If the spell is banished as part of playing it for its power (as would be the case if you lack the Arcane/Divine skill), then you are banishing that spell for its power. The power would be entirely useless otherwise, as you state, so that is the only reasonable conclusion to draw.
CD Damiel has the power:
When you would banish a card that has the Alchemical trait or a spell for its power, you may recharge it instead.
Looking at the powers on Cure for instance:
Reveal this card and choose a character at your location. Shuffle d4+1 random cards from his discard pile into his deck, then discard this card.
After playing this card, if you do not have the Divine skill, banish it; otherwise, you may succeed at a Divine 8 check to recharge this card instead of discarding it.
When a character without the Divine skill plays Cure, it's debatable whether Cure is being revealed for its power, discarded for its power, or banished for its power. (This has probably been covered in the forum, but I couldn't find it.)
I think the intent is clear: when Damiel plays a spell for its power, and would then banish it, he may recharge it instead. The text of his power is just shorthand for that longer sentence. They couldn't say "When you would banish a spell...", because that opens the door for "What if Damiel fails to acquire a spell", "What if Damiel closes a location with spells in it", etc.
IMHO you are trying to read much more things in the rules than there are. It's way simpler than that.
When a sentence says "When you banish ... for its power", it just means than the banishing comes from something (typically the word "banish") written in the power section of the card that the sentence is referring to. The exact wording of that card doesn't count at all.
Let me give examples.
In the cure spell (see above), the banishing comes from the word "banish" written in the "power" section of the cure spell. So if you "play" the spell (i. e. refer to its "power" section), and that ends up banishing it, then that triggers powers in other cards (like Damiel) which includes sentences like "When you banish ... for its power".
On the opposite, say you fail to defeat a monster and in the power section of the monster card you have something like "If undefeated, banish a card from...", and you end up banishing a cure spell as a result, then the "banish" doesn't come from the "power" section of the cure spell but from the "power" section of the monster card (you do not banish Cure because of "ITS" power section but because of "ANOTHER" power section on a card). Thus no trigger on Damiel.
Same as, for example, if you close a location and banish remaining cards including a cure. The "banishing" in that case comes from something in the rulebook, not something written in a "power" section of a card. Thus no trigger on Damiel.
My point is that you don't really have to wonder about exact wording of the "powers" in the different cards. If the "banish" word that triggers the banishing is written in the power section of the card that the "for ITS power" refers to, it triggers Damiel's-like stuff, if not, it doesn't. Simple.
Also consider the Erinyes Devil which says "If you play a boon with the Divine trait, banish it." Playing a divine spell against it would count as banishing the spell for its power, even if you had the Divine skill, and would therefore also trigger Damiel's power imo.
Here is where this came up before, though the response there is no more official then the responses you've received so far.
I basically treat this as if it says "If the reason you are banishing the spell is because you played the spell (i.e. activated a power on the spell) and by playing the spell you ended up banishing it, then you can recharge it."
That was basically what I was trying to confirm before someone accused me of being a munchkin. I wasn't sure if the recharge section is distinct from the power section for the purpose of this mechanic.
The recharge bit is in the powers section. It wasn't in Rise of the Runelords, but that got cleaned up. There's an old blog post with cards of the old and the new type here.
Also consider the Erinyes Devil which says "If you play a boon with the Divine trait, banish it." Playing a divine spell against it would count as banishing the spell for its power, even if you had the Divine skill, and would therefore also trigger Damiel's power imo.
I'm not sure I can agree with this.
In your example, you're not banishing the Spell because you played it for its power, you're banishing because *another* card's powers tell you to do so, AFTER you've already played it (and potentially recharged it instead banish). Basically, the Devil says "I don't care what price you pay to play that Divine card for its powers, whether Discarding or Recharging (/instead of Banishing) - in the end, it ends up in the box either way."
I basically treat this as if it says "If the reason you are banishing the spell is because you played the spell (i.e. activated a power on the spell) and by playing the spell you ended up banishing it, then you can recharge it."Right.
OK, Thanks Vic for the answer... So that would imply my suggestion was wrong and skizzerz is right. I. e., even if the banish comes from a power/rule elsewhere than on the banished card, it still applies if playing that card for one of its power was what triggered the event of banishing at the end of the day.
That opens a much larger perimeter of potential chained stuff.
Say a power somewhere says "if whatever card is played, you may banish it", then it would enable the sequence. Someone plays a card, someone (else) activates that "may banish" power, than someone (else?) activates that "when you would" power, and so on...
As not-this-Mike would have maybe said after some summoned cards did summon some other card "We don't want stacks, but chain reactions may be fun." :-)
... So that would imply my suggestion was wrong and skizzerz is right. I. e., even if the banish comes from a power/rule elsewhere than on the banished card, it still applies if playing that card for one of its power was what triggered the event of banishing ...I basically treat this as if it says "If the reason you are banishing the spell is because you played the spell (i.e. activated a power on the spell) and by playing the spell you ended up banishing it, then you can recharge it."Right.
Now that I read into it, maybe Hawkmoon's quote was supporting skizzers' opinion, but I get the feeling Vic confirmed it in the sense of "and by playing the spell you ended up banishing it, *because you couldn't recharge/discard it" as opposed to "and by playing the spell you ended up banishing it, *because because of possible other (chain reactions of) cards' powers*"
Chief Technical Officer
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This is a simple two-part test:
A) Are you playing a spell for its power?
B) Is it getting banished?
If the answer is yes to both, you may recharge it. Otherwise, you may not.
(Of course, you still need to keep in mind the hierarchy from the Golden Rule—if an Adventure Path, adventure, scenario, location, or support card conflicts with Damiel, that card wins.)