A Soldier's Fate

Legend of the Five Rings card from Khan's Defiance, Samurai Edition Banzai

Card Type

Strategy

Gold Cost

0

Card Text

Reaction: After another player's action targets a Personality in your army: Give him a Force bonus equal to his Personal Honor. If he is no longer a legal target for the action, negate its effects. If his Personal Honor is 3 or higher, he straightens after the Combat Segment ends.

Focus Value

4

Legality

Age of Enlightenment (Lotus), Race for the Throne (Samurai)

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rulings

• The condition "If his Personal Honor is 3 or higher," is evaluated as true or false while resolving A Soldier's Fate, not after the Combat Segment. If it is true on resolution, then the delayed straighten effect will happen even if he has less than 3 Personal Honor by the time the Combat Segment ends. (ML, 7 August 2007) Comprehensive Rules, Samurai Edition, with specific card rulings, final version, May 2009, p. 121

Rules Q&A

• Q: My current Family Honor is 0, and I target a 3 Force personality with Dastardly Tactics. The targeted personality, who has a 3 Personal Honor, reacts with A Soldier's Fate. What is the personality's Force after Dastardly Tactics resolves?
  A: It will be 0.
  Targeting occurs before you activate an action's effects (see Using Abilities). A Soldier's Fate reacts to Dastardly Tactics' targeting, because targeting a unit is the same as targeting its Personality (Citation). After A Soldier's Fate resolves (giving the Force bonus, amongst other things), you return to where you left off in the midst of Dastardly Tactics. Only then do you start resolving its effects, which will reduce the Personality's current Force to 0. Brook Cunningham, "Dastardly Tactics and A Soldier's Fate", 24 Aug 2008
• Q: Thanks for your time.
  A: It's no problem, and you're quite welcome. Brook Cunningham, "Dastardly Tactics and A Soldier's Fate", 24 Aug 2008
• Q: I just wanted to know that, since soldier's fate straightens people after the COMBAT segment, which is before resolution, the a bowed personality targeted with it would straighten again in time to contribute force for the resolution segment.
  A: Yes. Zen Faulkes, "A Soldier's Fate: Straightening timing", 1 Jan 2008
• Q: In viewtopic.php?f=59&t=62544 It was implied strongly that A Soldier's Fate no longer negates effects of actions when it makes the target no longer legal for the original action. Is this true?
  A: The question asked a general rule about targeting and Crippling Cut, and I answered with the general rule after looking at Crippling Cut.
  The example happened to mention A Soldier's Fate, which has specific text that overrides the general rule. But it wasn't mentioned in the question, so I didn't say anything about it. Zen Faulkes, "Re: Targeting on Crippling Cut", 14 Oct 2007
• Q: I have a question involving how A Soldier's Fate interacts with effects that target and dishonor a personality you control. A Soldier's Fate Reaction: After another player's action targets a Personality in your army: Give him a Force bonus equal to his Personal Honor. If he is no longer a legal target for the action, negate its effects. If his Personal Honor is 3 or higher, he straightens after the Combat Segment ends. Let's use Bayushi Paneki as an example action that targets and dishonors. Bayushi Paneki xp4 Battle: Target a Personality; if he is a Courtier, he may be at any location. Destroy him if he is Dishonorable. Dishonor him.
  Suppose I have a bowed honorable personality with 3 personal honor (we'll call him Doji Bob) at a battlefield opposing Paneki. My opponent declares the action from Paneki, targetting Bob. I react to his targetting by playing A Soldier's Fate. My personality gets a 3 force bonus due to his 3ph. The opponent's action is still legal, and thus the effects are not negated. His PH is 3 or higher, so at this time he meets the conditions to be straightening after the combat segment ends. A Soldier's Fate's effects have resolved. Paneki's action checks if he's dishonorable. Nope. Paneki then dishonors him. At this time Bob no longer meets the conditions to be straightening after the combat segment ends (0 ph). Both players then pass, and the combat segment ends.
  Does Bob straighten? If he straightens, is it because of A? If he does not straighten, is it because of B? A) If A Soldier's Fate checked immediately what his PH was, then it would have produced an effect that would straighten him later. B) If A Soldier's Fate adds an effect that checks only at the end of the combat segment, then the dishonored personality does not meet the conditions of straightening.
  A: It looks to me like when A Soldier's Fate resolves it checks to see whether or not Bob has 3+ Personal Honor. If it does, it puts a delayed effect of "straighten Bob," into motion with the timing, "after the Combat Segment ends."
  There are wording templates that can make the check-condition delayed as well, like: "After the Combat Segment, if he has 3 or more Personal Honor, straighten him," or "After the Combat Segment, straighten him if he has 3 or more Personal Honor," but those aren't used here.
  Context is important, but typically whatever clause occurs earliest modifies the later clause rather than vice-versa. So when the conditional clause ("if" statement) comes first, then it determines whether or not there is a Delayed Effect at all, and when the timing clause ("when," "before," or "after") comes first, then it determines when the conditional clause is evaluated. Martin Lund, "A Soldier's Fate + Dishonor Effects", 7 Aug 2007
• Q: Hi again!
  After seeing your response in this thread and reading the rules written in the Wiki,I saw this:
  Resolution Segment
  Effects “before a battle resolves” happen after the Combat Segment ends and before the Resolution Segment begins. http://rules.l5r.com/Battles
  This looks to me like the same timing.It looks like 'after the Combat Segment ends' = 'before the Resolution Segment begins'. I thought that part of making easier Samurai edition was the end of the numerous different timings.I recall of reading it somewhere some time ago. Since after the Combat Segment comes the Resolution Segment,I don't find a good reason having 2-3 different timings between them.
  So the question now is:Have they changed the way timings work?
  Do you think it would be better if I asked about it in the "Designated Thread: SE Comp. Rules/ Rulebook: Troubleshooting " thread?
  Thank you for your precious time!
  A: You'd be far more likely to generate meaningful feedback in the Troubleshooting thread, yes.
  This is a forum for answering rules questions, rather than for critiquing the Rules Design and Samurai Design principles, philosophies, and execution. Martin Lund, "Timing for Extended Maneuvers/A Soldier's Fate 2", 26 Jul 2007
• Q: Hello!
  We have this situation.Random player attacks me with a random personality and I defend with a Shugenja with 4 personal honor.He plays Extended Maneuvers and I pass.When the terrain resolves,he targets my Shugenja to bow him and I react with A Soldier's Fate.Do I straighten immediately my personality(since both the terrain and 'A Soldiers Fate have effects before the resolution) or the timing is bad and my personality stays bowed?
  Thanks in advance!
  A: In Samurai, A Soldier's Fate straightens you "after the Combat Segment ends" whereas Extended Maneuvers resolves "Before this Battle's Resolution". A Soldier's Fate will always straighten you before Extended Maneuvers attempts to bow.
  In Lotus, delayed terrains resolve prior to the end of the Combat Segment, so if you're playing Lotus, you'll be able to straighten. Chris Fuchs, "Timing for Extended Maneuvers/A Soldier's Fate", 25 Jul 2007
• Q: A player reacts to an action with a Soldier's Fate. If that personality is dishonored afterwards, does it still straighten?
  A: Yes. The condition is checked immediately to created a delayed effect. Zen Faulkes, "A Soldier's Fate and Dishonoring", 5 Jun 2007