Now, heaving read some of the difficulty threads around, I'm the last person to argue against nerfing demons, but still...
There's is an Ulreth entry in the FAQ that reads:
" Ulkreth has me attempting a Knowledge check while I am already making a check to defeat. Do you really want that?
No—that Knowledge check needs to happen earlier.
Resolution: On the henchman Ulkreth, change "If the check to defeat has the Acid, Cold, or Fire trait, succeed at a Knowledge 8 check to add 5 to it" to "If you succeed at a Knowledge 8 check, or if your check has the Acid, Cold, or Fire trait, add 5 to your check to defeat".
Notice the original question is about making some sort of nested checks, and since that's not the intent, I would expect a resolution text to the effect of "Before attempting a combat check with the Acid, Cold, or Fire trait, you may succeed at a Knowledge 8 check...."
The resolution we actually get though makes the Ulkreth that much easier to beat, since in order to get the +5 bonus you only need either
1) a combat check with the Acid, Cold, or Fire trait (where you get the bonus by default)
OR
2) to succeed a Knowledge 8 check, as an alternative, if you don't have the needed traits
Compare that with the original card which requires one of the traits in order to just allow a Knowledge check!
So is that intended? And if yes - is the reason that no more convenient wording was found to the deal with the original "check during check" issue?!?
Hum... if they wanted to, they could just have said :
"If you succeed at a Knowledge 8 check, then if your check to defeat has the Acid, Cold, or Fire trait, add 5 to it".
So I don't think it's an issue of wording.
I think they nerfed it, yes.
It was a nerf, but I think they only nerfed it because it was a misprint to have it be harder, and they were returning it to the intended difficulty.
It's more that we changed the format of that type of power many times, and an old (and problematic) version of it got through on Ulkreth.
Soltengrebbe has the same templating issue.
Soltengrebbe is slightly different, actually. You don't need to know that your check to defeat has an energy trait before rolling the knowledge, thereby nesting checks (which is bad m'kay).
For example, you might actually make the Knowledge check and only then decide to use one of those traits because of the bonus. "Y'know what'd be more mythic? A _flaming_ sword!"