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, 22 February 2012
Warded Paths Spell 0 GC While this Shugenja is defending, he has +3F. While this Shugenja is Earth and you are the Defender, you decide the order in which the battles resolve.
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Two (and a half) questions:
1. If a Spell somehow becomes attached to a non-Shugenja, its Actions cannot be used according to the Comprehensive Rules. If Warded Paths (or, I guess, any other Spell with a trait on it) is attached to a non-Shugenja does its first trait still function? 1a. If the Personality still has the Earth keyword for whatever reason, would the second trait still function?
2. If Warded Paths is attached as a Battle action, does the second trait apply for any remaining battles?
Ben Higgins (rules official), 23 February 2012
Warded Paths Spell 0 GC While this Shugenja is defending, he has +3F. While this Shugenja is Earth and you are the Defender, you decide the order in which the battles resolve.
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Two (and a half) questions:
1. If a Spell somehow becomes attached to a non-Shugenja, its Actions cannot be used according to the Comprehensive Rules. If Warded Paths (or, I guess, any other Spell with a trait on it) is attached to a non-Shugenja does its first trait still function? 1a. If the Personality still has the Earth keyword for whatever reason, would the second trait still function?
2. If Warded Paths is attached as a Battle action, does the second trait apply for any remaining battles?
If Warded Paths were to become attached to a non-Shugenja Personality, or it's Personality were to lose the Shugenja keyword, the effects Warded Paths produces would end because they require the Spell be attached to a specific keyword to be satisfied.
Should Warded Paths be attached during a Battle, and the Personality attached to it meets all the requirements for satisfying the effect, then yes, for as long as any Battles remain unresolved and Warded Paths remains in play, the Defender would decide what order the Battles are chosen to resolve (For each separate battle, steps A through D from "Choose Battlefield" through "Final Steps" happen in sequence. - From Comprehensive Rules on Battles).