Can i get an official response from the developers about what I really gain from Barbarian's level 8 feat: Animal Rage?
Every time I reply or search a forum I get a different interpretation of this feat.
Please I just want an official answer to end this question.
The developers almost never respond to requests for official clarification.
The best you can hope for is there's enough confusion that the developers decide to errata it in a future printing.
In the spirit of that, it might be good to highlight what part of the feat you're confused about, since right now your OP is kind of vague.
Can i get an official response from the developers about what I really gain from Barbarian's level 8 feat: Animal Rage?
Every time I reply or search a forum I get a different interpretation of this feat.
Please I just want an official answer to end this question.
Yeah... Good luck with that. Official answers seem to relegated to book reprints and we just got one a bit ago so I wouldn't hold my breath.
For myself, it looks like you'd get:
Low-light vision and imprecise scent 30 feet
non-unarmed attack benefits of animal: for instance, Shark grants swim Speed 35 feet and breathe underwater but not in air, while Frog grants swim Speed 25 feet and reach 15 feet.
Was there a particular part of the feat that's fouling you up?
Thanks for the tip!
This feat is very confusing and according to internet reports, it is not just me who thinks so. Let's see ...
Description (Animal Rage Feat 8):
"You transform into your animal. You gain the effects of the 3rd-level animal form spell except you use your own statistics, temporary Hit Points, and unarmed attacks instead of those granted by animal form [...]"
Instead of the feat describing what the barbarian will actually get from that it describes what the barbarian does not get and leaves the rest for you to go in the chapter of magic and trying interpret for yourself.
In addition, there is still the question of the usefulness of this level 8 feat. I mean there are people who say that you receive only the sense of the animal and its movement, others say that because it specifies that the version of the spell is third level it means that you receive a +5 damage bonus. But then the damage bonus is a statistic so you don't get it or do you get it? why would be relevant to say that the spell needs to be third level if you get the movements and senses just in the basic version of the spell?
My barbarian is an elf and his animal is a bear. What do I get from that? Just an imprecise 30-feet scent for a level 8 feat? Cool but i get that in level 2 (Acute Sense feat) yeah i can use with darkvision too.
My barbarian now chose cat as an animal ah ok + 10 speed feet? Man this is a level 8 feat? For real?
I really wanted an answer, I mean, not a list of the uses of this feat, but simply what you actually get from it officialy.
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It does seem like you only get the senses and movement abilities. They have to specify a spell level for the sake of things like counteracting magic.
It has its uses and would be amazing for some characters (extra speed is good on anyone), but I'll admit it's not very impressive for an elven barbarian. Unless you absolutely want to turn into an animal for rp purposes or something, it might be best to pick some other feat on this specific character.
It does seem like you only get the senses and movement abilities. They have to specify a spell level for the sake of things like counteracting magic.
It has its uses and would be amazing for some characters (extra speed is good on anyone), but I'll admit it's not very impressive for an elven barbarian. Unless you absolutely want to turn into an animal for rp purposes or something, it might be best to pick some other feat on this specific character.
I understand you i really do but that is another issue If i pick another feat what happen with the flavor of finally transforming into your big FURRY animal instinct!!!
I see this like a Flavor and a Reward:
Flavor: you finaly are level 8 congrats and now you can transforming yourself into a cool Black Lion.
Reward: You finaly are level 8 congrats but you will gain nothing with this feat.
If i don't choose this feat it would be like a Dragon instinct but i can't transforming into a dragon or actually i can but i have no reward for this, like, i can not fly or breath fire idk maybe this is not the best example but i hope people get what i think.
My barbarian is an elf and his animal is a bear.
That's a bad match for the feat. Only 2 animals don't change speed for an elf [bull/bear]. Look at it for a human: EVERY animal changes your speed and you gain low light and scent. Low light and scent alone can be worth a feat then add climb, swim or 50' speed and it's looking pretty good for an 8th level feat. It's just some ancestries get a lot more out of the feat.
