Post by Robot on Sept 5, 2016 12:41:06 GMT
Overview: Here I go again on my own, on the only road I've ever known. Like a murderhobo, I was born to walk alone. An' I've made up my mind, I ain't wasting no more time/Cause I know what it means to walk the lonely street of dreams. Fffffffffffff... Branch Classes are to me what Snakes are to Samuel L. Jackson. Researcher is the fourth class in the Professional Classes and is a mix of passive support and crafting for the most part, depending on your research fields of choice. I'm not going to get into your dual branch choices, do it your own selves, I'm already up to my eyeballs in tabletop thesis papers that I'm grading over at Munchkin U. It's like an Ivy League school for RPG enthusiasts. Anyway, Researcher leans on all of the Education skills, which as I've said before are kind of a garbage investment, they get a bad rap. Can't be a dudebro power top on three sports teams and a full scholarship with a Master in Gen Edu. Mostly you just get hazed and catcalled. NEEEEEEERD!
Pros
-Branch Variety allows researcher to fit into a myriad of builds, and some of them are very gimmicky or intuitive. With the respective 'fields' only containing four edges apiece though, even with that variety the items you'll want in a given field is kind of a short list.
-Some Crafting features not available elsewhere. You can find, or purchase a King's Rock, sure. When you're desperate for one, you'll be glad for the Archeologist.
-Best Weather strats in the game.
-Branches not covered here because they're from Do Porygon Dream of Mareep clearly the best, and I'm totally not bias for the futuretech book being a robot.
Cons
-NERDS! Education skills, education skills everywhere. The book-item play test helped it not be so horrible to have Educations as your primary skills, but with the Pokedex holding your hand and pulling blues clues stuff, not actually requiring any kind of medical education to apply potions, and Pokeballs being craftable by Bear Grills via Survival... Who uses education skills for anything but prerequisites? Occult is probably the most useful and least esoteric out of all of them, and it's only by virtue of it not being sabotaged by the system itself.
-Too many options. Researcher is not a Ranked feature, which means it can only be taken once. You get two fields of specialization and that's it. My dreams for playing Rick in someone's futuristic tabletop and just being a giant jerk to everyone because I am the locus of all knowledge is impossible now.
-Not all branches created equal.
Base Feature: This is just a placeholder really. You select two Fields of Study, and get a Feature from one of them. Researcher itself just locks you into the eight features you will have access to courtesy of these Fields of Study, adding another tier of information you have to jot down and stuffing a bit of clutter into your automated sheet. Required but pointless? If there were the possibility, maybe make each branch of Researcher a full class like Elementalist or Type Ace, because my life isn't hell already writing all of these.
General Research
Breadth of Knowledge: Three edges for a Feature, YEAH! GREAT INVESTMENT! NOW I CAN RANK UP ALL OF MY IMPORTANT SK-..... EDUCATION ONLY?! I'M A PHYS ED MAJOR! UUUUUUUGH. If you are a heavy education character, want to be a know it all, or like the general edges that require edu skills as prereqs, then this is a great feature. If you are just anti-learning in general this probably isn't for you, but if you're going General Research, this feature is a must.
Live and Learn: More like fail and try again. Consolation Dailyx3 feature that lets you add half your Gen Edu rank to the next Attack Roll/Skill Check/Save Check after you fail a roll of that type, max of +4. Good to wriggle out of things like sleep, to boost the accuracy on large area attacks that will catch a lot of enemies, or that skill roll that didn't just end the challenge with the first botch.
Instant Analysis: Lose 2 TP, gain Forewarn, which lets you know what a Pokemon's strongest move is once a scene. It also penalizes that move's accuracy by two. Not bad to enhance your prediction and increase your survivability slightly against huge damage nukes. Also encourages your allies to put an end to something when they realize it's packing a DB 17 Smite Exhaust move that's SFE on half the team, you know, fun little things like that. 2 TP is a lot for an ability that doesn't actually do much more then make you informed though. Take it or leave it.
Echoes of the Future: Dailyx2 Not quite as good as Probability Control, which lets you reroll a failed die roll, but it lets you call a specific instance where you really need a win and give yourself better odds. General Researcher as a whole is good for keeping itself just above the median when it comes to rolls and skills.
Apothecary Research
Apothecary: Lets you craft... the stuff that your branch can craft. Because it's your branch. Most of these are also locked behind secondary prereqs, and a paywall. It's a snooze, but cheap curatives (which is most of what this branch is about) are good. Makes liquid refreshments redundant if you've got time to kill with yournicotine potion patches slapped on. A potion patch costs about 33 to an enriched water's 40, so you're saving a whole 7 Pyen at the cost of time. Apothecary runs on Med Edu, which actually has mechanical uses like Occult does, and First Aid Kits are pretty strong.
