I'm playing with a system for potion making where:
* The spell lists have ~2 spells per level instead of the usual 1.
* Some types of effects don't work as potions; you can throw one and have it explode as a fireball, but it's not going to give you an aimed attack like a fire bolt. If you want to affect material, you generally need to pour the potion on it, so that affects range too.
* Creating potions takes 1 minute per level of the spell, and costs as many PP as the spell. You can make multiple potions at once, spending 1 minute per level for the highest level potion, plus 1 minute per additional potion.
* The potion lasts until used or lost. If it goes beyond your control, it expires.
* The PP spent making a given potion cannot be recovered until the potion has been used, expired, or destroyed. Essentially you are continuing to invest a small amount of power in the potion to keep it viable. You can keep a potion for months, but those power points aren't available to make or cast something else.
* You can use magical herbs or monster components to power the potion. In that case, the potion is permanent until used (and can be sold, lost, etc), and you can recover your PP normally. (I haven't fully worked out how much you need, but definitely related to the level of the creature, etc.)
The idea is that this type of alchemist is a more versatile than a regular mage, but they have to decide in advance what magical effects to prepare. The ability to sell potions is highly limited without special components, mitigating economic concerns, but the character is completely playable even without them, so that means they aren't dependent on the GM handing them stuff all the time.
I set this up because I thought it would appeal to a particular player, and then he decided to do something totally different.
So right now, there is just one Dabbler with one alchemical spell list (Dabbler is the only profession other than the Alchemist I opened it up to), and consequently I have not tested it very thoroughly. However in one of my games, the party just had a large battle with golems (that are usable for extracting components) right in the middle of a city with an alchemy guild, so it did help me assign value to their bodies.