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I understand you i really do but that is another issue If i pick another feat what happen with the flavor of finally transforming into your big FURRY animal instinct!!!
I see this like a Flavor and a Reward:
Flavor: you finaly are level 8 congrats and now you can transforming yourself into a cool Black Lion.
Reward: You finaly are level 8 congrats but you will gain nothing with this feat.
From my point of view animal instinct is already letting you get all the "good" (read combat related) parts of turning into your animal. You get the attack, you get extra damage, you get to rage.
This is for fully turning into the animal, which doesn't necessarily give you more power, after all by level 8 you are more dangerous than most animals already, but can let you borrow other (read non directly combat related) traits and possibly let you do interesting role playing things.
I could be way off, but that's my read on what the feat's for.
I understand you i really do but that is another issue If i pick another feat what happen with the flavor of finally transforming into your big FURRY animal instinct!!!
I see this like a Flavor and a Reward:
Flavor: you finaly are level 8 congrats and now you can transforming yourself into a cool Black Lion.
Reward: You finaly are level 8 congrats but you will gain nothing with this feat.From my point of view animal instinct is already letting you get all the "good" (read combat related) parts of turning into your animal. You get the attack, you get extra damage, you get to rage.
This is for fully turning into the animal, which doesn't necessarily give you more power, after all by level 8 you are more dangerous than most animals already, but can let you borrow other (read non directly combat related) traits and possibly let you do interesting role playing things.
I could be way off, but that's my read on what the feat's for.
Apart from being a thematically appropriate animal form, it also gives you the +5 to damage as it's specified it's the 3rd level version. It's a bigger, better, hairier you that likes tummy scratches.
Apart from being a thematically appropriate animal form, it also gives you the +5 to damage as it's specified it's the 3rd level version. It's a bigger, better, hairier you that likes tummy scratches.
That is the main point of this Thread!!! Lifting aside my disappointed with this feat: The majority do not knows what are the benefits of Animal Rage feat.
If you read the comments above of JackieLane or graystone you will see that there is some folks that interpret this feat in a way that you do not get the +5 bunos damage but there is folks like you the interpret that we do get the 5+ bonus damage. Why this is happening?
In my opnion is due to the descripion of this feat and the magic. Is Bonus Damage a Statistc or Ability?
This feat should tell us what it grant us in fact and not discribe what we don't gain and leave the rest to interpretation.
I'm no tell you that you a wrong or they (greystone and JackieLane) are. But simply show you the poor description of this feat.
Maybe the third level of the spell is for things like counteracting or maybe is because you do get the +5 bonus damage or maybe both but the problem is: We do not know officialy.
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Damage seems pretty clearly to be a part of the attack. Having your regular damage bonus replaced by the +5 is probably penalizing you at this point in your barbarian career isn't it? Strength + rage is going to be higher than +5.
It seems like the only advantage of being 3rd level is for dispelling purposes.
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Straight up damage increases on every attack are pretty rare for feats unless you're an Alchemist. They become "mandatory" feat taxes. Look at Giant's Stature. It improves your reach, which is a big deal, but it doesn't increase your damage because then every giant barbarian would take it and some folks just want to swing a giant blade around, not actually become giant.
So Animal Form mostly giving mobility and sense improvements is actually pretty in line with that.
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Straight up damage increases on every attack are pretty rare for feats unless you're an Alchemist. They become "mandatory" feat taxes. Look at Giant's Stature. It improves your reach, which is a big deal, but it doesn't increase your damage because then every giant barbarian would take it and some folks just want to swing a giant blade around, not actually become giant.
So Animal Form mostly giving mobility and sense improvements is actually pretty in line with that.
Edit: I think shark might be the best, actually. Not because you'll regularly use it but when you do need it being able to breath underwater is huge.
