Choose a group of martial weapons. You understand how to use that type of martial weapon in combat.

Prerequisites
Simple Weapon Proficiency

Benefit
You make attack rolls with any weapon from the selected group normally (without the non-proficient penalty). You may select any one of the following groups:

Axes: battleaxe, great axe, hand axe, heavy pick, light pick, throwing axe

Bows: longbow, shortbow

Close: sap, starknife, spiked armor*, spiked heavy shield*, spiked light shield*

Flails and Hammers: flail, great club, heavy flail, light hammer, war hammer

Poles and Spears: glaive, guisarme, halberd, lance, ranseur, scythe

Swords: falchion, great sword, kukri, long sword, rapier, scimitar, short sword

*You must also be proficient in the type of armor or shield to use the spikes.

Normal
When using a weapon with which you are not proficient, you take a -4 penalty on attack rolls.

Special
Barbarians, fighters, paladins, and rangers are proficient with all martial weapons. They need not select this feat.

You can gain Martial Weapon Proficiency multiple times. Each time you take the feat, it applies to a new group of weapons. Weapons can be added to these groups or new groups can be created at the GM's discretion.

Author's Note: I always thought the way getting new weapon proficiencies worked was weird. Martial weapon proficiency only granted one weapon - it seemed odd to me that one could learn how to use a longsword but be completely inept with a scimitar, for example. Another thing that bothered me is how one could get one exotic weapon for the same price as one martial weapon, making the martial wepaon proficiency feat kind of a waste. This way, it doesn't provide the benefit that a level in a warrior class does, but it gives you a little more versatility, and it's a bit more worth taking. I did add Simple Weapons Proficiency as a prerequisite to balance it out a bit, and give more of a sense of progression.

Additional Ratings
Balance:	1 2 3 4 5 ( 10 Votes )
Utility:	1 2 3 4 5 ( 10 Votes )
Clarity:	1 2 3 4 5 ( 9 Votes )