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No because a pistol is a projectile weapon and projectile weapons bestow the enchantment on the ammunition not on the weapon itself. If it did not do this the enchantment would not work with the projectile weapon because the projectile weapon does not actually hit the target, only the ammunition hits the target.
Both Blood Intensity and Blood Piercing have limits on how often they can be used. Blood Piericing also does nothing against a target with immunity and only reduces the amount of energy resistance by the sorcerers CHA modifier. If the target only has 5-10 points of energy resistance it is fine, but anything with 20-30 points it hardly puts a dent into it. Casting another spell only works if you have that type of damage in a spell. Battering Blast is limited to 5d6, and its base damage is only 1d6 per 2 levels. That means it deals significantly less damage than most. It will get the bonus from the orc bloodline and blood havoc but that still is only 5d6+10 to a single target. Mnemonic Vestment is only good for one use per day. Expanded Arcana is using feats which the sorcerer only has a limited amount of. As I pointed out the suggested build on this thread is already using up its feats. Many of the suggestion you are giving add a single utility spell to the sorcerer’s portfolio. While that does give them a tiny bit of utility it cannot match the ability to choose different spells daily, much less what quick study can do. When the arcanist need to travel in cold or hot weather they can take endure element, on the day they need to sneak into a place they can take disguise self, When they need to gather information they can take ears of the city, if they need to figure out what the magic items the party found they can take identify, if they need to travel mount can provide a way to move quickly, and the list goes on and on. They can also do more than one of these a day if needed. When they are down in the dungeon and they don’t need any utility they can memorize all combat spells, but when they are in downtime, they can memorize only utility spells. The sorcerer is mostly locked into what he can do.
What it really comes down to is what type of character does the player want to play and is the character able to pull his own weight in the party. The OP said he wanted a full caster that leans into the blasting aspect. He also wanted to have some utility options. The crossblooded sorcerer does not meet the utility criteria. A regular sorcerer not focused on blasting might be able to pull it off, but not the build that has been suggested here. The school savant arcanist on the other hand fits his criterial. Since his spell selection is variable, he can also use other combat strategies besides straight blasting. Throw in some battlefield control and buffing and the character will be quite useful even if he cannot match the raw damage of the blasting focused sorcerer. What this character will excel in is the ability to exploit any weakness of his opponents. When I have brought up the school savant’s ability to change the energy type it has been dismissed and unimportant compared to the extra damage the sorcerer can do, that is a huge mistake. Being able to negate a creature’s defense is often more important than the amount of damage you do. If you are fighting a bunch a fire elemental the ability to change your fireball to do cold damage is devastating. The sorcerer may be able to use ice storm or frostfall instead of fireball, but those spells are not as good as a fireball doing cold damage. The arcanist is also an INT based class with all knowledge skills as class skills. This gives him much better chance to identify a monster's weakness.
Your number of spells per spell level are slightly off. A 12th level crossbood sorcerer would have 23 spells excluding bloodline spells and 5 bloodline spells. They do not get their 6th level blood line spell until 13th level. The bloodline spells for the Orc bloodline are not that useful, nor are those form the other bloodlines that give bonus per die. You might get 3 spells that are not garbage by 12th level. So, figure that the crossblood sorcerer has at most 26 worthwhile spells. An arcanist with the school savant archetype would get 20 spells of any school (Excluding his opposition schools) and 6 spells from his specialty school. That puts the arcanist up to 26 worthwhile spells. The sorcerer will have a couple of extra lower-level spells. The arcanist will have 2 6th level spells compare to 0 for the sorcerer. The exact number of spells that are different are going to be really dependent on the level of the characters. But once the characters are above 4th level the crossblood sorcerer will always be behind in his highest level spells.
If you look at the original post it was asking if there are alternatives besides sorcerers that make “decent blasters” the OP did not say he wanted the best blaster, just decent. The sorcerer can easily excel as a blaster, but they are not the only ones that make decent blasters.
This build while great a blasting it is severely underpowered for everything else. The crossblooded sorcerer has even fewer spells known than normal. The character will need more than a single fire-based blasting spell per level or will be too easy to shut down. He will also want some defensive spells to protect himself. The Orc Bloodline has very few good blasting spells, nor do any of the other bloodlines that offer bonus damage per die. That means the blasting sorcerer will have very few slots for anything else. The favored class bonus of a human can help but locks the build into a single race and only applies to lower-level spells. The big advantage the arcanist has over this build is that is not limited to blasting. It can do a decent job of blasting even if it is not the absolute best but can do other things. Would anyone tell the player who shows up at their table wanting to play an arcanist that favors blasting not to bother with it and to play a fighter or rogue instead?
