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, 5 September 2007
Okay, at the risk of sounding both repetitive and dumb, I have to ask this, to ensure I understand it....
Obsidian Dragon's penalty is continually adjusted to prevent it from causing, in conjuction with other chi penalties, the death by having 0 Chi of anyone to whom it applies, correct? In other words:
-my Obsidian Dragon (OD) is opposed by Bob, a 3C personality with 3PH -Bob therefore has a -3C penalty -however, it's really a -2C penalty since OD can't drop him below 1C, so his chi is now 1 -I now play an action that gives Bob -1C. But he doesn't drop to 0C and die; rather, OD's penalty is adjusted to -1C, so Bob remains at 1C -I play another action that gives Bob another -1C. Again, OD's penalty is adjusted again, this time to 0. Bob's Chi remains at 1, because of my two -1C actions. OD has effectively ceased to have any further part to play in calculating Bob's Chi -so if I play a third action that gives Bob -1C, he will finally die, because the total chi penalty against him now is -3C from non-OD sources
So the lesson here is that to kill someone by chi death in a battle involving Obsidian Dragon, you effectively have to pretend the OD isn't there; in other words, you have to inflict sufficient chi penalties from other sources to reduce your victim to 0 chi, because the Obsidian Dragon will never contribute a chi penalty that results in a personality's death.
Is this correct?
Zen Faulkes (rules official), 6 September 2007
Okay, at the risk of sounding both repetitive and dumb, I have to ask this, to ensure I understand it....
Obsidian Dragon's penalty is continually adjusted to prevent it from causing, in conjuction with other chi penalties, the death by having 0 Chi of anyone to whom it applies, correct? In other words:
-my Obsidian Dragon (OD) is opposed by Bob, a 3C personality with 3PH -Bob therefore has a -3C penalty -however, it's really a -2C penalty since OD can't drop him below 1C, so his chi is now 1 -I now play an action that gives Bob -1C. But he doesn't drop to 0C and die; rather, OD's penalty is adjusted to -1C, so Bob remains at 1C -I play another action that gives Bob another -1C. Again, OD's penalty is adjusted again, this time to 0. Bob's Chi remains at 1, because of my two -1C actions. OD has effectively ceased to have any further part to play in calculating Bob's Chi -so if I play a third action that gives Bob -1C, he will finally die, because the total chi penalty against him now is -3C from non-OD sources
So the lesson here is that to kill someone by chi death in a battle involving Obsidian Dragon, you effectively have to pretend the OD isn't there; in other words, you have to inflict sufficient chi penalties from other sources to reduce your victim to 0 chi, because the Obsidian Dragon will never contribute a chi penalty that results in a personality's death.
Is this correct?
Still under discussion in Rules Junta.