As it is unlikely that I will be getting too many games that I can play a necromancer, the other idea that I have been looking to expand on is a mage of academia. Most of the time you have fancy blastomancers when it comes to mages. It seems that a real guild or academy mage is becoming a rare sight.

The goal would be to adventure but to really work with the character thematic. He would study things and write out the studies. The kind of mage responsible for the owlbear. Staves, runes, holding back until you have to bright flash the bad guy.

Leaning more to pathfinder as 3.5 punished crafters way too much.

Artificiers are really good 3.5 Crafters.

I get that, but the character would be more in the magical research side rather than the Arcane Factotum assembly line.

Ah. Still That seems more about skill selection than class. I agree that PF has better rules all the way around.

I'm wondering if a Pathfinder-updated version of Magic of Faerun's Guild Wizard of Waterdeep wouldn't be a good fit the kind of character you're looking for.  It assumed you were doing a lot of research and crafting, and frankly the tone of the prestige class as written didn't really encourage an adventuring lifestyle (as it needed you to stay in the wizard guild for several weeks or months every year).

Magic of Faerun was a 3.0 Forgotten Realms book, but still had a lot of interesting info in it.  But the class would have to be updated because it did depend on 3.0/3.5 crafting rules.

Guild wizard is an amazing class, and it is supremely easy to update. It also allows the players as a group to have an effective home base. Not to mention it is massively tied into story. Come home, do a bit of political work, go out and do some adventure. Become that mover and shaker!