Inquisitor Woes


Advice


SO heres the deal...

I like the Inquisitor. I like the spells, I like the various class abilities and mechanics of how they work.

HOWEVER.
There is one thing that keeps bothering me about the Inquisitor.
It's how tied the class is to a deity.
If i remember correctly, a cleric or paladin can function without a deity, and can dedicate themselves to a cause or ideal.
Inquisitors do not have such a luxury.

Am I getting stuck on the inquisitor being too tied to his religion?

Is there a way to make a wandering inquisitor that isn't necessarily tied to a specific religion?

Thanks!

Liberty's Edge

Kat Tenser wrote:

SO heres the deal...

I like the Inquisitor. I like the spells, I like the various class abilities and mechanics of how they work.

HOWEVER.
There is one thing that keeps bothering me about the Inquisitor.
It's how tied the class is to a deity.
If i remember correctly, a cleric or paladin can function without a deity, and can dedicate themselves to a cause or ideal.
Inquisitors do not have such a luxury.

Am I getting stuck on the inquisitor being too tied to his religion?

Is there a way to make a wandering inquisitor that isn't necessarily tied to a specific religion?

Thanks!

Some gods are all about wandering. An inquisitor of Desna for example.

You are kind of the enforcer of your religion.

If you are an enforcer of drinking beer and freeing slaves, Cayden!

There are a lot of gods and a lot of concepts.


and I get that... its just... How do yo ube an enforcer of drinking beer?? I would probably take Cayden for the travel domain, and it seems as though there would be less responsibility and more opportunities for wandering...

I would love to make a Inquisitor that is entirely freelance, works as an investigator and mercenary. Rangers get divine spells without attachment to a god, why must Inquisitors be tied to a deity?

There are indeed a lot of gods and concepts, but all of those concepts are intrinsically tied to one of those gods.

I guess i wish there were a way around it?


I’m confused here... It was my understanding that an Inquisitor doesn’t have to be attached specifically to a deity?

“With the GM’s approval, an inquisitor can be devoted to an ideal instead of a deity, selecting one domain to represent her personal inclination and abilities. The restriction on alignment domains still applies.”

Sovereign Court

Actually, I'd say clerics and paladins are more bound to their gods than inquisitors. "Although inquisitors are dedicated to a deity, they are above many of the normal rules and conventions of the church. They answer to their deity and their own sense of justice alone, and are willing to take extreme measures to meet their goals."

So as long as the big bad guy can be interpreted as an enemy of your god, you can do pretty much anything you want. It's not that you'd be an enforcer of drinking beer - you wouldn't even have to drink beer yourself; you'd just have to defeat the evil tyrant stopping people from drinking beer and having a good time.

Also, their spell choice and skill bonuses make inquisitors the best option for "detective" characters - their sense motive, perception, and survival (for following tracks) are all excellent.


ah, haha, uh.... yeah, just saw that sentence.


1.

D20PFSRD, Inquisitor domains wrote:
Like a cleric’s deity, an inquisitor’s deity influences her alignment, what magic she can perform, and her values. Although not as tied to the tenets of the deity as a cleric, an inquisitor must still hold such guidelines in high regard, despite that fact she can go against them if it serves the greater good of the faith. An inquisitor can select one domain from among those belonging to her deity. She can select an alignment domain only if her alignment matches that domain. With the GM’s approval, an inquisitor can be devoted to an ideal instead of a deity, selecting one domain to represent her personal inclination and abilities. The restriction on alignment domains still applies.

Inquisitions are sub-domain equivalents so there is little stopping you from selecting one with the proper justification to your GM.

2.
The fluff and flavor of the inquisitor works very well for any self determined and assured individual. Be it Clan honor, Family ties, Love and Peace or a bloody minded genocidal hatred of Orcs the archetype fits the class like a silk glove.
Religion is one of the more fun ones to play with that concept, especially if your GM gets into the act as the Inquisitor is one of the few Divine based classes with a large amount of Leeway in what you can or cannot do with the blessings of your god.


