Hi :)
I was curious, what happens when my barbarian has the lesser beast totem power (gaining claws when raging) while wearing gauntlets?
Do you not gain the two claw attacks?
Do you still gain two claw attacks, but use the gauntlets for damage?
You go all Wolverine and your claws punch through the gauntlets, letting you make your claw attacks as normal. When your claws go away, you are left with tiny cosmetic holes in your gauntlets so that when you Wolverine it up again, you can avoid the annoying sound of torn metal.
Basically, you ignore the gauntlets for the purposes of claw attacks. Since many gauntlets were basically a leather glove with metal plates along the back, your claws (which can damage things through full steel armor) slice quickly though the leather, exposing your claws so that you can start attacking. Since your claw damage will almost always be better than your gauntlet damage, especially if you've spent a resource to grow them, you can just ignore the gauntlets. If you use your claw attacks, you can't use your hands for anything else anyway, since you already used with the claw attacks.