Tight Weapon 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 for Warriors, -3 for Priests & Rogues, and -5 for Wizards.   Following are several examples of Tight Groups. Any weapon marked with an asterisk ( * ) is a weapon described in The Complete Fighters 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/StiIetto *
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
Fauchard-fork
Glaive
Glajve-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
  Sickles:
Sickle
Scythe
  Slings:
Sling
Staff Sling
  Spears:
Harpoon
Javelin
Long Spear*
Spear
Trident
  Whips:
Scourge
Whip
  There's a little overlap between the Fencing Blades and Short Blades group; some weapons are common to both groups.   Some groups also 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 other weapons related to those groups are developed or introduced. 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.

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