Tight Groups

A Tight Weapons Group consists of a set of weapons that are very similar in the way they are wielded.

It costs two Weapon Proficiency Slots to become proficient in an entire tight group. After paying those two slots, the character will know how to use every weapon in that group without the usual –2 penalty for unfamiliarity (that –2 is for Warriors; with other classes, the penalty is more severe, as described on page 52 in the Player's Handbook).

Following are several examples of Tight Groups. Any weapon marked with an asterisk (*) is a weapon described in The Complete Fighter's Handbook, in the Equipment chapter.

Axes:

Battle axe,

Hand/throwing axe.

Bows:

Composite long bow,

Composite short bow,

Daikyu*,

Long bow,

Short bow.

Clubbing Weapons:

Belaying pin*,

Club,

Footman's mace,

Horseman's mace,

Morning star,

Warhammer.

Crossbows:

Hand crossbow,

Heavy crossbow,

Light crossbow.

Fencing Blades:

Dagger/Dirk,

Knife/Stiletto*,

Main-gauche*,

Rapier*,

Sabre*.

Flails:

Footman's flail,

Horseman's flail.

Lances:

Heavy horse lance,

Light horse lance,

Jousting lance,

Medium horse lance.

Long Blades:

Bastard sword,

Katana*,

Long sword,

Scimitar,

Two-handed sword.

Medium Blades:

Cutlass*,

Khopesh,

Wakizashi*.

Picks:

Footman's pick,

Horseman's pick.

Polearms:

Awl pike,

Bardiche,

Bec de corbin,

Bill-guisarme,

Fauchard,

Fauchard-fork,

Glaive,

Glaive-guisarme,

Guisarme,

Guisarme-voulge,

Halberd,

Hook fauchard,

Lucern hammer,

Mancatcher,

Military fork,

Naginata*,

Partisan,

Ranseur,

Spetum,

Tetsubo*,

Voulge.

Short Blades:

Dagger/Dirk,

Knife/Stiletto*,

Main-gauche*,

Short sword/Drusus*.

Slings:

Sling,

Staff Sling.

Spears:

Harpoon,

Javelin,

Long Spear*,

Spear,

Trident.

Whips:

Scourge,

Whip.

You'll notice there's a little overlap between the Fencing Blades and Short Blades group; some weapons are common to both groups.

You'll also notice that some groups don't look like they save you any weapon proficiency slots. The Axes, Flails, Picks, Sickles, Slings, and Whips group all have two weapons each in them. Since a tight group costs two proficiency slots, it appears that there's no savings. Which is true . . . unless, in your campaign, other weapons related to those groups are developed or introduced. If they are—if, for instance, a medium-sized war-axe appears in the campaign—then the character with the group proficiency will be able to use it at no penalty, while the character with proficiency in just the two existing axes will suffer the attack penalty.

These categories are very close to the related weapon groups described from page 52 of the Player’s Handbook, and your DM can, if he wishes, use these categories as related groups. This helps determine whether or not a warrior gets the full attack penalty when he uses a weapon unfamiliar to him, or whether he receives only half the penalty for using one similar to a weapon with which he has proficiency.

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