Courage Spell

[Daedalus]

To clarify things, the North American version Courage spell card reads:

Courage

This spell may be cast on any
one Hero, including yourself.
The next time that Hero attacks,
he may roll two extra combat dice.
The spell is broken the moment the
Hero can no longer "see" a monster.

I gotta go with drathe and AerynB and say the spell only works on the next attack, then is done. This puts it more in line with the power of the other spells. Otherwise, a broadsword + Courage = multiple Genie spells. On p.1 of this post, AerynB already sufficiently demonstrated legitimate situations that explain why the last sentence of the spell is included for a one-off attack interpretation (quote added as an edit):

The only other reason I can think of is the chance that the spell is defunct should the Monsters escape sight before the attack.

Hmm...I think I see now. All the Heroes have attacked already, and maybe Elf/Wizard casts the spell on somebody standing next to a monster for the next set of turns. Zargon knows this, lets his monster attack, and then moves away so the Courage-ous Hero doesn't see any more monsters...voila, the spell is broken before the Hero had a chance to attack with the enhanced use of the spell. Or maybe Zargon only moves some of the monsters away, but the other Heroes attack and kill all the visible monsters before it's the Courage-ous Hero's turn so the spell wears off before he gets to benefit from its effects.

Good news for a beleagered Zargon and game balance.

Kudos to Ethica. Never occured to me that a Hero could more efficiently cast the Courage spell before encountering monsters; no longer "see" doesn't take effect until a Hero first "sees". However, for reasons I cited above, I don't agree the bonus dice carry over to more combat turns.

[gravaillon]

There's an unbelievable things that happens to me !! My courage card's spell say that you can boost your defense and not the attack... It is a french edition... Is it a print error ? Perhaps it is collector... I don't know where the card came from... Tell me if you now more.

[Ethica]

Gravaillon- If that is a print error, that could be like some really esoteric spell! What does it say exactly?

Daedalus- You make a good point, the spell does suggest that it is only the next attack. I think whoever wrote it didn't consider what it meant fully, because the first half suggests 1 attack and the second suggests either multiple attacks or a situation where you would prime the spell in anticipation of fighting a monster who may be killed by someone else or run away. It's quite confused but I will always play it that you get as many attacks as you can until all monsters are gone (like a frenzy) it's more fun I think. Even if it did mean just the one attack, I would still pick fire spells over air spells.

[Tott]

odd that they changed the wording between the uk and american versions, im assuming the uk version came first, if this is the case then 'The spell is broken the moment the Hero can no longer "see" a monster.' was added later. id take this to mean that the game makers deliberately intended for the buff to last for more than one turn. this makes a certain sense to me, fire spells are supposed to be offensive and fire of wrath and ball of flame are actually fairly weak spells. courage being a multi turn buff makes it a fairly powerful offensive spell.

[drathe]

There are two UK editions. The second added the clause, "The spell is broken when monsters are no longer visible to that player." The American version came after the second UK edition.

[Tott]

thats still adding the addition later, that still implies that they intended for courage to last longer than one turn

[Sotiris]

Reading this card again and again the only logical explanation i could give is that the spell takes effect only after the hero's 1st attack. Then it lasts for as long as he has visible monsters. I believe that "courage" is a spell whose effect is higher/different than a simple potion of strength.

[tomye]

I also think as along as your hero can "see" monsters, means has monsters in line of sight, he can use the extra attack dice for every attack and you even can combine it with a potion of strength for one even more powerful attack.

[mitchiemasha]

So if continuous it should read...

Courage
This spell may be cast on any
one Hero, including yourself.
That Hero may Roll two extra combat dice in Attack.
The spell is broken the moment the
Hero can no longer "see" a monster.

If not continuous...

Courage
This spell may be cast on any
one Hero, including yourself.
That hero may Roll two extra combat dice in only his next Attack.
The spell is broken the moment the
Hero can no longer "see" a monster.

I'd of avoided using 'He' and would of put +2Ad6 for space saving. With symbols, cards look good with symbols.

The 'see' is important to prevent casting the spell when not seeing a monster and being able to use it, preventing pre loading. It could of opened with... This spell may be cast on any one Hero that can "see" a monster, including yourself. This also stops beginners wasting it on a Hero who can't see a monster, as it is wrote, it can be cast but would have no effect (which is still ok)!

I prefer a continuous version...

Courage
This spell may be cast on any one Hero
that can "see" a monster, including yourself.
That hero may roll +2Ad6
The spell is broken the moment the
Hero can no longer "see" a monster

The non continuous version should include 'after the next attack and' /or/ 'after the first attack and' inserted before 'the moment'. Another version with the exclusion of 'next' and use of the wording 'may' would imply that a Hero could save the +2Ad6 spell cast on them for a later attack not used on the first, but would risk losing it.

edit: just to be clearer... The non continuous version...

Courage
This spell may be cast on any one Hero
that can "see" a monster, including yourself.
That hero may roll +2Ad6
The spell is broken after the fist attack and/or the moment the
Hero can no longer "see" a monster

After a bit more thought, even the term 'next' can be miss leading. Also why 'may roll'? does it need to be a choice? Only if the mechanic opens the ability to save it to a later Attack? As it doesn't, it might as well be forced, you'd 100% use it, no need for the term 'may roll'.

[mitchiemasha]

How the original creators intended the wording is anyones guess. I hadn't thought about it before, until directed here from another thread. Previously I'd seen it as continuous as it hardly gets used on that many multiples anyways, especially in the original Quest book, it's not that game breaking. Making the wizard level up simply by difficulty of Quests. The more Monsters, the better the spells effect.