Patch Cure: With how 'Extended Actions' are so poorly defined (with the only ones being training at a full 30 minutes, and everything else being 'out of combat' these things often fall on what is referred to as 'narrative time'. Narrative time is determined by your GM deciding if you have enough of a breather or not to heal up with your wolverine patches. Games that are pressing, particularly horror settings, Patch Cure probably not so great, out of combat healing it is a great money saver. Turns one healing item into three but they take longer to work.
Medicinal Techniques: Using a healing item recovers an additional Tick +4-8 Hp, including on your patches, at the cost of an AP. Medic builds really stand to benefit from this where they are actually very capable of in-combat healing. Even non-medic builds are making less into more, which is ideal in an environment that abhors and despises you for wanting to repair damage to your allies bleeding out all over the place. Will usually net about 20% target's hp in the middling range at Virtuoso Med Edu.
Medicinal Blend: Mix two curatives that don't have the same effect, and get the ability to craft PP Ups and Heart Boosters. Your team will love you as you start slapping together Full Restore + Revive Patches, for the mini-Pokemon Center on the go. Survival campaigns really strongly want for this sort of recovery, but quickly the monetary drain and the injury count becomes wearing on the players. Stay determined! Don't forget to tip your healer.
Artificer Research
Crystal Artificer: Keeping in line with Apothecary, lets you craft some of the best held items in the game, being Type Booster, Brace, and Plates, Gems from Gem Lore, and Focus items. The Rainbow Gem feature doesn't look like much until your team tries to synergize with it, then it's probably really gross instead. As before not a lot to actually say about this. Apothecary and Crystal Artificer are to Researcher what Chef's base feature is to it. You can make things. Artificer runs on Occult Edu which you need for Dowsing, which you need for Type Gems, which you need for tons of damage. There really shouldn't be any other questions.
Crystal Resonance: Get a large number more shards with each Dowsing, Make money off of your class, or don't and laugh as you flood your teammate's belongings with your pet rock collection. Why are there no Elemental Stone Rock-Types yet? I need to make these, maybe later though. I'm actually slogging through my to-do que for once and making progress, not a good time to add more. A Static feature, but if you're already rolling in shards it hurts, and odds are good you don't need the feature.
Rainbow Light: You are a magical girl now, that's your attack. +3 Effect Range to all allies is huge, even though it's only a single turn and costs 2 AP. This is better then the Stratagem from Precision Orders for effect range boosting AND doesn't come with the damage penalty. If your team is using a lot of elements that tend to have bonus effects, go for it. Luck in your favor it can really swing the tide of a fight. Might also do nothing though, so keep that in mind.
Fistful of Force: You can use a Legendary's attack as a huge AoE of whatever type you have shards for which is probably all of them because you looked everywhere. I feel a special sort of kinship with Judgement, but I've never actually played a researcher. Allows you to sub out your Occult Rank Tripled for your Special Attack if it's abysmal. Really gives an Ark of the Covenant vibe when you crush a rock in your hand, and then just detonate a bunch of dudes in a wide area. Once a Scene combat feature in a non-combat class? Alright.
Botany Research
Seed Bag: Twice Per Day, Per Rank, you can add a Status Move associated with Grass Types from a list to your list of Moves Known, provided one of your Pokemon knows it. Allows your trainer to spam statii in fights, most of which can be extremely potent, though the only one that stands out as potentially being better frequency then 'Scene x2' is Poison Powder. As I haven't checked into that it's speculation at the moment. Botany is blessedly based off of Survival, so it feels like less of a kick in the nuts for overall skill usefulness. Get it? Plant puns. Right, time out corner.
Top Tier Berries: The only way in the game to grow anything above Tier 1, and the only way to passively get a positive yield on plants daily that you have in growers. Top Tier Berries is one of those features that annoys me, mostly because I've never been a farmer or a scientist, and I understand concepts like irrigation, crop rotation, soil acidity, temperature and sunlight requirements, and water needs. I worked in a garden department for a retailer once, so sue me. Like breeding, growing kind of needs a passive -in the system- buff to make it less laaaame. Top Tier Berries in the system as written though, very good.
Herb Lore: You can craft repulsive restoratives, which nobody likes but everyone swears by. Like Goody's Headache Powder for those of you living in the south, I've never seen the stuff north of Penn State. Pairs well with Chef if you can regularly get your hands on Honey Candy, as nasty medicine is good, but your Pokemon hate it. Can and probably should be skipped if you don't have the spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down.