Straight up damage increases on every attack are pretty rare for feats unless you're an Alchemist. They become "mandatory" feat taxes. Look at Giant's Stature. It improves your reach, which is a big deal, but it doesn't increase your damage because then every giant barbarian would take it and some folks just want to swing a giant blade around, not actually become giant.
So Animal Form mostly giving mobility and sense improvements is actually pretty in line with that.
Edit: I think shark might be the best, actually. Not because you'll regularly use it but when you do need it being able to breath underwater is huge.
Damage increases don’t seem to be that rare just looking through the CRB. All of them seem to come at either a cost, or are subject to variety of some kind. Gaining the damage from Animal Form would come the cost of being Polymorphed.
The damage seems like it might still be lower than a Titan Mauler as well, but would have to check the math before i can say for certain.
I also don’t see anywhere that it says you don’t add your own strength to Battleform damage. The Form just gives the user untyped Bonus Damage and that all attacks are Strength Based. Can anyone source where this might not be the case?
The damage is also irregardless of the form taken. Should we also assume that the Barbarian doesn’t gain the Athletics Bonus in the event that they decide not to invest in it?
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Not an official answer, but imo the best way to parse the feat is to just look at what it says you don't get and exclude it from the list.
Animal Rage says:
You gain the effects of the 3rd-level animal form spell except you use your own statistics, temporary Hit Points, and unarmed attacks instead of those granted by animal form.
So Animal Form modified by the feat would look like
You gain the following statistics and abilities regardless of which battle form you choose:
AC = 16 + your level. Ignore your armor's check penalty and Speed reduction.
5 temporary Hit Points.
Low-light vision and imprecise scent 30 feet.
One or more unarmed melee attacks specific to the battle form you choose, which are the only attacks you can use. You're trained with them. Your attack modifier is +9, and your damage bonus is +1. These attacks are Strength based (for the purpose of the enfeebled condition, for example). If your unarmed attack bonus is higher, you can use it instead.
Athletics modifier of +9, unless your own modifier is higher.
You also gain specific abilities based on the type of animal you choose:
Ape Speed 25 feet, climb Speed 20 feet;Melee Single Action fist, Damage 2d6 bludgeoning.
[...]
Heh. Squiggit beat me to it. I was going to do the exact same thing. Copy the text of Animal Form and remove the parts that Animal Rage says to remove. Whatever is left is what you actually gain.
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Not an official answer, but imo the best way to parse the feat is to just look at what it says you don't get and exclude it from the list.
Animal Rage says:
You gain the effects of the 3rd-level animal form spell except you use your own statistics, temporary Hit Points, and unarmed attacks instead of those granted by animal form.So Animal Form modified by the feat would look like
You gain the following statistics and abilities regardless of which battle form you choose:
AC = 16 + your level. Ignore your armor's check penalty and Speed reduction.
5 temporary Hit Points.
Low-light vision and imprecise scent 30 feet.
One or more unarmed melee attacks specific to the battle form you choose, which are the only attacks you can use. You're trained with them. Your attack modifier is +9, and your damage bonus is +1. These attacks are Strength based (for the purpose of the enfeebled condition, for example). If your unarmed attack bonus is higher, you can use it instead.
Athletics modifier of +9, unless your own modifier is higher.
You also gain specific abilities based on the type of animal you choose:
Ape Speed 25 feet, climb Speed 20 feet;Melee Single Action fist, Damage 2d6 bludgeoning.
[...]
I think you should keep the "Ignore your armor's check penalty and Speed" part. It is not a statistic (as opposed to AC) and might be a nice advantage for going into Animal Rage.
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Also the +5 to damage is not a bonus for the level 3 spell. It has no bonus type. It is exactly the same as the other statistical numbers in the description. It would replace whatever bonus to damage you had. I don’t think a special ruling is necessary here because the benefits are pretty clearly the turning into an actual animal for narrative purposes, and getting the senses and movement types. If those are unappealing, it’s probably not the best feat for your character.
