Can you interrupt combat to check a monster card?

[Alex319]

In a recent battle, we were fighting lots of kobolds swinging for "5 normal," and one of them ripped free from my Confine. I found it hard to believe that the kobold actually had that much monster strength so I asked the Marshal to check his card. the Marshal said that she wasn't willing to interrupt combat to check the card and that I had to wait until the end of the battle.

(It turned out I was right - it was a new NPC who didn't understand the rules. The marshal gave me the Confine back, which didn't end up being much consolation as I spent the whole battle not using any of my binding magic because I thought these kobolds were special somehow and could rip free, and the only other battle later that day was against monsters who were healed by binding magic.)

But I was very surprised by the ruling that you have to wait until the end of the battle (or a lull in combat) to check the card. It doesn't say anything about that in the relevant rulebook section (page 34, "checking tags") and by the end of the battle it seems too late. (The only recourse after that would be an adjudication in the case that the battle led to resurrection, but it seems like trying to adjudicate "We would have won that battle if we had used our binding spells, but we didn't because the NPC's mistake gave us the wrong information" after the fact would be a lot harder than just stopping combat for a few seconds to fix the problem in the first place.)

Is this ruling correct? Is it true that you can't stop combat in this situation? (Also note that on page 36, it says "A hold may be called if you are unsure about a rule that has an immediate impact on the battle", and this is a clear case of a rule that has an immediate impact on the battle.)

 

[Draven]

Howdy!

Please note that most of a Marshal's job is to use good judgment to resolve a situation. While your personal experience was certainly affected by this incident (and as a fellow caster, I totally sympathize), the Marshal has to juggle a lot of variables:

1) Would that Confine have "saved the day?" That might have happened, if it was a relatively small group of NPCs that were wrecking a relatively small group of PCs. Maybe that Confine would have checked the most dangerous guy on the field, allowing the PCs to mop up the remaining NPCs. However, if this was just another spell in a broad melee? Sorry man, but I'm glad you got the spell back for later.

2) Was the NPC a new player who might have felt a bit humiliated by being called out in the middle of the fight? They probably still felt a bit embarrassed later, but they likely were grateful that more discretion occurred.

So, based on the description of events you've given me, not only do I think your Marshal did the right thing, but I think you might misunderstand a Marshal's job. It's not to give an immediate resolution to a situation, but to give a -fair- resolution to a situation, while maintaining a high-quality game for everyone.

Examples of "immediate impact:"

1) High-level NPC is playing a monster that shouldn't be immune to Earth, but is calling no-effect to Earth, and has called no-effect to every other carrier as well.

2) Caster got silenced, but is tossing out spells like he might not have heard the Silence land on him.

3) Someone is tossing out a lot of rarely-used effects and a lot of players are confused as to what they do, and this is causing a significant issue on the battlefield.

I hope this helps, we Marshals do care about making the game better, and we don't like having to be painted as the bad guys.

 

[Inaryn]

If you've gotten a marshal so you can have them check a card, they should check the card. Even if they know the stats on the card, they should still make it a point to check it.

From what you describe here, it sounds like it's a complaint about that marshal that you should take to your Head of Rules.