Chemistry Research
Chemist: Gives you access to crafting the Battle Items, and Pester Balls. Serves no other purpose but to be Researcher's fall into it's field. Chemist operates on Technology Edu, which outside of futuristic games, a specific set of Features, or rare narrative use in a standard game like hacking Pokedexes (which is probably illegal), doesn't really have any use in the system.
Chemical Warfare: Your Pester Balls become explosive, gaining the Blast 2 quality twice a scene, but they aren't friendly, still pack their very high AC values (as most status that isn't auto-hit does), and are expended on a miss. Pairs extremely well with Caustic Chemistry, allowing some measure of damage to go with your status in the form of Hp Loss.
Caustic Chemistry: For an AP, make a Tech Edu Roll after hitting a target(s) with a Pester Ball or a Pokemon with a Repel, targets lose that much Hp. Since it is Hp Loss and not damage, it scales linearly with your skill rolls, making features like Skill Monkey, or Edges that improve your Tech Edu rolls very valuable at boosting your damage output. Pairing with Chemical Warfare is the best AP conservative thing you can do with this feature considering you're spending money to deal damage. It's like reverse payday.
Playing God: GMs hate this feature from what I've seen so far, I'm not sure why. The resulting Pokemon is a low level, and at VIrtuoso Tech Edu has three Inheritance Moves, Natures and Abilities of Player's Choice, and +5 to it's stats which count as vitamins. It gives them full customization of something and honestly, maybe a good premise for a game would be field testing these as starters. You made a baby, all by yourself, you now know the mysteries of the universe, congratulations, it's a boy.
Climatology Research
Climatology: You gain Overcoat, this makes you immune to a wide range of effects but most importantly, damage from Weather. What it does not do is make your teammates immune to Weather. A Climatologist is capable of leveling an entire fight with trainers in five turns, only mitigated if the enemy trainers retreat, or in the case of temperate areas with no chances of either damage phenomenon they are ripping off, the GM giving them items they shouldn't have as a part of the narrative. Sandstorm + Hail does 10 ticks of damage over 5 turns to Pokemon that aren't of the Rock, Ground, Steel, or Ice types. The exceptions being Pokemon with specific abilities, Go Goggles, or Winter Cloaks. Climatologist is just rude to everyone, and weather is an extremely cheap strategy anyway since it's extremely difficult to mitigate and auto-damage, not to mention the mad friendly fire. If you are doing Climatologist, please be kind, play responsibly. I should take a moment to point out in the video games, Weather does 1/16th max health, and Leftovers heals 1/16th max health, see they negate each other. In the tabletop, Weather does 1/10th, and Leftovers heals 1/16th. Borf.
Climate Control: Is what makes the class as strong as it is. Set up two weathers simultaneously for an AP. It would be really cool if this clarified how they interacted with each other for the purposes of effects though. Do you take the most beneficial? The effects of both? There are quite a few moves in the game that consult weather, that have opposing effects in different weather types. In Sun+Rain does Solarbeam fire instantly at DB 6? Does Weather Ball become a multi-typed move or do you chose? Which healing value do you consult with Morning Sun/Synthesis? Desert Weather does get really gross with this Feature. It should be noted that this feature does work on type-shifted weather, if you are into that sort of thing. I've been working on new elemental weathers since there are a lot of things in the game that can learn at least one of them.
Weather Systems: Tutor a Weather Move onto your Pokemon, if it's on it's Levelup list, it costs no Tutor points instead. Nifty little feature, and the only one I can think of that generates a tutoring effect but doesn't actually have a cost to it under some circumstances. Probably necessary, since many Pokemon can learn one or more Weather moves, but most of them are via TM.
Extreme Weather: Adds some utility to the battlefield wide hell you are about to unleash. With sun and rain being the more benign of the two, they generate suppression on non-fire/grass types and slow on non water/grass types. Sure is a good day to be a Grass Ace! Suppression in the status playtest is very strong, and limiting all but two types of Pokemon to just at-will moves instead of the old suppress which reduced frequency by one step to a maximum of scene, for five turns! Five! Fifteen rounds of combat a day, if you just use this feature for that. This is compared to sand's accuracy penalty, hail's damage penalty, and rain's slow. The slow is almost equally brutal, but only hinders melee which already struggles against ranged. No accuracy checks required to land two of the strongest volatile statii in the game, just an action. Battlefield is yours. Adding Climatologist to the list of classes I will probably never play because it's too easy. I get trying to balance the small passives and ability triggers from sun and rain against the damage of sandstorm and hail, but this is some kind of overkill.
