Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Academics are proficient with either personal firearms or simple weapons.

Professor: You keep your teammates up to date on all the latest research, and while most of your techno-babble goes over their heads, some lingers. At the start of each session, you may choose one of your Basic Skill feats up to your starting action dice. Each of your teammates may gain the chosen feats as temporary feats until the end of the current session.  At levels 5, 9, 13, and 17, you may choose an additional feat.

Intense Study: Academics are always seeking new data. At Levels 1, 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20, you gain 1 additional Basic Skill or Advanced Skill feat. You must satisfy all of each feat’s prerequisites before choosing it, but your career level is considered to be up to 2 higher when doing so.

Ph.D.: You earn degrees like most people buy clothes. At Levels 2, 11, and 19, you may choose 1 Academic class skill. Your maximum rank in the chosen skill increases to your class level + 8. This new maximum skill rank may not be further increased by feats or other abilities (though it rises naturally with your class level).

Bright Idea: At Level 3, twice per session, you may make any Intelligence- or Wisdom-based skill check twice, keeping the result you prefer. At Levels 7, 11, 15, and 19, you may use this ability 2 additional times per session.

Research Project: Your work spans a variety of fields, allowing you to develop unique specialties. At Levels 5, 9, 13, and 17, you may choose 1 of the following abilities. Each of these abilities may be chosen only once.

• Elbow Grease: You gain a +4 gear bonus with each Repair check made to repair an item.
• Mechanical Familiarity: You are familiar with all types of mechanical devices, even control consoles found deep within enemy lairs or ancient devices found in long-abandoned jungle temples. You gain a +2 bonus with all Craft: Mechanical checks.
• Faculty: Once per mission, you may summon a number of faculty assistants equal to your starting action dice. Each assistant is a Tier 2 Academic contact. Per the GC’s discretion, the faculty team helps you in any non-combat endeavor for which they’re skilled and equipped until the end of the following scene, or until any of them suffer damage, at which point the entire team leaves (Loyalty maximum 2, Permanence maximum 1).
• Improvisation: Every piece of scrap is a treasure trove of possibility for you. You may, as a full action, improvise any simple item out of whatever’s lying around. For instance, even on the run through a desert outside a criminal mastermind’s headquarters, you could fashion a mirror to signal passing planes, using loose crystals cupped in your palm. You may use the Repair skill, DC 25, to create such improvised items.
• Professional Recognition: Your great advances have earned the respect of your peers. +3 Reputation Bonus toward any NPC with 8 or more ranks in any Knowledge skill that matches one of your Knowledge skills with at least 8 ranks.
• Schmooze: Your network of supporters is always growing. You gain the Contact feat as a bonus feat.
• Skill Mastery: Choose 1 of your Scientist class skills. You gain the Skill Focus feat for this skill as a bonus feat.

Brilliant: At Levels 6, 9, 12, 15, and 18, your Intelligence score rises by 1.

Know It All: You often surprise teammates with your extensive knowledge of obscure topics. At Level 10, once per mission as a free action, you may gain any 2 temporary Advanced Skill feats of your choice until the end of the current mission. At Level 20, you may use this ability 1 additional time per mission.

10-Second Solution: The team can usually count on you for last-minute solution that work. At Level 14, once per session, you may make 1 Intelligence-based skill check with which you’re considered to automatically roll a natural 20. Further, you may not be forced to re-roll this natural 20. Finally, the target skill check is accomplished in 1/2 the standard amount of time (rounded down, minimum 1 full action). You must declare that you’re using this ability before you make a roll for the chosen activity. This ability may not be applied to any skill check made as part of a Complex Task or Dramatic Conflict.