Zombified piglin base damage is too high since 12w32a

History

Prior to 12w32a, zombie pigmen dealt 2.5 hearts of damage on normal difficulty. This is pretty close to the 2 hearts of damage dealt by a player with a golden sword, signaling they are intended to match.

In 12w32a, the golden sword wielded by a zombie pigman became a real item. Additionally, mob-wielded weapons began adding their damage to the wielder. The zombie pigman’s base damage was not lowered to compensate. This unintentionally buffed zombie pigmen, increasing their damage by an additional 2 hearts, to a total of 4.5.

In 13w21a, the attack damage attribute was added. This made the damage of weapons additive for players, just like they were for mobs. This unintentionally increased the damage of all weapons by 0.5 hearts when used by the player.

In 15w35a, the extra damage was corrected by lowering the attack damage attribute for all weapons. This affected both players and mobs, reducing zombie pigmen’s damage to 4 hearts.

It remains at 4 hearts of damage to this day.

I believe that the buff in 12w32a and slight nerf in 15w35a were unintended side-effects of other changes, since neither were mentioned in their respective changelogs. Neither the attack value of zombie pigmen nor the attack value of golden swords has ever changed in Minecraft’s history; they have always been 2.5 hearts and 2 hearts respectively. The way in which these values combine to form the final damage has unintentionally changed twice.

Therefore I conclude that the intended damage of zombified piglin remains at 2.5 hearts, and it has been higher than intended since 12w32a.

How to reproduce

1. Be in normal difficulty

2. Spawn a zombified piglin

3. Get hit by it

Expected behavior

You take 2.5 hearts of damage

Observed behavior

You take 4 hearts of damage