Fortitude

Legend of the Five Rings card from Emperor Edition, The Harbinger, Emperor Edition Demo Decks

Card Type

Strategy

Gold Cost

0

Card Text

Battle: Choose your performing unbowed Berserker and target an enemy unit with lower total Force than your Berserker's base Force: Bow the target. Negate all current and new Force penalties on your Berserker from actions.

Focus Value

2

Legality

Age of Conquest (Emperor), Destroyer War (Celestial)

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rules Q&A

• Q: Hi,
  The card combo that brought this to my attention was "Utaku Jin-Lao" reacting off the reduction of a berserker's force to 0.
  My opponent then played "Fortitude" on them. We played everything printed on the card as normal (except he didn't bow one of my cards as he had 0 force at the time the action was played) but I was wondering about Jin-Lao in general and Fortitude as well.
  1) When is a card "Performing"? Does the card played have to specifically state "Battle: Target your performing XXX:" for it to be performed or would the text "Battle: Target your XXX:" also imply that the personality targeted as part of the cost is performing the action. Would Jin-Lao stop the first and second text examples or only the first?
  2) When does the force penalty negation kick in from "Fortitude"? Berserker is at 0 force and plays "Fortitude", are they 0 force and thus can bow no one? Can they take the action if they can't bow anyone opposing them (even if they weren't force reduced)? Or is the penalty negated first and then they can bow someone with lower force?
  What am I missing!
  A: 1. Fortitude is performed by the Berserker. See Glossary, Perform: A Personality or Follower is performing an action if its controller is the player taking the action (or, if the Personality or Follower is out of play, if its owner is the player taking the action), and any of these things is true: ... - The Personality or Follower was targeted by targeting in the base wording of the action’s constraints block (between the two colons). - The Personality or Follower is explicitly mentioned as a performer in the action's constraints block, using the word "performing."
  2. The Force penalty negation from Fortitude is an effect, applied after required targets are chosen. However, the card checks base Force, not current Force, so any existing penalties (or bonuses) are ignored. If there is no opposing unit to target, the action may not be announced. Alex Jones, "Utaku Jin-Lao, Performing and Fortitude", 11 Apr 2011
• Q: What happens if a player wants to play Fortitude but there's not a legal target on the enemy army with lower force? I guess the player can't play that card at all because there has to be a primary target in the first place, but wanted to be sure of this.
  A: Yes, that's correct. The "enemy unit with lower total Force" is a required target. Without it, the action can't legally be played. Brook Cunningham, "Fortitude & Walk in Shadows", 28 Nov 2010