Quote Originally Posted by PersonMan View Post
Not really. Training can be seen as proficiency. Training even more is Weapon Focus. Or BAB, it can be either.
Hmm...

As someone who has both been a varsity fencer and has engaged in numerous boffer fights, I wonder. As a varsity fencer, I was not the best compared to the other fencers, but as a boffer fighter I was a lot better. Different fighting styles and all.

Again the captain of our fencing team, no matter which year I pick, I would lose if I fought with his weapon of choice (usually foil, fencing rules on point scoring). Give me a boffer broadsword and a different set of rules (mass combat, simulated wounding), I probably would have won.

Weapon Finesse? Sure. Dex bonus? Probably equal, I think I'm a little faster than most. BAB? Well, I think we would be the same, maybe give a little. Weapon Focus? For the captain, sure. So I'm thinking the team captain would have +2 BAB advantage over me. Now if the broadsword is -4 for lack of Procifiency, the captain would be at a -2 BAB disadvantage.

That doesn't feel right. It wasn't just the fencing captain. Most of the people on the fencing team weren't the type to pick up a boffer and have a go. Yet most of the fencing team were pretty dang good with their fencing weapon of choice. Me, I had to unlearn certain things, what I did, how I did. I've been using boffer weapons long before fencing. And even if they didn't pick up a boffer weapon, I would think they would have proficiency with it.

The major advantage they had is that they really knew their weapon, which seems like Weapon Focus. Giving it only a +1 seems pretty weak, because that just represents an "edge".

When I think Weapon Focus, I think Bladesmaster, someone who concentrates on a weapon at the exclusion of everything else. I can't take on Mariel Zagunis with a fencing saber, but I bet I could hold my own if we both went broadsword. If an Olympic 2-times Gold Medalist doesn't have Weapon Focus (fencing saber), I'll eat my hat.