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.
If I attach a Sons of Gusai (or any other Ranged attack generating follower or item) to Taito, and declare a Naval RA from the Sons, if I then combine Taito's ranged attack to create an RA5, do I still have to discard a card?
Based on the previous ruling of Tsuruchi Rin's gold production not carrying over from a combination, I would say no, but could you clarify?
If I attach a Sons of Gusai (or any other Ranged attack generating follower or item) to Taito, and declare a Naval RA from the Sons, if I then combine Taito's ranged attack to create an RA5, do I still have to discard a card?
Based on the previous ruling of Tsuruchi Rin's gold production not carrying over from a combination, I would say no, but could you clarify?
Yes, in your scenario, you would have to discard a card due to Taito's effect. All additional effects of combined Ranged Attacks still happen, including Rin's.
However, the special case with Rin is, when combining her attack, it just gives a strength bonus to the original attack; it doesn't actually do any destroying on its own. Therefore, when the later effect of checking to see if it destroyed anything and producing Gold if it did... it didn't destroy anything, and for two reasons, in fact.
First of all, it's the original attack, not Rin's, is doing the destroying. She's now just boosting its strength. Secondly, you resolve this check effect during the Interrupt step of taking actions, before the original attack even destroys anything anyway.