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If I was your GM I would give you the +5 bonus to damage on top of your Animal Instinct rage because it seems like that Instinct is ridiculously underpowered compared to the Titan Mauler.
Have you ever seen a Titan Mauler in play? Because the cost of that damage is the worst AC of any martial. The Animal Barbarian meanwhile gets the best AC of the class. Compare at level 8:
Giant = 10+10(t)+ 1 rune + 5 dex/armor - 2 rage penalty = 24
Animal = 10+12(e) + 1 rune + 3 dex + 1 status bonus = 27
A 3 point AC swing is actually really absurd. You can make a pretty good case that Titan Mauler is just straight worse. (This is without touching on the fact that Animal can rock a d12 weapon while keeping a hand free for shields and potions, which is admittedly not relevant in Animal Form.)
Seriously though why do the Animal Instinct feats stop at level 12?
Same reason spirit's did: page count.
Damage increases don’t seem to be that rare just looking through the CRB. All of them seem to come at either a cost, or are subject to variety of some kind. Gaining the damage from Animal Form would come the cost of being Polymorphed.
Care to name some examples? Because being polymorphed isn't a particular hard cost for a build that doesn't need its hands and can't take concentrate actions like spell casting anyway. You can deal that extra damage on every attack, which is way more often than say "the first attack you make after casting a spell that round" and cheaper than "I'm stuck swinging d6 weapons around to use this" and what have you.
The damage seems like it might still be lower than a Titan Mauler as well, but would have to check the math before i can say for certain.
Again, though, damage isn't the whole picture here. Titans are FRAGILE.
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No, no, making the toughest barbarian hit as hard as the glass cannon flavor is a fine idea that makes perfect sense.
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Anyone else think it's weird to have this convoluted mess when it could have just been a continuation of other animal feats, granting specific benefits without referencing anything else?
Maybe even just "Look at the animal form spell. You only get the specific movement and scent. Now F**K OFF".
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If you just said "gain the movement and scent from the animal" without referencing Animal Form or going into more detail inside the feat, you'd have a different convoluted mess with things like "How does animal rage interact with polymorph?" and "Can I still use my shield while I'm a shark?"
With referencing animal form already, and saying "just gain these effects" it is probably lesss well future proofed if we add more animal options later, and any of them get a little weird.
It would have to be a bit longer and more detailed to cover everything.
If you just said "gain the movement and scent from the animal" without referencing Animal Form or going into more detail inside the feat, you'd have a different convoluted mess with things like "How does animal rage interact with polymorph?" and "Can I still use my shield while I'm a shark?"
It would have to be a bit longer and more detailed.
I actually referenced it on my suggestion, but the trait itself already have lots of traits that interacts with the problems you raised. Seeing it written now, it appears it was written the way it is as a future proof feat, since they wouldn't need to rewrite it in case there were some other benefits (which I think it will be unlikely). Also adding the sentence "You fully transform" would stop any Shark with hands shenanigans.
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Apart from being a thematically appropriate animal form, it also gives you the +5 to damage as it's specified it's the 3rd level version. It's a bigger, better, hairier you that likes tummy scratches.
That quite a wierd reading of the rule. Using the Animal Rage feat to modify and replace the numbers in the Animal Form spell. Then letting the heightened version of the Animal From Spell reach back and modify the numbers again. No, that is "loopy", you can't do that. You get what is specified in the Animal Rage feat. Which is your normal attack.
Its not a usless ability as you do get some movement and sense powers. If it was a level 1 or 2 feat it might be OK. In fact that would be my recommendation for errata for this power.
But level 6 and 8 barbarian feats are awesome. This doesn't stack up. Don't take it.
