Quite well, actually. :)
When you play a spell that involves a Divine check (example: Holy Light), you would add 2 to the result of your dice roll.
The wording gets a bit complicated. "When playing a spell" should be interpreted as literally as possible. Examples:
1) If you play inflict and therefor make a combat check using your divine skill, it should be considered a divine check, so the bonus would apply.
2) If you are making a recharge check using your divine die, you are not playing a spell, so the bonus would not apply.
3) If you are making a recharge check using your divine die and play Aid to help the check, you get the bonus.
(At least I *think* that's the way it works... we had an official ruling about the text "When playing a spell" when dealing with Blessing of Pharasma which you could search for in the forum to fins out more)
Why in the world is anyone worrying about Lini recharging spells? Once you put that third skill point into Wisdom and 2nd power point into the animal ally boost, she auto-recharges every Divine spell (they cap at 8 unless I'm forgetting one that is higher) as long as she has that animal ally.
I personally find it a tad early to start worrying about specializations as well, but I suppose some people may be getting them within a week or two. As for recharging, I completely agree that Lini is pretty much the best for recharging spells (or making most other non-combat checks). Still, just because 8 (or is it 10?) is pretty much the highest recharge at the moment, that doesn't mean it will always be that way I guess.
We already seen Teleport from AP 4, which has a recharge of 14. Ok, it's an Arcane spell, but gives some indication what can we see in later packs.
Also, maybe not everybody take every skillpoint on Wisdom.
Out of curiosity, where have you seen this? I didn't see it and I'm curious about it.
Chief Technical Officer
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I don't believe recharging a spell falls under the category of playing that spell. Only the actual ability of playing the card (like Inflict, rolling Divine + 1d6). So no, gaining a +2 to Divine when playing a spell wouldn't affect recharges.
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).
I guess the questions here are
(a) what is the designers' intent? i.e. did they want Lini to get +2 to recharge checks?
(b) as written do the rules mean that WW Lini gets +2 her spell recharge checks?
@Vic - the quote you posted means that you can play a spell by recharging it. It doesn't necessarily also mean that 'when you do the recharge check on a spell it counts as playing a spell'. That might be part of the "do one thing before starting another" meta rule but it's complicated by long-lasting spells (like Glibness) which can recharge some time after they were actually played.
My personal *guess* is that the intent is for the +2 to include checks to recharge spells and perhaps the wording could be clearer as "Add 2 to your check when playing or recharging a spell".
This opinion is largely based on the knowledge that (a) when you play a spell it satisfies the RAW for Lini's power and if you immediately recharge it then it would seem to me that you should get the bonus (in a similar way to how BoPharasma works) and (b) spells like Glibness originally recharged immediately (and you had to remember that the power stayed in effect), that their recharge is now a bit later shouldn't matter - they are still spell-related checks that only exist because a spell has been played.
Of course, that's just my opinion and I might be wrong!
We meant to include the recharge check as part of playing the spell.
So, it sounds like the duration of 'playing a spell' starts when you cast the spell and ends after you banish/bury/discard/recharge step of playing the spell.
Since Pharasma works in a unique way, I should ask:
I assume that the +2 only ever applies to checks pertaining to the spell you're casting. Meaning that if you encounter a blessing and cast Aid, you only get 1d6 added to the Divine check for the blessing, rather than 1d6 + 2?
For that matter, if you:
Encounter an Ally
Cast Glibness
Acquire Ally
Discard Ally to explore
Encounter Blessing
Technically, Glibness is still being played until you resolve the banish/discard/recharge related to playing it, correct? As with the above Aid example, I'm assuming that the +2 will not be added to the check to acquire the Blessing.
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Chief Technical Officer
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Vic, am I to read this post as meaning that it should or should not affect the recharge. I still see two ways to read this in the rulebook:
1) The most important part is "Playing a card means activating that card’s power by revealing, displaying, discarding, recharging, burying, or banishing that card." Therefore, recharging is part of playing the card and the Divine bonus would apply.
2) The most important part is "Doing something with a card that does not activate that card’s power does not count as playing that card." Recharging is not activating the power (it is recharging), so the Divine bonus would not apply.
Neither part is more important than the other. The first is telling you what counts as playing, and the second is specifically telling you that another thing does not count as playing.
That is, the first part tells you that if a card says "recharge this card to do X", that counts as playing it. It's taking a listed action to activate a power on that card. Recharging a card because the recharge box says you can does not activate a power, so it's not playing the card—that's what the second part of the quoted rule is explaining.
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Chief Technical Officer
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So, it sounds like the duration of 'playing a spell' starts when you cast the spell and ends after you banish/bury/discard/recharge step of playing the spell.
Despite Mike's intent for Lini's power to help the recharge check for that spell, that's *not* actually included in the definition of playing the spell. Once you've completed the required action and the power has been activated, the card is no longer being played—it has been played. (So Glibness is done being "played" when you've displayed it.)
The rules are very clear that you recharge cards after you play them, not while you play them:
Recharge: This explains circumstances under which you may recharge the card—put it on the bottom of your deck—after playing it...
Many cards also require checks to activate powers or to recharge the cards after playing them.
...This check applies only after you have played a card...
Making Lini's power match Mike's intent does *not* involve redefining "played" to cover the act of recharging, as that would break a whole lotta things—it involves changing the power to tell you it includes recharging.
Ah ok so basically no, a + to divine checks while playing a spell does not work on recharges as that's not part of playing the spell. Makes sense, but that does have the side effect of making that power a little less useful than I originally thought, as the majority of divine checks I make are either for recharging or other non-spell related things like closing locations... I try not to look ahead at spells but the holy light/inflict type spell is the only divine spell that leaps to mind that actually has a divine roll as an actual power when using the spell.
As a side note, thanks for clearing that up - while some people seem to feel that "why should we care about this since she auto recharges" - I've certainly failed at recharging while playing Lini, so I definitely cared. Thanks again.
@Vic: Thanks for the clarification!
@Brainwave: Technically correct from the card wording, but from Mike's post and Vic stating '...it involves changing the power to tell you it includes recharging' the power should read like this:
Add 2 ([]4) to Divine checks when playing or recharging a spell.
I believe Vic was just responding to my post clarifying the rule technicalities of playing a spell.
I didn't really pick up from his comment that what he said was an official change of the card - it looked more to me like an example of what the card could say... if the card's being changed, great.
Vic is absolutely right that I misinterpreted that. Sorry about that, folks.