As the first Ivory Kolat tournaments are on the horizon, I'm still tuned: viewtopic.php?f=59&t=106290#p1400969
Ranged/Melee/Fear in Ivory
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.
Well, although I can't yet provide you links and references, the answer is: you may still target cards with higher force than the strength of the RA/MA/Fear. The definition in the Advanced Rulebook isn't fully accurate and will be corrected in the Ivory version of the Comprehensive Rules when it is published, that is unfortunately taking longer than foreseen due to the massive changes.
1.- You may use a Fear 3 if all enemy targets have Force 4 or more. Otherwise there would be no point in combining Fear abilities, or Interrupts that increase Fear strength.
2.- You still need an enemy target, though. You cannot legally play Battle abilities with RA/MA/Fear effects if there's no possible enemy target (excluding No Hiding Place and similars)