Occultism Research
Witch Hunter: Probably not a viable field of research since the likes of Hitler and Stalin were in power, but if it was would our governments even tell us? Robot knows many things, but he can't discuss any of them without his tinfoil helmet of obfuscate thoughts. Illuminati confirmed. Witch Hunter gives you the Psionic Sight General Feature, which we're now at two orders of magnitude, With Researcher being a useless feature that grants you Witch Hunter which is also a useless feature that grants you Psionic Sight. Whoo, book-keeping. Anyway, this feature circumvents the need to pick up Elemental Connection: Psychic, which means you can see evidence of psionic tampering while still being a non-psychic, going into a mystic senses class, or an Elementalist. Taking any of these options will usually result in me unfriending you on Myspace.
Psionic Analysis: Gives you more uses for your Psionic Sight feature that you picked up from Witch Hunter, making the former a requirement as a straight researcher. Occultism Researcher comes off as an investigative class which definitively is what a researcher does I suppose, but at the same time seems more geared towards a Van Hellsing type character over an actual scientist which is at the classes core aesthetic. Can be taken or left depending on preference, as can Witch Hunter.
Mental Resistance: Gives you a DR resistance against three decent coverage types, and an immunity to all forms of Telepathy. In a game where Focus is only used for touting your agency around in someone else's head, this is a really great feature and it's easily accessible with a semi-decent skill choice. It's sort of an improved Iron Mind edge, except with both you know someone was trying to get up in your business, and they also can't. You make eye contact, so that they know you know.
Immutable Mind: Once a scene become immune to the effects of a Ghost, Dark, or Psychic status move, these include such goodies as Curse, Hypnosis, and Taunt. Or you can ignore the secondary effect of a move, which would occur on a range, but honestly the first is probably a lot better as it sets your opponent at negative action economy provided they aren't a psychic ace and about to hit you with two or three status moves in one push.
Paleontology Research
Fossil Restoration: For 2 TP, gain your Fossil Pokemon's second basic ability, or an advanced ability of GM choice, for free. This will end them with an extra ability over their non-fossil fellows, and is extremely strong. Other classes teaching a specific ability may give more consistent mileage as this feature is dependent on what species of Fossil Pokemon you are actually going for. As a whole Paleontology is pretty good, but falls in line with Breeding when it comes to late game, they lag behind in levels, and with the experience curve being exponential when your opponents always provide linear experience. It makes life hard for anyone wanting to rotate in a new team member that wasn't caught near the current battling level of the campaign.
Ancient Heritage: For 2 TP, or none if Ancient Power is on it's levelup list, you teach Ancient Power to a fossil Pokemon. Additionally increases the base effect range of Ancient Power by 1 which starts it at 18+ but doesn't count towards the six limit as worded, and it can be physical or special every time you use it. With STAB, this gives you a DB 8 that, if it were on a mixed sweeper, could be used as a wallbreaker. Tragically there aren't any mixed sweeper fossils to canon that I can recall. Most tend to be physical attackers, special attackers, or walls.
Genetic Memory: As Tutors go, is very bad. You can target only your Fossil Pokemon, it spends 2 TP with each iteration like every other class, and only functions once per target for an egg move, and once per target for a tutor move. Aesthetically appropriate, yes. Waste of a feature? Also probably yes. The only thing it has going for it, is the egg move you tutor doesn't count against that move limit of 3 for TM/Tutor moves. If it isn't Type Sync, or Tutoring, and you're only going to use it a dozen or so times, don't bother. If your party lacks a mentor AND a chronicler, maybe.
Prehistoric Bond: Works with Fashionista, which is kind of cool, making decorum for your Fossil Pokemon out of the rock bits that you scraped off of them before you woke them up. Of the effects, the three defensive ones are probably the best. Evasion Vs. Status Moves, and 5 DR Vs. Ranged would be good slotless bonuses to have. If you're not a fashionista though, the only item with a buyable equivalent is the Attack item, which grants +1 Crit Range, fairly certain this is equal to the Scope Lens/Razor Claw Item.
Pokemon Caretaking Research
Pusher: If you are a fan of the Advanced Capability edges (which I am), Pusher allows you to have a lot of them on qualifying Pokemon for free. Tragically this does not include Advanced Connection, Underdog Edges, Advanced Mobility, or Skill Improvement.
This One's Special, I Know It: For individuals who require special snowflake Pokemon to go with their special snowflake characters, there's this feature. Can be performed a maximum of four times ever, and the Pokemon 'is born with special qualities determined by the GM.' Literally the most subjective feature in the game. Value depends on the quality of your GM. Again harks back to my notation earlier about breeding/fossil reviving and experience curves.
Skill Trainer: Whenever you Train your Pokemon (once a day) you can Train one of it's skills, making it 'Pushed'. It can have one 'Pushed' skill at a time. When combined with the Edge that can also only be applied once to a given skill, can add up to two dice. Suddenly limbless Pokemon with 4-5 dice in Combat or Athletics, because you can. Everything is good at Stealth. Tyranitars lurking in every bush. It's madness.
