Into the Breach: The Inquisitor (PFRPG) PDF

This installment of Flying Pincushion Games' class-centric "Into the Breach"-series clocks in at 29 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page inside of front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 25 pages of crunch, so let's take a look!

This book was moved up in my review-queue as a prioritized review at the behest of my patreons.

As always, we begin the book with a selection of archetypes, the first of which would be the Circuit Judge, a mounted inquisitor that exchanges the domain for the full mount progression at first level. 3rd level nest the mounted tactician ability, which nets the mount the teamwork feats of the circuit judge. At 5th level, the archetype gets "Stain of Guilt," which lets the judge cancel out ally-based bonuses (like flanking etc.) on a failed save and is treated as an enemy for all creatures and their spells/spell-like abilities etc. This curse-based ability is unique and pretty fun, though its details require some clarification: The ability lasts for class level rounds per day and is increased analogue with bane (the ability it replaces), which is a nice way of depicting this. However, the ability, prior to this information, locks duration as one round - so which is it? Additionally, a range of the effect would be appreciated - as written, it does not have one and would allow a character affect creatures at very long ranges. 12th level nets the circuit judge's mount the benefits of judgments instead of bane. I like stain of guilt - the ability is unique and fits the class well, but it does require a bit of fine-tuning. Other than that, a great mounted inquisitor, particularly fitting, flavor-wise, for e.g. Kingmaker campaigns.

The Duplicating Accessor is obviously inspired by comic book character Multiple Man and similar characters: Instead of spells, first level Accessors get Never Alone, a spell-like ability that can be used 1/2 class level, minimum 1, times per day as a standard action. The ability creates a shadow double either adjacent to the inquisitor or up to 10 feet away (I assume failure if that space is also occupied). The copy, unlike mirror images, does have all stats of the Accessor, though attacks can be disbelieved via a Will-save versus DC 10 + class level. The Accessor can direct all copies as a standard action. All copies? Yes, at 4th level and every 3 levels thereafter, the Accessor gets +1 copy from the ability.

Now the interesting part is yet to come: The accessor may sacrifice Wisdom (which regenerates upon resting) to further enhance the copies: 1 point damage makes one copy semi-real, possessing half the Accessor's hit points. For 2 points of Wis-damage, a copy may partake in the Accessor's bonuses granted by the active judgment and finally, for 3 points, a copy can have all the Accessor's class abilities, drawing from the same pool of daily limits. Instead of domains, the Accessor may touch an ally and grant said ally a class ability, with the exception of Never Alone or teamwork feat ability. This lasts for one round per class level or until used and the target uses the Accessor's stats for the ability. At 6th level, the Accessor can affect +1 character with this ability, +1 for every four levels thereafter.

The 3rd level lets the Accessor use duplicates as a kind of mirror image-y effect instead of solo tactics and the capstone doubles the number of copies and may daze anyone surrounded by him and his doubles, also increasing the flanking bonuses versus victims. This archetype is utterly unique - it juggles exceedingly complex concepts and even gets illusion-subtype effects for the SPs right...and it plays in a unique and intriguing manner. While the Wis-damage as a resource is uncommon, it does work out here within the framework of the archetype. Have I mentioned that you can't heal the Wis-damage thus incurred by regular means, preventing spell-based cheesing of the ability? Aye. Apart from one very minor thing (what happens if all adjacent squares and all within 10 ft. are occupied?) pretty much a textbook definition of a creative archetype with a unique concept and playstyle, executed almost at perfection-level - pretty damn impressive!

The Lineage Master gets a blood call, which acts a point-based resource, totaling 3+Wis mod points. These points power the class abilities and the class can expend a point upon scoring a critical hit to add scaling bleed damage to the attack. Additionally, this resource may be used to get the favored enemy bonus of a ranger of equivalent level versus a foe for class level rounds, with higher levels allowing for the maintenance of multiple creature types at the same time. 2nd level (upgraded at 10th) nets 3+Wis-mod blood biography (at higher levels with additional information gleaned) to the fray. On the nitpicky side, this should be SP, not SU - as presented, it lacks CL.

