The part of Watcher of the Bruinen (WotB) that I'm asking about reads:

FORCED: After WotB defends, either discard it from play or discard 1 card from your hand.

If he defends and lives, he either is discarded or another card is discarded, player's choice -- that's easy.

If he defends and DIES, is his death enuf to satisfy the discard requirement, or is it necessary to discard another card from your hand becase he no longer is around to satisfy the first half of the "or" clause?

I definitely think it is. There's no reason to still have to discard a card if he dies. The only reason you'd discard a card is to keep him around after he defends and survives.

Yep, elves are buried without any loot.

He will die while defending and leave play before the end, so his trext would no longer be active.

Thanks for the responses! Don't get me wrong -- I want to agree with you all and my first inclination is to read the card that way, but I'm thinking the text DOES remain active because it got activated the moment WotB stepped up to defend, and is a cloud that doesn't get cleared away until something else is discarded, regardless of WotB fate.

Another way of phrasing the conundrum might be:

By committing to defense ("defends"), which happens before the enemy resolves its possibly fatal attack, does he trigger the FORCED clause, which then remains in effect until after the resolution of the combat regardless of outcome? OR

Does the FORCED take effect after the actual defense and combat resolution i.e. after he actually "defends" (and possibly dies, making the the clause moot becuase the card is no longer around)?

"Commiting" to defense is differents from defending (correct term is declaring). His wording is "after he defends" not "after he is declared as a defender" like gondorian spearman. He is defending during all the resolution of the attack. Moreover, the "after" should happen when he is no longer a dender, not when he just became a "defender" because defends is a verb... is that how you should read english ? I could be wrong, not my native language.

Thanks for the responses! Don't get me wrong -- I want to agree with you all and my first inclination is to read the card that way, but I'm thinking the text DOES remain active because it got activated the moment WotB stepped up to defend, and is a cloud that doesn't get cleared away until something else is discarded, regardless of WotB fate.

Another way of phrasing the conundrum might be:

By committing to defense ("defends"), which happens before the enemy resolves its possibly fatal attack, does he trigger the FORCED clause, which then remains in effect until after the resolution of the combat regardless of outcome? OR

Does the FORCED take effect after the actual defense and combat resolution i.e. after he actually "defends" (and possibly dies, making the the clause moot becuase the card is no longer around)?

The rulebook says:

Determine combat damage. This is done by subtracting the defense strength (Ú) of the defending character from the attack strength of the attacking enemy. The remaining value is the amount of damage that must immediately be dealt to the defending character, possibly destroying that character.

and:

For each point of damage dealt to a character or enemy, one damage token is placed on the character or enemy card. Each damage token on a hero, ally, or enemy card reduces that card’s hit points by 1. Damage tokens remain on a card until another effect heals or moves the damage off of the card, or until the card leaves play. Any time one of these cards has 0 hit points, it is immediately defeated. Defeated characters are placed in their owner’s discard pile, and defeated enemies are placed in the encounter discard pile.

The keyword immediatly is resolved before any after effects. The Watcher is thus already happily lying in your discard pile when his forced effect would trigger.

Thanks people! I can sleep easier now confident my hunch was correct all along...