I have to disagree with the example of using the vampire out of the bestiary. Vampire is a template that is added on to a character to create a monster. Not all Vampires are spell casters. The Vampire in the bestiary is but that does not mean they all are. It’s spell casting comes from the class it had before it became a vampire. The knowledge religion roll would give details on vampire abilities, not abilities of the individual vampire that are based on their class. You would get things like they are undead and are harmed by silver. You would not get details about the spells it can cast or even if it is a spell caster. If the monster has racial casting ability like a dragon, then the appropriate knowledge skill can give information on its casting ability.
The arcanist has other ways to deal damage besides just his spells. There are a decent number of exploits that give the arcanist a scaling attack. In some cases, they also can hinder the target. Ice Missile is actually very good for this. While the damage might not match what he can do with a spell it will often be adequate especially if the target fails his save. Since it only cost 1 point form the arcane reserve to use it can be used a lot. If the character is an Elf or other races that gets points to his arcane reserve as a FCB it can easily compensate for the lesser number of spells. This allows the arcanist to save his spells for tougher opponents while at the same time contributing to combat in a meaningful way. At 12th level an Elf Arcanist with a 14 CHA will be doing 6d6+2 points of damage per hit with an Ice Missile and the target will need to make a DC 18 save or be staggered for 1 round. If he puts his FCB into extra points for his arcane pool, he will have 27 points. The arcanist will have to split the points between boosting his spells and the Ice Missile but with that many points he should not have a problem. This also allows the character to use some of his spells for defense and utility. Considering that was one of the goals of the OP that makes it a very good option.
The section on monster lore in the PFSDR is not well written. But they are correct. The PFSRD is poorly written and I would not recommend using it for rules decisions. A better sources is the Archive of Nethys. Knowledge Skills Anyone can use a knowledge skill to try and identify a monster if the DC is 10 or less. If the DC is higher than 10 you have to have at least one skill point in the relevant knowledge skill. The inquisitors Monster Lore is simply a bonus to that roll. So, even an inquisitor needs to have at least a point in the knowledge skill that covers a monster before they can attempt to identify most monsters. Unless the monster they are identifying is considered common and has a low CR someone untrained in the knowledge skill cannot use it to identify monsters.
I did not factor in the feats like Varisian Tattoo or other feats and items because an arcanist can also use those, and they will stack with potent magic. So, while those all help the sorcerer be more effective, they will also help the arcanist. The only thing they cannot use are bloodline mutations. The extra spells known from the favored class bonus must be one level less than you highest level. That means it does nothing about the fact the crossblooded sorcerer will be delayed a level in gaining access to higher level spells. A crossblooded sorcerer does not get access to 2nd level spells until 5th level. At 4th level they know 8 cantrips, 4 1st level spells including their bloodline spell even when getting extra spells known from the FCB. The wizard will be getting 3rd level spells when the crossblooded sorcerer gets 2nd level spell. They can use metamagic feats to cast improved low-level spells, but they are do not get access to the higher-level spells. It is kind of hard to spam out fireballs when you cannot cast them. Crossblooded sorcerers also take a -2 penalty on all will saves. So, at 1st level the crossblooded sorcerer has worse saves than a rogue. I have to stand by my opinion that the crossblooded sorcerer is a trap. If it is not a trap nothing prevents an arcanist from dipping 1 level of crossblooded sorcerer to gain the +2 per die. If you take the orc and solar bloodline and choose sunsight for your bloodline power you would get both darkvision and lowlight sight, and the immunity to being dazzled from sunsight would counter the light sensitivity of the orc bloodline.
The Arcanist can use intensify spell of the Magic Trick Feat. If they do this then they will still be 2 levels ahead until they reach the new maximum. If there is no maximum the sorcerer with both a bloodline bonus and blood hex slowly increase their advantage to 23 points at 20th level. The sorcerer with only one of these breaks even at 13th level and gains an advantage of +1 damage at 15th level and by 20th is doing 3 more points of damage. Bloodline intensity and bloodline piercing are also limited uses per day. As far as I can see the only bloodline that gets a bonus of +1 per die on all types of damage is the orc bloodline. All others that get the bonus per die are restricted to a single type of energy with fire being the most common. When your extra damage is limited to a single energy type it is very easy for your opponents to neutralize you. All they need to do is to gain energy resistance vs your type of energy and your ability to deliver damage drops. That means it is not the sorcerer that makes a superior blaster it is the orc bloodline and all other bloodlines are inferior blasters. If the orc bloodline is what it takes to make a superior blaster the arcanist can still achieve this. Instead of going with the school savant the arcanist takes the blood arcanist archetype. Now he gets the +1 per die bonus of the orc bloodline. If he takes the school understanding exploit, he can also gain access to the admixture school including intense evocation. He can still take the potent magic exploit to boost his caster level by 2. At this point he is doing more damage than the orc bloodline sorcerer with blood havoc until 17th level. 19th and 20th level the orc bloodline sorcerer with blood havoc does 1 point more damage. The extra damage is actually not that much at 6th level when fireball becomes available it is only 6 points, but it is more damage. This also does not factor in the fact that the arcanist can still change the energy type to the most favorable. The sorcerer will get more spells per day, but the arcanist can change out his spells almost at will. To me that is more valuable than more spells per day. From what I can see the only way to get more than a +2 damage per die on a regular basis is with the crossblood archetype. The loss of one spell per level known weakens the sorcerer too much for it to be worth it.
