In a recent game we had this situation.

Wizard with 2 lives lands on another player, also with 2 lives. The Wizard declares psychic combat and casts Soul Shatter to do 2 lives of damage.

The other character has Fiery Retribution and casts it to do 2 lives of damage back.

The Wizard players firmly believes that Soul Shatter is outside of combat and therefore the other player was not 'defeated' and cannot cast Fiery Retribution. The second player believes that an attack must be declared and Soul Shatter is cast as part of the Cast Spells step and even though it ends there, it was still an attack and they can cast Fiery Retribution.

Who's correct?

Thank you in advance.

Soul Shatter can only be cast as part of Psychic Combat. It cannot be cast otherwise. Even though it is cast before the combat roll, it is still part of the overall combat. Therefore Fiery Retribution may be cast. Both characters were killed.

Why? - Of course you have to start the psychic combat in order to cast "Soul Shatter", but the condition of "Fiery Retribution" is that the character in question was defeated in the battle / psychic combat and not killed by other effects during said ordeal.

And that's the big question. When does combat start?

It seems that when you land on a space with another character, you have a choice of interact with the space or the character? If you choose the character, then you're in combat. Is being killed considered 'defeated'? I seem to think so.

The digital version starts combat immediately and then all spells are cast during the combat.

Is that correct though?

Again, I don't think that's the point / the thing that's unclear here - In any case,
we are in psychic combat when the Wizard casts "Soul Shatter" , otherwise, he
couldn't use it in the first place.

However, the base rule book says a battle / psychic combat has the following steps:
"1" Evade ; "2" Cast Spells ; "3" Determine Attack Rolls ; "4" Compare Attack Scores and "5" Claim Reward .

It also says that winner and loser are determined at the end of step "4" .


In the scenario you described, the Wizard casts his spell in step "2" , after which the other character
immediately dies. Which is why I'd say that "Fiery Retribution" is of no use here, as the character
in question has not yet been defeated.

2 hours ago, Lorinor said:

Again, I don't think that's the point / the thing that's unclear here - In any case,
we are in psychic combat when the Wizard casts "Soul Shatter" , otherwise, he
couldn't use it in the first place.

However, the base rule book says a battle / psychic combat has the following steps:
"1" Evade ; "2" Cast Spells ; "3" Determine Attack Rolls ; "4" Compare Attack Scores and "5" Claim Reward .

It also says that winner and loser are determined at the end of step "4" .


In the scenario you described, the Wizard casts his spell in step "2" , after which the other character
immediately dies. Which is why I'd say that "Fiery Retribution" is of no use here, as the character
in question has not yet been defeated.

To be honest, I had this exact same thought after I posted my previous response. But I was too lazy to go back and change it.

This is the correct answer.

Soul Shatter takes effect at phase 2 of psychic combat. The player is killed before phase 4 of psychic combat occurs, therefore Fiery Retribution cannot be cast!