I posted this thread a long time ago but it didn't seem to get any traction. I'm hoping maybe Larian at least sees this as they're finishing up the final touches on the game.
Barbarians should still be able to apply their Rage damage to Unarmed Strikes. They technically deal 1 damage, but that 1 damage is treated as a D1.
Mathematically, an unarmed strike from a raging Barbarian should be working as follows:
1D1 + 3 (16 Strength) +2 Rage bonus
6 Damage per hit, not just a default 1.
Obviously not the ideal way to play, but thematic at the very least given any situation you're unarmed/choose not to use a weapon.
In addition, Frenzied Strike currently states "As a bonus action, make a melee attack with your equipped weapon, dealing Weapon Damage slashing damage.". Would love to see this changed to say "Make a melee attack", rather than specify you must have a weapon equipped.
Tabletop once again states "Starting when you choose this path at 3rd level, you can go into a frenzy when you rage. If you do so, for the duration of your rage you can make a single melee weapon attack as a bonus action on each of your turns after this one."
The ruling technically states that a melee weapon attack does include Unarmed Attacks.
On top of this, seeing as the Barbarian already has the trait of "when raging you you deal extra damage with melee and improvised weapons", I would really like to see this include Unarmed attacks. There's no way a raging Barbarian does the same damage as a skinny Wizard with an unarmed attack.
Sorry for the long post! Just very enthusiastic about being able to angrily punch and throw some goblins around! At this point, I'm really hoping to play an unarmed character (that can rage), so here's hoping that Barbarian/Monk multiclassing traits work together somehow.
