Two questions regarding the rulebook (Core Set, new version)

[burgus]

First Question

p. 28, Cards do what they say:

"You can play a Cure spell even if it’s not your turn. Cards say everything they need to say."

Ok, cool. But one page after that it tells me something else.

p. 29, When things happen matters:
You can’t play a Cure spell during a combat check, or during recovery, or right before a Dragon bathes you in flame. The cards will tell you when to play them, so follow their lead.

Cure does not tell me when to play it. The first example would suggest that I could play it even during a combat check. The second example negates that. So what can I stick to in general?

___

Second Question. p. 26, Rules Changes:

"The Golden Rules cover the storybook and define the word “always.”"

What is that supposed to mean? I just don't understand the sentence, to be honest.

[MorkXII]

Hi Burgus!

1.
There are two things going on in the first question:

Cure can be played on any turn. There are cards that are restricted so that they can only be played on your turn, but then they will say "On your turn, [discard/recharge/reveal/etc]". So page 28 is just pointing out that if they only meant for Cure to be playable on your own turn, the card would say so.

But the rulebook also places limits on what cards you can play in certain situations. On page 8 under Encountering Cards it says: "During each step [of the encounter], characters may play only cards or use only powers that relate to that step, or that relate directly to cards played or powers used in that step." So, from the list on pg 29, you can't play Cure during a combat check or during a Dragon's Before Acting damage step, because Cure isn't directly relevant there. You can play a weapon during the combat, and an armor during the damage, but not Cure. Similarly, pg 6 under Ending Your turn says that you can only play cards during recovery related to recovery checks. So you can play Enhance to boost your Arcane skill to make your recovery checks easier, but you can't play Cure to heal cards.

So when can you play Cure? Basically, not during an encounter and not during recovery. But you can freely play cards between steps, so before/after you move, between explorations, or right before you end your turn (or in any of those phases on someone else's turn).

2.
For your second question, that sentence is just a note to changes to the Golden Rule found on page 3. Since the story book is something that didn't exist in previous version of Pathfinder ACG, they needed to add it to the list of powers that override each other (so now a rule in the story book that tells you that a Dragon always does Acid damage overrides the Dragon's rule to roll a d4 to see what kind of damage it does). The also added that a power that says "always" can't be overridden no matter where it's printed (previous versions of the rule book only had this rule for the word "never").

[burgus]

Thanks a lot, that made things much clearer! :)