There is another discussion going on about Bagman on Laz pit and if traits are still "active" while they are off the board. This got me thinking about Wolverines Continual Healing Factor.
First question: Are traits active even when the figure is off the board?
Second: Could Wolverine heal twice while on the Laz Pit? (If traits are still active)

Relevant text.

To use Wolverine's trait, it says you have to give him a free action. Are you allowed to give actions to characters that are removed from the battlefield? I think the answer is no, but I don't know for sure.

In other words, I doesn't really matter if traits are active or not, the real question is can you give actions to Removed from the Game/Battlefield figures?

It doesn't clearly say

Interesting question, not sure if that was brought up in the other thread. It doesn't say just "at the beginning or your turn heal wolverine of 1 damage"
In that case I'd say it definitely works.

Given the current rules I would have to say that even with the having to give him an action (free or not) that he gets to heal. Heck, you could heal him off the board without lazarus pit, but without the pit you'd have no way to put him back into play. The rules don't say anything about what character can and can't do when not in play, they assume it doens't matter, because they are not in play.

Basically:

(1) If traits work when a character is removed from play, then Wolverine heals two clicks a turn while on the Lazarus Pit (OH NOES!!!!) but Bagman can not be healed by the Lazarus Pit.

(2) If traits do not work when a character is removed from play, then Wolverine only heals one click a turn while on the Lazarus Pit, but Bagman can be healed by the Lazarus Pit (OH NOES!!!!).

#1 isn't entirely true if you can't give actions to characters removed from play.

But nothing says you can't, therefore it follows that there is nothing stopping you. heal two clix a turn away I say.

The player's guide says this:
Characters that are removed from the battle map (but not
eliminated) may not use their own powers, team abilities,
or feats except as stipulated by the effect removing them
from the battlefield.

The entry doesn't cover traits. My guess is that making traits also not available is in line with the intent, but until we get a response from the RA and (potentially) a change to the entry it's going to be a case of "what does your judge say?"

Agreed.

Another point to make is that when a character is KO'ed it is defeated, per the standard rules of the game. The Lazarus Pit feat card creates an exception to this rule in that a KO'ed character that has been assigned Lazarus Pit is not defeated unless certain conditions are met, as provided by the card.

When a character is KO'ed normally they are unable to be given any actions- free or otherwise- and Lazarus Pit doesn't appear to make any exception to that part of the rule.

The emphasized section tells us what we can do with the character after it's KO'ed. An 'either/or' phrase signifies a binary decision, and giving free actions is not part of that binary in the case of Lazarus Pit.

I'd been thinking about this ever since the terrible answer I gave on the other thread.

Actually there is precedent for not being able to, with characters carried by someone using hypersonic speed. If a flying hypersonic character attacks while carrying another character with the SHIELD team ability, the SHIELD character couldn't be given a free action to increase the attacking character's range, because it is off the board at the time.

This seems to establish that off the board characters cannot be given actions, so I would say that Wolverine could not be given a free action to heal.

"But it doesn't say I can't" has always been the weakest argument to support something.

I will once again counter with "But the rulebook doesn't say that I can't take a hammer and smash all your pieces and declare myself the winner because you no longer have any pieces in your control on the board" Does this mean that you would accept that logic too?

The rulebook defines actions. It says that you can give figures on the board actions. That's all. Until the rulebook says that figures off the board are able to take actions, then they can't because the rulebook only says you can give actions to figs on the board. Think of it as a pre-req to being given actions.

That's not the best example because it's not about the SHIELD figure being assigned an action, it's the fact that by being off the board, they aren't adjacent at the time of the attack.

I said the exact same thing on another thread yesterday. I felt dirty using that argument here, but that doesn't make it invalid. Also, I'm pretty sure that taking a hammer to my figures and declaring yourself the winner violates a number of rules. Primarily those about modifying dials, illegally moving figures, and cheating in general. Oh, and the unwritten "you try it and you'll be looking for your face splattered all over the ground. because I shot it. and laughed. and urinated on your corpse. like Brock Sampson. because you have to defile the corpse, or they just come back alive."

This was noticed in light of Bagman and was mentioned for consideration among the PG updates.

So, how is it going to go? Will Bagman be able to use Laz pit since the triat would not be usuable?