Can a barbarian with a specialized Instinct choose to Rage instead of using their specialized Instinct Rage? Or must they use their Instinct Rage every time?
For example, say I'm an Animal Instinct Barbarian wielding a throwing weapon with Raging Thrower. I can't wield weapons when using Bestial Rage, but may still be able to do so if permitted to use standard Rage.
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Most instincts that alter the damage type of rage say that, "you can" change the damage to a new, bigger bonus (although your base rage damage bonus doesn't scale when you get weapon specialization, so this eventually has limited utility). Animal instinct does not. If you're looking for a ranged attack to use while raging as a animal barbarian, you'll need to pick up a ranged natural attack like a Leshy's seedpod or a Kitsune's Foxfire.
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There isn't an "Instinct Rage". There is just Rage.
Each Instict changes how Rage works for the character. "When raging, ..." and "your Rage action gains the trait ..." But it doesn't create a separate Rage action that you can use.
As for Animal Instinct and Raging Thrower, I don't have many suggestions. All I can say is that not all Barbarian Feats are applicable to every type of Barbarian. As another example, Scouring Rage can't be used by Bloodrager or Fury Instinct Barbarians (though at least they warn of that in the requirements of the Feat).
Those first two answers seem somewhat contradictory. Any tie breakers out there with relevant rule sources?
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Those first two answers seem somewhat contradictory. Any tie breakers out there with relevant rule sources?
I don't see a contradiction between what I said and what Finian said? But for a textual source
Instinct Ability—Bestial Rage
While raging, you gain your chosen animal’s unarmed attack (or attacks), but you’re unable to use weapons...
Vs.
Instinct Ability—Spirit Rage
When you rage, you can increase the additional damage from Rage from 2 to 3 and change its damage type to spirit...
Some instincts allow you to forgo the damage type change of their instinct abilities if you give up the damage increase as well. Animal instinct doesn't do anything like that.
I'm not able to cite rules that don't exist. So I can't quote where the rules don't ever create an "Instinct Rage" action.
I can and did note where the wording of the Instinct ability modifies the existing Rage action. I don't think that the modifications are optional other than, as Squark mentions, where the ability itself says that parts of it are optional.
Which contradiction do you see ?
It looked to me like one was saying you MUST use the instinct's modified rage and the other that it was optional, therefore allowing base rage (save animal instinct, since it appears to lack similar permissive verbiage as other instincts).
I was intending the examples of a Dragon or Spirit Barbarian's damage increase to show that abilities from your instinct are explicit about when they are optional. Sorry for the confusion.
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RE: the mention of flying enemies, which I assume is why you'd want to not use the animal weapon.
This has been a pain point for an animal instinct barbarian I have GM'ed for. As far as I can tell outside of Squark's suggestion to use ancestral unarmed attacks, there's no inbuilt way to resolve it that isn't the usual ready if they get in to range or relying on teammates.
A solution I allowed was disregarding Oversized Throw counting as a weapon, which gave them a reasonable enough backup, albeit at the cost of a feat. Had they wanted another level 4 feat this might not have been as appealing.
RE: the mention of flying enemies, which I assume is why you'd want to not use the animal weapon.
This has been a pain point for an animal instinct barbarian I have GM'ed for. As far as I can tell outside of Squark's suggestion to use ancestral unarmed attacks, there's no inbuilt way to resolve it that isn't the usual ready if they get in to range or relying on teammates.
A solution I allowed was disregarding Oversized Throw counting as a weapon, which gave them a reasonable enough backup, albeit at the cost of a feat. Had they wanted another level 4 feat this might not have been as appealing.
"You just said 'no weapons'."
"That wasn't a weapon. That was a chair."
"Well then! Give me a chair!"
Quoting the professors Foglio aside, I'd endorse this as a solution