As noted in previous chapters, weapons can be classified into tight and broad groups. All weapons in a tight group are considered to be related to one another; a character proficient in one automatically has familiarity with the rest. Note that a weapon proficiency includes stone or bone versions of the same weapon.
In the listing below, broad groups are noted under the red bold type, and tight groups are in italics.
Axes, Picks, and Hammers
- Axes: battle axe, hand/throwing axe, hatchet, two-handed axe, sword-axe, mace-axe
- Picks: horseman's pick, footman's pick, pick
- Hammers: warhammer, maul, sledge
- Unrelated: adze
- Bows: short bow, composite short bow, long bow, composite long bow
Clubs, Maces, and Flails
- Maces: footman's mace, horseman's mace, mace-axe
- Clubs: club, great club, war club, ankus, morning star
- Flails: horseman's flail, footman's flail
- Crossbows: hand crossbow, light crossbow, heavy crossbow, pellet bow, cho-ku-no
- Lances: Light, medium, heavy, jousting
- Spear-like polearms: awl pike, partisan, ranseur, spetum
- Poleaxes: bardiche, halberd, voulge
- Bills: bill, bill-guisarme, glaive-guisarme, guisarme-voulge, hook fauchard
- Glaives: glaive, fauchard, naginata, nagimaki, fauchard-fork
- Beaked: bec de corbin, lucern hammer
- Unrelated: military fork, tetsubo, lajatang
Spears & Javelins
- Spears: spear, long spear, awl pike
- Javelins: javelin, pilum, dart
- Unrelated: harpoon, trident, brandistock
- Ancient: broadsword, sapara, khopesh, sword-axe, short sword
- Roman: broadsword, drusus, gladius, spatha
- Middle Eastern: short sword, scimitar, great scimitar, tulwar
- Oriental: cutlass, katana, wakizashi, no-dachi, ninja-to
- Short: short sword, gladius, drusus, sapara, dagger, tulwar
- Medium: broadsword, long sword, cutlass, sabre, falchion, estoc
- Large: bastard sword, claymore, two-handed sword, great scimitar, no-dachi
- Fencing weapons: rapier, sabre, main-gauche, parrying dagger
- Chain & Rope Weapons: chain, kau sin ke, kusari-gama, kawanaga, chijikiri
- Hand match weapons: arquebus, hand gunne
- Matchlocks: arquebus, caliver, musket
- Wheellocks: arquebus, belt pistol, horse pistol
- Snaplocks and Flintlocks: musket, belt pistol, horse pistol
If a weapon does not appear in the preceding listings, it belongs to no weapon group. For example, weapons such as the bolas, the boomerang, or the mancatcher are so unique in their employment that nothing even comes close to being similar.