Betrayal at house on the hill 3rd ed haunt 21 (spoilers)
So my friends and I played last night and we have a disagreement (after the fact when the traitor had won). So when Spooky McMasters attacks it says: if you win, you may steal the book from them (if they have it) instead of dealing damage.
I had unsuccessfully stolen the book because they have six might. So then they attacked back and since they still had the book they dealt damage because the way it's worded sounds like they can choose to damage instead of steal the book back.
But does the instead mean they can only steal the book and not do damage or does it mean they can choose which to do? Because the second way seems rather unfair especially considering they have other ways to hurt us- horrors and such. It seems very overpowered if they can also hurt us with a normal attack as we can only get stronger in the library.