Re-Balancing: Replaced one of the old Breeder features that gave similar bonuses to eggs you hatched. For 2 TP you up your stats, and readjust BST accordingly. This and Top Percentage is how I ended up with a 68 BST Delphox? Maybe it was more then that. Either way it outstrips most legendaries and dragons in terms of raw stats at this point. Re-Balancing isn't bad, but 2 TP is a little steep. If you don't need it to fix stat arrays, use it when you can spare the tutor points. +1 Across the board is never bad.
Pros
-Branch Variety allows researcher to fit into a myriad of builds, and some of them are very gimmicky or intuitive. With the respective 'fields' only containing four edges apiece though, even with that variety the items you'll want in a given field is kind of a short list.
-Some Crafting features not available elsewhere. You can find, or purchase a King's Rock, sure. When you're desperate for one, you'll be glad for the Archeologist.
-Best Weather strats in the game.
-Branches not covered here because they're from Do Porygon Dream of Mareep clearly the best, and I'm totally not bias for the futuretech book being a robot.
Cons
-NERDS! Education skills, education skills everywhere. The book-item play test helped it not be so horrible to have Educations as your primary skills, but with the Pokedex holding your hand and pulling blues clues stuff, not actually requiring any kind of medical education to apply potions, and Pokeballs being craftable by Bear Grills via Survival... Who uses education skills for anything but prerequisites? Occult is probably the most useful and least esoteric out of all of them, and it's only by virtue of it not being sabotaged by the system itself.
-Too many options. Researcher is not a Ranked feature, which means it can only be taken once. You get two fields of specialization and that's it. My dreams for playing Rick in someone's futuristic tabletop and just being a giant jerk to everyone because I am the locus of all knowledge is impossible now.
-Not all branches created equal.
Base Feature: This is just a placeholder really. You select two Fields of Study, and get a Feature from one of them. Researcher itself just locks you into the eight features you will have access to courtesy of these Fields of Study, adding another tier of information you have to jot down and stuffing a bit of clutter into your automated sheet. Required but pointless? If there were the possibility, maybe make each branch of Researcher a full class like Elementalist or Type Ace, because my life isn't hell already writing all of these.
General Research
Breadth of Knowledge: Three edges for a Feature, YEAH! GREAT INVESTMENT! NOW I CAN RANK UP ALL OF MY IMPORTANT SK-..... EDUCATION ONLY?! I'M A PHYS ED MAJOR! UUUUUUUGH. If you are a heavy education character, want to be a know it all, or like the general edges that require edu skills as prereqs, then this is a great feature. If you are just anti-learning in general this probably isn't for you, but if you're going General Research, this feature is a must.
Live and Learn: More like fail and try again. Consolation Dailyx3 feature that lets you add half your Gen Edu rank to the next Attack Roll/Skill Check/Save Check after you fail a roll of that type, max of +4. Good to wriggle out of things like sleep, to boost the accuracy on large area attacks that will catch a lot of enemies, or that skill roll that didn't just end the challenge with the first botch.
Instant Analysis: Lose 2 TP, gain Forewarn, which lets you know what a Pokemon's strongest move is once a scene. It also penalizes that move's accuracy by two. Not bad to enhance your prediction and increase your survivability slightly against huge damage nukes. Also encourages your allies to put an end to something when they realize it's packing a DB 17 Smite Exhaust move that's SFE on half the team, you know, fun little things like that. 2 TP is a lot for an ability that doesn't actually do much more then make you informed though. Take it or leave it.
Echoes of the Future: Dailyx2 Not quite as good as Probability Control, which lets you reroll a failed die roll, but it lets you call a specific instance where you really need a win and give yourself better odds. General Researcher as a whole is good for keeping itself just above the median when it comes to rolls and skills.
Apothecary Research
Apothecary: Lets you craft... the stuff that your branch can craft. Because it's your branch. Most of these are also locked behind secondary prereqs, and a paywall. It's a snooze, but cheap curatives (which is most of what this branch is about) are good. Makes liquid refreshments redundant if you've got time to kill with your
Patch Cure: With how 'Extended Actions' are so poorly defined (with the only ones being training at a full 30 minutes, and everything else being 'out of combat' these things often fall on what is referred to as 'narrative time'. Narrative time is determined by your GM deciding if you have enough of a breather or not to heal up with your wolverine patches. Games that are pressing, particularly horror settings, Patch Cure probably not so great, out of combat healing it is a great money saver. Turns one healing item into three but they take longer to work.
