COM: Do Field of Study biohacker Inhibitors stack?


Rules Questions

Sovereign Court

2 people marked this as FAQ candidate.

Here we run into a question of whether non-Basic inhibitors can stack. To quote some relevant bits of COM:

COM p. 42, Basic Inibitor wrote:
A creature can be affected by only one of your basic inhibitors at a time, though it could be under the effects of multiple basic inhibitors originating from multiple biohackers. If you affect a creature with a different basic inhibitor while a previous inhibitor is still in effect, the effects of the previous inhibitor end.
COM p. 42, Minor Biohacks wrote:
Minor biohacks are otherwise used as and function as basic booster and basic inhibitor biohacks, and they count as such biohacks for the purposes of interactions with other abilities (such as spark of ingenuity).
COM p. 44, Fields of Study wrote:
Each field’s booster, inhibitor, and breakthrough ability follow the rules for basic biohacks unless specified otherwise.

It seems likely that Minor Biohacks would inherit the limitation of one inhibitor per biohacker per target, given the mention of Spark of Ingenuity.

Going by very strict RAW, Fields of Study inhibitors would also inherit the restriction. Although if you're being ultra-strict, you can also say that the rule that Field of Study inhibitors inherit is a rule about Basic Inhibitors.

Was it intended that you could not combine Field of Study inhibitors with other inhibitors (Basic or otherwise)?

If the intention was really that no inhibitors could be stacked, why is that done by first introducing a specific restriction for Basic Inhibitors and then introducing it through the backdoor for the other types? Why not put it in the general introduction of Inhibitors at the top of page 42's right-hand column? It would be clearer and save wordcount.

Exo-Guardians

1 person marked this as a favorite.

It seems like a pretty clear with the last quote that they act as basic boosters and inhibitors, unless otherwise stated in the field of study booster/inhibitor description, the only way to combine them is with the level 3 spark of ingenuity for studious biohackers.

COM p43. wrote:


If you are a studious biohacker, you can expend two uses of your biohack ability to combine the effect of two basic or minor biohacks (or one of each) into a single effect. This takes no additional time and allows a creature to be under the effects of two different basic or minor booster or inhibitor biohacks simultaneously. If the two effects have different durations, each effect ends after its normal time limit, though any with a duration measured in rounds last 1 round longer than normal.

Community / Forums / Starfinder / Rules Questions / COM: Do Field of Study biohacker Inhibitors stack? All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.
Recent threads in Rules Questions