"If you play a weapon, the difficulty of the check to defeat is incresed by 3, or by 6 if your check has the swashbuckling trait."
Does this mean...
1. that it is increased by 6 if I use a weapon AND the swashbuckling trait
or
2. that it is increased by 6 if I use the swashbuckling trait even without a weapon
?
Another question:
Master Scourge deals 1 dmg after I act but he is evaded if I don't succeed a CON or FORT check.
If he is evaded, does he still deal the 1 dmg after I act?
I'd go with 1., because in my head, this rule looks like this:
IF YOU PLAY A WEAPON: the difficulty of the check to defeat is incresed by 3, or by 6 if your check has the swashbuckling trait.
If it was 2, I'd imagine it would be worded as:
THE DIFFICULTY IS INCREASED by 3 if you play a weapon, or by 6 if the check has the Swashbuckling trait.
(in which case, the Swashbuckling condition supersedes the weapon one, and they are not cumulative; i.e. if you had Swashbuckling, you would only increase by 6, regardless if a weapon is played or not)
I'd agree with Longshot11, the +6 is also dependent on you playing a weapon. So, playing a weapon will make it either 3 or 6 harder, depending on whether you check also has the swashbuckling trait.
Another question:
Master Scourge deals 1 dmg after I act but he is evaded if I don't succeed a CON or FORT check.
If he is evaded, does he still deal the 1 dmg after I act?
Nope. Evading ends the encounter immediately at that point, so no damage.
Another question:
Master Scourge deals 1 dmg after I act but he is evaded if I don't succeed a CON or FORT check.
If he is evaded, does he still deal the 1 dmg after I act?
No. You can look it up in the Rulebook - basically, when you evade a card you disregard all of its powers that don't concern Evading.
Some cards can allow you to evade at a different step than usual, like the weapon Whip. The Whip states that "if you fail the check, you may discard this card to evade the monster". Note that in this case, all Before You Act effects would already have happened, before you attempted the Combat check to defeat with the Whip; however, since you fail the check and you discard the Whup to evade - you disregard any FURTHER steps of the encounter - which includes Taking Damage, and more to the point - After You Act effects and Powers.
Owlbear: need both weapon and Swashbuckling trait to increase by 6. If no weapon is played, difficulty is not increased by that power regardless of traits.
Scourge: No. Evading a card makes you ignore all other powers on that card. Evaded villains are shuffled back in their location deck, they do not escape.
Edit: and ninja'd super hard, that's what I get for typing on phone :P
If you evade the card, do not activate any other powers on it. Shuffle it back into the deck; it is neither defeated nor undefeated, and the encounter is over.
That is the WotR version, but something similar (if not the exact same thing) is also in the S&S Rulebook.
Thank you for all the answers!