OK an interesting question came up last night. A player was fighting the Dragon Toad (not the Nether Realm one, but the regular one) and set a bear follower to fight it. Dragon Toad states:

If your attack roll is lower than the Dragon’s attack roll, you are turned into a Toad for 3 turns after the battle is resolved.

The Player states the Bear is targeted but not the character, the player rolling for the enemy says no. My 1st thought is, the bear is confronting the enemy and thus all effects are on it and the character avoids it, but a thought comes to me, what about fate?

If the followers are distinctly targeted by such and not the character, then wouldn't the reverse be true with fate? This got me thinking about how enemies can't be fated, and maybe followers can't either.

In the end I shared if the character is not affected by the Dragon Toad then there will be no more fating followers in combat.

The other players still playing agreed. But I am not so sure. Have I missed a rule somewhere?

The bear is targeted. This is covered in the FAQ.

Using followers etc to fight in your place does not remove your right to fate the attack roll.

So the 2 ideas are not connected. Ok thanks!

Talisman FAQ 1.1

If a card fights in a character’s place and loses a battle or

psychic combat against a creature, the character does not lose

a life or suffer any other effects. However, the character’s turn

still immediately ends after the fight is resolved.

Exactly:)

No source on the second statement but there is nothing that indicates that any ruling like that should be made.

The rules for Light and Dark fate included in the Woodland Rulebook expand fate rules a bit. Still they don't cover Cards that fight in your place.

However, the clarification paragraphs in the FAQ seems to state a general concept: when you use these cards, you get the normal rewards if you win the attack and have no penalties if you lose. There are no rules for what happens during combat, including the use of fate, or casting Spells such as Bolster.

I probably think all of this should not be allowed: no fate reroll and no Spells that affect the caster can be used when a card fights in your place.

This doesn't come up very often, because such cards are normally used when you don't want to lose an attack, not for winning.