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 March 2012
I just hit what seems to be a contradiction that I'd like clarification.
ruled: attachment that gives a stat bonus, the value of the bonus is considered to be the value of the stat. example: A follower with a chi bonus counts as having a chi stat. http://www.alderac.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=96971
ok, granted... this isn't a rules junta quote, but its Bryan Reese... I feel like he kinda counts when it comes to rules. ("Lead Designer" on the 1st non-cover page of the rulebook says to me he wrote the rules and is the ultimate authority)
ruled: raising sun blade can destroy a strength of the tsunami because a strength of the tsunami has no force in spite of its force bonus. (both have a force bonus of 6 and would count as a 6 force attachment by the above ruling) http://www.alderac.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=58&t=93733&p=1244902&hilit=tsunami+force#p1244902
Backed up by rules team, though not specifically comparing a 6 force weapon to a '6 force' spell. ruled: Spells do not have a force stat. (not 'except when they have a stat bonus') http://www.alderac.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=96800&p=1277897&hilit=spell+force#p1278006
A: so, Hoshi house guard http://imperialassembly.com/oracle/#cardid=3464 has a chi bonus when you have a ring. So a ranged attack against the house guard compares against this 2 chi bonus (when present) rather than the normal absent chi stat of 0? (I want to confirm that is in fact the 1st ruling. I know some older cards used to use a ' * ' to show variable stats, but by lotus edition's Hoshi House Guard this practice appears to have been done away with and the trait matches some of the older cards like it.)
B: How "an attachment that gives a stat bonus" different from a spell with a force bonus? such as strength of Tsunami http://imperialassembly.com/oracle/#cardid=7562. Or was Bryan Reese wrong?
Alex Jones (rules official), 22 March 2012
I just hit what seems to be a contradiction that I'd like clarification.
ruled: attachment that gives a stat bonus, the value of the bonus is considered to be the value of the stat. example: A follower with a chi bonus counts as having a chi stat. http://www.alderac.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=96971
ok, granted... this isn't a rules junta quote, but its Bryan Reese... I feel like he kinda counts when it comes to rules. ("Lead Designer" on the 1st non-cover page of the rulebook says to me he wrote the rules and is the ultimate authority)
ruled: raising sun blade can destroy a strength of the tsunami because a strength of the tsunami has no force in spite of its force bonus. (both have a force bonus of 6 and would count as a 6 force attachment by the above ruling) http://www.alderac.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=58&t=93733&p=1244902&hilit=tsunami+force#p1244902
Backed up by rules team, though not specifically comparing a 6 force weapon to a '6 force' spell. ruled: Spells do not have a force stat. (not 'except when they have a stat bonus') http://www.alderac.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=96800&p=1277897&hilit=spell+force#p1278006
A: so, Hoshi house guard http://imperialassembly.com/oracle/#cardid=3464 has a chi bonus when you have a ring. So a ranged attack against the house guard compares against this 2 chi bonus (when present) rather than the normal absent chi stat of 0? (I want to confirm that is in fact the 1st ruling. I know some older cards used to use a ' * ' to show variable stats, but by lotus edition's Hoshi House Guard this practice appears to have been done away with and the trait matches some of the older cards like it.)
B: How "an attachment that gives a stat bonus" different from a spell with a force bonus? such as strength of Tsunami http://imperialassembly.com/oracle/#cardid=7562. Or was Bryan Reese wrong?
Strength of the Tsunami doesn't have +6 in the top left corner: as a spell it does not have a force bonus, nor a force stat.
It does have a trait that grants a force bonus, but this is different from having a force bonus stat.
Similarly, the Hoshi House Guard has a trait that grants a chi bonus, but its own chi bonus stat (and its chi stat) is 0.