Talk:Magic Caster/@comment-25400375-20180505132114/@comment-45.56.46.26-20180816193406

D&D conventions have varied widely with respect to what weapon proficiencies mean.

In Yggdrasil, you can pick up a weapon, but you cannot equip it and make attacks without dropping it. This is a reasonable compromise on realism. A fully realistic proficiency system would also include a chance of self-inflicted injury (potentially serious) which varied with your base stats and the difficulty of the weapon. Any competent DM will home-brew that in a heartbeat if they catch someone who has never trained with weapons trying to get lucky by picking up some high-level magic pole-axe and swinging it around (if they're feeling nice, they'll let you roll before announcing that you cut your own leg off). I remember the first time I picked up a blade that had actually been used to kill someone...I dropped that sucker like a hot iron.

Still, picking up one level of villager or whatever so that you know how to use farm tools and such without hurting yourself is probably a commonplace in the New World. It isn't going to shock anyone that someone who can cast spells still remembers how to avoid stabbing themselves with a spear. The shocker is when someone can fight on the level of Gazef Stronoff and cast on the level of Fluder Paradyne.