Tactician

Tactician is the name given to both a trait in the Legend of the Five Rings CCG and a skill in the role playing game. Both versions of the Tactician ability reflect that the character has particular skill in commanding large bodies of troops in massed combat. A Tactician is trained in both the theoretical and practical aspects of massed warfare, and have great knowledge of the works of great military leaders of the Empire.

The quintessential exponents of the Tactician trait are the students of the Lion Clan's Akodo Tactical School. The teachings of the Akodo Tactical School are based on the writings of the kami Akodo, who founded the Lion Clan at the dawn of the Empire. His treatise on tactics, called Leadership, forms the basis for the school's curriculum, although they also study the works of the Empire's other great commanders, such as Sun Tao.

In the L5R CCG, the Tactician trait allows the controlling player to make use of special 'Tactical' battle actions, which can only be performed by a personality with the Tactician trait. An example of such a card would be 'Superior Strategist', which allows the player to search their Fate deck for a battle action and play it immediately. Alternatively, a personality with the Tactician trait can discard a card from their hand to raise the Force of the personality by the Focus value of the card discarded. Regardless of which type of action the player takes, a personality can only perform one Tactical action per turn, so they could not play a 'Superior Strategist' and discard a card for a Force increase.