Improving the Tonfa

[Sindri]

Originally Posted by DanHoward

The whole point of the Police tonfa/baton is that it isn't very effective at killing people. Police carry them because they are less lethal than their sidearm. These days the taser meets that criteria.

Well I'm not really looking at this from a high tech point of view. From the perspective of not being very effective at killing people the jutte does the same damage but is generally much better.

Originally Posted by Kale

I always thought the only useful part of it was letting somebody with a high unarmed combat skill use an unarmed parry effectively against a weapon. If you have Karate at 20, grab a tonfa if you plan on going against anybody with weapons. Otherwise take Shortsword at 21 and go to town with a long knife or better. The only other nice thing about it is it can easily be hidden under very loose sleeves typical of some places and times, in a ready-to-use position. Trying to pull a sword out of your sleeve will take a bit longer whereas with the tonfa you can still punch with it. If you parry while it is hidden under the sleeves it can help your character develop an 'iron arm' reputation as well.
I basically file it under 'cool martial arts weapon for usually unarmed characters' and leave it at that.

Yeah the primary point as it stands is as a tool for unarmed fighters. Hiding it under sleeves is a good point, I should keep that in mind.