Quote from Ophidimancer >>

I'd think you can use clawed hands to grapple.

 Incorrect.

With Extra Attacks you get two attacks with your Attack action. If at least one of them is a claw you get a third attack that must be a claw. That leaves one attack out of the three that can be a grapple or attack with a Great Axe or whatever. But two of them must be claws. 

No specific meaning to "Cheddarmoosing" beyond it being a Yureism.  Yes, a lot of the funky janky weapon-dancy stancy things people're suggesting in this thread are basically loopholing the rules, almost all with the intent of MOAR DAMAJ rather than any real strategy.  Let's be realistic - two-fisting a Versatile weapon for a d10 damage then pulling a hand off it for two claw attacks is not a "cool strategic trick" more than once.  After that it's just re-optimizing the math, and the "one axe, two claw" formula becomes a staid and boring as "two axe" because it's the new Standard Damaj Rota - the thing you do when you want deepz.  No reason to do anything else.

Same with the other weapons.  People've had the option to do "strategic" combat with a face-mounted shortsword on the Lizardfolk for ages.  Same deal as the Beast bite - bunch of face-mounted damage that frees up a hand to do janky stuff with while maintaining the shield.  Nothing's ever come of it.  The tail is just stupid in that it is definitively better than any other "weapon" attack in the game, hands down and bar none.  Highest damage dice, Reach, no lance-style close-range disadvantage, magical damage after level 6, completely hands-free operation.  Absent funky magic-weapon effects or feats a Butt Pike barbarian has no business taking, there is no reason to ever use any other weapon, ever.  

Ever.

It's obnoxious, and in my eyes honestly detracts a little bit from the whole Tactical Gameplan Element you're going for.

Quote from V2Blast >>

Quote from Save_Versus >>

I just bought the Xanathar's Guide to Everything Else from the DM's Guild today. Saw the Noble Genie Warlock and Mercy Monk.

Does WotC crib stuff from their Guild Adept files? Makes me wary to make more purchases if I'm just going to see stuff in a hardcover later.

 Xanathar's Lost Notes to Everything Else is a homebrew product. There is no Way of Mercy monk in it (only a Way of Atonement and a Way of Empahty). There is a "Noble Genie" warlock patron in it, but aside from the name, it has nothing in common with this UA either. (Also note that none of the authors on Xanathar's Lost Notes to Everything Else is credited for this UA.)

 Ok, thanks.

Way of Empathy and Mercy seemed similar enough to me that I thought they might be work shopped from similar beginnings. Also thought I remembered a healing monk from an earlier UA.

And Noble Genie seemed to too unique to be a coincidence.

Quote from VikingEric >>

Quote from Ophidimancer >>

I'd think you can use clawed hands to grapple.

 Incorrect.

With Extra Attacks you get two attacks with your Attack action. If at least one of them is a claw you get a third attack that must be a claw. That leaves one attack out of the three that can be a grapple or attack with a Great Axe or whatever. But two of them must be claws. 

You're speaking very authoritatively about this, but I think a grapple attempt with said claws still counts as a claw attack and thus activates the clauses that trigger an extra claw attack and can also be replaced with grapple or shove attempts within the rules. In short, I respectfully disagree. 

Quote from Ophidimancer >>

Quote from VikingEric >>

Quote from Ophidimancer >>

I'd think you can use clawed hands to grapple.

 Incorrect.

With Extra Attacks you get two attacks with your Attack action. If at least one of them is a claw you get a third attack that must be a claw. That leaves one attack out of the three that can be a grapple or attack with a Great Axe or whatever. But two of them must be claws. 

You're speaking very authoritatively about this, but I think a grapple attempt with said claws still counts as a claw attack and thus activates the clauses that trigger an extra claw attack and can also be replaced with grapple or shove attempts within the rules. In short, I respectfully disagree. 

I mean that's how the ability is written. It doesn't really leave it grey. You can run it differently if you want, but that's not how it's written. 

Werewolf barbarian does nothing for me really.  The monk looks interesting, but it's still a monk.  The paladin looks flavorful and interesting....if you run into a lot of planar enemies.  Too niche for me really.  Genie warlock looks solid, that's pretty interesting.

Quote from VikingEric >>

Quote from Ophidimancer >>

Quote from VikingEric >>

Quote from Ophidimancer >>

I'd think you can use clawed hands to grapple.

 Incorrect.

With Extra Attacks you get two attacks with your Attack action. If at least one of them is a claw you get a third attack that must be a claw. That leaves one attack out of the three that can be a grapple or attack with a Great Axe or whatever. But two of them must be claws. 

You're speaking very authoritatively about this, but I think a grapple attempt with said claws still counts as a claw attack and thus activates the clauses that trigger an extra claw attack and can also be replaced with grapple or shove attempts within the rules. In short, I respectfully disagree. 

I mean that's how the ability is written. It doesn't really leave it grey. You can run it differently if you want, but that's not how it's written. 

 ^^ this seems right to me.  You sacrifice an attack to grapple, not make and attack and get a free grapple.  You can grab or you can slash with your wolverine claws.  You can't do both.

I agree, one attack of whatever you want, and 2 claws.

I was just saying it would be nice to use the tail to grapple enemies, and would likely allow it in my games if a player asked.

"Claws. Your hands transform into claws, which deal 1d6 slashing damage on a hit. When you take the Attack action on your turn and make an attack with your claws, you can make one additional attack using your claws as part of the same action."

