Suggestions Sought for Monster Tactician (Inquis. archetype) build


Advice


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Background: Monster Tactician trades the judgment ability in for being able to summon monsters as a standard action. See here for details.

Combine that with all the Inquisitor's goodies, and that's pretty powerful. But what are some ways to make the character even more effective?

One general idea is to focus on a high Wisdom and just summon like crazy and throw spells. SAD is the opposite of sad. However, when in an environment where magic doesn't work or the extreme ends of lots of encounters per day it runs into trouble- though that seems pretty rare/ situational.

Another path could be a Reach Cleric approach where combat reflexes and a reach weapons has you behind friends, which could be your summons of course, whacking the bad guys with Power Attack. Now we're adding Strength to the mix and flirting with MAD. We could go further and make a front line fighter, but now we're really into MAD territory and we've lost our Judgment ability.

It seems almost mandatory that the feats Spell Focus Conjuration and Augment Summoning are taken. From there it's hard to pass up Evolved Summon Monster and Superior Summons. We can even possibly add Summon Alignment Monster.

Given the demand for feats for an archer, it looks like a challenge to make that idea work. We're down, presumably, at least two feats for S.F. Conjuration and Aug. Summoning.

So I'm seeking your ideas on general strategy, feats, even traits for this archetype.


Keep in mind that an inquisitor’s spell list has very few direct attack spells. Most of their spells are utility and buff spells. Since you gave up judgements you will not be able to buff yourself to the level a normal inquisitor does. You also get a very limited number of spells so have to choose them very carefully. This is going to make the idea of standing back and slinging spells a lot more difficult.

But you still have access to some good spells and class abilities that will allow you to be decent in combat. Since mostly you will be summoning monster to fight for you, and using your spells for utility and buffing you don’t actually need that high of a WIS. Dumping all your other stats to max out WIS is actually a bad idea for an inquisitor. Get a decent WIS and of course get a headband of WIS to boost it further but have otherwise spread out your STAS. Leave your INT at 10, and if you dump CHA if you need to. With the right inquisition you can dump CHA and still be the party face.

You are never going to be able to match a full martial in combat. A normal inquisitor can but without judgements you are at slight disadvantage. You can however be good enough to contribute to combat in a meaningful way. Divine favor and fates favored go a long way to boosting your combat abilities. Add in bane for some extra damage. Make sure you get precise strike as your first teamwork feat and that adds an additional 1d6 damage. The fact that all your summoned will also get the 1d6 is an added bonus.


If what you want to do is let your summons wreck face You are a better reach caster than a reach cleric could ever be, I think.

Longspear is NOT on inquisitors weapon list however, that means that you need to dip or expend a feat to get a good reach weapon.

Human military tradition can get you two exotics for the price of one feat meaning you can get 2 awesome weapons (one reach, one not for the price of one)

Since you are not going to settle for a longspear if you are shelling out for a feat, get a fauchard an elven branched spear or flying blade (not the most optimal probably but definately the most stylish, and if you went for military tradition and getting another non reach weapon to wreck face, why not ?').

Temple guard looks like a good trait for fauchard, and its an excuse not to use fates favored, which is such a good trait it gets recommended for every divine caster build.

The alternative is half elf and get ancestral weapons to get one of the above

Even more radical is going half elf, shell out for exotic weapon proficiency elven branched spear, choose eye for opportunity half elf trait, take a heirloom weapon trait: choose + 1 for attacks of opportunity. Enjoy your +4 boni to attacks of opportunity at level one, top of with opportune slayer (+2 damage on all attacks of opportunity, a big boohyaa for a reach caster and another reason not to take fates favored). Since you have bane you can keep this heirloom weapon a long while and prioritise your magical armour and trinkets before getting a magical weapon...

You probably already know litany of righteousness is on the inquisitor spells list, that its normally a bit suboptimal for the inquisitor because of lack of aura but if you are a monster tactician its the bees knees because your outsiders with a good aura will wreck outsiders with an evil aura so much harder now...

Like the mysterious stranger said, with the right inquisition you can dump charisma hard and still bluff, diplo and intimidate with the best of them because they can be keyed off wisdom and with some inquisitions at level 4 giving you choose best out of two rolls.