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It's a little amusing to go to a general statement about Titan Maulers and say that the one in your campaign wasn't fragile when he had two constant defense buffs and three sources of healing. ^_^;
That quite a wierd reading of the rule. Using the Animal Rage feat to modify and replace the numbers in the Animal Form spell. Then letting the heightened version of the Animal From Spell reach back and modify the numbers again. No, that is "loopy", you can't do that. You get what is specified in the Animal Rage feat. Which is your normal attack.Its not a usless ability as you do get some movement and sense powers. If it was a level 1 or 2 feat it might be OK. In fact that would be my recommendation for errata for this power.
But level 6 and 8 barbarian feats are awesome. This doesn't stack up. Don't take it.
Can you imagine the expectation of a player who finally reaches level 8 and face such a feat? A player who has been following the animal instinct since level 1.
1- Of all ancestry of the core book, Human is the only one who does not have a special type of vision.
2- At level 1 you have the option to receive darkvision as a barbarian.
3- At level 2 you have the option to receive imprecise scent with a range of 30 feet.
4- At level 3 you are not even caught off guard against hidden creatures with deny advantage!
Imagine arriving at the most important feat of your instinct and receiving +10 feet movement, low-light vision and imprecise scent. Since just by choosing a non-human ancestry, the chance that you will use "all these wonderful benefits at LEVEL 8" is very low.
We have the option of not choosing this feat and killing all the hype and fun to have chosen this instinct and playing with enormous frustration.
Why this is a level 8 feat?
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Paizo don't tend to respond to such questions. But honestly one poor power at that level is not bad for an RPG. 80% of the barbarian class feats are just fine.
Personally I'm more concerned about Cleave. Which I suspect was supposed to be the signature Barbarian power (so they would not all take Attack of Opportunity) but is just a waste of space. All they have to do to fix it is take the MAP off it. I guess they think that is too strong for level 6.
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1- Of all ancestry of the core book, Human is the only one who does not have a special type of vision.
*Looks at halfling...* You want to think about that one?
2- At level 1 you have the option to receive darkvision as a barbarian.
Sure, but it's still a feat.
3- At level 2 you have the option to receive imprecise scent with a range of 30 feet.
That's 2 feats to get it for ancestries without darkvision.
4- At level 3 you are not even caught off guard against hidden creatures with deny advantage!
Doesn't help you find anyone, so a hidden/invisible target isn't any easier to target.
Imagine arriving at the most important feat of your instinct and receiving +10 feet movement, low-light vision and imprecise scent. Since just by choosing a non-human ancestry, the chance that you will use "all these wonderful benefits at LEVEL 8" is very low.
Just "Imagine arriving at the most important feat of your instinct and receiving" +25' movement, lowlight and scent... That's what happens when a human/halfling with deer takes it; Seems mighty sweet IMO. Or replace +25' move for 25' swim for a frog or 25' climb for ape. Still pretty sweet to me.
We have the option of not choosing this feat and killing all the hype and fun to have chosen this instinct and playing with enormous frustration.
Why this is a level 8 feat?
You have to look at the MOST it can give, not the least. Can you point to another feat that can give out +30' move? [dwarf with deer for +150% move!!!] Just look at the dwarf, with EVERY form giving bonuses to base movement [and maybe special movement too] or giving multiple extra movement types. I think you're problem is you're hyper-focused on what it gives a elf with bear and not really looking at what other combos of ancestry and animal can give.
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@JardelBerserk
For your kind of Animal Instinct, I think you'll find more benefit out of Renewed Vigor. Since as an Elf, extra HP is really helpful. If you want more damage, Follow-Up Assault will give it to you by granting your weapon the Forceful Trait which means 1 to 4 extra damage across the levels, at level 8 you'll gain +2 damage and at level 10, when you get the Greater Striking Runes, it goes to +3. If you've been doing Grapple often, Thrashing may be helpful. But of all of these, I wouldn't discount Renewed Vigor (Assuming 12 Con you get "fast healing" 5 at will while raging, monsters at that level deal between 15-30, it's a sizeable portion even with the Elf stats).
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Would you even gain speed? Isn't speed a "statistic" that you would keep? Also if you did change it and you move faster than the form, wouldn't your speed drop?
