Nonproficient

Characters who are nonproficient in a piece of equipment have not been trained to use it. They take certain penalties until the appropriate proficiency Feat is taken.

Weapons

A character who lacks proficiency with a weapon she is using takes a -4 to both attack and damage when using that weapon. This also applies to counter rolls and similar checks, such as trip checks using the weapon to trip.

Weapon Feats, such as Weapon Finesse, Hack and Slash, and Far Shot may not be used with a weapon with which the character is not proficient - the character simply has no idea how to apply these skills to this weapon. This also applies to class or track abilities.

Armor and Shields

A character who wears armor and/or uses a shield with which she is not proficient takes the armor’s (and/or shield’s) armor check penalty on attack rolls and on all Strength-based and Dexterity-based ability and skill checks.

A character using a shield she is not proficient with cannot block projectiles with a shield check.

Proficiency for shield bashes is granted by martial weapon proficiency.