One of the group I play with came up with a unique interpretation of how Shields and the Ambidexterity card work together, and I can't find an explicitly worded point in the rules to prove what I see as the proper usage.

It is my contention that an item which requires exhaustion to take effect is only in use at the point when you exhaust it, thereby allowing your shield to absorb one extra wound level when you apply it. It is his counter-contention that merely equipping the shield counts as using it, therefore whenever you have the shield equipped, you get a free point of armor from having the Ambidexterity card.

Unfortunately, there is not a clear and explicit statement of what is considered using an item in the rules, so he and I still go around on the issue. Can any one point me to an FAQ or rules point where this can be cleared up without any further grey area?

Osgrey said:

Sorry, but your player is wrong. And this doesn't require a FAQ or rules point, the cards themselves are enough.

1) Ambidextrous says nothing about armor anywhere on the card, so how could it possibly be giving an extra point of armor? It does exactly what it says, which is allows shields to cancel an extra wound.

2) Shield are not armor. I don't have ToI, but with none of the Shields (with the very specific exception of Skull Shield for Blast, Bolt or Breath) grant any kind of armor bonus, so where would he even have gotten an "extra point of armor"? Preventing an extra wound in no way translates directly to an extra armor point

3) Equipping a shield does not count as using it. If he wants to use that logic, tell him every time he equips a potion he just used it and its gone. You have to exhaust a shield to perform the action, aka USE IT .

I'd love to see what he thinks are the rules passages that support his argument and DO NOT give in to him on this point. He doesn't like it, too bad. Tell him to go learn the rules better and then come back.

Sorry, I should have said 'You effectively get a free point of armor.' It wasn't that he thought it bumped his armor rating, just that you always got the bonus even if you weren't activating it. The points you've made are the essentially the same points I brought up when we discussed it, so I'm not sure if this backing will help my case. Hopefully, though, it will prove enough.

Thanks for your assistance and input.

Just phrase it like this:

The shield says "exhaust to cancel 1 wound dealt". All ambidextrous does is add "exhaust to cancel 2 wounds dealt". You still need to exhaust the shield.

Hope he come's 'round

Osgrey said:

This is what you need.

Ambidextrous
...In addition, each time you use a Shield, it cancels 1 additional wound.

In order for the shield to get an ambidextrous bonus, it must be preventing a wound in the first place. The use of the word 'additional' indicates that some prevention must be taking place in the first place, or else it would not be 'additional' prevention. The only time that using a shield cancels a wound is when it is exhausted. The rest of the time although you could arguably (fairly tenously, but arguably) be using it, but it is not actually cancelling any wounds. Even an armour bonus from a Skull Shield does not cancel wounds (it instead reduces the number of damage converted to wounds, which is not the same thing as cancelling a wound).

That should hopefully take care of it. Thank you for all the input.