Instead of bane, the lineage master can generate a ward that sickens allies of the affected creature - again, on the nitpicky side, the ability's fluff implies the necessity of shedding the blood of the target creature, while the crunch does not support this restriction - clarification would be appreciated here. 8th level nets point-based Bestow Curse, again classified as a SU, when it should be SP. The capstone allows for a save-or-die judgment that may also generate blood golems under your control. This archetype has nice, visceral imagery, but the ability-type issue is somewhat annoying. Finally, one could argue for a disjoint between crunch and fluff here: While the abilities very much emphasize blood as a component of importance, the crunch does not reflect this...which is rather relevant in a fantasy game, where not every foe has blood... Finally, the archetype suffers from having a very restricted base ability that is pretty front-end heavy. By tying the base ability's scaling to class levels instead, this could have been mitigated. Not a bad archetype per se, but also a long way short of being a truly awesome one.

The Ossuary Chaplain gets proficiency with simple weapons and firearms and diminished spellcasting and gets a gunslinger-like firearm at first level instead of a domain. The interesting part, though, would be the option to generate scrimshaw bullets from bones: 1 at 3rd level, +1 every 3 levels thereafter, which also doubles as the limit of such bullets you can carry at a given time. Now here's the interesting thing: When you defeat a creature with a CR equal to or greater than 1/2 your own, you can create a scrimshaw bullet from such a foe. Better yet, bullets made from such foes also get a so-called "potent ability" - an extra boom, if you will. From creation of the bullets to their creation, the rules here are solid, with animals, devils, demons, dragons, (monstrous) humanoids, undead and vermin sporting different bonuses. The interesting thing here is that thus, the character can refresh scrimshaw bullets on the fly when defeating foes, rendering the very conservative limit crucial for balancing: E.g. humanoid bullets deal additional force damage! Without such a limiting factor, the ability would be too strong. On the downside, I really abhor the archetype inventing the "potent bonus" nomenclature - just keep it untyped and don't invent bonus types or phrase the ability differently. Apart from that, an archetype with nice visuals and a cool playing experience.

The Relic Seeker replaces monster lore with better item identification, gains trapfinding instead of stern gaze and locate objects 1/day at 2nd level, +1 every 4 levels thereafter - and it should be SP, not SU - it's lacking the proper CL for SU, if that's intended - which it shouldn't be. This is pretty much a textbook variant SP. The relic seeker may choose rogue talents instead of teamwork feats (advanced rogue talents at 12th level) and may expend judgment uses instead of limited daily use rogue talents - interesting interaction here. 5th level nets arcane sight, which is the proper SP, but did not italicize the spell and 11th level nets SR versus abjuration spells only - the SR can be lowered. Apart from minor hiccups, a nice archetype, probably particularly suitable for e.g. Mummy's Mask.

The Revelator replaces bane, greater bane, monster lore and domains with a mystery sans spells at 1st level, +1 mystery at 5th level and every 5 levels thereafter. Instead of stern gaze, solo tactics, track and teamwork feats, the revelator gets a revelation chosen from any mystery for which he qualifies and has learned, using Wis instead of Cha. 5th level and 10th penalize the character's Will-save by -1, with the penalty reaching -3 at 15th level - however, in exchange for that, the class can activate two revelations with a standard action as required activation at once - interesting! Mysteries and revelations are strong, but the restricted access and tight balancing reigns here keep the archetype functional - nice and very distinct in playstyle.

