[Lord Brass]

All of which is good advice Ister.

There should be plenty of weapons to go around, if you want to double up for characters, but consider the timing of the proficiency allocation. Paladins can only get two stars per type, so you can add weapons later and receive the full benefit before the end of the game.

With fighters you often have to plan GM in a weapon. Particularly if you're going to dual-class them as weapon proficiencies work properly in IWD.