I was researching ways to beat the 1-P scenario solo reliably (50/60/70 is hard!) and...
Zadim's Executioner role has a power "After you attempt a combat check against a monster, you may use the result of that check
for any subsequent combat checks against that monster during the encounter. Does "the result of that check" only include the number or does it include any side effects of that check (which could be interpreted as a "result")? Specifically, I'm thinking of automatic successes from Mournful Razor and Vorpal Blade (though if I'm expending enough d20s to reliably hit them, I'm likely hitting 70+ on the check to defeat anyway and would be able to defeat Pazuzu without any worries.)
Most of the rulebook examples imply the result of a die roll is the number that's rolled because of the dice. There is one exception in the powers section that deals with limitations. So I believe any side effects are not part of "the result of that check".
Does that make sense?
You're correct. I believe it was discussed way back in relation to Swarm monsters and auto-defeat clauses. While auto-defeat does count as "succeeding at the check", it does not give you any "result of the check", in the sense of a number (i.e Swarm monsters would still shuffle back into the deck: you auto-*defeated* them, but you do not have a "result of the check" to exceed their difficulty to defeat by X).
Italics mine.
Attempt the Roll. Roll the dice and add up their value, adding or subtracting any modifiers that apply to the check. No matter how many penalties are applied to a roll of the dice, the result cannot be reduced below 0. Powers may allow or require you to reroll 1 or more dice; each such power can let you reroll dice only once in a single check or step. If the result is greater than or equal to the difficulty of the check, you succeed. If the result is lower than the difficulty, you fail.
Take Damage, If Necessary. If you fail a check to defeat a monster, it deals an amount of damage to you equal to the difference between the difficulty to defeat the monster and your check result. Unless the card specifies otherwise, this damage is Combat damage. For example, if the difficulty to defeat a monster is 10 and the result of your check is 8, the monster deals 2 Combat damage to you (see Damage, below). Remember that players may not play more than 1 of each card type during a check, so if you previously played an item to affect the check, you may not play an item to reduce damage.
Attemp the roll talks about result although doesn't say said result is specifically the result of the check. This is made more clear in the take damage if necessary section which explicitly mentions result of the check as referring to the number rolled with modifiers.