MM Ezren Recharge Power

[Malcolm_Reynolds]

Ezren said:

"You may recharge a spell to add 1 die to your check against a bane that invokes the Acid or Electricity trait."

How should this be parsed?

You may recharge a spell to add 1 die to your (check against a bane) that invokes the Acid or Electricity trait. (The check must invoke the trait and be against a bane, so you may not use the power to acquire Acid Splash but you may use the power when playing Acid Splash against a bane for a combat or Disable check.)

You may recharge a spell to add 1 die to your check against (a bane that invokes) the Acid or Electricity trait. (The bane itself must invoke the trait, meaning it has the trait or deals only that type of damage. If you use Acid Splash but the bane does not invoke a trait you may not use the power).

Or possibly another option? And what is the rule to help us tell the difference if there are similarly worded powers? I may have missed it in the rulebook.

[skizzerz]

Without context (don't have cards on me), I'd read it as the check invoking the trait. I'm unaware of any rules that guide you in figuring this out, usually the goal is to make the card not ambiguous to begin with. However, you can look at the rest of Ezren's powers to get a good idea of how this one fits in with them, to determine the intent that way. If he has another power (on a role card, for instance) that lets him always add the Acid or Electricity trait to his checks, then it is far more likely that the intent of this power is that the check invokes the trait. However, if he has another power that changes all damage that a bane would deal to him to Acid or Electricity, then it is more likely that the intent of this power is that the bane invokes the trait.

[Vic Wertz]

The modifier directly follows the thing it's meant to modify. So...

...if we care about the check:
You may recharge a spell to add 1 die to your check that invokes the Acid or Electricity trait against a bane.

...if we care about the bane:
You may recharge a spell to add 1 die to your check against a bane that invokes the Acid or Electricity trait.

[Longshot11]

skizzerz wrote:

Without context (don't have cards on me), I'd read it as the check invoking the trait.

I don't have any solid arguments either way, but I'd say I read it exactly the opposite way.

Skizzers has some good advice about when you're looking for intent on your own.

Me, personally, I usually try to look at if from the angle "what better way could they phrase this for either option?". For the OP's case, I imagine if they wanted the check to invoke the trait, they, could've worded it something like:

"...add 1 die to your check that invokes the Acid or Electricity trait against a bane".

I couldn't really come up with a better way they could word it, if they wanted it to apply to Banes.
(Still, my proposed wording for "applies to the check' rings a bit unusual to me, so I'm not really convinced on this basis alone. Some official feedback would be better).

EDIT: Oh. Wow. Major ninja'd by Vic ... a-a-and there you go!

[Malcolm_Reynolds]

Thanks!