Phantasmal Minion during combat check?

If Feiya is about to make a combat check can Damiel use Phantasmal Minion to give her a weapon card which she can use in the check?

No, you can not.

Encountering a Card...Players may only play cards or use powers that relate to each step (or relate to cards played or powers used in that step).

And "Attempt the Check" is one of the steps of the encounter.

Phantasmal Minion does indicate a particular step it relates too (i.e. it doesn't say "When a character encounters...", so the only option would be to see if it is playable during the check. So here are the steps of "Attempting a Check"

Determine which skill you’re using.

Determine the difficulty.
Play cards and use powers that affect the check (optional).
Assemble your dice.
Attempt the roll.
Take damage if you fail a check to defeat a monster.

Phantasmal Minion isn't a card that determine's which skill you are using, and by the time you get to "Play cards and use powers that affect the check" it is too late to play the Weapon.

So it can't be played during an encounter.

Yes as Hawkmoon says you would have to be able to use the card before you attemt the check so some where in:

Encountering a Card
Apply any effects that happen when you encounter a card.
Apply any evasion effects.
Apply any effects that happen before you act.

So it would be difficult to play but I am not quite ready to say impossable yet as there may be a suitable combination out there somewhere.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but couldn't you still use it in the "Play cards and use powers that affect the check" step to hand someone a dagger for them to discard if they'd already played a weapon?

Playing the dagger affects the check.

Playing Phantasmal Minion does not affect the check; it gives someone a card. That card could in turn affect the check, and it could not, but the point is that the act of giving someone a card does not affect the check. Would we think it's fair play if someone played Phantasmal Minion during the last step to give someone an armor to reduce damage, or to stuff their hand with cards if they needed more cards to stay alive?

This seems highly related to "Can you play Rage during combat" - I think they stand or fall together. Playing Rage during combat also doesn't immediately affect the check, but of course them burying a card for 1d10 does. Hawkmoon's last post in the other thread indicated that he thought that would be acceptable, and both his reasoning and his track record of being right led me to agree with him.

Phantasmal Minion is a definite no-no during an encounter. The team is discussing Rage. I'm sure we'll have an answer about that, shortly. Personally, I think that will be prohibited as well.

Rage definitely results in changing the check if you use the power. Phantasmal minion doesn't, because you aren't restricted on what cards to give, like a Potion of Healing. If you could only give cards that could be played at that part of the encounter (so basically blessings, a few allies, some weapons like daggers, etc) then I would see Minion being playable. However, restricting what the card can give to play it on a check I think is too much to allow it be played.

I'm going to assume Andrew K meant range results in "affecting" the check when he said changing (i.e. it doesn't make it a different type of check, but it does apply to the check being made). If so, yeah. That is where I stand.

Phantasmal Minion on the other hand has too many problems to be played during a check.

1. You can't know which card you'll get. Even if you make the argument that having a weapon could affect the check, you don't know that the weapon you'll get will affect the check. There are weapons that evade, weapons that add to checks, weapons that determine the skill, etc. If you got a weapon that couldn't affect the check, then you shouldn't have been able to play Phantasmal Minion.

2. Even if you want to ignore that for a second, the timing of when you play cards that affect the check is after the check has been determined. So if the character had no weapon and determined Strength for the skill, then drew a ranged weapon with Phantasmal Minion, the ranged weapon wouldn't be able playable. So again, it didn't affect the check.

I think that for a card that lets you draw cards, short of it saying "When a character encounters a card" or "When a character attempts a check" or some other phrase to signal a specific part of the encounter when it can be played, then short of that, you just can't play it.

So, I'm thinking Rage comes out playable during a check (again if the character will bury a card, which also assumes they will be using the appropriate skill) while Phantasmal Minion comes out as not playable during a check.

Just my opinion though.

Can somebody play Phantasmal Minion just before the encounter instead?

Can somebody play Phantasmal Minion just before the encounter instead?

Before the person flips the card from the location deck? Of course. As soon as you flip, you can no longer play cards not applicable to the check.

Yeah. That is really when you want to play it.

Oloch: I've got a blessing and I'd like to explore again, but I've got no weapon.
Lem: How about I play Phantasmal Minion for you?

Or if Oloch (or Jirelle or Merisiel) doesn't draw one for his starting hand. Just play it outside of an encounter anytime between "Start Your Turn" and "Reset Your Hand".