So I was having a look in the book and I noticed a problem. On page 109 and 97, it says Medicae is what you use to create drugs. However, on 118 it says you need to take Trade: Chymist to create drugs. So which is it? Neither says they need the other. Did FF make a mistake and double-bill a skill or just put something in the wrong place? I can see it being in trade and not Medicae because not all doctors are pharmacists. At the same time, Tech use and Technomat conflict in a similar way. This book is all over the place and does not make a lot of sense sometimes.

Uh, yeah, I read both sections and it doesn't actually make sense at a glance. Reading a little more carefully, I think it is saying you can only create things with Tech-Use or Medicae that you have the designs for ahead of time, while Trade allows your to create things of original design. For Medicae it mentions that you cannot synthesize new compounds, you must buy or harvest them.

I would house rule that you can make some basic/common things with Medicae but it may be difficult. On the other hand if you had Trade: Chymist, you could create all kinds of compounds, even ones of original design, with a good lab and a good roll.

Oh read it over and over and caught something on the crafting page. For advanced drugs, use medicae to craft. So I guess that means Trade Chymist for the natural basic drugs. Could be more clear but eh, seems to be that way.

Seems like the Trade skills have always been a bit useless. Half rarely have any practical use and the others overlap with other skills. Seems like they should have just cut the trade skills if they were going to put so much crafting into the main skills and used the extra page for more talents. My group has house ruled at least some of the crafting back to applicable trade and lore skills. So medicae is still for chem use but Trade chymist is for making them from scratch or identifying unknowns but you'll need a lore skill or a recipe to know how to make what you want. Survival makes sense to keep its crafting. Trade technomat is for making repairs completely from memorization and repetition but no making new items, winging it type repairs or repairing something you've never seen before and things that require more understanding we've left with tech use. Armorer covers the repair, crafting and modification of weapons and armor while Tech use and technomat covers all other tech.

Oh read it over and over and caught something on the crafting page. For advanced drugs, use medicae to craft. So I guess that means Trade Chymist for the natural basic drugs. Could be more clear but eh, seems to be that way.

Another way to break it down might be that trade medicae allows the creation of stuff that you have a instructions for while trade chymist could involve more experimentation.

The way I've done it in my games is this, they need Trade: Chymist to understand how to make the drugs, then they need from basic components/compounds. Scholastic Lore: Chymistry to understand the combinations needed to make helpful as well as poisonous drugs. Then finally the Medicae skill to be able to make the drugs in question. I know it's a bit of a long winded way to do it but my players like a challenge.

So thinking on it more the most logical way to do it might be, Scholastic lore chymistry to figure out what supplies you need and the steps necessary to make a drug with the desired effect (planning/design), then trade chymist to actually make it, then medicae for using the drug properly.