Urban Barbarian Rage question

[DrakeRoberts]

This came up as a side question on another thread, which was no longer properly named for what it had become, so I'm reasking here:

The Urban Barbarian's Controlled Rage power says: "When an urban barbarian rages, instead of making a normal rage she may apply a +4 morale bonus to her Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution. This bonus increases to +6 when she gains greater rage and +8 when she gains mighty rage. She may apply the full bonus to one ability score or may split the bonus between several scores in increments of +2. When using a controlled rage, an urban barbarian gains no bonus on Will saves, takes no penalties to AC, and can still use Intelligence-, Dexterity-, and Charisma-based skills. This ability otherwise follows the normal rules for rage." (from the pfrd).

The question is, since the power says MAY and later never says it replaces the Rage power (which seems to be typical wording for many archetypes), does this mean an Urban Barbarian can choose when he rages whether he wants the controlled rage or the regular rage, or is he limited to only doing controlled rages?

[Lobolusk]

no only the urban rage

[Halfling Barbarian]

I've always held that to be the case.

[Bongo BigBounce]

I'd say they have the choice between the two. That is what "may" means, and it does not say that they cannot perfrom a standard rage anywhere.

[DrakeRoberts]

Halfling Barbarian wrote:

I've always held that to be the case.

Held which to be the case?

[Fabius Maximus]

According to RAW, you appear to have the choice.

[Thefurmonger]

As others have said RAW you have a choice.

If I were running a home game I would rule that is is controled only as I would think that is RAI, but this is about RULES.

Per the rules yeah you get your choice.

[DrakeRoberts]

Found the answer. Controlled Rage replaces Rage:

here

[VRMH]

DrakeRoberts wrote:

Found the answer. Controlled Rage replaces Rage

They could have made the write-up a bit more clear then. It's still a rage class feature though, right?

[Deadmanwalking]

VRMH wrote:

DrakeRoberts wrote:

Found the answer. Controlled Rage replaces Rage

They could have made the write-up a bit more clear then. It's still a rage class feature though, right?

Yes. Rage Powers and all.

More specifically, it's a brand new class feature that modifies the way the Rage class feature works, and thus all other things that modify Rage still work.

[Quandary]

yeah, JJ's answer isn't very exact per RAW,
per RAW it ISN'T 'replacing' Rage, and you still should (and do) qualify for abilities requiring having the Rage Class Feature...
basically just the 'may' wording is in error per RAI, as far as I can tell.