"When you want to grab a creature or wrestle with it, you can use the Attack action to make a special melee attack, a grapple. If you're able to make multiple attacks with the Attack action, this attack replaces one of them. The target of your grapple must be no more than one size larger than you and must be within your reach. Using at least one free hand, you try to seize the target by making a grapple check ..."

The way I see it, claw attacks are attacks made with the Attack action and also count as a free hand. Meaning that a level 5 Beastbarian can use their Attack action to grapple, shove prone, and then slash with their claws in one turn. I don't see any contradiction because grappling with your clawed hands is still a melee attack made with your claws, so it triggers the extra claw attack, which can be another grapple or a shove.

Dan Dillon says that's wrong

"It can be an attack with your claws and nothing else. Grapple and shove aren’t attacks with the claws, they’re special attacks that take the place of an attack you could make during the Attack action."

https://twitter.com/Dan_Dillon_1/status/1220198359698247680?s=19

Hmm .. ok. Disappointing. I thought it could lead to some interesting and yet still bestial tactics.

In any event, when you gain the Extra Attack feature, the claws still allow you to make two claw attacks and grapple with your other attack.  That's still nothing to sneeze at.

Also just to make sure I'm understanding this correctly, having the claws and Extra Attack allows you to make a maximum of 3 attacks with that action, right?  That's my understanding from reading it, but I would appreciate if there are any rules lawyers who can who can confirm that or not.

i will object and say that the tail will have lower average damage than 2d6 damage weapons and that reach usualy does not matter much, but i see where you are going from, damage should be nerfed. Also an single tail attack with two handaxe attacks is still better than two tail attacks considering rage damage

Quote from Mezzurah >>

In any event, when you gain the Extra Attack feature, the claws still allow you to make two claw attacks and grapple with your other attack.  That's still nothing to sneeze at.

Also just to make sure I'm understanding this correctly, having the claws and Extra Attack allows you to make a maximum of 3 attacks with that action, right?  That's my understanding from reading it, but I would appreciate if there are any rules lawyers who can who can confirm that or not.

 yes, as long as you make at least one claw attack using your extra attack, you get one additional attack, so you could make one weapon attack followed by two claw attacks, assuming you have the claw attack to begin with. I wonder how this works with hunter ranger features....

Quote from ArtificeMeal >>

i will object and say that the tail will have lower average damage than 2d6 damage weapons and that reach usualy does not matter much, but i see where you are going from, damage should be nerfed. Also an single tail attack with two handaxe attacks is still better than two tail attacks considering rage damage

 I disagree. This is a subclass feature we are talking about. Every one of the options should be demonstrably better than base line martial weapons. I'm ok with the Great Weapon Master Feat or Legendary Class weapons being better than the Beast Weapons but those are either 'Additional investment' in the case of the feat or meant to be OP in the case of Legendary stuff. The amount of versatility on the tail with a 1d12 dmg die and the option of a shield and a free hand makes it on paper one of the best baseline weapons in the game and given that it's tied to a subclass choice and can't benefit from magical enhancements, I do not see any problem balance wise.

Thanks, I thought as much.  Just wanted to be sure in case someone tries to argue extra attack bumps that number to 4 claw attacks rather than 3.

Quote from ArtificeMeal >>

i will object and say that the tail will have lower average damage than 2d6 damage weapons and that reach usualy does not matter much, but i see where you are going from, damage should be nerfed. Also an single tail attack with two handaxe attacks is still better than two tail attacks considering rage damage

The first point may be true in a vacuum and it might give you 1 more point of damage on average per round, but getting opportunity attacks from 10' will be adding to your overall damage more than you're giving it credit for and d12 criticals are going to way outshine those d6's.

to the second point, tail+2 handaxes will only a little better. Only about 3.5 more damage per round if every hit succeeds. but the criticals will still make this less desirable overall and again, personally I've seen reach make a lot of difference in a fight.

The  thrown handaxe, claw, claw, twf handaxe is still the best option from a damage output scenario if you're just whitewall comparing numbers but it's only about .5 over going greataxe, claw, claw (which is dead even for damage with a totem barb with PAM) and it leaves your bonus action free for something else if you can do it. 

The other thing people are forgetting in this whole "reach doesn't matter, don't nerf muh tail!" discussion is that the tail can attack through your allies.  Or over them, in this case.

How often has your party been caught in tight quarters, where only one or two characters can physically reach their attackers?  Or been intercepted one body shy of the caster in the back, caught by a bodyguard they can't get past?  Reach means it stops mattering; the Butt Stinger can bypass the fighter in the front to hit whatever your real target is.  Handaxes don't get to do that more'n once per handaxe, and even then the target gets a cover bonus.

Raw deeps math only tells part of the story.

The bite is honestly, pretty cool, but not OP. Until you get infinite rages, at which point it becomes stupid bag of rats-able for infinite hp. The claws are... overrated in my opinion. They are cool, but I would consider them similar to the Zealot Barbarian's damage boost. The tail is cool, but it is not that good. It has reach, which is nice, and you can wield a shield while using it. You are also unable to get any benefits of things like GWM, the great weapon fighting style, or other things that makes big weapons better. I still maintain: This is a psionic barbarian subclass. The "lycanthrope" flavor they are putting in is just because it is an easier concept to initially swallow, but the abilities reflect a psionic barbarian much better.