Originally Posted by
rimble
Yeah, that Eladrin quote...I mean, without that comment I would have read them to act separately...
Since Repeaters don't have a damage stat, you need to be Mechanic I to add Int to it. Ok, no problem. So that means Insightful Damage is useful for replacing the Damage stat on melee weapons. That's cool, that's nice, I'll use it on my Artificer to Bludgeon/Slash things sometimes, but in no way implies any sort of stacking.
By adding that little 'These are different enough that they stack' it suddenly implies that Insightful Damage SHOULD work with crossbows, and SHOULD stack with Mechanic I.
So, some WAI clarification would be nice.
Even if they DO stack, by using Insightful Damage you're not using Deadly Weapons or whatever else is out there. Last I read that spell is intended to double your base damage dice I think...so a 2d8 Repeater is 4d8...an average of +9 damage? 3d8 Great Crossbow is 6d8, so +13.5 there. Using Insightful Damage instead would be a little more than that (less in the case of Great Crossbow obviously), but not some earth-shattering difference.
Heaven forbid the non Dwarf-Barbarians get something-something.