Wizards and Ringwraiths roll a body check when wounded by Abductor. So do characters prevented from being discarded. Special actions of a strike are distinct from the body check (Annotation 19). The body check can happen without the special action.
First, note that the earlier rulings from Scott came
before the Rules Annotations in the METW Companion and the rulings on Abductor weren't updated until later. Recognize that the Rules Annotations weren't written in a vacuum--they were written to describe specific issues.
Second, the "
does not affect Ringwraiths" statement in the CRF refers to the special action of the Abductor's strike. That is, "each non-Wizard (and non-Ringwraith) defending character wounded by the Abductor is discarded." A non-Wizard non-Ringwraith character wounded by Abductor would be discarded
before they could roll a body-check. A Wizard or Ringwraith wounded by Abductor is not discarded before they make the body-check, they still make the body check. A character that is prevented from being discarded by the special action of the strike still makes the body check.
ICE wrote:Q: also believe a wizard injured by an Abductor is a wizard kill. Basically, once you,ve revealed your wizard he can not be discarded <except with Sac of Form> or it,s a wizard kill...
A: Wizards are not discarded by Abductor. Besides, discarding a Wizard in and of itself does not count as a Wizard kill. Discarding due to
a corruption check does.
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Q: What happens when a Ringwraith is wounded by an Abductor?
A: You roll a body check.
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Q: A further question about Abductors: say a character fails to defeat or make ineffectual a strike by an Abductor, is he discarded immediately or does he make a body check and only become discarded if he is not eliminated? This may throw some light on the above question concerning Ringwraiths. In digest 85, Ichabod said that a Ringwraith wounded by an Abductor rolls a body check. Can that Ringwraith be discarded?
Non-Ringwraith characters are discarded immediately. The Ringwraith is not discarded. (Annotation 19)
Annotation 19 describes the differences between a special action of a strike and a body-check. Just because wounding a Wizard/RW character doesn't cause the special action doesn't mean that the Wizard/RW doesn't have to make a body check as normal. The special action does not replace the body check.
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Theo wrote: ↑Tue Jun 16, 2020 5:20 pm
Even earlier, we have (underline mine):
ICE NetRep (Ichabod) 97/11/6 wrote:
>4) Can an Abductor kill a character, or is missing the strike synonymous with being discarded without a body check?
Abductors never kill characters, they just discard them.
If this ever appeared in a CRF, it might have also called into question Konrad's conclusion that Wizards and any character that cannot be discarded must roll a body check. Or perhaps, they were supposed to roll the body check but ignore failure, perhaps to see whether Ringwraiths were returned to hand? No matter; it never saw CRF release.
You're taking this ruling out of context even though you actually have reviewed most of the context. The answer clearly doesn't consider Wizards or characters that are prevented from being discarded. It's specifically responding to a question about a character that
would be discarded. And the missing background of this question is that it was previously ruled characters could be eliminated by Abductor. The statement "
Abductors never kill characters" references this background and if you knew the background then the Netrep's response makes sense. And... you just described the background... but then...
The CRF clarification on Abductor only changes how the Abductor card is played. It does not change the rules on special actions of a strike.