I downloaded the FAQ today and am more confused now than I was before! I think the FAQ has an error in it, so please can someone confirm if this is the case.

Page 2 of the FAQ discusses the "Default Challenge Level" for an action card and uses "Great Fires of U'Zhul" by way of example. The example says that 2 challenge dice and 1 misfortune dice will be added to the pool. Yellow circles on the card are then supposed to indicate where these dice come from - a challenge die from the top-left of the card, another for "vs Target Defence" and a misfortune die for the card's special rule about "each target after the first".

There are several problems with this example. Firstly, it does not mention any additional targets, so circling the special rule about "each target after the first" makes no sense. Secondly, I think vs Target Defence for a Defence Rating of 1 adds a misfortune die, not a challenge die.

I think the dice added should be 1 challenge die (the action's challenge level, from top-left of card) plus 1 misfortune die (target's defence). There should be no additional challenge die as far as I can tell.

Can someone please take a look at the FAQ and let me know if they agree that the example on page 2 is wrong?

SmokeGunner said:

No, it's right.

The challenge and misfortune dice are dead on. The base difficulty for "vs. Defense" is 1 challenge die, plus 1 misfortune per point of defense. The card adds an additional challenge die (as indicated in the upper left hand corner). For a target with a Defense of 1 – as in the example – it's 2 challenge dice plus 1 misfortune.

The bit about an additional misfortune die per target after the first in the engagement would be important, if there were multiple targets in the engagement. The FAQ should probably clarify that the example is only for one guy in the engagement, but I think it's clear that's what they mean.

OK, thank's for putting me straight. This "vs. Target Defence" thing is the one that causes me the most trouble, as it effectively covers challenge and misfortune dice at the same time - default challenge (1d) plus target's DR. When another challenge die is shown on the card it's easy to forget that this is NOT the default easy (1d) challenge for all melee/ranged attacks vs. target defence. One to underline somehow in my head!

Stating "vs. Target Defence", an action card is automatically assumed to be a "Melee Attack" (even if the action is a spell), and those have a default difficulty of one challenge die. So perhaps that thought helps you clarify things in the future. Vs.Target Defense = Melee Attack = one challenge.

It's been listed a few times before, Action cards cna be put into three categories which defines how many CHallange dice they revceive as default:

X Skill/Attribute: This is a normal skill test and does not get any Challange Dice.

X Skill/Attribute vs Y Skill/Attribute: This is an opposed skill test, refer to the listing of opposed skill tests in the rulebook to see how many Challange Dice should be used.

x Skill/Attribute vs Target Defense: This is an Attack. Attacks have a standard difficulty level of Easy, which means 1 Challange Die.

To this you add any Challange/Fortune/Misfortune Dice from the card itself and so on.