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, 19 October 2010
Just want to clarify that this girl isn't broken beyond belief. Relevant texts:
Reaction: After Otsuko or another Deathseeker Personality in her army is destroyed: Reduce the Force of a target Personality or Follower in the current enemy army to 0. Gain 2 Honor.
*Rulebook* If the Attacker wins, he or she destroys all units in the defending army.
1) If i have 1-3 Otsuko's defending, and they die in resolution, does her ability trigger? She is still in an army when she is destroyed as far as i can tell. If this is a no ignore the other questions.
2) If the above is true, does everybody in the army die at the same time or would the attackers army force have to be recalculated to see if he still has won the battle?
3) In the event of a tie, if question one is a yes and an Otsuko dies in resolution, would the battle no longer be a tie?
I was a bit worried when i thought about this and really just wanted to make sure it a) doesn't work or b) gets fixed before worlds!!! Thanks for your time.
Dario
A player, 19 October 2010
1) If i have 1-3 Otsuko's defending, and they die in resolution, does her ability trigger?
Yes, her destruction in battle resolution triggers her Reaction.
2) does everybody in the army die at the same time or would the attackers army force have to be recalculated to see if he still has won the battle?
Yes, everybody in the defending army die at the same time. No, the attacking army's total Force will not be calculated anew, per Resolution Segment: "The calculation and comparison of army force is made only once. Any changes to army total Force after this point (e.g., units on the winning side being destroyed due to Reactions) do not alter the outcome."
3) In the event of a tie, if question one is a yes and an Otsuko dies in resolution, would the battle no longer be a tie?
No it is still a tie, because of the rule I quoted above: the outcome of the battle is determined once, before the effects of resolution are applied; this outcome and those effects do not change even if some cards in any armies have their Forces reduced or increased during the Resolution Segment after the outcome is determined.