Entry Level New Paths
I have a strange hypothetical situation that has come up from the discussion in this thread. http://www.alderac.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=680626#680626 Can a character completely avoid all of the entry requirements of schools by using Entry-Level Paths? Say I am a true Ronin and took no starting school. Say I bought none of the skills that are the starting skill of the Tsume Pikeman, but I entered the path because the Path of Entry requirement is "None. This is an Entry-Level Path." Then say that I gain enough Insight for Rank 2 and move into the Daidoji Yojimbo, but I decide to never take any of the required skills for that school either. Is that even possible? Should it be possible?

To my knowledge yes. The need to have learned all of the school skills of the school you are switching into is a direct requirement for purchasing the multiple schools advantage. If you switch schools without th aid of the MS advantage then you bypass the need to meet it's qualifications. When following the Paths of Entrance and Egress it explicitely states that you do not need to purchase the MS advantage so you do not need the school skills. Situations wherin you gain the MS advantage for free, on the otherhand (such as the free MS at Rank 6 for having completed your regular school) do require you to have the necessary school skills as you are using the MS advantage to change schools, even if you are not paying for it.

The GM would/should be more leinient than the RAW. But I read once that you could take the alternate path techniques, etc as long as you paid for multiple/different schools.

Of course the Tsume Pikeman is a Crane Clan School. Clan samurai are allowed to take "Ronin" Schools (relatively) freely. The reverse is not true. As a seat of the pants call (homebrew), I would probably say that a PC Ronin attempting this feat would need a very good story reason, and would still need to buy the Different School Advantage (even though it is not character creation).

There is a post by Shawn that says that following the Paths correctly completely supercedes the need for multiple schools, and that also includes all of the restrictions and requirements normally required for taking MS. This means that you don't need the School Skills, you don't need to be Insight Rank 3 for Shugenja, and you dont suffer the lack of gaining Shugenja Techniques normally imposed by the MS advantage. He said that the school skills are not required, but the character will probably want to take most of them anyways or their Techniques and duties may suffer. I found the post while I was doing the search in which I found that Shawn had already ruled that going from Woodland Tracker to the Ujina skirmishers was acceptable. If you want I can try to find it again, but I'm not going to bother unless someone wants me to.