Medicinal Techniques: Using a healing item recovers an additional Tick +4-8 Hp, including on your patches, at the cost of an AP. Medic builds really stand to benefit from this where they are actually very capable of in-combat healing. Even non-medic builds are making less into more, which is ideal in an environment that abhors and despises you for wanting to repair damage to your allies bleeding out all over the place. Will usually net about 20% target's hp in the middling range at Virtuoso Med Edu.
Medicinal Blend: Mix two curatives that don't have the same effect, and get the ability to craft PP Ups and Heart Boosters. Your team will love you as you start slapping together Full Restore + Revive Patches, for the mini-Pokemon Center on the go. Survival campaigns really strongly want for this sort of recovery, but quickly the monetary drain and the injury count becomes wearing on the players. Stay determined! Don't forget to tip your healer.
Artificer Research
Crystal Artificer: Keeping in line with Apothecary, lets you craft some of the best held items in the game, being Type Booster, Brace, and Plates, Gems from Gem Lore, and Focus items. The Rainbow Gem feature doesn't look like much until your team tries to synergize with it, then it's probably really gross instead. As before not a lot to actually say about this. Apothecary and Crystal Artificer are to Researcher what Chef's base feature is to it. You can make things. Artificer runs on Occult Edu which you need for Dowsing, which you need for Type Gems, which you need for tons of damage. There really shouldn't be any other questions.
Crystal Resonance: Get a large number more shards with each Dowsing, Make money off of your class, or don't and laugh as you flood your teammate's belongings with your pet rock collection. Why are there no Elemental Stone Rock-Types yet? I need to make these, maybe later though. I'm actually slogging through my to-do que for once and making progress, not a good time to add more. A Static feature, but if you're already rolling in shards it hurts, and odds are good you don't need the feature.
Rainbow Light: You are a magical girl now, that's your attack. +3 Effect Range to all allies is huge, even though it's only a single turn and costs 2 AP. This is better then the Stratagem from Precision Orders for effect range boosting AND doesn't come with the damage penalty. If your team is using a lot of elements that tend to have bonus effects, go for it. Luck in your favor it can really swing the tide of a fight. Might also do nothing though, so keep that in mind.
Fistful of Force: You can use a Legendary's attack as a huge AoE of whatever type you have shards for which is probably all of them because you looked everywhere. I feel a special sort of kinship with Judgement, but I've never actually played a researcher. Allows you to sub out your Occult Rank Tripled for your Special Attack if it's abysmal. Really gives an Ark of the Covenant vibe when you crush a rock in your hand, and then just detonate a bunch of dudes in a wide area. Once a Scene combat feature in a non-combat class? Alright.
Botany Research
Seed Bag: Twice Per Day, Per Rank, you can add a Status Move associated with Grass Types from a list to your list of Moves Known, provided one of your Pokemon knows it. Allows your trainer to spam statii in fights, most of which can be extremely potent, though the only one that stands out as potentially being better frequency then 'Scene x2' is Poison Powder. As I haven't checked into that it's speculation at the moment. Botany is blessedly based off of Survival, so it feels like less of a kick in the nuts for overall skill usefulness. Get it? Plant puns. Right, time out corner.
Top Tier Berries: The only way in the game to grow anything above Tier 1, and the only way to passively get a positive yield on plants daily that you have in growers. Top Tier Berries is one of those features that annoys me, mostly because I've never been a farmer or a scientist, and I understand concepts like irrigation, crop rotation, soil acidity, temperature and sunlight requirements, and water needs. I worked in a garden department for a retailer once, so sue me. Like breeding, growing kind of needs a passive -in the system- buff to make it less laaaame. Top Tier Berries in the system as written though, very good.
Herb Lore: You can craft repulsive restoratives, which nobody likes but everyone swears by. Like Goody's Headache Powder for those of you living in the south, I've never seen the stuff north of Penn State. Pairs well with Chef if you can regularly get your hands on Honey Candy, as nasty medicine is good, but your Pokemon hate it. Can and probably should be skipped if you don't have the spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down.
Chemistry Research
Chemist: Gives you access to crafting the Battle Items, and Pester Balls. Serves no other purpose but to be Researcher's fall into it's field. Chemist operates on Technology Edu, which outside of futuristic games, a specific set of Features, or rare narrative use in a standard game like hacking Pokedexes (which is probably illegal), doesn't really have any use in the system.
Chemical Warfare: Your Pester Balls become explosive, gaining the Blast 2 quality twice a scene, but they aren't friendly, still pack their very high AC values (as most status that isn't auto-hit does), and are expended on a miss. Pairs extremely well with Caustic Chemistry, allowing some measure of damage to go with your status in the form of Hp Loss.
