Proficiencies

To round out the necromancer's skills, the DM should choose weapon and nonweapon proficiencies for the character. These should depend on the necromancer's kit, as detailed later. The DM should also refer to the new nonweapon proficiencies discussed in this chapter. In this section, we describe only how to determine the total number of proficiency slots available to the wizard.

The base number of weapon and nonweapon proficiencies depends on the character's experience level. These are summarized on Table 2. It is suggested that the DM employ the optional rule that transfers the number of languages to proficiency slots (page 16, PHB). Note that these bonus slots may be applied to either weapon or nonweapon proficiencies, as desired.

A highly intelligent, powerful wizard will tend to have many nonweapon proficiencies. Normally, the DM should only bother to assign these skills if there is some chance that they might augment a role-playing situation. For instance, there is almost no point in assigning nonweapon proficiencies to the evil archivallain of a campaign, whose only purpose is to torment and attack the PCs. As a short cut, the DM should only chose weapon proficiencies for such a character and simply assume that the NPC knows any skills necessary to carry out his or her fiendish plans. However, for those NPCs who might interact with the party outside of direct, antagonistic combat (perhaps serving as a mentor, teacher, henchman, or temporary hireling) the DM should take the time to carefully choose their selection of nonweapon and weapon proficiencies, based upon their kits. These skills might help to further develop the character and make role-playing situations more vivid for everyone involved.