Improving the Tonfa

[Sindri]

Originally Posted by Toptomcat

So its competition, among one-handed blunt wooden weapons in the Basic Set, is:
Light Club (sw+1 or thr+1 cr, reach 1, parry 0, cost $5, weight 3, ST 10)
Nunchaku (sw+1 cr, reach 1, parry 0U, cost $20, weight 2, ST 7)
Baton (sw or thr cr, reach 1, parry 0, cost $20, weight 1, ST 6)
Short Staff (sw or thr cr, reach 1, parry 0F, cost $20, weight 1, ST 6)

A tonfa, by comparison, is:
Tonfa (sw cr, reach 1, parry 0, cost $40, weight 1.5, ST 7)
or Tonfa (th cr, reach C,1, parry 0, same)

A tonfa is the only one of these that can work both at close combat and at reach 1. It's the only one that can be used to attack and parry with Tonfa, Brawling, Karate, or DX at no penalty. It's the only one that can be used to attack with an Easy skill, or be used to attack at no default penalty without having any combat skills whatsoever. It's the only one that can switch to Reverse Grip at no penalty for the technique. And Martial Arts p. 61 notes it as an appropriate weapon for using the Arm Lock technique with: if I'm reading the technique description right, you can do this at full skill without needing to buy the technique up or buy a Special Setup perk.

With all this, you want more of a niche?

Yeah because for PCs most of those that are even positive are terrible benefits and the ones that aren't are just okayish.

"A tonfa is the only one of these that can work both at close combat and at reach 1."

With thrust crushing which as I've pointed out above is a very minor improvement over enhanced and protected punching.

"It's the only one that can be used to attack and parry with Tonfa, Brawling, Karate, or DX at no penalty.

It's the only one that can be used to attack with an Easy skill, or be used to attack at no default penalty without having any combat skills whatsoever."

PCs have skills though. In fact a weapon that's easier to use is actually a disadvantage because it means that some chump who picks up your weapon is more effective with it. Variety of skills with which you can use it doesn't really matter because you either have one of them to use it with or you don't and the skills don't carry much along with them. RAW Tonfa is also a terrible skill because of how narrow it is. Brawling is an easy skill but it more than pays for that with missing features and just means a reduction in cost if you are hitting a skill cap anyway.

"It's the only one that can switch to Reverse Grip at no penalty for the technique."

Which is a nice thing to throw in for an already solid weapon. However it doesn't actually mean any increased efficacy compared to someone who did buy up the technique so this can't support tonfa by itself.

"And Martial Arts p. 61 notes it as an appropriate weapon for using the Arm Lock technique with: if I'm reading the technique description right, you can do this at full skill without needing to buy the technique up or buy a Special Setup perk."

Of course you can do it at full skill. Full skill is where Arm Lock starts no matter what. Martial Arts p. 61 is also noting that Tonfa is the necessary skill for Arm Lock not that it's unusual in being able to use it. Lots of weapons should be able to Arm Lock.

On the other hand look at a nunchaku which does more swing damage, due to it's half flail ability effectively gives bonus skill even past a skill cap and even weighs more. Or a jutte which is an impressive disarming tool while being substantially smaller and incidentally has RAW support for being a kusarijutte instead. Or a bokken which can do more swing or thrust damage, can optionally be used two handed for even more damage and weighs more. Even a short baton allows swing damage at C range.

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

Where are you getting maximum effectiveness? Melee weapons don't have a maximum effectiveness, you can always get more out of them by throwing 4 more points into the skill.

If you don't have a cap on skill levels then yes. Otherwise you buy the skill to max and then pick up the good techniques and perks. Technically you can keep improving but the other purchases are really quite narrow in applicability.