Chem-Use

Advanced, Crafting, Investigation
Intelligence
You can use the Chem-Use skill to handle and prepare chemicals safely, especially toxins, poisons and drugs. Chem-Use covers the use and manufacture of toxins and it can also be used to identify a variety of chemicals (Investigation use).
To prepare or apply a chemical, you must succeed at a Chem-Use Test, with modifiers determined by the GM. On a failed test the chemical is wasted. If you fail by five or more degrees, you accidentally poison yourself or overdose.
When using a toxin wand or administering an antidote, the time taken to do so is halved with a successful Chem-Use Test.
A Chem-Use Test to administer a chemical is a Full Action.
Using Chem-Use to manufacture toxins utilises the rules for Crafting items.

Alien Toxins

From the unholy cocktails imbued with the warp by Chaos cultists to the strange and lethal venom of the Tyranids, the galaxy brims with an appalling assortment of venoms and poisons, all of which are available if you know the right place to look. Normally, when you encounter a toxin, you may Test Chem-Use to identify it (see Detecting Poisons). If you fail this Test, you may still use the toxin, but the Difficulty worsens by two-steps.

Concealing Poisons

Whenever you want to introduce a toxin into a target’s food, drink or air and want to conceal your activity, you may make a Difficult (–10) Chem-Use Test to administer the chemical in a way the victim may not detect. On a success, you apply the poison normally. However, for each degree of success, you worsen the Difficulty of the Chem- Use Test made later to identify the toxin from the victim’s remains.

Detecting Poisons

You may use Chem-Use when analysing the remains of a victim to detect toxins and chemicals buried in the flesh. Provided you have a toxin- wand or a chymistry lab, a successful Chem-Use Test reveals the absence or presence of such a substance. Each degree of success reveals one more component of the substance, including such things as what it is, its method of delivery, and the most likely places where it can be procured.
If you lack proper equipment, you take a –20 penalty on your Chem- Use Test. Other factors can modify the Difficulty, including the quality of the remains, attempts to mask the substance chemically, or even the nature of the substance itself.