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, 7 August 2007
I have a question involving how A Soldier's Fate interacts with effects that target and dishonor a personality you control. A Soldier's Fate Reaction: After another player's action targets a Personality in your army: Give him a Force bonus equal to his Personal Honor. If he is no longer a legal target for the action, negate its effects. If his Personal Honor is 3 or higher, he straightens after the Combat Segment ends. Let's use Bayushi Paneki as an example action that targets and dishonors. Bayushi Paneki xp4 Battle: Target a Personality; if he is a Courtier, he may be at any location. Destroy him if he is Dishonorable. Dishonor him.
Suppose I have a bowed honorable personality with 3 personal honor (we'll call him Doji Bob) at a battlefield opposing Paneki. My opponent declares the action from Paneki, targetting Bob. I react to his targetting by playing A Soldier's Fate. My personality gets a 3 force bonus due to his 3ph. The opponent's action is still legal, and thus the effects are not negated. His PH is 3 or higher, so at this time he meets the conditions to be straightening after the combat segment ends. A Soldier's Fate's effects have resolved. Paneki's action checks if he's dishonorable. Nope. Paneki then dishonors him. At this time Bob no longer meets the conditions to be straightening after the combat segment ends (0 ph). Both players then pass, and the combat segment ends.
Does Bob straighten? If he straightens, is it because of A? If he does not straighten, is it because of B? A) If A Soldier's Fate checked immediately what his PH was, then it would have produced an effect that would straighten him later. B) If A Soldier's Fate adds an effect that checks only at the end of the combat segment, then the dishonored personality does not meet the conditions of straightening.
Martin Lund (rules official), 7 August 2007
I have a question involving how A Soldier's Fate interacts with effects that target and dishonor a personality you control. A Soldier's Fate Reaction: After another player's action targets a Personality in your army: Give him a Force bonus equal to his Personal Honor. If he is no longer a legal target for the action, negate its effects. If his Personal Honor is 3 or higher, he straightens after the Combat Segment ends. Let's use Bayushi Paneki as an example action that targets and dishonors. Bayushi Paneki xp4 Battle: Target a Personality; if he is a Courtier, he may be at any location. Destroy him if he is Dishonorable. Dishonor him.
Suppose I have a bowed honorable personality with 3 personal honor (we'll call him Doji Bob) at a battlefield opposing Paneki. My opponent declares the action from Paneki, targetting Bob. I react to his targetting by playing A Soldier's Fate. My personality gets a 3 force bonus due to his 3ph. The opponent's action is still legal, and thus the effects are not negated. His PH is 3 or higher, so at this time he meets the conditions to be straightening after the combat segment ends. A Soldier's Fate's effects have resolved. Paneki's action checks if he's dishonorable. Nope. Paneki then dishonors him. At this time Bob no longer meets the conditions to be straightening after the combat segment ends (0 ph). Both players then pass, and the combat segment ends.
Does Bob straighten? If he straightens, is it because of A? If he does not straighten, is it because of B? A) If A Soldier's Fate checked immediately what his PH was, then it would have produced an effect that would straighten him later. B) If A Soldier's Fate adds an effect that checks only at the end of the combat segment, then the dishonored personality does not meet the conditions of straightening.
It looks to me like when A Soldier's Fate resolves it checks to see whether or not Bob has 3+ Personal Honor. If it does, it puts a delayed effect of "straighten Bob," into motion with the timing, "after the Combat Segment ends."
There are wording templates that can make the check-condition delayed as well, like: "After the Combat Segment, if he has 3 or more Personal Honor, straighten him," or "After the Combat Segment, straighten him if he has 3 or more Personal Honor," but those aren't used here.
Context is important, but typically whatever clause occurs earliest modifies the later clause rather than vice-versa. So when the conditional clause ("if" statement) comes first, then it determines whether or not there is a Delayed Effect at all, and when the timing clause ("when," "before," or "after") comes first, then it determines when the conditional clause is evaluated.