Caustic Chemistry: For an AP, make a Tech Edu Roll after hitting a target(s) with a Pester Ball or a Pokemon with a Repel, targets lose that much Hp. Since it is Hp Loss and not damage, it scales linearly with your skill rolls, making features like Skill Monkey, or Edges that improve your Tech Edu rolls very valuable at boosting your damage output. Pairing with Chemical Warfare is the best AP conservative thing you can do with this feature considering you're spending money to deal damage. It's like reverse payday.
Playing God: GMs hate this feature from what I've seen so far, I'm not sure why. The resulting Pokemon is a low level, and at VIrtuoso Tech Edu has three Inheritance Moves, Natures and Abilities of Player's Choice, and +5 to it's stats which count as vitamins. It gives them full customization of something and honestly, maybe a good premise for a game would be field testing these as starters. You made a baby, all by yourself, you now know the mysteries of the universe, congratulations, it's a boy.
Climatology Research
Climatology: You gain Overcoat, this makes you immune to a wide range of effects but most importantly, damage from Weather. What it does not do is make your teammates immune to Weather. A Climatologist is capable of leveling an entire fight with trainers in five turns, only mitigated if the enemy trainers retreat, or in the case of temperate areas with no chances of either damage phenomenon they are ripping off, the GM giving them items they shouldn't have as a part of the narrative. Sandstorm + Hail does 10 ticks of damage over 5 turns to Pokemon that aren't of the Rock, Ground, Steel, or Ice types. The exceptions being Pokemon with specific abilities, Go Goggles, or Winter Cloaks. Climatologist is just rude to everyone, and weather is an extremely cheap strategy anyway since it's extremely difficult to mitigate and auto-damage, not to mention the mad friendly fire. If you are doing Climatologist, please be kind, play responsibly. I should take a moment to point out in the video games, Weather does 1/16th max health, and Leftovers heals 1/16th max health, see they negate each other. In the tabletop, Weather does 1/10th, and Leftovers heals 1/16th. Borf.
Climate Control: Is what makes the class as strong as it is. Set up two weathers simultaneously for an AP. It would be really cool if this clarified how they interacted with each other for the purposes of effects though. Do you take the most beneficial? The effects of both? There are quite a few moves in the game that consult weather, that have opposing effects in different weather types. In Sun+Rain does Solarbeam fire instantly at DB 6? Does Weather Ball become a multi-typed move or do you chose? Which healing value do you consult with Morning Sun/Synthesis? Desert Weather does get really gross with this Feature. It should be noted that this feature does work on type-shifted weather, if you are into that sort of thing. I've been working on new elemental weathers since there are a lot of things in the game that can learn at least one of them.
Weather Systems: Tutor a Weather Move onto your Pokemon, if it's on it's Levelup list, it costs no Tutor points instead. Nifty little feature, and the only one I can think of that generates a tutoring effect but doesn't actually have a cost to it under some circumstances. Probably necessary, since many Pokemon can learn one or more Weather moves, but most of them are via TM.
Extreme Weather: Adds some utility to the battlefield wide hell you are about to unleash. With sun and rain being the more benign of the two, they generate suppression on non-fire/grass types and slow on non water/grass types. Sure is a good day to be a Grass Ace! Suppression in the status playtest is very strong, and limiting all but two types of Pokemon to just at-will moves instead of the old suppress which reduced frequency by one step to a maximum of scene, for five turns! Five! Fifteen rounds of combat a day, if you just use this feature for that. This is compared to sand's accuracy penalty, hail's damage penalty, and rain's slow. The slow is almost equally brutal, but only hinders melee which already struggles against ranged. No accuracy checks required to land two of the strongest volatile statii in the game, just an action. Battlefield is yours. Adding Climatologist to the list of classes I will probably never play because it's too easy. I get trying to balance the small passives and ability triggers from sun and rain against the damage of sandstorm and hail, but this is some kind of overkill.
Occultism Research
Witch Hunter: Probably not a viable field of research since the likes of Hitler and Stalin were in power, but if it was would our governments even tell us? Robot knows many things, but he can't discuss any of them without his tinfoil helmet of obfuscate thoughts. Illuminati confirmed. Witch Hunter gives you the Psionic Sight General Feature, which we're now at two orders of magnitude, With Researcher being a useless feature that grants you Witch Hunter which is also a useless feature that grants you Psionic Sight. Whoo, book-keeping. Anyway, this feature circumvents the need to pick up Elemental Connection: Psychic, which means you can see evidence of psionic tampering while still being a non-psychic, going into a mystic senses class, or an Elementalist. Taking any of these options will usually result in me unfriending you on Myspace.
