for those interested: i sent a mail to nathan, concerning some very specific questions.

1)

I got some questions concerning Dark Charm, Sahla and the Necromancer class:

Sahlas heroic feat lets him use some other players as if it were his own. Lets say he uses a necromancers "Fury of Undeath" which reads "activate YOUR reanimate". Sahla himself does not have a reanimate, does he still get to activate the skeleton? What about other cards concerning the reanimate such as Vampiric Blood or Undead Might, which always refer to "your" reanimate?

Would a Reanimate under the influece of Dark Charm attack with 3 dice (with vampiric blood) or with 2, since the overlord doesnt have access to the necromancers skills and at the moment the reanimate is one of HIS monsters?

How does this concern the beastmasters wolf, (in a situation where changing skins is exhaustesd)? the card reads "as long as this card is exhausted, each attack you or your wolf performs gains pierce, +5Damage" would this card still be triggering, whilst hero or wolf are under dark charm?

Answer:

If Sahla takes any skill other than the basic Necromancer skill, he will not have a Reanimate to use it with. The Necromancer’s reanimate does not become Sahla’s reanimate.

2)

when does a familiars turn end? with the end of its activation or with the end of the heroes turn? lets say the reanimate is immobilized - could i activate him, end its activation and discard the token, then activate him again with fury of the undeath and move him normally?

when a familiar performs a move action, does he lose all MP's at the end of its activation? or could i "spare" some mp's and use them anytime in the necromancers turn?

Answer:

It ends at the end of its activation for the purpose of end of turn effects.

3)

we encounterd a situation regarding the raven flock on which we would like clarification on: the summon card reads: "exhaust this card at the start of your turn and choose 1 monster. place 1 raven flock servant t oken in a space adjacent to that monster. then that monster suffers 4 damage."
would it be possible, when, at the start of my turn, a raven flock is on the board, to name it the monster for the ability, spawn the raven flock adjacent and be done with it? when a familiar reenters the board its not the same familiar anymore, but is treated as a new entity - aint? such as other familiars loosing all conditions, or lets say valor. so the new raven flock would not be the old and ergo not suffer the 4 damage?

the tactical benefit would be a heal on the raven flock + 1 space of movement into an adjacent space.

also i'd like to ask, whether when replaced by his summon ability the familiar keeps all his classcards played on him. technically he was never defeated, so cards like "ill omen" would stay on the board - then again its not the same familiar anymore...

i am confused =D

we realized there is a rule difference between rumor cards from Lair of the Wyrm and Manor of Ravens.

LotW reads: "If one or more Act I Quest cards are still in play immediately before playing the Interlude, the heroes must choose one of them to attempt (before proceeding to the Interlude). After completing this quest, all other available Act I Quest cards are discarded from the game without effect."
This directly contradicts the mechanic of the abilities of the Manor of Raven cards and from the character packs, which allow the OL to get the special rewards, when the quests were not picked until the interlude.
When playing with both versions, which rules should be followed?
Also what happens with quests, that are put into play during the travel step to the interlude?

Answer:

5)

When can an ability with the timing "during your turn" be activated? I encountered a poisened character, whichwas poisened. in the moment of "at the start of your turn" he drank an apothecaries potion and the apothecarie used his herbal lore skill, to let him discard a condition. technically he was "during his turn". The Golden rules section on page 18 of the rules of play book states: "timing conflicts may arise when two or more players wish to use an ability with the same triggering condition. In these situations, the current player decides the order in which the abilities are resolved."

Answer

Can he use his skill "soul siphon", to redirect the damage to the hulk? again this would be a timing conflict, enabling the OL to decide which abilty would be triggered when.

Answer:

The damage would be suffered first in order to place the ynfernal hulk, so you could not then place the damage on the hulk.

7)

I got a question with the wording of the card "rune of the phoenix". card reads: "discard this card when a monster in this group suffers damage equal to its health. that monster immediately recovers 5 damage"

lets say skarn has 20 damage on him and has a healthpool of 24, and the rune is played on him. when would it be discarded?
a) when he suffers 4 damage?
b) when he suffers any amount of damage, rendering him defeated?
c) when he suffers exactly 24 damage from 1 source?

Answer

When Skarn suffers a total amount of damage equal to the value of his Health (24) then Rune of the Phoenix would be discarded. Figures cannot suffer damage greater than their Health. So if something deals 6 damage when he had already suffered 20, he would suffer the damage, capping at 24, then discard the Rune of the Phoenix and recover the damage, reducing the damage suffered back down to 19.

8)

same question by the way would apply for verminous' plot deck, which works with monsters with 4 health or less. does this mean monsters which have a healthpool of 4 or less, or does it work with skarn, who has 4 health LEFT, from his 24?

Answer

When game text states “Health” it is referring to the printed value plus any bonuses. “Remaining Health” is Health minus damage suffered. So Verminous’ card would not work on a monster that has a printed Health of over 4 no matter how much damage they suffer.

