After the check, succeed at a Disable/Craft 12 check, or Tears of Death deals 1d4 Poison damage to you then bury your discard pile
Does that mean:
1) Your roll Craft/Disable; then, regardless of the result, you bury your discard pileOR
2) Only if you fail Disable/Craft - you take damage and bury your discard pile
More importantly: WHY? (why is your reading what it is?) How would you word this power for the effect opposite of your reading?
Thanks in advance.
I read it as 2.
My parsing of it went
If A, else (B then C)
In other words, the "or" means "or else" to me.
If were to word it the other way,
"After the check, ... deals 1d4 Poison damage to you. Bury your discard pile."
Would it be more clear if it was phrased 'deals 1d4 Poison damage to you and bury your discard pile', rather than 'then', do you think?
I think it's worded as "then" to be more clear about the fact that the newly discarded cards due to damage are also buried.
Yes also if you have a power that triggers when cards are discarded, it would happen before the bury. Hence the wording with a "then".
Indeed the opposite would also be written with a "then" : "After the check, ... deals 1d4 Poison damage to you. Then bury your discard pile."
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It's number 2:
RULES: OPTIONAL VS. REQUIRED CHECKS
• If you are instructed to attempt a check, you must do so.
• If you are instructed to succeed at a check to do a thing, and the instruction does not use the word “may,” you must attempt the check; if you succeed, you must do that thing.
• If you are instructed to succeed at a check or do a thing, you must attempt the check; if you fail, you must do that thing.
• If you are instructed to either attempt a check or do something else, choose one of those options.
• If you are presented with 2 or more options, none of which require a check, you may choose any of those options.
This is the case "you are instructed to succeed at a check or do a thing". As such, you attempt the check, and if you fail you do the thing. The comma after the word check is there to hint that the thing you do is "1d4 Poison damage then bury your discard pile". In other words, look at how it would be parsed with and without the comma after the word check:
With comma after check: "After the check, (succeed at a Disable/Craft 12 check), or (Tears of Death deals 1d4 Poison damage to you then bury your discard pile)"
With comma after you: "After the check, (succeed at a Disable/Craft 12 check) or (Tears of Death deals 1d4 Poison damage to you), then bury your discard pile"
If it was meant to be case 1, there would be no comma after the word "check" and there would be a comma between the damage and bury instructions. As such it's case 2.
Chief Technical Officer
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Skizzerz has the correct answer (and rules support).
And Frencois is correct that if we were going for case 1, we'd have broken it into two sentences: "After the check, succeed at a Disable or Craft 12 check or Tears of Death deals 1d4+1 Poison damage to you. Then bury your discard pile."