Psionic Analysis: Gives you more uses for your Psionic Sight feature that you picked up from Witch Hunter, making the former a requirement as a straight researcher. Occultism Researcher comes off as an investigative class which definitively is what a researcher does I suppose, but at the same time seems more geared towards a Van Hellsing type character over an actual scientist which is at the classes core aesthetic. Can be taken or left depending on preference, as can Witch Hunter.
Mental Resistance: Gives you a DR resistance against three decent coverage types, and an immunity to all forms of Telepathy. In a game where Focus is only used for touting your agency around in someone else's head, this is a really great feature and it's easily accessible with a semi-decent skill choice. It's sort of an improved Iron Mind edge, except with both you know someone was trying to get up in your business, and they also can't. You make eye contact, so that they know you know.
Immutable Mind: Once a scene become immune to the effects of a Ghost, Dark, or Psychic status move, these include such goodies as Curse, Hypnosis, and Taunt. Or you can ignore the secondary effect of a move, which would occur on a range, but honestly the first is probably a lot better as it sets your opponent at negative action economy provided they aren't a psychic ace and about to hit you with two or three status moves in one push.
Paleontology Research
Fossil Restoration: For 2 TP, gain your Fossil Pokemon's second basic ability, or an advanced ability of GM choice, for free. This will end them with an extra ability over their non-fossil fellows, and is extremely strong. Other classes teaching a specific ability may give more consistent mileage as this feature is dependent on what species of Fossil Pokemon you are actually going for. As a whole Paleontology is pretty good, but falls in line with Breeding when it comes to late game, they lag behind in levels, and with the experience curve being exponential when your opponents always provide linear experience. It makes life hard for anyone wanting to rotate in a new team member that wasn't caught near the current battling level of the campaign.
Ancient Heritage: For 2 TP, or none if Ancient Power is on it's levelup list, you teach Ancient Power to a fossil Pokemon. Additionally increases the base effect range of Ancient Power by 1 which starts it at 18+ but doesn't count towards the six limit as worded, and it can be physical or special every time you use it. With STAB, this gives you a DB 8 that, if it were on a mixed sweeper, could be used as a wallbreaker. Tragically there aren't any mixed sweeper fossils to canon that I can recall. Most tend to be physical attackers, special attackers, or walls.
Genetic Memory: As Tutors go, is very bad. You can target only your Fossil Pokemon, it spends 2 TP with each iteration like every other class, and only functions once per target for an egg move, and once per target for a tutor move. Aesthetically appropriate, yes. Waste of a feature? Also probably yes. The only thing it has going for it, is the egg move you tutor doesn't count against that move limit of 3 for TM/Tutor moves. If it isn't Type Sync, or Tutoring, and you're only going to use it a dozen or so times, don't bother. If your party lacks a mentor AND a chronicler, maybe.
Prehistoric Bond: Works with Fashionista, which is kind of cool, making decorum for your Fossil Pokemon out of the rock bits that you scraped off of them before you woke them up. Of the effects, the three defensive ones are probably the best. Evasion Vs. Status Moves, and 5 DR Vs. Ranged would be good slotless bonuses to have. If you're not a fashionista though, the only item with a buyable equivalent is the Attack item, which grants +1 Crit Range, fairly certain this is equal to the Scope Lens/Razor Claw Item.
Pokemon Caretaking Research
Pusher: If you are a fan of the Advanced Capability edges (which I am), Pusher allows you to have a lot of them on qualifying Pokemon for free. Tragically this does not include Advanced Connection, Underdog Edges, Advanced Mobility, or Skill Improvement.
This One's Special, I Know It: For individuals who require special snowflake Pokemon to go with their special snowflake characters, there's this feature. Can be performed a maximum of four times ever, and the Pokemon 'is born with special qualities determined by the GM.' Literally the most subjective feature in the game. Value depends on the quality of your GM. Again harks back to my notation earlier about breeding/fossil reviving and experience curves.
Skill Trainer: Whenever you Train your Pokemon (once a day) you can Train one of it's skills, making it 'Pushed'. It can have one 'Pushed' skill at a time. When combined with the Edge that can also only be applied once to a given skill, can add up to two dice. Suddenly limbless Pokemon with 4-5 dice in Combat or Athletics, because you can. Everything is good at Stealth. Tyranitars lurking in every bush. It's madness.
Re-Balancing: Replaced one of the old Breeder features that gave similar bonuses to eggs you hatched. For 2 TP you up your stats, and readjust BST accordingly. This and Top Percentage is how I ended up with a 68 BST Delphox? Maybe it was more then that. Either way it outstrips most legendaries and dragons in terms of raw stats at this point. Re-Balancing isn't bad, but 2 TP is a little steep. If you don't need it to fix stat arrays, use it when you can spare the tutor points. +1 Across the board is never bad.