This has been really annoying me and I can't find any real discussion of it anywhere.

When Legolas' ability says he has to particpate in an attack that destroys an enemy to place progress tokens, does participate mean anytime he attacks and kills an enemy either by himself or with other characters? From the rules I've read, it seems that participate usually means in conjunction with another character (not necessarily another players' characters) i.e. the ranged description. Normally, I think particpate means "involved in an attack" in which would be either scenario descibed above but I'm starting to think the word participate means something more specific in this game.

I think Brand's ability makes more sense where he has to attack an enemy engaged with another player. The ability seems to trigger regardless of whether he attacks alone or with other characters as long as the enemy is engaged with another player.

Thanks!

Legolas' ability is any time he kills an enemy. If he is killing it solo he is still participating in an attack that kills the enemy.

That's definitely how I've always played but but I had a wtf moment last night and though I might have been doing it wrong all this time. Anyway...thanks for your response :-)

Since we are on the topic of Legolas, I have a question that has always confused me. When his card puts "2 progress tokens on the current quest," if I have a location active, do they have to go on that location? Or, do they literally bypass active locations and hit straight to the source? Thanks

They go on the active location. Any tokens that would go on a quest card, go on the active location if there is one. If an effect removes tokens from the active quest, they come off the quest and NOT the location.

Thanks radiskull...would be cool if they made a character with the ability to directly target quests no matter what. I was kinda thinking that was how they were representing Legolas' marksmanship. Oh well.

@rad

I would disagree/argue based on the fact that Legolas card follows the Golden Rule p.4 and supersedes the rulebook there by allowing him to bypass the location and directly assign his tokens to the location.

"If the Game text of a card (Legolas) contradicts the (Location) text of this rulebook (p.15), the text on the card (Legolas) takes precedence"

Dwnhmcntryboy said:

Actually, this was already covered in the FAQ.

From the FAQ:

"Q: Does the effect on Legolas (CORE 5) place progress tokens on an active location, if there is one?
A: Yes. Always place progress tokens on an active location instead of the quest, unless the ability specifically states to bypass any active location."

But Legolas doesn't contradict the rules. Legolas says to do essentially the same thing you do while questing - put tokens on the quest card. Then, the rules kick in and redirect that token to the active location. There's nothing at all contradictory here.

(And yes, it's explicitly spelled out in the FAQ. But it would be the same way even without that entry.)

Ahh cool I did not know there was a FAQ. Thanks for the heads up. Time to find out what I have been missing.

A question i get a lot from players at the store i game at is whether Legolas' ability triggers if his attack isn't needed to kill an enemy. Say it's a troll and Gimli is going to be able to kill it with his attack, but if Legolas attacked alone it wouldnt't be enough to kill it. Players want to have both characters attack to get Legolas' ability even though the extra attack isn't needed. i usually say no because if he's not contributing then the ability doesn't trigger. i guess you could argue that it could work if Legolas attacks first followed by Gimli, but i thought joint attacks happened at the same time. What do you guys think?

Will Fuqua said:

I think it is allowed by the rules - if characters participate in an attack then their Attack scores are added together and armour value of opponent removed.

The fact that there is overkill if Gimli and Legolas participate together is irrelevant, Legolas still participated, and progress tokens are earned.

You said it yourself - joint attacks happen at the same time.

No where does it say characters can only participate in an attack upto a total attack value neccessary to kill the enemy, but not in excess of that.

I think your players are ok to want to have both attack.

pumpkin said:

That's also my understanding. I often let Legolas participate in battles that the other player could easily win without the extra 3 damage, just for the sake of putting some extra progress token on the location/quest.

What I found interesting (and that's something I played wrong for some time) is the fact that Legolas' ability is a response and therefore - by definition of the rulebook - optional. Before I figured that out I sometimes tried to not kill enemies with him in "Coflict at the Carrock" because I was afraid of progressing to stage 2 too quickly...

Untergeher said:

Exactly. Quite handy in quests where you don't want to progress, like Carrock and Rhosgobel.

pumpkin said:

This is how I play it as well. It doesn't matter how much damage you do or how much overkill, if Legolas participates he can play tokens on the active quest/location. There is no difference in the rules as to who does damage when multiple characters attack together, it's just one big lump sum.

Also, you must exhaust Legolas to do this, which means he then can't be doing anything else.