1. If a character cannot be killed, through an effect such as Power of Blood, can the owner of the card still choose to kill it as a result of a lost Strength challenge? If so, does it die, or is it immune? If not, what do they do if all of their characters can not be killed?

2. A player has an opportunity to make his characters "can not be killed" as a player action before plots are revealed (with, say Maester Lomys) but once plots are revealed it is too late for players to take any actions that do not specifically save a character or cancel the effect of the plot? I think this is what the FAQ explains, but wanted to confirm.

Alexander West said:

Welcome!

1) Characters that Cannot Be Killed or Cannot Be Whatever can't be chosen to be killed or whatever (see FAQ page ten, section 4.3). That means, for example, that if you have to, say, fulfill a MIL claim of 1 and have two characters in play, one that CBK and one other one, you MUST choose the other one.

2) Basically yes, although you have to be careful with the terminology here. Saves and Cancels that can be played after plots are revealed are Responses, not Actions. You can read up on this stuff on page 14-17 of the FAQ. Somewhat dry reading, I'll admit, but essential for any deeper understanding of the timing structure of the game.

Let me walk you through it.

Let's say you have Maester Lomys and Robert Baratheon in play. Robert has one power token on him and has a copy of Bodyguard attached to him.

Plot Phase begins. As you can see from the flow chart on page 19 of the FAQ, there's a Player Action Window before plots are revealed. This is your chance to trigger the action on Maester Lomys, discard one power from Robert and give him CBK until the end of the plot phase.

After that player action window, play moves on to the framework action window you see in that same flow chart. All players choose and reveal plots. Then, Initiative is counted, then the First Player is appointed, then When revealed plot effects are resolved. Now, let's say your opponent, evil bastard that he is, has revealed Valar Morghulis. All characters in play are killed. Your Maester Lomys dies, nothing you can do for him. Now, if you have triggered his action during the preceding player action window, Robert is safe - he CBK, so he doesn't have to be saved or anything. He just stays on the table unchanged, with his Bodyguard still attached to him.

If you didn't trigger Lomys's action, though, because you were too niggard to part with the power token, or becauase you forgot, or because you thought your opponent was such an agreeable chap he'd never do anything to hurt such fine fellows as Lomys and Robert, then you're out of luck. You don't have the opportunity to trigger player actions during a framework action window. You first need to resolve the framework action window completely, and by then Lomys will be gone to the Dead pile. What you can do during the framework action window is trigger responses, though. The one response that is of interest to us here is the save response on the Bodyguard.

Now, have a look at the flow chart on page 18 of the FAQ. You see that during Framework action windows, save responses are triggered after the framework event they're responding to initiates, but before it resolves. In our scenario, where Robert is hit by Valar Morghulis, this is where you discard the Bodyguard to save Robert. Robert stays on the table, retains his power token, loses his Bodyguard, and can ponder what to make of the whole affair.

HTH.

Just to add, if all your characters cannot be killed none of them are chosen for claim. Similar to if you had no cards in hand and you had to settle Intrigue claim.

Wow, Ratotoskr! Thanks for the extraordinarily thorough answer! I am grateful for your thorough and amusing help.