If I attach it a Shadow's Blessingto the Northern Cavalry does it becomes CBK and CBD every turn?

Stannis's Northern Cavalry

No attachments. Deadly.
Stannis's Northern Cavalry cannot be killed or discarded from play during a phase in which its STR has been raised or lowered.

M,P

Shadow's Blessing

Attached character gets +2 STR while it has a icon.
Attached character gets -2 STR while it does not have a icon.

(3.11) Definition of Variables
Constant Abilities will constantly check and (if necessary) update the definition or count of their variables.

Masi said:

Well, first remember that you can't attach anything to the Northern Cavalry because of the "No Attachments" keyword. So it's not likely to come up very often.

To answer the "philosophical" question, no, the character does not become CBK and CBD in every phase after the attachment is played. This is because you have not actually raised or lowered the STR in every phase. You played one modifier which stayed in place, so the duration of the character's ability will reach its conclusion.

Look at it this way, if you say you'll pay me $5 every time I paint a room green and I paint the kitchen green on Saturday, do you owe me a second $5 on Sunday? The room is still painted green, but I didn't actually do anything the next day. The change I made on Saturday just stuck. That's the way it is with constant effects; they are applied the one time, then they just stick. The character's STR doesn't constantly switch back and forth between 3 and 5, a +2 modifier is added into all STR checks on the character.

So, if you were able to put the attachment on the character, it would be CBK/CBD until the end of the phase in which you played the attachment, but not after. If it lost a power icon, it would be CBK/CBD until the end of THAT phase because a -2 STR modifier kicked in, though.

The end result is that even if you are talking about constant effects, a character is only considered to have had its STR raised or lowered when a new STR modifier is applied.

if you were to remove then add a power icon it would get cbd and cbk everytime you did, right?

ktom said:

D'oh...

So the constant check of the continous effect doesn´t actually raise/low the STR after the first time it affect the Character?

Lars said:

Well, be careful about how you do it.

Say you play the attachment on the Army in Marshaling: It's CBK/CBD in Marshaling because a new +2 modifier is applied.

In the Challenge phase, you hit it with a "loses an icon until the end of the phase" effect: It's CBK/CBD in Challenges because the loss of an icon mean the +2 modifier is no longer applicable and a new -2 modifier is applied.

At the end of the Challenge phase, the icon comes back, the -2 is no longer applicable and a "new" +2 modifier is applied. But this is still technically within the Challenge phase, so come the start of Dominance, the character can be killed/discarded.

So yeah, juggling a power icon would continually apply new modifiers, but be careful of the timing for the "this phase" part of the Army's ability.

Masi said:

Correct. It isn't continually raising/lowering the STR.

The "constant check" is more of a "do I still apply?" than a "here, take another +2."

ktom said:

A little bit off topic, but not so much.

"Until the end of the phase" effects last until the "The ?%&=!!! phase ends" framwork action...or not?

I mean: when does the power icon, in the example, re-appears again...in that framework?

At the end of each phase, there is a Framework Action Window (game effect) that ends the phase. It is there almost entirely for these types of timing issues.

Remember that each action window (player or framework) is divided into the following sections:

I. Initiate (The player or game effect initiates, costs are paid, targets are chosen, etc.)

II. Save/Cancel (Interrupt anything that initiates in step I.)

III. Resolve (Anything that was initiated in step I actually happens)

IV. Passive (Any passive effect activated by anything that happens in steps I-III, or earlier in step IV)

V. Response (Non-save/cancel Responses to anything that happens in steps I-IV, or earlier in step V)

VI. End (Close the action window)

So, when a phase ends, it goes through those steps and the phase "officially" ends - as far as effects are concerned - in Step III. So anything that has a duration of "until the end of the phase" ends in Step III of the "End Phase" action window. Any passive that happens "at the end of the phase" happens in Step IV. So "until the end of the phase" will wear off before "at the end of the phase" happens.

BTW: There is a special rule for "end of phase" framework action windows. Players are not allowed to trigger Responses in them. Believe me, it saves a lot of headaches related to "until the end of the phase" Responses that are technically happening (step V) after the phase ends (step III) but before the next one starts. The downside is that all "at the end of the phase" effect essentially become "cannot be saved."