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I'm making a level 1 Half-Orc Unchained Barbarian, with an 18 STR and power attack. I took the tusked racial trait, giving him a 1d4 bite attack to go along with a 1d12 great axe.

How would I calculate the following attack bonuses and modifiers for the following situations? I'm a bit confused on the specifics of the inclusion of bite attacks. I'll include my attempts in figuring them out.

Single great axe attack with power attack
+4 attack (+4 STR, +1 BAB, -1 Power Attack)
1d12+9 damage (+4 STR, +2 2-Hands, +2 Power Attack, +1 2-hand power attack)

Single bite attack with power attack
+4 attack (+4 STR, +1 BAB, -1 Power Attack)
1d4+6 damage (+4 STR, +2 Power Attack)

Full power attack with Great Axe and Bite
+4 axe attack (+4 STR, +1 BAB, -1 Power Attack)
1d12+6 axe damage (+4 STR, +2 Power Attack)
-1 bite attack (+4 STR, +1 BAB, -1 Power Attack, -5 secondary)
1d4+4 bite damage (+2 half STR, +2 Power Attack)


I'm assuming the Unchained Rage adds +2 attack and +2 damage to all of those calculations?

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1 Answer 1

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Full-attack damage

Greataxe

The greataxe is still a two-handed weapon, and

Creatures with natural attacks and attacks made with weapons can use both as part of a full attack action (although often a creature must forgo one natural attack for each weapon clutched in that limb, be it a claw, tentacle, or slam). Such creatures attack with their weapons normally but treat all of their available natural attacks as secondary attacks during that attack, regardless of the attack’s original type.

(Natural Attacks, emphasis mine)

So your greataxe should be dealing the same 1d12+9 damage in the full-attack that it does with the standard-action attack.

This would be different if you were using a claw attack rather than a bite—with a claw, it would use a hand (“often a creature must forgo one natural attack for each weapon clutched in that limb”). Since the greataxe is a two-handed weapon, it can’t be used with one hand, so using a claw would mean not using the greataxe. But since a bite is not on a limb, using it does not interfere with the greataxe attack at all.

Bite

You have bite as a secondary weapon, correctly applying the −5 penalty to attack and halving the Strength bonus to damage. However, you missed or forgot that your damage bonus from Power Attack is halved on a secondary natural weapon, so instead of getting +2 as it does in a standard-action attack, it gets +1, for a total of 1d4+3.

Otherwise, correct

The rest of your calculations are correct, and you are correct about the effect of unchained rage.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Thank you, much appreciated! \$\endgroup\$ Nov 15, 2022 at 16:34
  • \$\begingroup\$ Does the 1-1/2 STR bonus thing from natural attacks apply here at all? \$\endgroup\$ Nov 15, 2022 at 16:36
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    \$\begingroup\$ @FrancisJohn No, that’s a special thing that only certain natural attacks get. Unless the thing giving you the natural attack says it gets 1½ Str to damage, it does not. \$\endgroup\$
    – KRyan
    Nov 15, 2022 at 17:07

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