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, 25 March 2014
I ran into a question that I wasn't sure about nor was the opponent. when you use a melee action to target a follower or a personality without followers is it against the printed force on the personality? do attachments effect this in ay way?
Example: I do a melee attack of 2, and he has a personality with 2 force but also has a weapon attached and it force is a +2 making it all together a 4 force strength. will my melee 2 still kill the personality because of the printed force of 2 on the personality or is the weapon added into that also?
Another question that came up and am pretty sure of the answer but if a personality is bow for any reason they can no longer attach items, spells, equipment, or followers correct? How many spells is a shugenja allowed to attach, it used to be whatever the Chi was is that still correct?
Any clarification on any of this would help out a lot.
A player, 26 March 2014
Melee Attacks (and also Ranged and Fear) compare against the *current* Force of the Personality, taking into account all modifiers. If your Personality has a printed Force of 2 and has a Weapon attached with a +2F, the Personality has a current Force of 4, and therefore you need a Melee 4 Attack to destroy the Personality.
In Ivory Edition bowed Personalities can attach cards, there's no such restriction.
In Ivory Edition Shugenja can attach as many Spells as you wish. The restriction you mention was eliminated many arcs ago.