9)

Syndraels Heroic feat reads "use during your turn to choose a hero within 3 spaces of you. you and that hero may each immediately perform a move action..." lets say syndrael descides to interrupt this action with an attack - would she safe the MP's gained this way and could spent them later in her turn?

Answer:

The chosen hero must immediately spend the movement points, but Syndrael does not need to spend them as it is “during her turn” that she uses this ability.

10)

the new marshal class from manor of ravens gave me some thinking: last stand reads: "exhaust this card when a hero within 5 spaces of you is knocked out. remove your figure from the map and place it in that hero's space. then you may perform an attack. when this card refreshes, you may revive 1 knocked out hero in your space." we encountered the situation, where a master-wraith used his reaper skill, to move into the space containing the knocked out hero. would last stand still be possible to active? where would the marshal be placed? does this placement count as entering spaces btw?

Answer

Golden rule would apply as to who would be able to use their ability first. The Marshal could still use Last Stand to place their figure in the closest empty space and perform the rest of the card, excluding the last bit if they cannot get back onto that space before they refresh their cards.

Thanks for posting those. The bit about the Dark Charmed Reanimate is consistent with a number of recent rulings that state that when an OL dark charms a hero, he does not gain the benefits of that heroes class skills whatsoever, whether or not they cost fatigue to activate. (I would maintain that if a DC hero attacked himself while adjacent to the shadow soul and took damage, he would take an additional damage since that's a monster suffering damage from an attack.)

Re: Skarn/Rune of the Phoenix - Where does he make this stuff up from? Where in the rules does it say that damage "caps" at your health limit? We already have an example (Ring of Power) where you can have more stamina than your stamina value.

I'm not saying that he's wrong, just that his ruling is not at all intuitive (intuitive would be that Skarn would be at 21 HP) and doesn't seem to be based on anything at all in the rules. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

Re: Skarn/Rune of the Phoenix - Where does he make this stuff up from? Where in the rules does it say that damage "caps" at your health limit? We already have an example (Ring of Power) where you can have more stamina than your stamina value.

I'm not saying that he's wrong, just that his ruling is not at all intuitive (intuitive would be that Skarn would be at 21 HP) and doesn't seem to be based on anything at all in the rules. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

No figure may suffer damage greater than its health, or fatigue greater than its stamina (see rulebook pg 13, in the respective paragraphs of "Damage and Health" and "Fatigue and Stamina.)" Some equipment can increase these properties- for example, the "Ring of Power" doesn't say "when you get a fatigue, you can put it on this card" (like the Workman's Ring,) but actually says "You gain +1 Stamina." That is, if your hero sheet says your stamina is 4, your stamina is now 5. Likewise, the "Leather Armor" adds "+1 Health." The statement about a figure not taking more damage than it has health still applies. Otherwise, you could have heroes that were "super dead," and that wouldn't make any sense. Say a hero has a health of 8, and has taken 7 damage. Now, it gets hit with a massive 9 damage attack from an Ettin. He's obviously knocked out, but does he put 16 damage tokens on his hero sheet? No, he puts just 8, because that's all the health he's got. When he recovers health from standing up, he removes that many tokens from 8, not from 16. The same thing happens with the phoenix rune, just immediately.

Thanks, Zaltyre! It's such an easy assumption that they don't know what they're talking about, rules-wise, that it's really good to know when I'm wrong. It still leads to bizarre and non-intuitive consequences in this case - Skarn is at 23 HP, I hit him for 5, he heals 4 rather than staying even? I hit him for 10, he only takes 1 of it? But at least it's based on an actual sentence from the rules.

The example with the ring of power was about LOSING the ring when you're at max stamina - thus leaving you with a 4 stamina character with 5 stamina tokens on his sheet.

Ah- ok. Yeah, the ring is tricky- but when you suffer the fatigue, you have the stamina to do so. Losing the ring doesn't drop you back down to 4 because you never actually suffered more than your stamina, your stamina just hasn't remained constant. It's a bit hairy.

In terms of Skarn, yeah it's a bit weird, but I think "no overkill damage" is a better policy than having heroes need to worry about taking multiple turns just to recover enough health to stand up. And aside from them, there aren't that many figures that regenerate. Most monsters (and lieutentents in almost all quests) are 1 shot deals.

Also, they definitely know what they're talking about- but they're also answering questions right and left, and regarding new content each time an expansion comes out, so there's lots to keep track of (granted, that comes with making expansion content.)

And regarding the point about the OL ignoring hero skills when Dark Charming- there is a potential exploit here:

Say a Necromancer has bought Undead Might (+2 health to the Reanimate,) and the reanimate has suffered 4 damage. If the OL DC's the Reanimate, if his attack pool loses the bonus provided by "Vampiric Blood," it follows that his Health would lose the bonus provided by "Undead Might," and the Reanimate would be immediately defeated. Same could be true of heroes who have a health bonus on skills.