"Character loses all traits and immunities"
Setting aside that it would be slightly difficult to pull off in the first place(Nightmares or Meera), I am assuming "No Attachments" is NOT an immunity. Is this correct? It's logical that it is not since it doesn't use the word 'immune' but weirder things have happened…
That is correct - it is not an immunity, just as "Cannot be killed" is not an immunity to being killed. I think I've heard "No attachments" described on the forum as a "limitation".
Text like the kind you describe resolves as a constant ability as defined in FAQ 3.10. Technically, it would appear that immunity is also a constant effect. If this card were intended to remove "limitations" as well as immunities, it would have to state "Character loses all constant abilities". Since it does not, only constant abilities that are specified as immunities are lost.
In order to make an attachment stick to a character with No attachments, you'd have to blank it first (Fortified Position plot card, or others you mentioned), then have a way to keep it blanked at all times (attach Milk of the Poppy), and finally attach whatever it is you wanted to in the first place. Like you said - hard to pull off.
Technically, "No attachments" is a keyword. It acts by placing limitations, but it itself is considered a keyword. So "loses all keywords" would take out "no attachments."
ktom said:
Technically, "No attachments" is a keyword. It acts by placing limitations, but it itself is considered a keyword. So "loses all keywords" would take out "no attachments."
"Loses all keywords" would also take out immunities I presume since immunities are keywords.
Very true indeed.
The additional caveat is that the cards more typically say "loses all non-immunity keywords" or "loses all immunities," so misconstruing "no attachments" as an immunity can lead to incorrect results, depending on what the "loses keywords" text actually says.
lose all traits mean that a printed measter will discard all links but Apprentice Collar?
Well, maybe not. Depends on many times the character has the Maester trait to being with.
Normally, if something said "loses the Maester trait," you wouldn't interpret that as loses as many instances of the Maester trait as necessary to make sure that it effectively did not have the trait. Instead, you'd interpret it to mean that it loses the Maester trait just once. So if it had 2 things giving it the Maester trait (say, it's a printed Maester with Apprentice Collar), that would "overcome" the trait loss and the card would still be a Maester (1 + 1 - 1 = 1).
The same thing is true for "loses all traits." That is normally interpreted as losing each trait just one time, not as losing each trait as many times as necessary to make sure that the card effectively has no traits at all. So even with "loses all traits," you could overcome the trait loss if you have enough effects giving the trait.
So, in your example, if Apprentice Collar and a bunch of other links are on a printed Maester, when "loses all traits" is thrown at it, it will still have an effective Maester trait (printed + Apprentice Collar - "loses all traits" = 1 Maester trait). Same thing if a character without the printed Maester trait has 2x Apprentice Collars. But if Apprentice Collar and a bunch of other links are on a character that does not have the printed trait (or any other second way of getting the trait), it will lose enough instances of "Maester" to lose all the other links.
Doesn't the "lose all non-immunity keywords" text on King Balon's Host mean however many instances of each keyword rather than just one instance of each?