Just been readiing another answer to a question and it has prompted me.

Threat from the North is a constent -1 STR reducer.

I play Pyronophobia on a character that has 3 STR and thus Threat from The North has already reduced to STR 2 by way of it's constent reducer.

Does Pyronophobia work in conjunction or does this need to be triggered by a non constent reducer ?

Thanks

Sure. You can respond to the STR reduction of a constant effect that has just entered play.

The same applies to how Dragon Pit works for when you place your first card into the shadows if it is out in play. OR if you have 1 card in the shadows and you put Dragon Pit into play. The -1 STR has to start at some point, so as soon as it occurs, you may play Responses to that STR reduction.

Bomb said:

Are you 100% certain ? The reason i ask is Pyrophobia specifically states AFTER and as a response which made me question whether it needs to be triggered as i do not understand why it would state AFTER .

Hope this makes sense , just need additional help explaining to a friend the mechanism . Thanks

Daenarys said:

A new "-X STR" modifier was applied in this action window to a character, whose end STR became 2 or less. Why would the source of the "-X STR" modifier make any difference for whether or not the word "after" applies.

If the word "after" requires a triggered effect in order to be valid, how would things like "after you win initiative" and "after you reveal a plot card" work? Or what about "after a character is killed"? Are you saying I could use such a Response after "Die By the Sword" (triggered event), but not after losing a military challenge (non-triggered game effect)?

"After" for Responses - or passives for that matter - simply means "happened in the same action window before the step where this effect could be initiated."

ktom said:

Thanks for the response but i will try and explain more clearly what i mean.

I play Threat From the North during the plot phase and therefore characters are reduced by -1STR until a new plot card is revealed, as far as i am aware this modifier takes place as soon as the plot is revealed and then becomes a constent reducer. Therefore isnt the ACTION window for the characters being reduced by -1 STR in the plot phase and then subsequently becomes a constent with no additional modifiers in any future action windows ?

Daenarys said:

I don't think I understand what you are getting at. Are you asking if "after" can be applied at any framework or action window that follows Threat from the North?

If during a player framework or action window a character's strength is reduced from any amount down to 2 or less, it does not matter how that happened. You can then play responses that are applicable to the fact that the character reached strength 2 or less from some kind of effect.

So, if Threat from the North is out, and I play a 3 STR character from my hand during Marshaling, Threat from the North reduces it's STR from 3 to 2 as soon as that character enters play. Therefore, Pyrophobia can be played against that character.

Now, if that character has been at 2 STR because of Threat from the North being out, you can't just play Pyrophobia at any time because it doesn't get reduced from 3 STR to 2 STR constantly. It happens the moment the STR reducer enters play(or is triggered) or the moment the character enters play and there was a constant or lasting effect STR reducer happening globally that affects the character.

double post………………

Bomb said:

Fantastic, that is what i thought and meant, apologies if i was not clear.

The trick is that you can play the Response to the STR being lowered at the time when the "-X STR" modifier is first applied to a character.

So, in relation to Threat from the North, that means you will only have one chance to play Pyrophobia for each character based solely on the plot. However, when that chance comes will depend entirely when the character comes into play relative to Threat:

1. For characters who are already in play when Threat is revealed, your chance to play Pyrophobia is in the same action window in which Threat becomes your active plot. That's because Threat's "-1 STR" is newly applied to any character already in play when the plot is revealed. If its STR becomes 2 or less, it is fair game, but only then. (You can't draw the Pyrophobia later and say "well, it's STR is 2!!")
2. For characters who come into play while Threat is revealed, your chance to play Pyrophobia is in the same action window in which the character comes into play. That's because Threat's "-1 STR" is newly applied to any character as it comes into play while the plot is revealed. If its STR becomes 2 or less, it is fair game, but only then.

So in a way, Threat gives you many chances to get some character - but only 1 shot per character, when Threat and that character first show up "in play" at the same time.

ktom said:

Thanks, makes perfect sense. Been playing this way but a few queries were raised so i thought i would check it out.

Thanks again