last night i was playing the wizard strength 2 with sword (+1 strenght in battle) encountered the ecor, strength 2 if your strength is higher than 2 the ecor will run away one space clockwise. can i decide not to use the sword in combat engage in combat then cast energise, (double your strength value) would the ecor then run away of would we fight my now 4 strenght to its 2 as the evade did not happen at the start?

and can a character choose not to wear/use armour or weapons in any combat such as in highland where if wearing armour you loose a life?

ososober said:

Cards such as Storm Caller take 1 Life because you possess an Armour Object, no matter if you use it or not. In Talisman there's no concept of equipping/unequipping Objects according to base rules. You may have your Sword in the Concealed Pouch and the Ring on your Mule and still treat thema as if they were on your Character.

However, you can always choose not to use Object and Follower special abilities, except when stated otherwise (i.e. cursed Objects/Followers like Jester).

As for the Ekor, he will fight you if your Strength is 2 or less, so you can still attack him with the Sword, which does not give you a Strenght of 3 but a +1 when scoring result in battle (the mathematics give same result, but words change the meaning of numbers). Even a Monk with base stats can fight the Ekor and probably win.

The Ekor will flee as soon as your Strength is 3 or more, so Energize would not work. Better use Spells like Bladesharp or Bolster, if you really need to.

We decided to come up with equipping rules, due, for example, to the Slime cards of the Dungeon. The Enemy, not the event. It destroys the weapon you are attacking with. At that time, the character just happened to have 3 weapons in her possession. She could only attack with one. But, by strictest definition, the Slime destroyed all 3. By average definition, it destroys the one she is using. But what is she using? The rules only say a character (barring the Warrior) only uses 1 weapon. How does she pick? On the fly? Before s/he draws? (limiting things like Goblin and Dragon slaying weapons).

So, we decided that you MUST always attack with a Weapon, and defend with an Armour, when you draw a card. You pull the weapon you need from one of your many scabbards and toss the helmet/shield aside to show the hero’s face, but leaving him with the suit of armour, as per many action movies. But, if the card is face up, you can go bare-fisted against the slime, armour-less against the storm shaman, since you can plan and see it coming. It attacks you vs you attack it if you need a verisimilitude argument. You can plan when it’s face up. You can’t when you are encountering it.

Verisimilitude works both ways. If it’s no verisimilitude, then, the person CAN pick on the fly, from a mule train whatever of their 3+ weapons they want, but they all go poof when they fight the slime. If there is verisimilitude, then if there’s a puddle of acidic slime, I’m certainly not risking my magic sword on it and will risk 3rd degree burns to the hands (in a world where there is magical healing) and keep the sword. Picking and choosing what’s realistic and what’s not looses credibility, at least for me. At least say “I like this but I don’t like that” to be more credible.

The above rule we made sounds both logical and fair to us. And, any resident rule lawyer worth his/her salt will go “Show me in the rules where it says you HAVE to attack with the weapon you have in your inventory.” The above seems the compromise that makes everyone happy without arguments about “That’s not what the rules/cards say.” Feel free to use your own, though.