The (very cool) Cloudburst spell from the Ultimate Magic deck reads:
When you encounter a card that lists combat in its check to acquire or defeat, discard this card; if it is a non-villain monster that has a power that happens before you act, ignore that power. For your combat check, use your Arcane or Divine skill + 3d6. After the encounter, you may move.
What if the card you encounter has multiple combat checks? Can you use Arcane or Divine + 3d6 for each one? Or just one? If just one, must it be the first one?
I could argue for either a single check or multiple checks. I think the most straightforward reading of the card is it only permits you to use Arcane or Divine + 3d6 on the first combat check against the card. But I'd like it to pertain to all of the card's combat checks. (I could also make a thematic argument either way.)
I was literally just having a conversation about this exact card, and searched the forums for Cloudburst probably as you were typing. :)
And I can't figure it out either.
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My off-the-cuff reading is that this should only affect your first combat check against any given bane, and the reason it was worded that way is because the Before You Act step happens before you normally would be able to play a card that would determine your combat check. It's odd, but I think that's how it was intended and how I would interpret it.
I would assume that it was worded without any consideration towards banes with multiple checks at all, since whichever way it's meant to work it could easily have been made clearer. So as far as intention goes it would be pure guesswork.
As for RAW, my interpretation would be that the first time you choose "combat" as the skill for any check, you must use the "Arcane or Divine + 3d6" power. Afterwards, you couldn't use it again on a second check.
You could, however, get help from another character at the same location for the first check then use this on the second. You could even decline to choose combat for any of the checks if you wished (even with just one check).
I could imagine being convinced though that the power is optional on any combat check. I could also imagine being convinced that it was mandatory on all combat checks.
+1 to the card having been worded without considering banes with multiple combat checks.
Can we get official input, please? There's no community consensus.
I’ve always played it as only applying to the first combat check you make that encounter. There’s a few other issues with the spell wording though besides multi-check cards. The current wording implies that on the particular combat check(s) that you’re using Cloudburst on, you aren’t playing a spell on those checks. You played Cloudburst way earlier, and the combat check definition isn’t an optional power on a displayed card (it is neither optional nor displayed), so during the check that text just happens, and no spell is played.
This has weird implications such as pharasma only adding 1 die.
Just to summarize that valid weekly can'o'worms.
Seems the issue is that they wanted it to:
a) work for both banes and boons
b) can be played "when you encounter" so it can have an effect during the "before you act" and "after the encounter".
c) gives you a result to be used for a [or more?] combat(s) check(s) during the encounter.
As skizzerz rightfully pointed, the way it is written, the card isn't played during the combat check, with all the standard implication (it doesn't define the skill you are using, doesn't add traits to the check, doesn't trigger BoPharasma, and so on).
See the FAQ ruling on Chain Lightning.
That part seems obvious.
But indeed tas much as it is ovious in the way Chain Lightning is written that you can use the result for all combat checks during the encounter, it is not clear here.
My assumption is that if they wanted it to be a reusable result, they would have use the Chain Lightning format, so we must assume that it's for ONE combat. But then can it be the second one in a multi combat encounter (for me that part is fully unclear with the card as written)?
Would have been much clearer with something like:
When you encounter a card that lists combat in its check to acquire or defeat, discard this card; if it is a non-villain monster that has a power that happens before you act, ignore that power. For a combat check against the encounterd card, you can use the result of your Arcane or Divine skill + 3d6. After the encounter, you may move.