Righteous Assassins replace the ability to cast spells with the ability to conjure forth a phantom weapon as a move action (scaling regarding the DRs it bypasses), and get an expanded spell-list. Furthermore, 3rd level nets sneak attack, +1d6 every 3 levels thereafter - for these tricks, though, the righteous assassins pay with spellcasting as well as with solo tactics and bonus teamwork feats. The conjured weapon is enhanced at 5th level and every odd levels thereafter by +1, for a maximum enhancement bonus of +5 (plus/mixed with special weapon abilities up to a total of net +8) and a highly customizable magic weapon, all in exchange for the judgment. This "godblade" archetype can be pretty powerful, but also rather one-dimensional. Personally, I prefer Jason Linker's ethermagus (see Interjection Games' Strange Magic) for a similar, but more versatile concept, but per se, the archetype is okay.

The Sacred Commander replaces lore with +1 improved aid and instead of solo tactics, the archetype gets two unique judgments: Assistance allows the commander and allies within 30 ft. to aid another as a swift action, increasing the bonus granted at 6th level and every 6 levels thereafter by +1. The second judgment, Tactician, allows for the 30 ft.-radius share of teamwork feats. This replaces solo tactics. 11th level nets the sacred commander the option to bolster an adjacent ally's save by his Wis-modifier as an immediate action. An okay commander-style archetype, but I've seen the concept done in more detailed ways.

The final archetype would be the Varying Verdicist, who gets diminished spellcasting, but may 3+Wis-mod times per day change her size to large or tiny, scaling up to huge and diminutive at 10th level - the size modifiers are conveniently listed...or at least, parts of them are. Here, it is obvious that a small table listing them and including the modifiers regarding CMD etc. as well as reach etc. would have been appreciated...The capstone allows for the spending of 1/3 of the daily uses to grow to gargantuan size. I really like the size-changing tricks here, but the presentation of this archetype is very user-unfriendly, omitting several crucial changes for the sizes and requiring players to be properly familiar with the size-change rules beyond the numerical benefits granted. I like the idea, but Everyman Gaming's SUPERB Microsized Adventures should probably be used by any player wanting to play this one - the book provides all and more) than you need to properly use this archetype.

The pdf also depicts an alternate base-class, the Vengeant. The class needs to be within one step of the patron deity's alignment and gets d10, full BAB-progression, good Ref- and Will-saves, 4+Int skills per level, simple and martial weapon proficiency and proficiency with the deity's favored weapon. No, I did not forget something - no armor proficiencies. A vengeant may choose a domain or inquisition and 4th level nets Wis-based prepared divine spellcasting from the inquisitor's spell-list. The base ability of the class would be oath of vengeance, which can be used 1/day, +1/day at 4th level and every three levels thereafter. The character gets +2 to skill and ability checks versus the target thus designated via a swift action and may perform oath strikes against the foe: These attacks provoke AoOs from each target that is not the chosen adversary, but do allow the vegeant to roll each attack roll twice and take the higher result.

As a minor nitpick, the end of oath of vengeance is tied to the dead/dying conditions, thus discouraging nonlethal means of enemy neutralization...but then again, that may be intentional. The class also gets a monk's Wis-based scaling AC/CMD-bonus and adds Wis to Initiative in addition to Dex. (Yes, in mythic game play with its emphasis on quick, hard assaults, I'd nerf this ability.) 3rd level nets the vengeant a so-called censure, +1 every three levels. When successfully performing an oath strike, the vengeant adds a censure of her choice to the attack's effect, to be resisted with a DC of 10 +1/2 class level+Wis-mod and save-type depending on the censure. The censures include negative conditions, extra damage, minor retributive damage etc., with 6th and 12th level unlocking new censures, deed-style. These later censures allow for caster-hampering and even free combat maneuvers.

Higher level vengeants get an interesting ability that lets them move towards their oath's target sans provoking AoOs, extending her rerolls to allies at 11th level. 14th level provides exploit weakness (ignore DR when criting and potentially lock down regeneration temporarily) and 17th level eliminates ALL movement-based AoOs. The capstone lets the vengeant reroll the first attack each round and take the better result. As the developer states, this class is based on the avenger...and it does a pretty good job at what it sets out to do. In practice, the class is a glass cannon and one that requires some planning by the player...but then again, it's also pretty satisfying to crash as the unarmored fanatic into your foes. A niche class with a nasty damage-output, sure, but a fun one with a significant Achilles heel.

