Barbarian Damage Wrong?

[ronlugge]

So I don't want to file this as a bug until I'm sure that there's something wrong in the system, and it's not me missing something important. I have an animal instinct barbarian, level 15, whose totals are 'wrong' when raging, and I don't know if I'm missing a detail or if the system is doing the math wrong.

When not raging, my fist does 3D4 + 11 damage, which breaks down accurately to +5 from strength, +6 from greater weapon specialization.

But when I turn rage on, things get... weird. My regular fist now does +12 damage, one short of what I'd expect: +5 from strength, +6 from GWS, and +2 from rage. My Ape fists are worse, with +25 damage, which is over by 2: +5 from strength, +6 from GWS, and +12 from instinct specialization, for a total of +23.

[mototom]

The only thing that immediately comes to mind is if your weapon or unarmed attack is agile—a regular fist attack is agile, so you would only do +1 rage damage, I believe. I don't have a lot of experience with the barbarian, though.

The animal attack might be a bug—perhaps they're adding the instinct specialization to the regular rage damage, instead of replacing it?

[ronlugge]

Originally Posted by mototom

The only thing that immediately comes to mind is if your weapon or unarmed attack is agile—a regular fist attack is agile, so you would only do +1 rage damage, I believe. I don't have a lot of experience with the barbarian, though.

That definitely explains item 1, and you're right: I should only get +1 there.

The animal attack might be a bug—perhaps they're adding the instinct specialization to the regular rage damage, instead of replacing it?

It's off by 3 instead of 2. I wish there was a way to interrogate how the system came up with that number!

[mototom]

I thought the ape fist was off by 2. How is it off by 3?

[ronlugge]

Originally Posted by mototom

I thought the ape fist was off by 2. How is it off by 3?

PEBKAC error.

[mototom]

Ah. Yes, I'd love a breakdown of the numbers, too.