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 March 2015
Nothing in the 20F rules appears to allow the targeting to change after Step C without explicitly stating it. Unlike Final Sacrifice, which explcitly chooses a new target, Traditionalist just makes a target illegal.
If a Personality is targeted by a Favour action in Step C and then by Traditionalist in Step D, there is nothing that allows the Favor action to retarget and its original target is illegal- would this constitute "the player cannot find a legal target, the effects stop immediately, and no further effects or targeting happen."
Jon Palmer (rules official), 1 May 2015
Nothing in the 20F rules appears to allow the targeting to change after Step C without explicitly stating it. Unlike Final Sacrifice, which explcitly chooses a new target, Traditionalist just makes a target illegal.
If a Personality is targeted by a Favour action in Step C and then by Traditionalist in Step D, there is nothing that allows the Favor action to retarget and its original target is illegal- would this constitute "the player cannot find a legal target, the effects stop immediately, and no further effects or targeting happen."
You are correct. As long as there is another legal target, Traditionalist makes the current targeting illegal, but does not allow retargeting. This may be amended in the future but at present it will negate the favor's effects.
Alex Jones (rules official), 19 May 2015
Errata has been issued to Traditionalist.
Alex