Has it ever struck you as odd that every single rogue -- be she street-thief or well-to-do gambler -- is trained in the exact same weaponry? How is it that every fighter knows every simple and martial weapon he lays his hands on?

Behold the real Weapon Proficiency!

I'm not sure if we've used this before (last summer) but here's the rundown:

Weapon Proficiencies
Upon your first character level, the number of potential weapon proficiencies you gain is based on your class and your Intelligence. The class represents your training, while your Intelligence represents your natural ability.

Barbarian: 4
Bard: 2
Cleric: 2
Druid: 2
Fighter: 5
Monk: 3
Paladin: 4
Ranger: 4
Rogue: 2
Sorcerer: 1
Wizard: 1

Your intelligence further modifies this number, but only at your first character level:

1-9: -1
10-11: +0
12-19: +1
20-27: +2

The more astute of you may notice that this is similar to the bonus-spell progression for casting classes. This allows an intelligent fighter to have slightly more proficiencies than the dumb-as-rocks fighter with INT 3. Thog, the half-orc barbarian with an Intelligence of 3 has three proficiencies, while Roy, the human fighter with an Intelligence of 16 has six.

This may see some tweaking, and those of you who are creating your own classes will need to decide on how many proficiencies the class gets.

When a character gains a Base Attack Bonus that is a multiple of 3, that character gains a new proficiency. That is, at +3, +6, +9, and so on.

Weapon proficiencies may be chosen from the "class list" of weapons. For fighters, that's "all simple and martial weapons". Your base proficiencies that you gain for being you (for me, it's katana, short sword and club) do not count towards your class-gained proficiencies. You are always considered proficient with all forms of your natural weaponry (that is, for humans, both your STR- and DEX-based unarmed attacks).

This will be revised further when I have more time.