Acquiring Proficiencies (Player’s Handbook)

Acquiring Proficiencies (Player’s Handbook)

Acquiring Proficiencies (Player’s Handbook)





Acquiring Proficiencies


Even newly created, 1st-level characters have proficiencies. The number of
proficiency slots that a character starts with is determined by his group, as
shown in
Table 34. Each proficiency slot is empty until the player “fills” it by selecting a
proficiency. If your DM allows nonweapon proficiencies, the character’s
Intelligence score can modify the number of slots he has, granting him more proficiencies
(see
Table 4). In both cases, new proficiencies are learned the same way.


Consider the case of Rath, a dwarf fighter.
Table 34 gives him four weapon proficiency slots (he is a warrior). If nonweapon
proficiencies are used, he has three slots and his Intelligence of 11 gives him two
additional proficiency slots (according to
Table 4) for a total of five nonweapon proficiency slots. The player must assign
weapon or nonweapon proficiencies to all of these slots before the character goes
on his first adventure. These represent what the character has learned before
beginning his adventuring career.


Thereafter, as the character advances in experience levels, he gains
additional proficiency slots. The rate at which he gains them depends on the group he
belongs to.
Table 34 lists how many weapon and nonweapon proficiency slots the character starts
with, and how many levels the character must gain before he earns another slot.


Initial Weapon Proficiencies is the number of weapon proficiency slots received by characters of that group
at 1st level.


# Levels (for both weapon and nonweapon proficiencies) tells how quickly a character
gains additional proficiency slots. A new proficiency slot is gained at every
experience level that is evenly divisible by the number listed. Rath (a warrior),
for example, gains one weapon proficiency slot at every level evenly divisible
by 3. He gets one new slot at 3rd level, another at 6th, another at 9th, and so
on. (Note that Rath also gains one nonweapon proficiency at 3rd, 6th, 9th,
etc.)


Penalty is the modifier to the character’s attack rolls when he fights using a weapon
he is not proficient with. Rath, a dwarf, chose to be proficient with the
warhammer. Finding himself in a desperate situation, he snatches up a flail, even
though he knows little about it (he is not proficient with it). Using with
weapon awkwardly, he has a -2 penalty to his chance to hit.


Initial Nonweapon Proficiencies is the number of nonweapon proficiency slots that character has at 1st level.
Even if you are playing with weapon proficiencies, nonweapon proficiencies are
optional.




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