Wonky stuff I like (not necessarily optimal)
Go Half orc anger inquisition and perhaps a single level of barbarian: expanded monster level 1(which the monster tactician gets for free) has badgers, expanded monster level 3 has dire badgers, summon monster 3 has wolverines: give your pets amplified rage

precise strike is a good teamwork to share with your little bundles of love, so is outflank (im not telling any secrets here I suppose), but I kinda like wild flanking as well, especially the monsters are damaging each other and not you and it could be a way to trigger the rage if you go for the stuff in the previous paragraph).

If you want to summon a bralani azati to unleash lightning bolt let them share allied spellcaster to make sure they hit and do extra damage.

I had the idea before to give my little bundles of joy improved feint partner, so when I would make a feint as a move action they would gain attacks of opportunity, this is probably too feat intensive for what its worth but I thought it would be cool.

Shennigans that may or may not be legit: Go for an animal companion so you qualify for improve share spells. summon a level 5 genie next to you. Let him cast invisiblity on himself and you (you both have reach and probably combat reflexes)


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Wicky1976 wrote:

Longspear is NOT on inquisitors weapon list however, that means that you need to dip or expend a feat to get a good reach weapon.

Longspear is a simple weapon. Inquisitor can use all simple weapon...


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Dude, you typed 's lot of stuff about longspears without realizing they are easy simple weapon, meaning Inquisitors are proficient in them.


Cleru wrote:
Wicky1976 wrote:

Longspear is NOT on inquisitors weapon list however, that means that you need to dip or expend a feat to get a good reach weapon.

Longspear is a simple weapon. Inquisitor can use all simple weapon...

Yep Im wrong on that one, don't know how that one got stuck in my brain...


and even in the case, they are proficient with the deity weapons, so you could choose the appropriate deity if you really need a specific weapon


Now that we got simple weapon straight, it's unclear if those were ringing endorsements for reach style approach or full melee.

Also what domain or inquisition would be helpful to this particular archetype?


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Well, there's the normal default good domains. Rage, conversion, etc. But I'd say you probably want a domain with some sort of group buff aura?


Heroism Domain is pretty good. You get aura of Heroism, and touch of glory help with social situation (after level 5, +level bonus from touch of glory will probably beat +WIS bonus from conversion inquisition).

For combat, aim for a good teamwork feat combo.

Broken Wing Gambit > Paired oppotunist or Improved feint partner > Paired oppotunist is great.


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Heroism domain is a solid call. I'd be careful about going to combo heavy for teamwork feats though, because your summons don't get too many at a time. I'd probably just keep it simple, starting with Outflank and adding Precise Strike later.

I think a longspear is a good call. Your summons will be better meat shields if you are attacking from behind them instead of next to them. I'd consider a Menacing weapon. That plus Outflank will be an easy to set up +6 for you and your summons, which need the accuracy boost.


EpicFail wrote:

Now that we got simple weapon straight, it's unclear if those were ringing endorsements for reach style approach or full melee.

Also what domain or inquisition would be helpful to this particular archetype?

Reach style approach, all my ravings were for reach style. Elven branched nets a +2 on AOO (which can be pushed to +3 or +4 with the apropriate traits, fauchard is a 18-20 crit weapon with reach and flying blade is D12 weapon that gives you +2 on AOO (with some disadvantes if its not used in that way ...)

Opportune slayer is a trait that gives you +2 damage on all attacks of opportunity...

Heroism is good, but I like tactics domain as well for a monster tactician. Seize the initiative + cunning initiative should make you go first with the regularity of a metronome allowing you to drop your critters in the best flanking positions or enable them to flankbuddy with the parties frontliners and strikers that want to charge and wreck face. Meanwhile you can hold back and protect the arcane squishies with your reach weapon. Weapon master arguably is not as good as dropping heroism but its far from bad (there is a plethora of very good combat feats out there that are easy qualified for but you dont have the design space for since you want the Spell Focus Conjuration and Augment Summoning combat reflexes) (lunge, bodyguard, phalanx formation tons of more teamwork feat you auto qualify for with solo tactics)


I'm personally a fan of the Feather subdomain on a Monster Tactician.

After level 5 (Boon Companion), ride your animal companion (get one with reach, such as an Axe Beak), and you are both a mobile AoO turret with Paired Opportunists. That you can give to all your summons.

At least in my experience, AoOs both from animal companions & your character, together with the inquisitor swift action buffing and standard action summoning, you can get pretty nasty really quickly. Action economy will be your underling for a loooong time!

You also have the option of combining Monster Tactician with the Tactical Leader, which gives you the Tactician ability at level 3. Don't just give TW feats to your summons, but to the entire party! It also helps with being a face, since Diplomacy actually makes people like you.

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