One Handed Weapon Style

The character can use his empty hand as a secondary weapon; using it to punch, grab, throw, etc. while he is wielding his one-handed weapon.
Normal penalties for using two weapons apply.

A character who specialized in the one-handed weapon style of battle gains an AC bonus of +1 when he fights with a weapon in one hand, and no shield or weapon in his other hand. By spending an additional proficiency slot the character can improve this AC bonus to a maximum of +2.

If the character is also familiar with thetwo-handed weapon style, and is wielding a weapon that can be used either way, he can switch back and forth at the start of every round of combat.

Weapon and Shield

A character who specializes in this style can gain a +1 benefit to his AC (in addition to his regular shield effects)or a +1 on his attack roll during any melee round when he holds a shield and wields a weapon.

Alternately, this benefit can be superseded by the more detailed shield rules in the Combat and Tactics book, as listed below:

Weapon and Shield

Normally, a character employing a shield in his off hand can shield-rush, shield-punch, block, or trap as if it were a secondary weapon, with the normal penalties for attacking with two weapons. The disadvantage is that the shield's AC bonus is forfeited for any round in which it us used this way.

However, characters who specialize in weapon and shield style can choose to make one of these secondary attacks every round without losing the AC benefit for carrying a shield.

Two Handed Weapon Style

A character who specializes in the two-handed weapon style improves (lowers) the speed factor of a weapon by 3-if that weapon is wielded with two hands.

NOTE: If a one handed weapon has the option of being wielded with two hands it increases the weapons speed factor by two. So if utilizing this proficiency it only decreases the overall speed factor by one.

In addition, if the character is using a one-handed weapon with two hands, the weapon gains a +1 bonus to all damage rolls.

Two Weapon Style

This is a diffucult style to master, since it requires exceptional coordination and skill. Normallly, characters who fight with a weapon in each hand suffer a -2 penalty to attacks with thier primary hand and a -4 penalty to attacks with the off-hand weapon. This can be partially or completely negated by the character's reaction adjustment for Dexterity. Characters who specialize in this style reduce thier penalty to 0 and -2, respectively. Ambidextrous characters who specialize in this style suffer no penalty with either attack.

The character's secondary weapon must be in size smaller than his primary weapon-but knives and daggers can always be used as secondary weapons, regardless of the size of the primary weapon. Note that this means that for Man-sized characters, the secondary weapon has to be size S. However, if a character spends a second proficiency slot on two-handed style specialization, he gains the ability to use two weapons of equal size, as long as he can use each one as a one-handed weapon.

Rangers are considered to have the first slot of this style specialization for free as a character ability.

Missle

A character who specialized in the missle fighting style gains a significant bonus. He can move up to half his normal monement rate and still make all of his allowed missle attacks during a turn. Or he can move his full movement rate and make half as many attacks.

Additionally, a character who has specialized in this fighting style gains a +1 bonus to his AC when attacked by missle fire, but only if the specialist character is also using a missle weapon and attacking on that round.

Horse Archery

A character who specialized in the horse archery fighting style can shoot with accuracy even while mounted. The normal penalties for shooting from the saddle are reduced by 2. Thus, archers suffer no penalty if the horse is moving at up to half ist normal speed, and they suffer only a -2 penalty if the horse is moving faster.

Thrown Weapons

A character who specialized in the thrown weapons fighting style gains a significant bonus. He can move up to half his normal monement rate and still make all of his allowed missle attacks during a turn. Or he can move his full movement rate and make half as many attacks.

Additionally, a character who has specialized in this fighting style gains a +1 bonus to his AC when attacked by missle fire, but only if the specialist character is also using a missle weapon and attacking on that round.

Shield Proficiency

A weapon proficiency slot can be spent to gain a shield proficiency. Warriors can gain this proficiency by spending 1 slot; other characters must spend 2 weapon proficiency slots to become proficient in shield use.
Obviously, a character must be able to use a shield to acquire this proficiency.

Shield proficiency improves a character's AC against one or more attacks per round from in front or from the side faced by the shield. This proficiency does not help against rear attacks or attacks coming from the flank opposite the shield.

Like other weapon proficiencies, the shield proficiency must be taken for a specific type of equipment-listed on the following table.

Shield Type	AC Bonus	#Attackers
Buckler	+1	One
Small	+2	Two
Medium	+3	Three
Body	+3/+4 vs. missiles	Four

The bonuses vary by the type of shield the character chooses, and are added to the normal AC benefits of carrying a shield. The Number of Attackers category indicated how many attacks, per round, the shield proficiency can help against. If a characer with a buckler, for example, is attacked by three enemies at once, his shield proficiency will only benefit his AC against one the those attacks. The player should designate which enemy he will guard against before attack rolls are made.

Armor Proficiency

A character can spend a weapon proficieny slot to buy the armor proficiency, which indicates that he has become use to wearing a protective shell. Unlike the shield proficiency, the armor proficiency does not improve the armor class. Instead, it reduces the encumbrance penalties for the wearing of a praticular kind of armor. Thus, a chracter who is fully proficient with the use of his plate mail, for example, can move around a lot more easily and quickly than can a characer who does not have this proficiency.

A character with the armor proficiency suffers only half the normal encumbrance load of his armor. For example, full plate armor weighs 70 pound. However, of a character is proficient with that type of armor, the armor has the encumbrance effect of only 35 pounds.
The armor retains its full weight for all other purposes.