Next up are the PrCs, the first of which is the Infernal Enforcer, who gets d8, 4+Int skills, 1/2 spellcasting progression, 1/2 save-progression for all saves and 3/4 BAB-progression. Every odd-numbered level, the infernal enforcer increases his effective monk-level by +1 regarding an array of monk abilities. The class also gets an infernal essence pool equal to class level + Cha-mod. From second level onwards, each level is associated with a circle of hell - the abilities thus granted can be cast as SPs or SUs for the cost of 1 infernal essence (unless otherwise noted) each and saves are equal to 10 + class level + Cha-mod. From Vanish & Blur to healing and DR, improved mobility and debuffing touch attacks to a potentially highly lethal wave of roiling insta-kill hellish power (balanced by HD akin to Cloudkill). Each circle but the ninth sports multiple abilities and3rd level and every odd level thereafter puts player agenda on the table: Via boons, infernal enforcers can learn to customize the respective circle abilities, increasing their potency, making them less expensive, etc. I pretty much yawned when first reading the premise, but know what? This take on the infernal martial artist is actually pretty damn cool - I made a sample character and really enjoyed it. In fact, this may well be my favorite PrC from Flying Pincushion so far!

Part II of my review is in the product discussion. See you there!

Once more into the breach dear friends. This time it is the Inquisitor that we are exploring from Flying Pincushion Games. This time they deliver a 29 page PDF that includes a front and back page, a credits page, a table of contents, and a one page OGL, leaving 24 pages of content for consumption. They deliver new archetypes (9), an alternate base class, prestige classes (2), and the new idea of Foe Slayer based Inquisitions (7), Racial Inquisitions (5) and finally a page of new mundane gear.

New Archetypes: As mentioned there are nine new archetypes each taking a slightly different focus about what it means to be an Inquisitor and how they get their job done.

Circuit Judge: – The circuit judge is a mixture of the inquisitor and the cavalier where by the judge gains a mount in much the same way as the cavalier. A traveling justice for remote areas and pronouncing judgement on them by means of a new ability called the Stain of Guilt, which turns other creatures against the foe for a number of rounds equal to the inquisitors’ level.

Duplicating Assessor: - The assessor uses abilities that function much like the mirror image spell, creating multiple copies of herself, overwhelming and confusing the foe. Additionally the assessor can use ability score values above 10 to grant her duplicates additional abilities, depending upon the number of Wisdom points allocated different abilities may be granted. This functions as Wisdom damage, but heals after 8 hours of rest.

Lineage Master: The lineage master uses the blood of her foes to determine their strengths and weaknesses much like the ranger’s Favored Enemy class feature. As the inquisitor grows in power, she can use her abilities to glean valuable information about a foe. And at higher levels curse them and then as a capstone, force all their vital fluids out requiring a Save or Die saving throw and the fluid becomes a blood golem under the inquisitors command for a period of time.

Ossuary Chaplain: The ossuary chaplain uses the bones of her enemies to craft ammunition for her chosen firearm. Depending upon the type of creature from which the bone is harvested, determines the effects and damage done by the ammunition. The ammunition is considered magical and turns to ash at the completion of the encounter. To create magical ammunition bones must be harvested from the fallen creature within 10 minutes of the creatures’ death. Rules for animal, demon, devil, dragon, human or humanoid, undead and vermin are provided.

Relic Seeker: The relic seeker gains rogue talent abilities enabling her to slip by traps and search out relics and bypass magical wards to do so.

Revelator: The Revelator gains abilities much like an oracle and because of their divine insights at higher levels begins to suffer penalties to her will saves. The offset to this is that it allows the inquisitor to use the revelations more efficiently and activate two at a time.

