I have Dragon Sight and Orell. I declare a challenge. My opponent declares one defender. I declare now Orell as attacker. Is the challenge now unopposed? Would I now even win the challenge if the character declared by my opponent had higher STR than Orell? Or does Orell only force my opponent to declare two defenders if I don't have Dragon Sight?

mischraum.de said:

Orell:

" While Orell the Eagle is attacking, opponents must declare at least 2 defenders in order to defend the challenge."

Dragon Sight:

"If if is Summer, when you declare a challenge type, your opponent must declare defenders before you declare attackers. The opportunity for your opponent to declare defenders after you declare attackers is lost."

If your opponent only declared one defender and then you delcare Orell as an attacker, you will win the challenge unopposed. Your opponent's character's strength doesn't matter as your opponent "must declare at least 2 defenders in order to the defend the challenge." In general, if you can't defend a challenge, then the attacker wins the challenge unopposed.

Now, here is where things get a bit hazy for me. What I'm not to certain of is whether or not you would automatically win if you declared Orell as an attacker, regardless of how many characters your opponent declared as defenders. Orell's ability/restriction only kicks in when he is attacking. With Dragon Sight in play your opponent declares defenders before you declare attackers; so Orell won't be attacking when your opponent declares his/her defenders. Once you declare Orell as an attacker, "opponents must declare 2 defenders in order to defend the challenge;" however, Dragon Sight says, "The opportunity for your opponent to declare defenders after you declare attackers is lost.

It seems like Orell requires your opponent to declare more defenders after already doing so, but he or she can't because of Dragon Sight's restriction. I may be wrong about this, but it looks like it doesn't matter how many characters your opponent declares as defenders. As long as you attack with Orell, you'll win the challenge unopposed. Am I right?

Sorry, FATMOUSE, but I think you're wrong. Orell places a condition on your opponent's declaration of defenders while he is attacking. His ability doesn't say anything about determining the winner of the challenge. With Dragon Sight out, your opponent gets to declare defenders before Orell is declared as an attacker so his condition on declaration of defenders will not be in effect until it's too late. In short, Dragon Sight makes Orell's ability useless.

BTW if you manage to kill one of the two declared defenders before challenge resolution, the challenge is still opposed, right?

Oi.

Schrecklich has the right of this one. It is no different than, say, having Dragon Sight and Queen Dany's Horde on the table.

As Schrecklich says, the condition that Orell (or QDH) places on the opponent only applies when he is attacking ! At the time that defenders are declared (thanks to Dragon Sight), he isn't attacking, so the requirement to declare at least 2 defenders doesn't apply. As the defender, I can declare whatever and whomever I want as defenders because Orell isn't restricting me in any way.

And, once Orell is declared (after I have declared my single defender), it is actually too late for him to affect my choices. He only puts limitations on who can be declared as a defender, not on who actually defends or counts their STR. He doesn't remove anyone from the challenge. He doesn't say anything about counting STR or challenge resolution. We end up back to the old maxim that "once a character is defending, it cannot stop defending unless it is specifically removed from the challenge, or from play." Orell doesn't do any of these things. (And yes, Rogue - if in a normal situation I declare 2 defenders against Orell and you kill one, the remaining one is still defending - and opposing - the challenge because he was declared legally).

So, Dragon Site essentially make Orell's ability not work for you - just like it makes QDH and even Stealth no work for you.

I figured there was a decent chance I was wrong, lol. Thanks for clearing things up schrecklich and ktom