Weapon proficiency as skill points

[Gnomik]

I am thinking of changing the weapon proficiency mechanism to be more similar to skills. this will also affect the weapon proficiency feats.
I've found a few things around, but nothing complete and here's what i have so far. any comments are welcome:

1. characters will receive weapon proficiency points, similar to skill points. not sure about that mechanism yet (how many that is)
2. each weapon will have three levels of proficiency: simple, martial, exotic (requires adding to all weapons, it's a lot of work). at level one, a character can put a skill point in *any* weapon, but will have only basic training)
the difference between the skill levels can be damage, crit threat, crit multiplier, hands needed , and other effects like brace, trip etc.
for example a bastard sword will be two handed if your proficiency is simple or martial, but one handed once you've reached exotic, and the damage will also vary between the skill levelss
3. using a weapon with no proficiency causes a (-4) to hit (as is by the rules), and the damage will be basic
4. skill points will be allocated to the different weapons, one point will get you to "basic" proficiency
5. like in skills, you cannot allocate more skill ranks than your level
6. rising in skills in multiplications of 4, meaning martial at 4 and exotic at 16 (no point in putting more than 16 points in a single weapon)
7. weapon familiarity given +3 (like class skill)
8. fighters receive +3 to all weapons, other martial classes get +1/+2 (not sure on that yet)
9. weapon feats also change, so for example "weapon focus" not only gives +1 to hit, but also +3 skill in that weapon

[Sellsword2587]

Gnomik wrote:

2. each weapon will have three levels of proficiency: simple, martial, exotic (requires adding to all weapons, it's a lot of work). at level one, a character can put a skill point in *any* weapon, but will have only basic training)
the difference between the skill levels can be damage, crit threat, crit multiplier, hands needed , and other effects like brace, trip etc.
for example a bastard sword will be two handed if your proficiency is simple or martial, but one handed once you've reached exotic, and the damage will also vary between the skill levelss

Kirth Gersen's "Kirthfinder" houseruled system already did a lot of this legwork for you. Each of his weapons have a simple, martial, and exotic version, so it might help with your efforts.

If you'd like a copy of his equipment section, just PM me your email address.

Otherwise, it's an interesting idea, but I think you might be over-complicating it by matching too closely to the PF skill system. Having all of the points that you suggest just doesn't make a whole lot of sense, especially because you want to stop at 16 max points in a weapon. Also, the "weapon familiarity bonus" you suggest is unclear and seems moot. +3 to what, attack rolls? That would be too powerful.

I'd base your weapon prof points off of BAB, 1 pt per 2 BAB or something, with all characters getting a few starting points at 1st level (like 2-3; maybe fighters get 5 to start). This gets you 10 + starting points for fast BAB classes, 7 + starting for medium BAB classes, and 5 + starting for slow BAB classes, by 20th level. That will get you roughly 5-6, 3-4, or 2-3 exotic proficiencies, respectively, by 20th level (because everyone has simple proficiency, and then it only takes 2 more points per weapon to get to exotic). Likewise, it could give you martial proficiency is twice as many weapons.

Alternatively, and what I'd recommend, weapon proficiency points could apply to weapon groups instead of individual weapons. There is something like 15-16 weapon groups in Pathfinder currently, and having martial or exotic proficiency in say a longsword, which is a heavy blade, but only having simple proficiency in say a scimitar (also a heavy blade) doesn't make complete sense, at least not for a fighter. OR you could rule that weapon proficiency points apply to a weapon group until you want to apply exotic prof. to that group, which at that time you must instead choose a specific weapon.

Then, I'd also give fighters an ability like this (and/or make it a feat):

Weapon Aptitude (Ex): At X level, the fighter’s penalty for wielding a broken, improvised, non-proficient, or wrongly-sized weapon are halved.

Anyhow, good luck on your house rule. I hope my feedback/ideas can be of aid to you.

[DungeonmasterCal]

I've toyed with an idea similar to this, but decided it'd be far too much work for a group that would never implement it.