Righteous Assassin: The inquisitor gains the ability to conjure weapons and rogue sneak attack abilities functioning as an assassin of the faith. At higher level the inquisitor gains a pool of points to enhance their conjured weapon to grant up to a +5 at 19th level.
Sacred Commander: The sacred commander is just that, a leader for a group of warriors of the faith, leading them into battle and granting additional bonuses, teamwork feats and saves for fellow warriors in range. Do you want a battlefield commander, this provides a nice option.

Varying Verdicist: With this archetype, the inquisitor can make an impression on her foes by changing her size. The verdicist can change size from tiny to large at first level up to gargantuan at 20th level granting all Strength and Dexterity bonuses and penalties. The cost for this is a reduced spell casting ability at one fewer per day than a standard inquisitor.

Alternate Base Class: The Vengeant
Provided in this pdf is a new alternate base class, the Vengeant. Do you want to see what divine vengeance looks like on the battlefield? Then look no further than this class. The Vengeant is an unarmored walking disaster waiting to happen. She gains no armor proficiency whatsoever, much like the monk, and gains a Wisdom modifier to AC and CMD. Only bonuses from one class can be used, but they do stack for determining the additional AC Bonus. Additionally she gains the Oath of Judgement ability which gives bonuses for skill and ability checks against an opponent and allows her to make Oath Strikes (an ability gained at higher level) against the foe. As the Vengeant gains levels, she adds both Wisdom and Dexterity to initiative checks. Goes first on the battlefield, check! At third level, she gains the censure ability which essentially acts as debuffs for opponents. As she gains levels, the number and type of censures grows. When declaring an Oath Strike, she rolls attack rolls twice and selects the higher roll. This is driven by the Oath of Vengeance ability which is limited to a max of 7x a day at the top end. She also gains a limited spell use spells up to 4th level from the inquisitor spell list.

As the Vengeant increases in level, movement doesn’t provoke attacks of opportunity when moving against the target of her Oath of Judgement, and further can grant an ally the ability to make two rolls for their attack, limiting her from making an Oath Strike the next round. With critical hits, the Vengeant can ignore DR and in some cases cause creatures to lose their regenerative abilities for one round. At the top end of her abilities, she can move around the battlefield virtually unimpeded, and finally make two rolls on each attack without having to use the Oath Strike ability, although for the censure ability, it is still required.

Two prestige classes are provided as well, including the Infernal Enforcer, a 10 level prestige class, and the Soul Arbiter, a five level psionic prestige class. The Infernal Enforcer basically leverages the power of devils and archdevils as a source of power gaining essence points, much like ki points to fuel his abilities. He gains access to Circle abilities at each level beginning at 2nd that grant various abilities to make them a more fearsome foe. The second is a Soul Arbiter which is a prestige class for the Manifester, presumably from DSP’s psionic materials. Now never having been a fan of psionics, no matter how well done, I can’t honestly comment on this one. If you are a fan it might be interesting.

New inquisitions are provided, that allow for bonuses against different types of creatures including aberrations, angels, constructs, dragons, fiends, lycanthropes, and undead. Additionally five racial inquisitions are showcased, allowing the inquisitor of that race access to features that for a short time make them a paragon of their race.

Finally a few new pieces of equipment and tools are delivered, each adding something to the gameplay, from a folding holy symbol (harder to identify) to a folding shrine, to holy dust (dust infused with the vapor from boiled holy water) and a special enhancement for crossbows.

Final thoughts on this offering: I’ve played an inquisitor for about eight levels not too long ago, and enjoyed the experience with the class. I think some of the options here provide some interesting options for players that want to explore what the inquisitor is capable of being in many different circumstances. The usefulness of each archetype depends upon what type of game the game master is running, like any other archetype. I did see a couple that would have provided interesting alternatives in the game I was in as an inquisitor, specifically the Lineage Master and the Circuit Judge. By far though, my favorite two things in this offering are the Sacred Commander archetype and the new alternative base class, the Vengeant. Those two pieces alone make this worth the price of admission. Now I am not a big fan of guns in my fantasy, sorry for those that are, but I have to say from a pure flavor perspective with guns and ammunition in mind the Ossuary Chaplain provides interesting and flavorful options for this and I’d actually seriously considering playing one in a campaign that used guns. So bottom line how would I rate this? It is nicely laid out, no glaring errors, mechanics and flavor are well done and easy to understand and provide a few very cool options for the inquisitor, so my final judgment on this offering will be a solid 4 stars.

