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]

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]

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.