It only progresses class abilities you already have. It will not give class features including bonus feats you do not have, but it will allow you to pick up fighter only (or Samuria Only if there are any) feats with the prerequisite of specific fighter levels. So, you can pick up greater weapon specialization even though it has a prerequisite of fighter level 12.
The arcanist will be interested in both increasing his caster level and the DC of his saves. It really depends on the circumstances. When casting spells that scale with level that are not maxed out the caster level will be more important. For spells that are already maxed out increasing the DC of the saves will often be the better choice. This type of versatility is what allows the arcanist to compensate for the raw power of the sorcerer. I ran the numbers on a sorcerer and an arcanist with the school savant archetype damage on a fire ball and while the sorcerer does have an advantage it is not a big as it seems. At low level the sorcerer is only ahead if he has both a bloodline that gives +1 per die and blood havoc. If he has only one of these, he does less damage due to the extra caster levels of the arcanist. At 9th level the sorcerer with just blood havoc pulls slightly ahead, and the sorcerer with both gets an even bigger boost. At 10th level when the spell maxes out, both increase the advantage. At that point the arcanist will be probably switch to boosting the DC of the save which will mean more targets fail the save and end up taking more damage.
Sorcerers have very few spells known per spell level. Which means they will have trouble knowing 4 evocation spells per level to deal different damage types. If they take the crossblooded archetype it gets even worse. In addition, you will also need spells dealing force damage to harm incorporeal creatures. There are things that can help like elemental spell but those use up higher level spells. Using up a 4th level spell to cast a third level spell is not as efficient as using an actual 4th level spell. For one thing the saving throw is based on the original level of the spell. When you add in the arcanists ability to boost the DC of the save that means the spell cast by the arcanist will have a DC that is 3 points higher. Also taking those feats means the sorcerer will not be able to take things like spell focus. If that is the case the difference in the saving throw goes even higher. The arcanist on the other hand has no problem having spells that deal different types of damage. If you really think the sorcerer bloodline is so powerful the arcanist could simply take the blood Arcanist archetype instead of the school savant. That would give them the bloodline arcana and bloodline powers. The arcanist could also pick up the exploit school understanding and chose the admixture school. Now the arcanist gets both the +1 damage per die and t+1/2 level to damage. They can also change the damage type of the spell and boost either the caster level or the DC of the save by 2. I am not saying that a sorcerer is not a good choice for a blaster, obviously it is. But it is not the only choice for a decent blaster. Benthic spell also means your target gets DR unless the DR is DR/bludgeoning. DR is even more common than energy resistance. This means amount of damage getting through is often going to be less than normal.
I am not sure why the ability to cast fire ball using any of your higher-level spells slot is such a big deal. The arcanist and the sorcerer can already do this, even if they cannot apply a metamagic feat for free. Spending 2 feats to apply a metamagic feat for free is not a good investment. The ½ level to damage vs the +1 per die depends on how many dice and what your level is. A high level caster casting burning hands it is better. 5d4+5 does not do as much damage as 5d4+10 (at 20th level). Spells that have low dice maximum benefit more from the +1/2 per level than they do +1 per die.
People are focusing on damage per die too much. There are other things that can affect damage including saving throw, spell resistance, energy type. I do not care how much extra fire damage the sorcerer does when fighting a devil, it will not matter, but turning the damage to electrical will matter.
The sorcerer has an obvious advantage in the amount of damage they can do, and often that is enough to get by. Most of the time the sorcerer will be able to dish out more damage, but the sorcerer is also more likely to have his spells rendered useless. The arcanist will probably deal less sheer damage but is often more effective in delivering his damage. The OP asked if there were any alternatives to a blaster sorcerer and the arcanist fits that description. The sorcerer is a one trick pony relying on massive damage. The arcanist especially the admixture school savant has more options on what he can do. They also have the option of taking an attack discovery like arc of flame and using that to deal damage. It might not do as much as a fire ball but it still can do decent damage and with enough arcane points can be use quite a bit. There is also no reason the arcanist cannot use those feats to boost his caster level. From what I can see they would stack with Potent Magic.