Speed is listed in the "abilities" you gain according to the animal you transform into. Not in the "statistics and abilities" granted by the spell independently of the specific animal.
So, as far as the spell is concerned (including its modifications through the feat), Speed is an ability and not a statistic.
I think you're problem is you're hyper-focused on what it gives a elf with bear and not really looking at what other combos of ancestry and animal can give.
But it is precisely because my ancestry is Elf and not a dwarf or halfling and my animal is a bear and not a gorilla or a shark.
During level 1 I chose Acute Vision because it was part of what I imagined for my character who lived in caves with bears.
At level two I chose Acute scent which has darkvision as a requirement, which seemed to me the perfect choice because it combined one feat with the other.
From that point on I went up the level normally until I got to this level 8 trauma and found that I created my own trap.
All I did was:
"Unleashed my hero"
But it was more for:
"Unleash your hero but be careful and do not unleash your elf bear"
You can see from my photo and nick that this is the type of character I like and when I discovered that to become a bear I would have to waste a talent I was very surprised and frustrated.
Hahaha imagine if I had caught Nimble Elf at level 1! lol
But I give up here. The games will return next year and I will ask my GM to change this feat and give up turning into a bear.
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Thanks to the feat, you can change at will into a Bear and back for a single action without needing to spend a 3rd-level slot each time. And you get to keep the constant abilities of your gear.
If what it grants you duplicates a previous feat, you can of course retrain that feat.
The Elf/bear pairing might gain less than others, but the feat is still good IMO.
Actually, as far as flavor is concerned, it is really great.
Truth be told, I am now considering it for my own Animal Barbarian when I will reach this high level (one PFS day).
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Why not take a different level 8 class feat if this one doesn't do anything? There's several level 8 feats that seem thematically appropriate for a bear barbarian, e.g. instinctive strike or thrash. Sudden leap and Renewed Vigor also look like good feats.
It's a bit odd that the animal-specific feat doesn't do anything for your particular barbarian, but it's not the end of the world.
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I think you're problem is you're hyper-focused on what it gives a elf with bear and not really looking at what other combos of ancestry and animal can give.But it is precisely because my ancestry is Elf and not a dwarf or halfling and my animal is a bear and not a gorilla or a shark.
During level 1 I chose Acute Vision because it was part of what I imagined for my character who lived in caves with bears.
At level two I chose Acute scent which has darkvision as a requirement, which seemed to me the perfect choice because it combined one feat with the other.
From that point on I went up the level normally until I got to this level 8 trauma and found that I created my own trap.
All I did was:
"Unleashed my hero"
But it was more for:
"Unleash your hero but be careful and do not unleash your elf bear"You can see from my photo and nick that this is the type of character I like and when I discovered that to become a bear I would have to waste a talent I was very surprised and frustrated.
Hahaha imagine if I had caught Nimble Elf at level 1! lol
But I give up here. The games will return next year and I will ask my GM to change this feat and give up turning into a bear.
You might be missing the point of how transmutation spells work in PF2.
In PF2, your 8th level ELf Barbarian is already an all around more dangerous enemy than any bear animal on Golarion. If anyone else uses a 3rd level animal form spell to transform into a bear, you would maul them. This feat lets you transform into your animal form, but be just as good at combat as an 8th+ level barbarian, instead of taking on the stats of a bear. You also get the advantage of keeping the your passive item bonuses to things like your athletics skill, your AC, etc.
The Animal Rage feat is about allowing you to transform into an animal, not about boosting your combat ability, which is already more powerful than an animal.
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Why not take a different level 8 class feat if this one doesn't do anything? There's several level 8 feats that seem thematically appropriate for a bear barbarian, e.g. instinctive strike or thrash. Sudden leap and Renewed Vigor also look like good feats.
It's a bit odd that the animal-specific feat doesn't do anything for your particular barbarian, but it's not the end of the world.
