We played a game last night and the elf player was attacked by the philosopher. They had a hefty debate about spells that states "cast as you are about to engage in battle" (in this particular case, Summon Phoenix). Player1 said that player2 had to cast Summon Phoenix before he himself (P1) had started boosting his strength. P2 said that it was not required as the text read "Cast as you are about to engage in battle" and thus didn't specifically state that he had to cast it the very first thing.
Player2 cast Summon Phoenix after player1 had used up all strength boosting abilities, but BEFORE P2 himself rolled any dice. I need clarification as neither of the players trusted me nor each other.

Question: Can a player wait until the other player has finished messing around with the states and then cast "Summon X" (obviously before any dice are rolled, I can imagine) or does the "Summon X" spell have to be tossed out ASAP?

Any help settling this feud is appreciated

Pengy said:

You may cast Summon Bear, Summon Phoenix, Summon Serpent and Summon Stormcrow at any time up until the attack rolls are made.

Ell.

there are similar posts about casting spell, but this one seems simple.

IMO, player 2 can cast summon phoenix after player one uses energize (or another spell). why not? pl. 1 attack, pl.2 don't evade, so pl.1 cast his spell and pl.2 cast his own spell. spells are casted before roll dices, so no problem here.

Thank you for the clarification. This will help quieting down one of the players. What a poor loser, hee hee!

Timing causes a lot of potential headaches. As per other threads, as I’ve said, we go last in first out. Meaning…

Player 1 = I’m not casting spells.
Player 2 = I’m casting spell A.
Player 1 = Yeah, well I’m casting spell B.
Player 2 = Then I’m casting spell C.
Player 1 = It’s your turn, I can only cast 1 spell.
Player 2 = Then I’m done too.

Spell order resolved = C, B, A.

Even if it’s wrong, it’s nice and simple and prevents our heads from exploding from all the arguing. And, as was said before, it’s not a “Fred Flintstone fight” i.e. you hit me, I hit you, you hit me, I hit you… but spells are flying everywhere, it’s chaotic. But that’s just me.

From the Unofficial FAQ, sourced as official (so I did read it here somewhere and it was directly from JG):

"As a general rule, any effects or abilities that allow a character to evade must be resolved first,
before any other Spells or abilities are used. You cannot for example, cast Finger of Death on
your opponent and then cast Cloak of Shadows to evade him"

So I think it's legal to have:

A attacks B

A boosts his strength

B summons a bear

A swears as he realizes he wasted a spell

But not legal to have:

A attacks B

B waits to see if A is going to use items or spells

A indeed does

B uses a spell to evade A