| 5 people marked this as FAQ candidate. |
Since some FAQ answers have been flowing somewhat freely lately, I thought I'd reup this recurring question.
Can a biohack or a medication mastery theorem medicinal be added to a piece of injection ammo that is already filled with a serum, poison, or similar substance?
In favor: Biohack rules state "You can deliver any biohack you create with any attack from an injection weapon," and Medication Mastery states "You can add one of these medicinals to any attack you make with an injection weapon as part of the action to make the attack or attacks, but you can’t add a biohack of any kind to the same attack." On its face "any attack" means any attack, and nothing prevents this attack from being with a preloaded serum, poison, medicinal (normal bought/crafted one), etc.
Against: It strikes a bunch of people as intuitively wrong, and they can't get over it to accept the obvious language of the rules without this specific interaction being made more explicit.
Please FAQ if you'd like this spelled out, as it is recurring debate.
First off, the other day was the first time I'd seen that argument. If you've been making it often, I tend not to read your posts.
Secondly, but you can’t add a biohack of any kind to the same attack
I can Add apples to any basket
I can add oranges to any basket
I may not add Apples to a basket with oranges in it.
Yes. That's technically a contradiction between "any" basket and one with oranges. But that doesn't mean you can resolve the contradiction in favor of consistency with one clause rather than seeing "you can’t add a biohack of any kind to the same attack" as a more specific exception. A specific exception that has absolutely zero meaning if you can get get around it by defining the attack as one with a medicinal added to a biohack rather than a biohack added to a medicinal.
"But you can't add a biohack of any kind to the same attack" is telling you that you can't combine a biohack with a medication mastery theorem medicinal, because they are similar special items ("These medicinals are highly unstable and cannot be stored for later use or used by anyone else.")
But a medication mastery medicinal can be added to a serum or poison or regular medicinal not created through this theorem (to get two different effects), and a biohack can be added to a serum or poison or regular medicinal not created through this theorem. Those are all "any attacks" not subject to a special exception like the "no combining biohacks and medication mastery medicinals" found in this one theorem ability.
Or so I think the rules clearly state. Perhaps Paizo didn't intend that and wants to change it.
Let us know!