I was just reading through the rules and wanted to double check something. I have a character with Claws, that say they deal +1 damage. That same character also has a Vibro Knuckler. I took the vibro weapon for the increased crit rating, but figured it's damage probably wouldn't stack with the claws.

I was just reading through the rules however, and technically the wording is "When a Trandoshan makes Brawl checks to deal damage to an opponent, he deals +1 damage and has a Critical Rating of 3." The rule gives no allowances for brawling weapons, it just says add one damage to any brawl check.

What do people think, does this damage stack or not? Like I said, my first inclination is probably not, but the RAW appears to have the damage stack.

Of course the RAW also just says the crit is automatically set to 3, ignoring any brawl weapons again, which is worse. They really should have worded it "When a Trandoshan uses their claws to make a Brawl check..."

Attacks aren't meant to represent a single strike but a series of blows and strikes delivered in a fusillade, so I'd just add it all up.

I suspect the line in the Trandoshans is referring to Unarmed Combat specifically.

EoE pg 211

Unlike other combat skills, the Brawl skill is designed to be used independently of any weapons (although there are some weapons that can be used in conjunction with the Brawl skill).

When making an unarmed combat check using Brawl, the character's attack has a base damage of his Brawn rating, a range of engaged, a Critical Rating of 5, and the Disorient 1 and Knockdown qualities. Finally, when making a Brawl attack, the attacker can choose to deal damage to the target's strain threshold instead of its wound threshold, still reducing the damage by the target's soak.

Unlike other weapons, Brawl weapons augment this basic attack. Brawl weapons can add damage to this attack (as indicated in the Brawl profile on page 166), and may have an improved Critical Rating and additional weapon qualities. When using a Brawl weapon, the user can choose to use its Critical Rating instead of the standard Brawl Critical Rating. He also adds the additional weapon qualities to the qualities already provided by the Brawl attack. If the weapon provides an improved version of an existing quality, the character uses the improved version.

I wouldn't add them together, but if you wanted to use the Two Weapon Combat rules to try and land 2 hits it would mean the second hit from the Trandoshan Claws would be a bit more potent.

I wouldn't add them together, but if you wanted to use the Two Weapon Combat rules to try and land 2 hits it would mean the second hit from the Trandoshan Claws would be a bit more potent.

You know, I'd never thought of using Two-Weapon rules for Brawling, but I guess it's perfectly doable.

Yep. Personally i think its one of the best uses

Yeah, I wouldn't let Trandoshan claws and vibro-knucklers stack their damage.

Part of the point of Brawl-based attacks is that while they're generally not the best option, they are readily available and Brawl-based weapons don't raise nearly as many eyebrows as walking around with a heavy blaster pistol or vibro-ax would, especially in more civilized regions of the galaxy. And even then, they're very easy to hide as they generally have an Encumbrance value of 1.

" When a Trandoshan makes Brawl checks to deal damage to an opponent, he deals +1 damage and has a Critical Rating of 3." To make this more confusing, if a Trandoshan is wearing backhand shock gloves are we saying that the claws wouldn't hit if you are using gloves ?! That also seems like a stretch.