The arcanist with the school savant archetype can choose the evocation or better yet the admixture school to get extra damage. Being able to add half your level to all evocation spells is in some cases better than the +1 per die a sorcerer gets. Most of the time the sorcerer’s bonus is limited to one type of energy with fire being the most common. The arcanist also can increase the caster level of his spells by up to 2 (with potent magic). This can increase the damage of his spells. Take a 6th level sorcerer with the orc bloodline vs a 6th level school savant arcanist casting fireball. The sorcerer does 6d6+6 damage for an average of 27 damage. The arcanist is doing 8d6+3 for an average damage of 31. The extra caster level also increases the other level-based aspect of the spell including longer range and more importantly being able to overcome spell resistance. The arcanist is also an INT based caster which means that elf is actually a good choice for them. Elves get a +2 bonus on their caster level to overcome spell resistance. This stacks with potent magic. At higher level spell resistance becomes a major problem for a blaster. The elf favored class bonus for arcanist is +1 to their arcane pool. The school savant archetype also allows the arcanist to memorize an extra spell from his specialized school. This means he has one extra spell known for each spell level he can cast. The crossblood archetype reduces the number of spells known, so compared to the crossblod sorcerer the arcanist has two extra spells know for each spell level he knows. In some cases, this means the arcanist can cast a higher-level spell than the sorcerer. The sorcerer will get bloodline spells, but those are delayed and often have spell that are not good choices. The draconic bloodline has no good blasting spells, and the orc has only one. The arcanist on the other hand can fill all of his spell slots with blasting spells if he so choses. Which makes a better blaster a sorcerer that can cast burning hands or one other evocation spell 8 times per day or an arcanist who can cast 6 spells per day chosen from 6 different evocation spells? Now add in the fact that the 12th level crossblooded sorcerer cannot cast 6th level spells while the 12th level arcanist gets 3. That is what a 12th level character with a 25-casting stat will be able to do. The OP also wanted to have some utility with his spells. The arcanist can easily achieve this, but the sorcerer is going to be hard pressed to have any kind of utility. If he goes with crossblooded sorcerer, it is nearly impossible to have any kind of utility and be a decent blaster. My recommendation would be to go for an Elf School Savant with the admixture school. Take enchantment and necromancy as you opposed schools. Take spell focus and greater spell focus with evocation, and at higher levels pick up spell penetration and greater spell penetration. Take potent magic as your 5th level exploit and pick up quick study next. It might even be worth it to use a feat to pick them up early.
The arcanist does get fewer spells per day than a sorcerer, but the sorcerer also encounters situations where his spells are completely useless. What happens to the fire based draconic sorcerer that runs into a creature with high fire resistance or worse immunity to fire? They probably have other spells they can use but those are going to be a lot less effective. The Arcanist can change out his selection of spells every day and in some cases even faster. Quick study allows an arcanist to change spells as a full round action. A wizard that makes a poor choice of spell selection must wait a day to change them. A sorcerer that made a bad choice on spell selection for the most part is stuck with it. They can make one correction at 4th level and every even level after that. So, a 20th level sorcerer can change 8 spells in his life. With enough arcane points and advance warning, the arcanist can tailor their spells for each encounter. This can allow the arcanist to be much more efficient with their spells. So, while they get fewer spells, they can utilize them better. As to the sorcerer doing more damage that is not always the case. The school savant with the Admixture school gets ½ his level to the damage of any evocation spell. At higher level the damage from Intense Evocation can match or even exceed what the bloodline can do. At 12th level the sorcerer will do 10d6+10 when casting a fireball, the Admixture School Savant will be doing 10d6+5. If both characters cast burning hands instead of fireball both characters do 5d4+5. If the characters are 16th level the sorcerer is still doing 5d4+5 but the arcanist is doing 5d4+8. At this point arcanist is also doing 10d6+8 with the fireball, so is only 2 points behind. In reality the Admixture School Savant is not that far behind the sorcerer when it comes to blasting especially at higher levels. I will concede the sorcerer can cast more spells than the arcanist, but that does not mean they will necessarily do more damage. Your Red/Gold Draconic sorcerer going up against a devil is not going to do any damage with his fireball. But the Arcanist is going to do a lot of damage with his fireball when he changes the damage to electricity.
