Does Sacrifice of Form (and other similar cards that discard a character) also discard followers that the Wizard was controlling?1) The thread will be open until August 27th. The usual time is two weeks but having in mind that it's vacation time we've decided to leave it open a bit longer.
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In order to solve this, one must compare several rules and ruling digests.
First, here is the text of Sacrifice of Form for reference:
As we can see, the printed text of Sacrifice of Form itself says to “discard any non-item cards he controls”. CoE Digest #57 ruled that this included followers.Spell. Wizard only. All of the strikes from one attack against your Wizard's company fail; +3 to any body checks made to determine of the attack is defeated. Discard the Wizard (i.e., he becomes unrevealed) and any non-item cards he controls. Place any items he controls under this card and keep these off to the side (these items are considered to still be in play). If the Wizard is put back into play, return his items to him and place Sacrifice of Form with him. Wizard receives +1 to his prowess, body, and direct influence. May not be duplicated on a given Wizard.
However, this ruling seems to be contradicted by the following paragraph in the METW rules, under INFLUENCING (CONTROLLING) A CHARACTER:CoE RULINGS DIGEST #57
08-12-2003 NetRep: Chad Martin Source
QUERY 48
Addendum: Sacrifice of Form discards any followers the Wizard has at the time.
And this paragraph is echoed in the CRF, Rulings by Term, Discard:If a character directly influencing a follower is removed from play, the follower remains in play and does not immediately count against general influence. However, during your next organization phase, you must discard the follower, place the follower under the control of another character in his company with enough available direct influence, or place the follower under the control of general influence (if enough is available).
Finally, there are also some questions and answers regarding Sacrifice of Form in the ICE digests:Whenever a character is discarded, all non-follower cards played with that character are also discarded.
ICE RULES DIGEST #10ICE RULES DIGEST #512
Sacrifice of Form says to discard all non-item cards the Wizard controls. Does this include the Wizard’s followers and cards the followers control?
No, character followers are returned to general influence. They require no general influence to control until your next organization phase.*
This committee’s inclination is to follow ICE’s digests instead of CoE #57, because we believe that ICE’s intent with Sacrifice of Form was not to discard the followers that the wizard is controlling at the moment of sacrifice (per the general METW rules regarding followers whose controlling character leaves play). This also makes more sense from a thematic point of view, and is consistent with the errata given to The Arkenstone (minion).1. I am still unclear as to what effect Sacrifice of Form or other changes in company composition have on the GI. If I have a wizard controlling a high-mind character, then the wiz sacrifices his form, does the GI immediately reset to take into account the additional requirement of imposed by the former follower?
No. Followers whose controllers disappear outside the organization phase need not be controlled by influence until the next org phase.
This rule also works for these other cards that have similar text, whether their text mentions “discard all cards the character controls” or “discard all cards on/played with the character”:
Press-Gang
Treason the Greatest Foe
No Better Use
The Roving Eye
Imprisoned and Mocked
A lie in your eyes
Exile of solitude
The Ring will have but one Master
The Arkenstone (minion) (already errated in CRF)
Therefore, this committee rules that Sacrifice of Form does not discard followers that the wizard is controlling.
Note that this ruling overturns CoE #29 Q1, CoE #57 Q48 and CoE #75 Q7