Well, so what is your favorite Inquisitor back-story that doesn't involve being an enforcer for some kind of religion/deity??

Grand Lodge

One word:
Hellknight.


I've been considering running an Inquisitor of Cayden that's the holy booze inspector.

Liberty's Edge

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Chall T. Dow wrote:
I've been considering running an Inquisitor of Cayden that's the holy booze inspector.

Of course i shot him 15 times your honor.. taste this swill! It was justifiable homicide!

Grand Lodge

Choosing a god can grant you a weapon proficiency, you would might not otherwise have.
Like the musket, net, or shuriken.


I cannot imagine an Inquisitor who is not the enforcer for some institution. In fact, I would not allow an Inquisitor PC unless they have some powerful council of priests and other Inquisitors to whom they answer.


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Owly wrote:
I cannot imagine an Inquisitor who is not the enforcer for some institution. In fact, I would not allow an Inquisitor PC unless they have some powerful council of priests and other Inquisitors to whom they answer.

I would say there can be an inquisitor without the need for someone in a mitre telling you what to do. If you are a fan of video games the belmont clan could be considered inquisitors. They semi-martial badarses with holy powers to supplement them, but without any of the codes that a paladin might have to hold them back.


Kat Tenser wrote:
Well, so what is your favorite Inquisitor back-story that doesn't involve being an enforcer for some kind of religion/deity??

Professional monster slayer

Secret rabble rouser in cheliax
wandering preacher
wandering dueliost
professional mercenary

You can tie all of these to one god or another without necessarily wearing the cloth as it were.

Grand Lodge

Walker, Texas Ranger.


Inquisitors lend themselves to enforcement. Be it Law, Chaos, Evil or Good. It does not need to be a god to require someone to oversee its use so as to prevent corruption. Nature, Empathy, Mortality, Time, Hope all are concepts that can be seen without a god and all of them will have those who wish to change that concept for their own intentions.

Inquisitors are defined by holding some set of Ideals and acting in a fashion befitting them. They do not hunt monster but Traitors and Heretics to whatever set of rules they follow, In many cases those can easily be monsters but in others they are not. Perhaps my concept of what an Inquisitor is has been colored by my experience with WH40K but without Faith in something, god or otherwise. Then there is very little reason a person would want to be an inquisitor in the first place.

One of my favorite NPC's was an Aasimar inquisitor, didn't worship a god. What she worshiped was words and the meanings they inspire.
She hunted down those who used rhetoric and lies to twist words such as hope, truth, and virtue down into razor sharp weapons perverted from their purpose.
She hunted dictators and politicians destroying their carefully constructed propaganda and revealed them for what they were, simple mortals and nothing more.

One of my more Video game savvy players tagged her as Flonne, It was unintentional but made me chuckle so I left it as it was.


I've made my Inquisitor more like a cross between Batman and Hellsing. Has this hunter of black magics and fell creatures vibe to him.


Dwarven Inquisitor of Torag, spellbreaker archetype. With the Steel Soul feat and the Glory of Old Trait... You get a +5 trait bonus on saves against Spells and spell like abilities BESIDES the other bonuses against spells from the Spellbreaker archetype AND the resistance bonus from the Protection domain...
Spells aren't going to harm you directly.

Perfect wizard hunter

Liberty's Edge

Owly wrote:
I cannot imagine an Inquisitor who is not the enforcer for some institution. In fact, I would not allow an Inquisitor PC unless they have some powerful council of priests and other Inquisitors to whom they answer.

Actually, as per the class description, they're explicitly the opposite of this, having "They answer to their deity and their own sense of justice alone" as kinda their raison d'etre.

I agree that they're enforcers of something or they don't make sense, but not the kind who are accountable to anything beyond their own principles and God/philosophy.

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