The main advantage a sorcerer has as a blaster is the ability to spam a spell until it gets the job done. If I have a spell that can damage the targets or be modified to damage the targets, I can keep using it till the target drops. The wizard cannot do that, so is at a disadvantage. If the wizard only memorized one fireball for the most part that is all he can cast. There are a couple of ways to cast more but they are limited. An Arcanist has aspects of both a prepared and a spontaneous caster, so they can work well as a blaster. My suggestion would be to go with an Admixture School savant. The extra Evocation spell per day is very useful. Versatile Evocation allows you to alter the damage type to exploit weaknesses and reduces the chance that energy resistance or immunity will render your spells useless. Intense spell may not match some of the bloodline damage bonuses, but it helps, and it boosts all evocation spells. Potent Magic can either increase the caster level (damage in most cases) or the DC of the spell by 2. Either of those are very useful to a blaster. This should be your first Arcana. After that Dimensional Slide would be my next choice. You can change out your spells like a wizard but can spam out spells like a sorcerer. You will get less spells per day but have more flexibility than either a sorcerer or a wizard. The school savant will deal slightly less damage than a bloodline arcanist with a damage per die bonus, but not much. A 12th level blood arcanist with Draconic bloodline will do 12d6 +12 damage with a fireball (assuming fire is the bloodline energy type), the school savant will deal 12dd +6 damage and be able change the energy type. The school savant will also deal 5d4+11 damage with magic missile vs the 5d4+5 from the blood arcanist.
As long as BRS is only one tool in your toolbox it is not a problem. But using it as the focal point of the build would be a mistake. Take BRS and its prerequisite feats. As long as the other feats you will be taking can do more than boost BRS you should be fine. Don’t bother with anymore feats that only work when you can do a BRS. Conrugun Smash and Hurtful do not cost any actions to use and can be attempted with each attack. The only possible drawback is that the extra roll takes time. To avoid this, I would simply roll two d20 when you attack and designate one for the intimidate. If you miss hit check to see if the other roll was high enough demoralize the foe. If you miss ignore the second roll. A little planning can go a long way to speeding up the game.
That was my whole point. I would talk to your GM about this before taking the prestige class.
So, all your character will ever use is Iaijutsu Strike? Focusing your entire build on an ability that you may not always be able to use is dangerous. Iaijutsu Strike can only be used against a foe that you have challenged, and even then, only at the beginning of the combat. Once you make a single attack against a foe you cannot use Iaijutsu Strike on that fore for another 24 hours. You also only get a limited number of challenges per day. At 9th level you can use it maximum of 3 times per day. What happens when you fail to kill your target on the first strike? Iaijutsu Strike is a cool ability, but you should also build so that you can function when it is not available. Another good feat combination for this character would be Cornugun Smash and Hurtful. Cornugun Smash allows you to use intimidate as a free action when attacking with power attack. Hurtful allows you to make a single attack against a foe you demoralized as a swift action. This means you can make an additional attack after using is Iaijutsu Strike. You could also take tripping strike instead of sundering strike. If your fore stands up after being tripped, you get an AoO. If you get high enough level that you can take all of those you could get two extra attacks on the target of is Iaijutsu Strike.
Bullrush pushes the target away from you. Have you thought through the implications of this? Now the target that you just attacked is no longer within reach of your weapon. That means you can no longer attack them. If this is your last hit of the round that is not a big deal, but what about on the first hit? You can of course choose not to use the feat on the first hit, but that hit is the one you have the greatest chance of hitting with. You are actually making your character weaker with this. If you want to take a critical strike feat take sundering strike instead. If you have both staggering critical and sundering strike on a critical you destroy the opponent’s weapon and stagger them. If they draw a new weapon (move action) to be able to attack it provokes an AoO.
As I said the situation does not matter. If you insist on having a situation detailed, then the classic capture take away all you gear and throw you into a dungeon where you wake up 24 hours later with no food or gear. Since 24 hours have passed, and you have not fulfilled the obligation you lose all abilities from evangelist including caster level. Being sick could even cause you to be unable to perform your obedience.
Having an Animal companion 4 levels lower than a druid is going to make it extremely weak. I would suggest picking up boon companion or go with a different domain. If you are going evangelist boon companion will actually be even better. It allows you to treat your animal companion as if it were 4 levels higher. So, not only does it take care of the fact that your druid level is considered 3 levels low than your cleric, but it also makes up for the lost level from aligned class not starting till 2nd level.
Unless the campaign is in a modern setting there is probably no prison cantina, nor will the prisoners be given a choice of food. More likely it will be some sort of gruel that barely keeps the prisoner alive. The fact of the matter is that the class specifically states if you are unable to perform the obedience you lose access to all class abilities. If the restriction was not meant to be used it should not have been included in the class. RAW an evangelist loses all class abilities for failure to perform his obedience. This is no different than a druid’s restriction on metal armor.
The specifics do not really matter. The point is that the character may encounter a situation where he loses most of his abilities. That fact is a major balance of the class. The class advances all class features of the original class and gives even more abilities. Losing one level of abilities is not enough to balance everything the prestige class gives. The balance for all the extra abilities is the risk that sometimes you will be nearly powerless.
