Yeah, powered gauntlets are brutal!
I remember being at low health at one point with no quartz flasks, low on ammo and lots of enemies to fight. Almost as a joke, fully expecting to die horribly, I used a tome of power, got out the gauntlets, and went nuts. Next thing I remember, I was at full health and everything was dead.
As for the low damage on weapons – I think it’s just a matter of perspective. All numbers are completely arbitrary until they’re compared to another number. You’re not fighting Doom enemies with their stats – you’re fighting Heretic enemies with their stats. If you fiddled with the code you could just as easily rebalance the enemies as you could the weapons and get the same effect.
