[Spoilers] Question about Encounter Card in Core Set Scenario 3

[Assussanni 528]

Hi all,

 

I have a question about the card Umôrdhoth's Wrath (https://arkhamdb.com/card/01158).

 

In a game I was playing I had two cards in my hand, drew Umôrdhoth's Wrath, and then pulled the auto-fail token from the Chaos Bag for the willpower check.

 

Does the "choose one" on the card refer to a choice I make for each point I failed by, or do I make a single choice? Assume that I want to discard cards before taking any damage/horror, which of the following is correct:

1. I make a choice for each point, discarding two cards then taking 3 damage and 3 horror.
2. I choose to discard cards, discarding two cards only.
3. I can't choose to discard cards because I don't have five cards, therefore I take 5 damage and 5 horror.

I thought at the time it was option (3) but this seems extremely harsh, and needless to say Roland did not survive this encounter!

 

Having read this thread (https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/238768-to-the-designer-i-need-a-ruling-on-this-please/) and the related thread on BGG, which I'll admit have started to make my brain hurt, I now think option (2) would be allowed since I change the game state by discarding two cards - but if I had zero cards I would have to pick (3).

 

Or am I misreading the card and it is actually (1)?

 

Many thanks!

[DarkFate 70]

I am no expert at the rules but i say it's 1.

[Noaloha 25]

You make the choice for each point you fail by. So, failing by 5, you choose one option, then choose another one, then another and another and then one more.

[Khouri 96]

I agree with the others with it being 1, you iterate over the options for the number of points the test was failed by (5 in the case of an auto fail). Under the rules for "must" the game state has to be altered by a choice, so as long as you have cards in hand you can choose to discard one otherwise the choice would have to be damage resulting in 2 cards discarded along with 3 damage & 3 horror.

 

As you have said, option 2 would be a valid choice if all of the "failure points" are summed prior to making a single decision (game state changes, but can only partially fulfil the card instructions). That would seem to make it a bit easy though (always keep at least one card in hand) and why I side with option 1.

[Gaffa 673]

For each point you fail by -- five, in this case -- you must either take the damage, or discard a card. If you have only two cards in your hand, that's two points you failed by covered, which means you're taking three damage and three horror.

[Assussanni 528]

Okay, thanks. Looks like there is a pretty clear consensus

 

I was confused by the "(choose one)" on the card, which seems completely unnecessary to me. In fact without it I would have interpreted it the same way as everyone else!