Gents,

as I am an absolute novice with Talisman, I have 2 basic questions for you.

On the Priest Character sheet I read: "You can defeat the spirits automatically without resoving the encounter". In this case can I increase my craft as the encounter was really happened by battling?

And the same question is about the adventure card "Cross". With her a character can automatcally win the encouter with spirits and demons. But can I encrease my craft with these automatically defeated enemies?

Thank you in advance for you answers.

In BI version you can increase craft. In FFG's you cannot.

 The german card version says : 

You may defeat ghosts without having a psy. combat.
You cannot gain this enemies as trophies if you defeat them this way.

The FFG version texts are as follows -

Priest - "You may choose to automatically destroy any Spirits without resorting to psychic combat. When you destroy a Spirit in this manner, you may not keep the Enemy as a trophy but you may gain one Spell."

Cross - "You may choose to automatically destroy any Spirits without resorting to psychic combat. Spirits destroyed in this manner cannot be kept as trophies."

So no, you may not gain the Craft from the encounter, but if you are using the Priest you can have a Spell if your Craft allows.

Aschterix said:

Is the german version based on the black industry's game or the new one by fantasy flight?

 The german version is based on the revised FFG edition (so all things from the Q&A , Errata are included and the missprints are corrected)