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, 20 July 2007
See original topic here.
Could he not give the force pump to an opposing personality? the card states:
Reaction: Before one of your Personalities is destroyed during battle: Give another target Personality a Force bonus equal to your Personality's Chi. If you are a Crab Clan player, delay your Personality's destruction until after the battle ends.
So he could give his opponents personality the force bonus and presuming his personality is crab his destruction would be delayed until battle ends, correct?
Martin Lund (rules official), 20 July 2007
See original topic here.
Could he not give the force pump to an opposing personality? the card states:
Reaction: Before one of your Personalities is destroyed during battle: Give another target Personality a Force bonus equal to your Personality's Chi. If you are a Crab Clan player, delay your Personality's destruction until after the battle ends.
So he could give his opponents personality the force bonus and presuming his personality is crab his destruction would be delayed until battle ends, correct?
In the example given, nowhere does the original poster state that there are any Personalities in the Defending Army.
Moreover, he specifically says, "Can I respond with Courage in Death although there is no other target for the force boost?"
The answer to that question is "No."
Sure, if there is actually another Personality at the battlefield - even an enemy Personality - you could use the card.
And yes, there are plenty of instances where you'll have one of your Personalities get hit with a destruction effect while the enemy army has no Personalities. "Chump-blocking," with a single Defender and playing a destructive action that requires you to kill your Defender as a cost, for example, was a very popular strategy at many points in L5R's history. Overwhelmed and To Do What We Must were staples of that kind of approach.