I feel like you're still trying to treat natural attacks like manufactured weapons.
With natural attacks you simply use all of your attacks as part of a full attack action, there are no iterative attacks or two-weapon fighting bonuses/penalties to worry about.
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10th level Barbarian, with 20 Strength and lesser beast totem is stood beside an enemy. Full attack grants him one attack with EACH claw, both at his full BAB so 10 +5 for strength, each doing full strength bonus damage. I.e.; +15/+15
If the same Barbarian were attacking with a single weapon he would get one attack at his BAB of +10 and a second at his iterative of +5, i.e.; +15/+10.
If he had two weapon fighting he would get an extra attack but all would be at -2 (presuming a Light off hand weapon). i.e.; +13/+13/+8
You can also mix natural and manufactured attacks but that makes ALL natural attacks count as secondary (-5) and you cannot use the same limb for both a manufactured attack and a natural one in the same round.
As you can see, the ability to make all natural attacks at full value can be quite powerful, especially so when you start to increase the number of attacks beyond 2, which is not difficult to do (for example our Barbarian could be a Half Orc with the Toothy trait, he would then take *3* attacks at full value with a full attack, Claw/Claw/Bite all at +15). Generally if you're going to use natural attacks you want to use nothing BUT them and get as many as possible, from traits, feats, rage powers, magic items, etc (5 or 6 is entirely feasible and will destroy things on a pouncing Barbarian).
Okay, NOW i get it. The claws are more or less pointless if you have a different weapon with higher damage. Meaning I wasted a rage power. Welp.
Even if you never use them (and who doesn't need a backup weapon?), you didn't waste a Rage Power.
Greater Beast Totem is the best martial ability in the game, pretty much.
I apologize for not grasping this quite right, I only just started playing pathfinder(as in, this is my first tabletop campaign). For all I know, we may even be doing this wrong. I will add context as well as my thought process.
I have a level 4 Female Orc Barbarian using an Orcish Double Battle Axe that deals 1d8 damage. When I am in front of an enemy and using a full round attack, I was given two attack with my two handed Orcish Axe(I COULD make more attack as it is a double weapon, but that would incur two weapon penalties).
If I do not get extra attacks, my thought process is why would I waste an action putting the axe away to take 1d6 damage over 1d8 damage if the bonuses apply to my axe anyway and the claws don't let me make any more attacks than if I used my axe?
Because two attacks at 1d6 both with full strength bonus to damage and without taking the -2 penalty to both attacks is better than two attacks at 1d8 which each take a -2 penalty to hit and only one of which gets full strength bonus to damage.
Besides, you don't waste an action putting the axe away. You either don't have it out or you simply drop it and pick it up after the battle is over.
Hi,
It doesn't seem like you have the two weapon fighting feat. So at level 4 you would still take some pretty bad penalties to attacking with both ends of the weapon.
That means without the feat you will be taking -4/-8 just for fighting with both ends of the weapon. (as the off hand part counts as light on a double weapon)
But I agree, the claws are way better. I also advise taking Power Attack ASAP. This will give you a -1 penalty to your attack roll and a +2 damage bonus to the damage roll. +3 if its a two handed weapon. The penalty and damage also go up at every 4 BAB.
Ideally until level 10 you want to charge in with a two handed weapon (the Orc Double Axe still works, but look at Greataxe) for the extra damage. Then drop the weapon and start clawing :)
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I think you're using the Double axe wrongly from what you've said, the axe works pretty much the same as if you were wielding two separate weapons, so you still need two weapon fighting feats to use it with minimal penalties. Without those feats you're at 4-/-8 as Skull says, the claws however need no two weapon feats because they are natural weapons which have different rules for attacking.
These are the important rules on double weapons:
Double: You can use a double weapon to fight as if fighting with two weapons, but if you do, you incur all the normal attack penalties associated with fighting with two weapons, just as if you were using a one-handed weapon and a light weapon. You can choose to wield one end of a double weapon two-handed, but it cannot be used as a double weapon when wielded in this way—only one end of the weapon can be used in any given round.
You would get full strength on one end of the axe and half strength (as for an offhand weapon) on the other end. With claws you get full strength on *both* of them, quickly making up for the fact the axe does 1d8 and claws do 1d6.
In your specific case at 4th level and with a 20 strength you should look something like this (including Rage bonuses for a total 24 Str);
Using Double Axe (with no two weapon fighting feat)
BAB +4 Strength +7 = +11 on a single 2 handed attack doing 1d8+10, or (applying the two weapon penalties of -4/-8) +7/+3 with a full attack using it as a double weapon doing 1d8+7/1d8+3
Using Claws
BAB +4 Strength +7 = +11 on a single attack doing 1d6+7, or +11/+11 with a full attack doing 1d6+7/1d6+7
As you can see, with a single attack you're going to be much better off using the axe 2 handed, but once you get to full attack not only are the claws doing slightly better total damage but they are *much* more likely to hit your enemy.
I have a barbarian with the whole Beast totem set and a BAB of +12/+7/+2. How many natural claw attacks do I get when I pounce with this scenario?
Thanks in advance
2 claw attacks. You never get iteratives with natural weapons.
However, if you like you can use your Greater Beast Totem ability to pounce using a different weapon, you don't HAVE to use your claws.