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By Strict RAW, the Dan Bong gives a +2 bonus to grapple attempts, and a -4 penalty to grapple attempts because you are grappling one handed, giving you a net -2.
However, it's clearly intended for Dan Bongs to allow you to grapple without penalty while using one, and it's a common house rule. Also, grabbing style negates the penalty for grappling with one hand and will allow you to use one in a grapple without penalty.
Other questions:
If you are dual wielding Dan Bongs, you can't grapple at all unless you have extra arms or a bite with grab.
Any enhancement bonuses on dan bongs apply only to weapon attacks, not to grapples. The dan bong does not make grapple a weapon based maneuver, it is the equivalent of using a masterwork tool.
The -4 penalty RAW does seem a little silly if you consider how a Dan Bong is actually applied in real life, though I have to admit that RAW rarely bother themselves with this with somewhat just cause. In that same vein dual wielding with Dan Bongs seems equally silly if you plan to grapple with them.
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Actually, I was mistaken. I was assuming that you needed to have free hands to grapple, but the rule is actually you take a -4 penalty if you don't have two free hands. There is no additional penalty for not having any free hands. The exact wording is from the Grapple rules in the Combat section of the CRB.
Humanoid creatures without two free hands attempting to grapple a foe take a –4 penalty on the combat maneuver roll. If successful, both you and the target gain the grappled condition (see the Appendices).
Based on this, you would have a -4 for no free hands, and a +4 for the untyped bonus from each dan bong, for a net +0.
As for enhancement bonuses on manuevers, those are clarified in this blog entry.
Okay, thanks Imbicatus, that makes a little more sense to me.
I don't think you would get +4 for weilding 2. While the bonus is untyped, I would definitely consider it the same source.
Also does the bonus given by the Dan Bong actually stack with itself (it seems to be an untyped bonus so it may be possible). Still a +2 to grappling with wielding one and a -2 penalty when using two would probably be the way I would rule it in a home game.
As for enhancement bonuses on manuevers, those are clarified in this blog entry.This post assumes you are not using a weapon to grapple. The Dan Bong's ability would suggest you are using it to grapple, invalidating the blog post. Hence the need for clarification.
The jump to say 'it acts as masterwork tools', to me, does not seem to have any basis, unless I have missed it.
That Dan Bong can be used to assist in a grapple, however you are not using the Dan Bong as a weapon when you do so, you are using it more like a tool than like a weapon.
Nothing in the Dan Bong entry would imply that you get anything but the special untyped +2 bonus, no enhancement bonus, no weapon focus etc.
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My goal of this thread was to try and get somewhere other than 'ask a GM'. Hopefully an FAQ or dev or something would help clarify this.
Good luck. We've been waiting on weapon clarifications in Ultimate Combat & Equipment since it was released. The Dan bong isn't even the most broken thing there, I still have no idea how the Kyoketsu shoge works in game.
Ah kyoketsu shoge, the weapon with bludgeoning in the description but not on the weapons table. Right up there with how many blades in a lungchaun tamo and what sort of move action is it to join or detach a pair of shang gou. Thankfully a monk is proficient in none of these weapons so it rarely matters.
Unfortunately Aydin, right now there is no rule or FAQ on the Dan Bong. From my understanding Paizo pretty much leaves this one up to the GM. The issue with that, is the annoying "Rule Lawyer" GMs whom stubbornly stick to the "the rules say if take a penalty if you don't have both hands free and the Dan bong does not specifically state in its description that overrides that rule."
The only rule way to get around that issue is by taking Grabbing Style, that way you have nothing to worry about.
I use a MoMS/Brawler with Grabbing Style so I can negate the penalty for grappling with only one hand. Without that though...I don't know why it would ever be used. Also...range of 10ft? Why?
It's basically a club with a lower base damage. I'm guessing that's why they added the range. Although I still do not understand why a club has a range of 10 ft. either.
Because you need some sort of throwing weapon that's effective against exploding skeletons.
A little late to the game, but I just found the Brawling weapon enhancement that I never seemed to notice before. Toss that on a dan bong and you can start stacking on the bonuses to grapple!
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By Strict RAW, the Dan Bong gives a +2 bonus to grapple attempts, and a -4 penalty to grapple attempts because you are grappling one handed, giving you a net -2.
However, it's clearly intended for Dan Bongs to allow you to grapple without penalty while using one, and it's a common house rule. Also, grabbing style negates the penalty for grappling with one hand and will allow you to use one in a grapple without penalty.
I wouldn't say it's clearly intended. I've always seen that it's clearly intended to give you a bonus when you're already taking a penalty.
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Having seen stick assisted grapples via tonfa, escrima sticks, and the dan bong in real life, as well as been in a hold with one I can attest that it's harder to escape and easier to apply a hold with a stick than without it, assuming proper training with the weapon.
For me, that means the +2 is supposed to apply to the base grapple, not the one-handed grapple. Especially because as an exotic weapon, it needs to to justify itself.