I will go with Utter Madness. A 3rd level spell is not supposed to outright kill multiple 20th level characters.
If you are imprisoned you will have a hard time placing them where a passerby will encounter them. If do not have not have Create Food and Water you cannot cast it. Also, the food created with Create Food and Water spoils after 24 hours so probably does not qualify as preserved food. I am not saying this will be a huge problem, but it can come up. It is one of the restrictions of the prestige class so the player should be aware of it.
The seeds must be buried in fertile earth. The alternate also assumes you have seeds, preserved food or arrows. For the most part will not be difficult, but some circumstances may make it impossible. For example, what is your character is in a boat at sea, or if you are locked up in a prison cell. For the most part it should not be a problem but be aware it may become a problem.
One thing about the evangelist is they must perform the obedience every day or they lose access to all abilities of the evangelist including aligned class. Most of the time this is not a problem but, in some cases, you may run into a situation where you cannot perform the obedience. That means if the 5th level cleric 10th level evangelist fails to perform the obedience, they have the powers of a 5th level cleric. I would assume that you still get the BAB saves HP and skills, but you lose everything else. In some cases, the obedience requires specific items. Most of the time these items are not difficult to obtain and do not cost much but without those items your character is screwed. For example, a evangelist of Abadar that does not have a collection of coins, gems, and keys will not be able to perform the obedience and lose the abilities. If the GM put the characters in a situation where they lose all their equipment the evangelist could be in trouble.
The way I see it the biggest constraint on a deity’s power are other deities. If there are other deities that have an interest on a planet then it will be difficult for another deity to destroy that planet. If there are no other deities opposing the destruction of the planet a deity will not have much problem destroying one. On a planet like Golarian where there are many deities that have interests a deity would have an incredibly tough time destroying it. An uninhabited planet that would not affect the interests of another deity would be a lot easier to destroy. In some cases, though destroying a planet might have repercussions that affect things that other deities might have an interest in. For example, destroying an uninhabited planet might affect other planets in the same system. In which case the uninhabited planet would be considered significant if the other planet has other deities with interests in them. Another thing to consider is how much resources the deity may need to destroy the planet. Destroying a planet may deplete a deity’s resources to the point where they become vulnerable and other deities may exploit that.
From what I have read on Gorum he did not really care about causes as long as it resulted in battle. I believe he would even support both sides of a war just to encourage more violence. I could see a young barbarian whose family was slaughter by witches declaring a war on witches. Gorum would probably be more than happy to support this. If the campaign was set in Golarion it would make sense for the character to be from an area in or near Irrisen and have the White Witches be the ones that killed his family. Inquisitors are not clerics are supposed to be given more freedom in their actions. To become an ex-inquisitor requires the character to become corrupt or change to a prohibited alignment. The rules do not really define what corruption is, so that is pretty much up to the GM. I do not see that Gorum would consider attacking arcane caster (or really anyone else for that matter) as being corrupt. This actually sounds like kind of a cool character to play.
The cleric of Erastil can work fine. As Melkiador pointed out as clerics level up their weapons become less important. If you go this route, you do not need to focus fully on archery to be effective. If you go human, you can pick up point-blank shot and precise shot at 1st level. That will allow you to function as an archer at low levels before your spells begin to come into their own. Take Deadly aim at 3rd level to get some extra damage. Take the Animal (or Feather) and Good domain. Use your 5th level feat to take Boon companion to boost up your animal companion to full progression. After this spend your feats boosting your spells or other things instead of archery. At low level your archery will give your character something valuable to contribute to combat. After your spells become more effective you can still use it when needed. One thing it may be useful for is to finish off a wounded target without having to use spells. This will probably be mostly at the end of the combat after you have cast your spells. Using a bow to finish off a target with a few HP left is a good tactic. An opponent with 2 HP left can still attack and damage a party member. Putting the wounded target down saves the parities resources so is away good. Your animal companion will also give you something else to contribute to combat. When you get the animal companion at 4th level it will be pretty weak, but once you get to 5th level and take boon companion it should be fine. If you go Inquisitor of Erastil take the feather domain. It replaces speak with animal to a bonus on perception. Follow the same feat progression I listed above to 5th level, but after that go more of an archery focused character. Pick up Rapid Shot and Manyshot at 7th and 9th level. This character will be more of an archer than the cleric. Bane and Judgements will keep you chance to hit and damage up even with the slower progression of feats. There are some archery focused feats but not a lot. This character will be very good at skills.
