Would it be worthwhile to expand the flavor of Investigator?

[Tarluk]

I love the mechanics and flavor of Devise a Stratagem; it's such a cool way to have a martial character based around intelligently finding and executing weaknesses. But it feels disappointing and restricting to have the entire class be so strongly tied to this specific Sherlockian flavor, where the wording of the other half of the class's features is so tied to detective mysteries and so dependent on the GM's ability to work around this specific expectation and improvise accordingly, which no other class is reliant on. You can't even get Devise a Stratagem through the Investigator archetype without needing to get On the Case first through the dedication.

On the other hand, I've seen many characters which take Investigator Dedication *solely* for the On the Case feature, ignoring Devise a Stratagem entirely and just taking the cool detective feats to make a cool wizard detective for themselves, and characters who do get the Investigator archetype for both On the Case and Devise a Stratagem get almost all of what the Investigator has to offer in just 2 feats (the only restriction being that Devise a Stratagem can only be used with Strength/Dexterity...but how does that matter for martial classes? And it misses the Intelligence-focused flavor that the feature is based around).

I've been wondering about making a personal homebrew for the Investigator class, with the class being renamed to something like Savant (keeping some flavor-agnostic feats such as Flexible Studies and Predictive Purchase), the Sherlockian features/feats like On the Case being split off into a separate archetype, and the Savant class instead being reflavored and able to pick a semi-free archetype dedication based around areas of study like the new Investigator archetype, Archaeologist, Medic, Horizon Walker, Scroll Trickster, etc; you could get access to each feat in that archetype 2 levels earlier and get free feats for that archetype about every 4 levels after level 2. The Savant multiclass archetype in turn would be based primarily around Devise a Stratagem (gained through the level 2 dedication, usable with *exclusively* the Intelligence modifier once per minute, with a later-level feat to make it once per round).

I'm curious what y'all think of the rough idea, or if I'm missing something with On the Case or the Sherlockian flavor of the class.

[Mangaholic13]

Based on a video I just watched (because I'm not subscribed and therefore do not get books early), I Palatine Detective class archetype might be up your alley a bit more, as it has abilities that benefit from Recalling Knowledge against foes, including Devise A Strategy.

[Teridax]

While the Investigator did originally start as a more specific offshoot of the Rogue, I agree with Mangaholic that the way forward ought to be to give them more subclasses, like the Palatine Detective class archetype we got, as well as feats leaning more on their savant nature than their detective specialty. Although a lot of the Investigator's features pertain to Sherlockian detective gameplay, the class itself has a versatile enough core that they can hold their own even in adventures that don't revolve around a mystery. Simply having around someone who's very intelligent and able to Recall Knowledge easily is good for any encounter, and so long as an Investigator can build and use their features to adapt to most types of adventures, the class's mechanics should be fine. Their theme would perhaps be more specific than for most classes, but that too is okay, as a lot of people pick the Investigator specifically because of their Sherlockian vibe.