1) If the damage is ignored with Protected, is there a Skullduggery roll?
I ruled that there would not be one.
If the damage dealt didn't exist or happen, then nothing would trigger Skullduggery.

My hesitation is that Skullduggery triggers "when the character deals damage to a target opposing character" making it sound as if this would happen immediately, even before Protected could be used.

2) Does Damage Shield trigger Skullduggery?
I think that this one is pretty self-explanatory, but I said I'd check.
I'd say that it does because the damage comes from the character, not the feat, as evidenced by the fact that AP works with it.
(This would apply to other things, like Shake-Off.)

yet it does not work with poison?

Hmm...I didn't look at it closely enough. I thought it was an AA feat, meaning no errata.


Missed this:
In other words, I think I blew the Shake-Off call, but at least that one was a theoretical one after the Protected one was asked.


EDIT: Thanks, and repped.


EDIT 2: Crud, the card even says "target" on it.

would protected fall under

• The damage dealt to the target opposing character is the
final damage dealt after all modifiers have been considered,
including critical hits and damage reducing powers.

Could be, but Protected is none of those things.

Harpua:

Thanks for asking this question as we JUST had this happen with a gaming group I play with. We ruled that they DID take a token due to the fact that it keys off of the character dealing damage to the opposing character. This seems to indicate that REGARDLESS of the fact that the damage would then be ignored, the character still was in a position to deal damage.

It was a group decision, but I was going to check on this ruling as well.

add this to nbperps AA question list thing he has going on. It seems that it could fall either way.
all though i am inclined to say that it would go 1 of 2 was
1: that skulduggery would not activate.
2: it would be a timing issue and that active player chooses which order it would go in regards to the activation of Skull and Protected.

I would agree with Talezine in his understanding that it triggers of the damage being dealt, not whether or not the damage is being taken or not. But then again.... now that I read it again, and re-read ignored from the glossary... it says that it treats the damage dealt as if it never happened. It doesn't even get to damage taken never happening, it says ignore damage dealt.... So... hmm. I'd say no roll I guess.

I agree that protected would stop the token from skullduggery being placed. The attack will result in dealing 0 damage, much like Incap where damage becomes 0 for the attack. I doubt anyone would rule that a token should be given from skullduggery in the case of an incap attack.