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 June 2012
Do paragons our of Shamate Keep keep their personal honor (ph) when they are dishonored? Ie Akodo Kobi is dishonored, is her ph a 0 or 3?
I've been told that the paragons have their personal honor reduce to 0 but that it could be raised thru Honor of the Lion. I think that is wrong as the rules simply state that dishonorable people have a max ph of 0 which would automatically reduce the ph to 0 because of the way stats are calculated and Shamate Keep overrides the max ph rule. There is noting in the rulebook that states that dishonorable people have their ph reduced to 0.
Jon Palmer (rules official), 23 June 2012
Do paragons our of Shamate Keep keep their personal honor (ph) when they are dishonored? Ie Akodo Kobi is dishonored, is her ph a 0 or 3?
I've been told that the paragons have their personal honor reduce to 0 but that it could be raised thru Honor of the Lion. I think that is wrong as the rules simply state that dishonorable people have a max ph of 0 which would automatically reduce the ph to 0 because of the way stats are calculated and Shamate Keep overrides the max ph rule. There is noting in the rulebook that states that dishonorable people have their ph reduced to 0.
Per the rules on calculating stats, normally you would first add up all bonuses and penalties to the Personality's Personal Honor, then apply the rulebook's "Dishonorable Personalities have a maximum Personal Honor of 0" clause. Shamate Keep directly prevents that clause from being applied, and therefore if another effect is giving the Personality a bonus or penalty to Personal Honor, that will be taken into effect in calculating the Personality's Personal Honor.
If Kobi is dishonored, her Personal Honor is 3. If you play Honor of the Lion on her, it will be 4 (base 3 plus a bonus of 1), and with the "maximum 0" clause not applying, remain at 4.