The spellkiller inquisition also gives Disruptive as a bonus feat even though they do not meet the prerequisites. They also add both DEX and WIS to initiative once they reach 2nd level. In addition to getting multiple teamwork feats as bonus feats, they can change their latest teamwork feat a number of times per day equal to their WIS bonus. This means they have access to pretty much any teamwork feat they qualify for. Judgements could explain the combat bonus. If the person is using something like Hero Lab, they may have simply checked to many boxes and forgot to uncheck those they were no longer using. Inquisitor is one of the most complex classes with tons of options. I would suggest reviewing the character again after reviewing all the features of both the archetype and inquisition.
Staggering Critical is probably a better thing to build to. The nice thing about it is that even if they make the save, they are still staggered for 1 round. It does require Critical Focus and a BAB of 13, but it works on any creature that is not immune to the staggered condition.
Prestidigitation can already be used to clean a surface, so sanitize is not really needed. Plant Growth has an enrichment option so Bless Plants is also not needed. Repel Vermin is already a spell. Detect Metal might be able to find ore. Fabricate could be used to transform raw ore into a more refined state and to ferment liquor. Ventriloquism already exists. Not sure what (un)luck of the road would do but there is probably a spell for that as well.
Personally, I do not see the problem with the archetype and the deity. I can easily see a follower of Gorum regarding most arcane casters as cowards. Usually, they do not use weapons and armor and have little to no skill in combat. They also often use enchantments and illusion in battle which Gorum might consider cheating. Even if this is not the main focus of Gorum’s religion it is not incompatible with his teachings. Religions often have multiple sects with different ideas. Gorum is Chaotic Neutral and if the idea generates conflict and battle, he is probably ok with it. The Witch Hunter archetype specifies they focus on hunting down arcane casters, especially witches. They do not have any problems with divine casters. So, the character not focusing on the divine casters is not a problem. The Bloodrager may be an arcane caster but is still a warrior, so him getting a free pass is fine. The only party member that the character might have problems with would be the wizard. In all honesty I think your forcing the character to drop the inquisition is uncalled for and overreacting. You are justified in making sure the character is legal, so removing the extra feats and stats are perfectly acceptable.
The normal Magus cannot teleport his magic weapon to his hand from a mile away by spending a point of arcane pool. Nor can a normal magus spend points from his arcane pool to convert all his damage into energy damage including force and sonic damage. Being able to do force damage negates the need to use Ghost Touch because the weapon is already doing full damage to an incorporeal creature. Sonic Resistance is extremely rare, so that make that even more valuable. Nor can the normal magus gain spell resistance 22 or above by spending a point form their arcane pool. Other than agile what enchantment is going to be that valuable to a bladebound magus that they cannot already get through spending points from their arcane pool? Also, since the maximum bonus is capped at +10 and the magus will want a good enchantment bonus to hit having other enchantments will prevent him from adding other with his arcane pool. If I have a +5 Holy Keen sword, I can only add +2 more in enchantments. That means I cannot add Speed or Vorpal to the weapon.
The blackblade is also an intelligent item that always matches the players alignment. It also gains more languages and skill points as it levels up. By 20th level it has +11 in Knowledge Arcane and knows common and 4 other languages. It also communicates through telepathy. It also has several abilities not available to other weapons. The black blade is also free and does not count against the characters WBL, that means the magus can end up with more magic items then other characters. When you factor in just the INT of a 20th level blackblade it is worth at least 62,315 gold. That is a little less than the combined value of a +6 belt and a +6 headband. Another thing to consider is that a lot of the other enchantments are going to be worthless for a magus. Without the ability to channel energy a Grayflame enchantment is of no use to a magus. The Guided enchantment would actually make the weapon worse for a Magus.
The limitation of intimidate not being able to create stronger fear effects is a case of the specific overriding the general. Instead of Enforcer I would suggest Cornugon Smash. It can be used with any melee weapon. It does require you have and be using power attack, but most melee focused martial characters will be doing that.
The rules are quite clear that no magic armor can have a enchantment bonus higher than +5. That does not include the increase from special abilities that count as an enchantment bonus. It only includes the bonus that increases the AC of the armor. The absolute maximum allows for the combined enchantment bonus and special abilities are +10. In order to have a special ability the armor has to have at least a +1 actual enchantment bonus that means the maximum special abilities can be is +9. If the armor has an actual enchantment bonus of higher than +1 the maximum in special abilities is reduced by the increase in enchantment bonus. So, at +2 you can have a maximum of +8, +3 would mean a maximum of +7 etc.
Actually, it is needed because flurry of blows removes the 1.5 STR for attacks in the flurry.
