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, 18 June 2008
Dark Virtue Reaction: Before you announce an action, target one of your Samurai: The action can not have its effects negated or have its targeting changed. After the action destroys any Personality, remove him from the game.
Reaction: After a Dark Virtue action resolves: The player who took it targets, dishonors, and destroys one of his Personalities.
If someone uses Determination for a kill action, for example a Ranged Attack, if they only have the one Personality and they are forced to destroy it, since it all happened before the Announcement of the action, would the Player that played Determination still be able to use the Action, or are the SoL?
Zen Faulkes (rules official), 18 June 2008
If someone uses Determination for a kill action, for example a Ranged Attack, if they only have the one Personality and they are forced to destroy it (due to True Strength), since it all happened before the Announcement of the action, would the Player that played Determination still be able to use the Action(?)
First, whether Determination takes effect or not has no bearing on whether the action it was supposed to affect is legal. That is, if Determination is somehow prevented, it does not somehow prevent the action it was reacting to.
Second, destroying a Personality with True Strength does nothing to Determination's effects. All Determination requires is that the Personality be targeted, which happened.
In this case, the lack of any Personalities after True Strength resolves may cause problems for the planned action following Determination (e.g., that action required targeting a Personality), but that has nothing to do with the success or failure of Determination, which in turn does not somehow wipe out the intended action.
I'm not 100% sure of the question asked here, so I hope that got it.
A player, 18 June 2008
In reference to viewtopic.php?f=59&t=68926&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a
Essentially, the question is that since Determination happens before the action is even announced...and True Strength is a Reaction so happens immediately after the Determination Reaction...for example if they were -going- to announce a "Battle: Ranged Attack for 2" off the personality that died, they're no longer present to use said action.
ie...if there's only 1 Personality on the Enemy side, they Determination, they have no one else to target, can they even take any action that isn't Presenceless at that point since they no longer have presence?
A player, 18 June 2008
if there's only 1 Personality on the Enemy side, they [play] Determination, [I play True Strength's Reaction which destroys this enemy Personality,] they have no one else to target, can they even take any action that isn't Presenceless at that point since they no longer have presence?
If your opponent plays Determination before announcing a Battle action but your True Strength destroys the one Personality he controls at the current battlefield, he can only announce a Battle action which either obeys the rule of Presence (e.g. Unwavering Assault) or waives it (e.g. Outer Walls).
Please note that he MUST announce a legal action if he has one available, even if the action he intented to announce is no longer legal to take:
If a player takes a Reaction timed to "before" an action is announced, and this action becomes illegal to take before it is announced, the player must announce an alternate legal action for the point at which the original action would have been announced. If the player has no legal action left to announce, the Reaction does not affect any action. A judge may be called in a tournament situation to verify the absence of legal actions in the hand.