A topic from AEG's L5R CCG Rules forum, copied for Oracle of the Void from a copy of the forum saved in October 2015, so pages it didn't save are missing. Players' names are left out; the rules officials are named. Rulings are as they stood on these dates; later rulings, the rulebooks and the Rules Archive may differ.
A player, 27 February 2013
Playing Nio Sensei with Imperial Palace of Fu Leng, is my starting honor 15 or 14?
I know in the old days it was "ruled" impossible for even a Sensei to affect SL Horde strongholds starting honor (and so not cause them to lose the game immediately), but in the present Legacy rules what I find is:
"Sensei modifiers will not reduce your Starting Family Honor below -19. If a card effect causes you to change Sensei during the game, the new Sensei's Starting Family Honor modifier does not affect your current Family Honor, but any changes to the Province Strength modifier do affect the strength of your provinces. "
So the restriction on SFH modifying by the Sensei would only apply to "-19" SL strongholds?
Thanks,
Jose
Alex Jones (rules official), 28 February 2013
Playing Nio Sensei with Imperial Palace of Fu Leng, is my starting honor 15 or 14?
I know in the old days it was "ruled" impossible for even a Sensei to affect SL Horde strongholds starting honor (and so not cause them to lose the game immediately), but in the present Legacy rules what I find is:
"Sensei modifiers will not reduce your Starting Family Honor below -19. If a card effect causes you to change Sensei during the game, the new Sensei's Starting Family Honor modifier does not affect your current Family Honor, but any changes to the Province Strength modifier do affect the strength of your provinces. "
So the restriction on SFH modifying by the Sensei would only apply to "-19" SL strongholds?
Thanks,
Jose
As you describe, the game rules allow a player with -19 Starting Family Honour to play Nio Sensei without losing immediately. The rule you quote obviously does not apply if you start on 15 honour, so an Imperial Palace of Fu Leng player with Nio Sensei will begin the game on 14 honour.