Greetings fellow pathfinders!
I have been reading the core rulebook and am quite new to it having recently transitioned form the Beginners box. Now I have a few questions that have come up.
1.) Using a one handed weapon in two hands. The core rulebook states that if you are using a one handed weapon in two hands you should
"add 1-1/2 times the character's Strength bonus to damage rolls for melee attacks with such a weapon." (page 141)
So say that my character has a +3 strength bonus. If he uses a warhammer in one hand he will now deal 1d8+3 damage but if he uses it in two hands he will deal 1d8+1 damage (1d8 + ((1-1/2=0.5)×3). I feel like I am missing something behind the math as it makes no sense to deal less damage if you use something in two hands.
2.) Animal fury and "full attacks"
The rage power Animal fury states that the barbarian revives a bite attack when raging and that he can uses the attack with a -5 base attack bonus modifier. Now my question is why would this come in play? I understand that someone would want to role-play a barbarian with sharp teeth but isn't -5 a bit too much?
Weapons in 2 hands get one and a half strength bonus, so +3 becomes +4.5, which rounds down to +4.
The bite attack for animal fury is in addition to your weapon attack(s), so yeah it is at a penalty, but it's an extra attack. Note that you must be making the "full attack" action to make more than one attack in a round.
1-1/2 is just a fancy way of spelling one-and-half, or 1.5, or 1 1/2, or 3/2. It does not mathematically mean "one minus half".
Yeah...you misunderstood what 1-1/2 means. It's 1.5.
Your war-hammer will deal 1d8+(3*1.5) = 1d8+4.
The bite from animal fury is a free extra attack, albeit at a -5 to hit. You can make it on top of your normal full attack with weapons.
Anytime you're using a natural weapon in addition to manufactured ones, the natural weapons become 'secondary natural weapons', hence that -5 to hit.
Note that if your barbarian's unarmed but with Animal Fury on, she chomps away at full BAB, and if that's her only natural attack, that gets 1.5x Str modifier in damage. Bon appetit.