Flying kick has some advantages and limitations that the dimensional feats do not. The big advantage it has is that it does not cost any Ki, so can be used a lot more. It also only allows a single move of limited distance. It does increase as you level up but will never match the distance you can cover with abundant step. It is great for getting to an opponent or group of opponents that are together. Abundant Step allows you to move a much greater distance, but cost Ki. This can allow you attack a character you may not otherwise be able to attack. Since the character will have Wind Step, he could even teleport to a flying target and activate Wind Step. When you take Dimensional Dervish, you can make multiple moves and attack targets that are not close to each other. Dimensional Savant allows you to be your own flanking partner, which allows you to really exploit Outflank. Throw in improved critical and combat reflexes and it can get pretty crazy. But remember that abundant step cost 2 KI. Using every turn is going to run down your pool very quickly. Taking both increases the number of full attacks the character can make. Between the two the character should be able to make a full attack almost all the time.
Mage Armor last 1 hour per level so should be cast out of combat. Multicassing also means giving up +1 BAB which delays abilities like power attack and will delay feats with a BAB prerequisite. With only 1 hour duration on the Mage Armor it will take all 3 of his spells slots that it can be used in. That reduces the number of spells he can actually use to 1 Divination spells plus mage armor. Using Magical Knack prevents him from taking traits that would benefit his monk abilities. Besides the character is already 7t h level which means it has already taken its 2 traits. Spending a feat for extra traits is definitely not worth it. Missing more often, doing less damage, delaying Fort and Reflex saves, and delaying access to other monk class abilities are not worth 3 hours of Mage Armor. I would probably go with Leg Sweep instead of Elbow Smash. Knocking someone prone puts them at a disadvantage and they provoke an AoO when they stand up.
I disagree with the multiclassing. Single level dips to gain spell casting is not worth delaying your primary classes abilities. Often there is already a similar spell caster in the party that can use those magic items. If you really want Mage Armor buy the spell caster in the party a pearl of power or similar items and get the benefit for much longer.
The value of improved Initiative depends on the character. If the character gains a significant advantage from going first it is good. For a spell caster that needs to get off a spell or a rogue who gets sneak attack if they act before others in the first round it is decent. For a martial character it is not as valuable. Dimensional Dervish is a lot better than improved Initiative. It is fairly decent for something like a sorcerer’s bloodline feat, or if your build is complete and you don’t have anything else to take.
Dimensional Ability removes a major limitation on dimensional door. Since abundant step is a move action it allows you to teleport your full distance and still do other things including a single attack. This allows you to do things like teleport and grab an item. You also can also get your AoO’s after you teleport and can perform immediate actions. If you need to accomplish an action like pulling a lever to turn something on or off you can accomplish that in a single turn. Too me that is much better than a +1 insight bonus and a minor once a day ability. Dimensional Assault does not give as much to the monk but still lets you perform a charge. For someone using dimension door as a spell it is a lot more valuable. For the monk it is basically a feat tax for Dimensional Dervish. Dimensional Dervish is pure gold. It allows you to move between attacks on a full attack. You can also use abundant step as a swift action. Being able to attack foes that are spread out all other the place is something very difficult to achieve. The rest of the feats in the build are really good. Improved initiative is not that good of a feat so diminish the second build. Iron will may be useful for an unchained monk depending on his WIS. Those feats kind of diminish the second build. This build has as many if not more dead feats as the other build.
Since the object of the game is to have fun you kind of answered your own question. You said the first option is more fun and flavorful. As long as the campaign will go high enough that you actually get to play the character after the build comes online the first build would be my recommendation. The dimensional feat chain actually gives you useful abilities with each feat. The ability to act after using dimension door can be very useful even if you cannot attack. Dimensional Assault has an incredibly long range. The ability to attack from over a half mile away is pretty good. In my opinion this build actually has the better progression of abilities as well as a higher end result.
For me the primary reason for slayer is to use a STR based build. That allows you to use those feats and class resources for other things. If you go DEX based, you will not have that flexibility. Going slayer will still give you more skill points and better class skills, but that is and the bonuses for studied target are about it. The STR based build will probably not qualify for double slice until 10th level. You need at least a 15 DEX for double slice. unless you are using a 25 point buy that might be difficult. Either way will work it is just a matter of what you want out of the character. The main reason for Hellcat Stealth is that will allow you to be able to get sneak attack more often.
The weapon categories are light, one handed, two handed and ranged. Crossbows including hand crossbow are in the ranged category, not one handed. The feat does specify it works with thrown light- or one-handed weapons. Hand crossbow Cost 100 gp Weight 2 lbs.
Description You can draw a hand crossbow back by hand. Loading a hand crossbow is a move action that provokes attacks of opportunity. A hand crossbow fires standard crossbow bolts, like those used by light and heavy crossbows.
You can shoot a hand crossbow with each hand, but you take a penalty on attack rolls as if attacking with two light weapons.
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