginata, nagimaki, fauchard-fork

Beaked: bec de corbin, lucern hammer

Unrelated: military fork, tetsubo, lajatang

Spears & Javelins

Spears: spear, long spear, awl pike

Javelins: javelin, pilum, dart

Unrelated: harpoon, trident, brandistock

Swords

Ancient: broadsword, sapara, khopesh, sword-axe, short sword

Roman: broadsword, drusus, gladius, spatha

Middle Eastern: short sword, scimitar, great scimitar, tulwar

Oriental: cutlass, katana, wakizashi, no-dachi, ninja-to

Short: short sword, gladius, drusus, sapara, dagger, tulwar

Medium: broadsword, long sword, cutlass, sabre, falchion, estoc

Large: bastard sword, claymore, two-handed sword, great scimitar, no-dachi

Fencing weapons: rapier, sabre, main-gauche, parrying dagger

Chain & Rope Weapons: chain, kau sin ke, kusari-gama, kawanaga, chijikiri

Martial Arts Weapons: sai, jitte, nunchaku, sang kauw, three-piece rod, bo stick

Firearms

Hand match weapons: arquebus, hand gunne

Matchlocks: arquebus, caliver, musket

Wheellocks: arquebus, belt pistol, horse pistol

Snaplocks and Flintlocks: musket, belt pistol, horse pistol

If a weapon does not appear in the preceding listings, it belongs to no weapon group. For example, weapons such as the bolas, the boomerang, or the mancatcher are so unique in their employment that nothing even comes close to being similar.

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