Arakasius's page

Just had a few questions for people who've played Inquisitor. Going to be starting a campaign shortly and had a few questions. It's a fairly melee light party, with myself and a monk being the only true melee in the party. (ranged cleric, alchemist, wizard, archer) So on to the questions. At this point I can't really change the race, the background or the class but I can tweak starting stats and likely the starting god.

1. Stat Array (20 point buy): I've decided on 17 Str (2 half-orc bonus here), 12 Dex, 14 Con, 13 Int, 14 Wis, 8 Cha. Obviously the int to allow me to go with Pack Flanking level 3 when I get my first teamwork feat. The thing is I'd like to have 14 dex for feat selection, especially Precise Strike (going with Cat buddy) But the only thing I can really drop is con which I don't want to do. That just means I guess I can't choose the feat until I get a +2 dex item. But at the same time I plan to make heavy use of outflank/paired opportunist and eventually get Combat Reflexes. Having 2 extra dex will make me get 4 AOO instead of 3. I just don't know if that is a relevant difference. 3 should probably be enough once I get a +2 item and combat reflexes.

2. Weapon: Unless I go with a 1h weapon/shield config. Currently I'm using Trade domain since it allows me to do some face stuff along with the cool movement options. Would it be a good idea to switch to Cayden and pick up Rapier proficiency (Kurgess only gives Javelin) to get a 1h crit weapon? Then with a shield I could do a 14 dex, 12 con build. Looking at level 11 that gives me +4 AC (3 from a masterwork shield plus 1 from 1 more dex) at the cost of physical skills and the 50% damage bonus on using a 2h weapon plus using Power Attack 2h. Note I still have a Falchion prof so I can switch between the two. (since I'm not planning on taking Weapon Focus anytime soon) Or I could keep 12 dex/ 14 con and still switch just for the option of having a relevant 1h Weapon.

3. Feat Selection: Currently my plan is 1. Combat Expertise, 3. Power Attack. 3(TW). Pack Flanking 5. Combat Reflexes 6(TW). Outflank. 7. Outflank, change 6(TW) to Paired Opportunist. I'm not sure what I'd take for 7 and 9 would be either Precise Strike or Improved Shared Spells for TW and something else for the regular feat, which does push my need to get that 2 dex off. Note we're only doing Core and Advanced guides for material. No other source material than Inner Sea, no UM/UC, etc. Is there any big feat choices for this archetype/style I'm missing? No Cornugan Smash so can't really do the intimidate chain. Also no Lore Warden which was an option for being able to pick up Combat Expertise without pumping int.

4. Domain Selection: Now that I think of it perhaps going human and choosing someone with a Falchion, Greatsword or Bastard Sword as domain weapon would have been better just so I could have taken another feat at 1 like Toughness. But other than Gorum the options are severely lacking for domain selections, especially if I'm restricting myself to gods in the main two groups. I choose half orc because of rp and the weapon choices plus sacred tattoo. Using the source material I listed above, any better options than the Trade/Travel/Exploration group? Switching to Cayden to pick up Rapiers loses me Trade, but I do get to stay in that grouping and Travel/Exploration are still fine.

5. Pet options: Fairly locked in on this I think with the big cat. I considered various dinosaurs or the wolf, but the wolf didn't impress me and I am turned off of the big dinosaurs for RP reasons (and lack of health), leaving just the raptor. Raptor does have some sweet synergy with Precise Strike and is medium and good defensively, but cat leaves me the option of riding him as he pounces and hits harder and more accurately.

So here my question is mainly on feat selection and tricks. I'm putting int in as level 4 bonus so I'm thinking the usual tricks (We're not playing with the advanced tricks like flank/bombard) plus a couple of the skirmisher ones. Aiding Attack and Vengeance Strike as well as Hobbling Strike are the ones that interest me. I like getting extra attacks or getting a guaranteed bonus. I could be convinced to try Rattling/Upending Strike though. Also on feats there doesn't seem to be a ton of good options. Toughness seems obvious as does Power Attack and eventually Eldritch Claws, but not sure what else. Maybe dodge?

Anyway just looking for some feedback on my character from optimizers out there. I've combed over guides and posts looking for ways to build my character and have him built out to level 11 in different ways, but I want to see if there is something I've missed.

So in my current campaign I'm a level 5 elf conjurer (Teleportation school) and I'm looking for some options to maximize my damage (and the party as well) the problem is twofold. One is other than a Barb no one in the party is good at dealing damage at all, so enabling them in that sense is out. Second is that conventional crowd control spells so far haven't worked so well since the party is impatient. Making a pit for example if your party goes and jumps in it. Maybe it will work better in the future when wall spells start to appear. Even something like haste is going to have minimal effects since another roll with crappy +hit isn't going to help most of the time.

I considered going down the fireball route, but without being admixture and spending bunches of feats to make sure I don't nuke my party, that also seemed lackluster. My thought was to focus perhaps on some spells that have a good balance of damage and utility such as Ice Spears or Battering Blast. Heck I could even go down the snowball route although I'd prefer not to. I pretty much have access to the full range of spells/traits/feats and can maximize the metamagic stuff if I want, although I doubt I'll have access to a ton of rods since getting time to craft will be hard.I don't mind going all in on a certain spell to be able to spontaneously cast it since that means I can just prep utility stuff and then bust out preferred/greater spell spec spell with metamagic when i need to.

Alternatively I can take the double summon feats (augment/superior) and head down that route. Not sure how viable that is for damage, but with augment it seems decently reasonable. We seem to be fighting a lot in closed areas though, so not sure if multiple bodies clogging things up is going to be great. I'm neutral if that means anything regarding the types of summons I can call (still not sure on the rules on that)

I also do have a familiar and plan to get something nice at level 7. Maybe an imp or the flying cat or one of the fairie Dragons.

So yeah if anyone has some advice on how to make my conjurer wiz prioritize damage dealing that would be great.