Older blessings such as, for example, Blessing of Erastil, say "After you play this card, if it matches [the hour], recharge this card instead of discarding it."
Meanwhile the Core Set rulebook says as part of the Bless rules:
Any card that refers to a blessing of a particular deity applies to any blessing that has that deity’s name as a trait.
Does that rule extend to making these blessings count as "matching" any blessing that has the appropriate deity trait? Or does it still have to be the same card?
RAW my impression is the latter but it seems like it should be the former, so...
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These cards were FAQ'd back during the Mummy's Mask period to count as having the deity's trait.
If I have a power that refers to a blessing named for a deity, can I use it only with that specific blessing?
You can use it with any blessing that has the trait of that deity.Resolution: On page 24 of the rulebook, under Blessing, add "When a power refers to a blessing of a particular deity, it works with any blessing that has that deity's name as a trait. For example, a power that refers to Blessing of Iomedae also applies to any blessing that has the Iomedae trait."
So I believe the way this works is:
1. Blessing of Erastil has the Erastil trait, so its powers that refer to "this card" now refer to "any blessing that has that deity's name as a trait."2. You play the Blessing of Erastil, and Erastil's Eye is the hour. Erastil's Eye It has the Deity: Erastil trait, so the Blessing of Erastil treats it as if it were the same card.
3. Therefore, you can recharge it instead of discarding it.
Huh, I always thought "matches this card" is pretty unambiguous that the CARDS should match, there's nothing about names and traits in there.
Don't have it handy, but isn't there a precedent to this effect in WotR where there's BoIomedae and then another in AD6 "BlessingOfIomedae'sNickname" which should apparently not trigger each other's "matching" powers?
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Mummy's Mask and Blessings from that era changed the wording of those powers to "If the [hour] has the [diety] trait...", which seems to indicate matching any blessing with the right trait was intended going forward.
FWIW, the Pathfinder Adventures game rewrote all of the old blessings with the above template.
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Huh, I always thought "matches this card" is pretty unambiguous that the CARDS should match, there's nothing about names and traits in there.
Right. "After you play this card, if it matches the top card of the blessings discard pile, recharge this card instead of discarding it" is looking to see if that card is a copy of itself, not just a card that's related to itself.
Don't have it handy, but isn't there a precedent to this effect in WotR where there's BoIomedae and then another in AD6 "BlessingOfIomedae'sNickname" which should apparently not trigger each other's "matching" powers?
Even more recently, Ultimate Wilderness (the last product released before the Core Set) includes both Blessing of Milani ("After you play this card, if it matches the top card of the blessings discard pile, recharge this card instead of discarding it") and Blessing of the Everbloom ("After you play this card, if the top card of the blessing discard pile has the Milani trait, recharge this card instead of discarding it"). These templates were meant to coexist.
I'm surprised too - so the MM FAQ does not apply from the Core Rulebook onwards. Interesting, and unexpected - not to mention unfortunate for Organized Play, which now have blessings that will never match the Hourglass from Season 6 onwards (or Sanctioned Play).
Yeah, it would be nice if the Conversion Guide or the Guide to the Guild extended the original Blessing matches to traits. They still won't happen very often, but that's better than never.
Ah, well. :(
I'm surprised too - so the MM FAQ does not apply from the Core Rulebook onwards.
If this is the FAQ you're referring to...
" Q: If I have a power that refers to a blessing named for a deity, can I use it only with that specific blessing?
A:You can use it with any blessing that has the trait of that deity."
... I don't see how it could. I don't see a "power that refers to a blessing named for a deity" here. I see just a simple generic instruction - "if this card is the same with that card" (without caring what those cards actually are).
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I'm surprised too - so the MM FAQ does not apply from the Core Rulebook onwards.
That's not the case. The resolution of that FAQ was the addition of the rule "When a power refers to a blessing of a particular deity, it works with any blessing that has that deity's name as a trait. For example, a power that refers to Blessing of Iomedae also applies to any blessing that has the Iomedae trait."
This rule exists (though it has been reworded) in the Core Rulebook, in the Rules: Bless sidebar on page 12: "Any card that refers to a blessing of a particular deity applies to any blessing that has that deity’s name as a trait."
The card text "After you play this card, if it matches the top card of the blessings discard pile, recharge this card instead of discarding it" doesn't "refer to a blessing of a particular deity," so that rule simply doesn't come into play here.
Ah, my mistake; thank you for the clarification!
(If the card text said "After you play this card, if the top card of the blessings discard pile is Blessing of Iomedae, recharge this card instead of discarding it," then that rule would let you recharge if any Iomedae blessing were the hour.)
The Pathfinder Adventures implementation actually did errata those cards to say "If the top card of the blessings discard pile has the X trait." (Parody mentions this above). Is the PFA implementation wrong here then? Are we in fact supposed to treat any PFA card text that is different as wrong as well?
Unfortunately my PFA implementation is messed up due to it being on my Steam account from my old laptop, so I can't check it directly, but I checked some videos and sure enough, they actually say this. And they actually changed it to this at some point, because I dug through some of my old PFA screenshots and the early versions had the old wording on them.