Catatonic Fear question

So, can you play Target Vitals with Catatonic Fear? Also, can the damage inflicted by Catatonic Fear be Prevented with Fortitude?

yes you can play target vitals with catatonic fear and you will do 1 damage + 2 from TV. there are very few cards that can prevent this damage. it depends on wether or not the card can be played after combat ends.

Caliban,

1) Yes. You can Target Vitals with Catatonic Fear.

2) You can avoid it with a S:Dodge (since Dodge avoids all negatives from the opposing strike, including special effects such as 'put this card on' and the like). Otherwise, the minion must have a way to prevent damage that is not an 'in combat' prevention. Those would need to say something like "Prevent 1 damage each turn" and not "Prevent 1 damage each round"; rounds are only inside combat so can't be used.

I'm confused. If you can't prevent the damage with Fortitude cards because damage prevention is only possible during combat, how can a dodge avoid damage that occurs outside of combat? I wasn't aware that Combat Ends could be Dodged. I thought that playing a S:Combat Ends terminates combat immediately and playing a dodge after combat ends is just card cycling because the combat is already considered "over"?

CalibanX wrote:

I thought that playing a S:Combat Ends terminates combat immediately and playing a dodge after combat ends is just card cycling because the combat is already considered "over"?

Strike: Combat Ends is explained in the Rulebook, section 6.4.5. Strike Effects, as follows:

Combat Ends. This effect ends combat immediately. This type of strike is always the first to resolve, even before a strike done with first strike, and it ends combat before other strikes or other strike resolution effects are resolved. Combat ends is effective at any range. Combat ends is not affected by a dodge, since dodge only cancels effects that are directed at the dodging minion.

But to be precise:
It ends combat immediaately once we reach strike resolution phase. The opposing vampire can still select a strike, and possibly affect the combat-ending minion with the chosen strike (announcing some strike with aggravated damage, followed by Rötschreck).

A Dodge is not played "after combat ends" - it is played before combat ends, in the Choose Strike phase. The combat is not over, we are still right in the middle of it.

Now, as for Dodge vs. Catatonic Fear, I also am not sure:

According to the rulebook, Strike: Combat Ends "ends combat before other strikes or other strike resolution effects are resolved".
This seems to imply that the Dodge does never resolve at all.
If so, it would not be able to protect against the damage done by Catatonic Fear....

You dodge the damage and effects of a strike. Morphean blow and cat fear are damage dealing sce.

Combat still ends, but you dodged a damage dealimg strike as well, thus no damage. (If you dodge Wither, you dont get the card, etc)

Cat fear and target vitals is nasty, but dodgeable.

The after combat ends part closes any fortitude or" prevent x combat damage" stuff.

But the strike was in combat, so can be dodged.

Its one of the few nice things about BS sce crap.