Playing items and using items to take damage

[ferris.valyn]

Ok, this comes up in the context of Pathfinder Adventures, but it would also apply to card version.

Was playing Sajan, and he was fighting a plague zombie, and using amulets of mighty fists. Unfortunately, he rolled ****, and lost (come on Sajan, you can do better), and so has to take damage. Now, he also had the bracers of protection, so I planned to use those to absorb some of the damage, but the game wouldn't let me, and someone claimed that this was because you are playing 2 items on a single check. But I always thought the act of the roll was the actual "check"

So, could you not use bracers of protection to absorb damage if you used amulet of mighty fist?

[skizzerz]

Nope. You can only play one card of each type per check or step of an encounter. The check itself encompasses all of the following:

1. Determine Which Skill You're Using -- this is where you play most weapons, spells, and other cards that say things like "For your combat check, use your X skill"
2. Determine The Difficulty -- this is where powers that adjust the difficulty kick in
3. Play Cards And Use Powers That Affect Your Check -- this is where you play most other cards, like your Amulet of Mighty Fists or blessings
4. Assemble Your Dice
5. Attempt the Roll
6. Take Damage, If Necessary

All 6 of those steps are part of a single check. You can only play one card of each type across all 6 of those steps. So, if you play a spell in Determine Which Skill You're Using, you can't play a spell in Play Cards And Use Powers That Affect Your Check or in Take Damage, If Necessary.

For posterity, the steps of an encounter are as follows. Unlike the steps of a check, the limit of one card of each type is per step. So, you can play a spell in Apply Any Effects That Happen Before You Act as well as play a spell in Attempt the Check.

1. Apply Any Effects That Happen When You Encounter a Card
2. Apply Any Evasion Effects
3. Apply Any Effects That Happen Before You Act
4. Attempt the Check
5. Attempt the Next Check, If Needed
6. Apply Any Effects That Happen After You Act
7. Resolve the Encounter

[ferris.valyn]

I guess I always thought damage was part of the "apply any effects that happen after you act" part of the encounter.

That just seems really weird to me, that damage is part of the encounter (and it makes a lot of armor that you could use during combat not very useful for combat)

[skizzerz]

Damage if you fail a check against a monster is per check. For example, if a monster has a check to defeat of Combat 10 Then Combat 10, and you roll an 8 on the first check, you take the 2 damage before attempting the second check. If you roll a 5 on the second check, you take an additional 5 damage. (You still need to attempt the second check even if you fail the first.)

You may take additional damage after you act, but such damage is always due to a power prefaced with "After you act" (or "After the encounter" in Rise of the Runelords)

[zeroth_hour2]

I assume you mean cards like the Snakeskin Tunic which provide a power for combat enhancement (for Dexterity-based combat checks) and a power for damage reduction.

Bone Spikes and Metal Spikes get around that problem by providing you with damage reduction as part of the effect of enhancing the combat check.

Yeah, you have to choose. You can also use the Tunic for the combat check, then reduce damage after you act. That's completely valid.