Camarath said:
In that case I don’t see how you can make definitive claims about how the feat should work when the official (published/errata) version of the feat is not compatible with your assertion of how the feat should work.
What it literally says is an amount of damage much larger than the totals that I was arguing about with Hypersmurf.
It
says that the damage should be 1d12+14 damage with that Greataxe.
The author and Skip Williams have both said that that is more than it is supposed to inflict. They disagree about whether it should be 1d12+8 or 1d12+10.
And that's where all of the crazy comes in. Sword and Fist, even with errata, doesn't actually say what it is supposed to. If you want it to work at all, you sort of have to hand wave and use Natural English and your impression of their intentions.
The classic example is the Knockdown feat. As written, there is no point in this feat at all, as it just allows you to take your regular attack from Improved Trip
before the Trip attack (which is the wrong order because the normal attack is less likely to hit and gives no bonus to the trip). The author
clarified that it was supposed to render you immune to being counter tripped (as you were just knocking them over instead of actively tripping them up). It doesn't say that. But that's how we play it, because that's how it is
supposed to be played.
And that's how everything in Sword and Fist needs to be read - with
telepathy, because the information sure isn't on paper.
And that's why there's argument. Our telepathic impressions are telling us that the amount of damage inflicted is supposed to be less than what is literally printed. How much less is open for discussion. Join in!
-Frank