In this specific case, it gives back a level 2 feat (Acute scent) that is redundant with the Scent ability you get in animal form. Thus Acute scent can be retrained.
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It also lets you cast a 3rd level spell, an unlimited number of times per day. That is actually an incredibly powerful 8th level feat for any class.
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It also lets you cast a 3rd level spell, an unlimited number of times per day. That is actually an incredibly powerful 8th level feat for any class.
I tend to think like this too, but note that much of the power of the spell comes from its versatility. Here you cannot change the animal whose shape you take.
You cannot change into a shark when you need to breather underwater and into a serpent when you need a climb speed, or into a deer when you need a 50 ft speed, or a canine when you need to be inconspicuous in a place where dogs are usual and beneath notice.
And it does not give much to the Barbarian, at least in the OP's case.
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I think a good part of what the feat is for is to answer "the Giant Barbarian gets to grow huge; the Dragon Barbarian gets to breathe fire, grow wings, and eventually actually transform into a dragon; so why shouldn't I be able to turn into a Bear?"
The issue is "what does 'turning into a Bear' actually do for you."
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That is true, but it is also a spell that can be cast with 1 action and no verbal or somatic trait. In the case of the elf barbarian, I agree that the mechanical advantages of the bear form are limited, but that doesn’t really make the feat bad, even for the elf barbarian, as the ability to be a bear when ever you want and lose no power from doing so is still pretty potent (a lot of druids and transmuters stare at your level 8 ability jealously). But there are other great 8th level feats that still build on the hieghtened natural senses barbarian if that is more important to the character concept than being a bear at will. No one will ever be able to take away your right to bear arms, and even if they do, you can just do it again with your next action.
I think a good part of what the feat is for is to answer "the Giant Barbarian gets to grow huge; the Dragon Barbarian gets to breathe fire, grow wings, and eventually actually transform into a dragon; so why shouldn't I be able to turn into a Bear?"
The issue is "what does 'turning into a Bear' actually do for you."
But you already turn into a bear anyway. Look at the detail of the instinct it says "Your Rage action gains the morph, primal, and transmutation traits."
So you don't especially need it for role playing reasons. You are already at least changing partially into a bear when you rage. Yes I know partial is not full but there is enough there if you want to role play it.
It is largely a mechanical benefit. If I did want those abilities I'd be looking at Ancestry and General feats for my options first.
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The elf turning into a bear happens to be a specific combo that grants no additional mechanical benefit, other than perhaps freeing the barbarian up to retrain a couple of feats if they want. I think most players would look at that specific combo and say, that feels like a waste. Just like a wizard who memorizes no spell attack roll spells and has no weapon spending first level spell slots on the true strike spell.
A player who’s grand ambition was to be an elf and always turn into a bear when fighting might choose it for the narrative of it. At the point you do, it probably makes sense to train out of some of the other feats it duplicates. If every feat had an obligation to add more power to a character, even if it mostly duplicates powers they already could have chosen through other feats, I think the game would suffer pretty intensely from power creep and bloat.
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I think a good part of what the feat is for is to answer "the Giant Barbarian gets to grow huge; the Dragon Barbarian gets to breathe fire, grow wings, and eventually actually transform into a dragon; so why shouldn't I be able to turn into a Bear?"
The issue is "what does 'turning into a Bear' actually do for you."
But you already turn into a bear anyway. Look at the detail of the instinct it says "Your Rage action gains the morph, primal, and transmutation traits."
So you don't especially need it for role playing reasons. You are already at least changing partially into a bear when you rage. Yes I know partial is not full but there is enough there if you want to role play it.
It is largely a mechanical benefit. If I did want those abilities I'd be looking at Ancestry and General feats for my options first.
Normally you would gain the aspects of a bear, so it's more like a Wearbear than a full bear. This feat actually turns you into a bear. Also, you gain the Animal Trait when you use Animal Rage, when otherwise you wouldn't.