Is revealing a card the same as playing a card?


Rules Questions and Gameplay Discussion


When playing cards for a check and only 1 card of a type can be played by each character, does revealing a card for its benefit count as having played the card?

Sovereign Court

Yes. The types of "playing a card" are discarding, recharging, or revealing -- but only when using the card's ability, I believe. So revealing an ally for Lini's D10 on a Strength check would not be playing an ally


It counts, but only if the card itself has the text "Reveal this card to..."


Andrew K wrote:
So revealing an ally for Lini's D10 on a Strength check would not be playing an ally

Reveal an animal ally to add 1d4 (+0/1/2/3) to any check. (Discard a card to make Str or Dex a d10 (+0/1/2 and maybe with fire).)

Sovereign Court

Discard, sorry, thanks.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Rules: Playing Cards wrote:
Playing a card means activating that card’s power by revealing, displaying, discarding, recharging, burying, or banishing that card. Doing something with a card that does not activate that card’s power does not count as playing that card. For example, if Kyra discards a spell to activate her healing power, it doesn’t count as playing that spell (meaning she also can’t recharge it).

Community / Forums / Pathfinder / Pathfinder Adventure Card Game / Rules Questions and Gameplay Discussion / Is revealing a card the same as playing a card? All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.
Recent threads in Rules Questions and Gameplay Discussion