When Animate Weapon is played do the players use their power dice as well?

I believe so. Check the exact text for the card. If it says make an attack, or something similar, then yes, Trait dice apply.

I'm 99% sure it does say that and they do apply - all attacks from Animate Weapons in my games have used them.

The card specify:

... that hero must make one attack that only affects himself. The attacks are subject to the normal attack rules ...

Hmmmm, I always treated the Animate Weapons card as a "Party Dark Charm" card, meaning the OL gets control over the attack (spending surges, using abilities and skills etc.). If the wording is as stated above one could argue that the heros can always choose the weakest possible outcome (Range in Power Enhancements, Surges for Range and the like).

Opinions or clarifications here?

If its subject to the normal attack rules, then I would think that you would add power dice to the attack and the OL gets to make use of whatever is rolled.

I believe the intent was the same as stated above; party Dark Charm with a minor limitation to avoid the entire party ganging up on one or two heroes.

Big Remy said:

Well, according to the normal attack rules for heros, the OL doesn´t get to decide how to use what is rolled.

Parathion said:

This is true, but I think based on the way Dark Charm works and the clarification of that in the FAQ the arguement for the OL being able to spend the surges and enchancements as he sees fit is strong. I could be wrong though.

Big Remy said:

Seems to make most sense to me as well.

I'm not sure you ever even have the option of not rolling all your power dice.

SkittlesAreYum said:

Agreed

I think it's always been assumed that you can choose to forgo power dice for whatever reason as long as you're controlling the attack. Not sure why that was: the only memory I have of such a concept is during Bash, where you can choose how many power dice you roll.

This assumption might arise from the attack rules, which state "the hero may add one or more of the black power dice to his roll, depending on his traits (see “Types of Attacks,” page 11)." However, the rules on page 11 all read "When a hero makes a <X> attack, he adds a number of power dice to his roll equal to his <X> trait.", which does not allow for trait dice not to be used.

If you read "may" as refering to possibility (i.e. they might have a positive trait value, or they might not) rather than to choice, there is no contradiction (and trait dice are not optional).

Thundercles said:

But who in genereal IS controlling the Animate Weapons attack (see above)?

The card obviously states that the hero must make one attack against himself, using the "normal attack rules".