The latest entry in Flying Pincushion's Into the Breach series covers the Inquisitor. Like the rest of the series it features several archetypes, an alternate class, Prestige classes and some options and items to round out the class in question.

The archetypes are imaginative and each one gives new and interesting options. Some of them however pick at a few peeves of mine when it comes to crunch. Some of it includes niggling details like inconsistent wording on replacing spellcasting or the Circuit Judge having an ability that calls out that it works for one round before calling out that it works for a number of rounds equal to it's level. Some of it includes personal opinions like some archetypes being too powerful, too weak or redundant for what they replace or Duplicating Accessor being, to me, a book keeping nightmare due to shifting ability scores as a payment for abilities. Nothing I've seen is outright wrong or anything that can't be solved with some clarification but the amount of instances where things like that happen make the product a bit awkward. The archetypes themselves may be worth the headache but tat would be chalked up to individual opinion based on whether or not what annoys me is the same thing that annoys you as none of them are objectively bad, or at the very least need more playtesting than number crunching to get a clear idea of how well or bad it goes.

The alternate class, The Vengeant, seems like a soup of classes. One part Paladin, one part Inquisitor, a splash of Monk and a slight hint of Cavalier. It's a full BAB, 4 level caster. Instead of armor it gets wisdom to AC. It gets an ability that functions a bit like Cavalier's Challenge ability and works with a Judgement-ish ability and makes the target susceptible to an Oath Strike, an attack rolls twice and takes the better number. Overall I like the class.

In the Prestige Class section is hard to judge for me because I generally don't like prestige classes. All I can say is that they didn't have any glitches I noticed and one is way better than the other in the sense that its incredibly more interesting mechanically.

The new Inquisitions are probably some of the most thematic inquisitions I've ever seen. There are some that are specific to a creature type, like Undead Slayer. They aren't too specific so you can make some actual use out of them. There are also racial inqusitions. A lot of them have some of the niggling problems I meantioned earlier, specifically that when an ability functions as a spell that spell isn't always italicized isn't always referenced as being spells or having a reference of what book it is.

Lastly there are new mundane items. Like any mundane item they aren't entirely impressive but hats off to them for having them. Its always magic item this and magic item that. Nothing happens unless it's magic. The all star of this one is probably The Bolt Feed, which along with Rapid Reload (I assume this works) lets you fire crossbows at the rate of a bow.

So as a whole? I like about half the archetypes which made me think this book was going to be a disappointment but the book gets much better further in. Like in a lot of the Into the Breach series I can feel the difference between authors of the material based on different wording and inconsistent levels of clarification. This bugs the crap out of me and if you can get past that or give some GM oversight the classes I didn't like can be saved, and they probably should be because they do present a new play experience and an interesting take on what an inquisitor is. So it's a product with a lot of potential but kind of flawed on entry. I'd give it a high 3 out of 5 stars as a rating for myself but for the taste of others I'm rounding it up to 4 stars.

You can find this review and more at my 3pp Pathfinder blog

A caveat before I start; I was given a copy of Into the Breach: The Inquisitor for review purposes. Now it's time for our regularly scheduled program.:p

Into the Breach: The Inquisitor adheres to The Flying Pincushions usual two column layout. Aesthetically pleasing formatting choices make for an easy and pleasant read. The selection of artwork is evocative and very well suited for the content found within.

As far as crunch is concerned there is a lot. It opens with a selection of new archetypes. The first one is the Circuit Judge which trades out the usual domain for a mount. Thematically this is an excellent archetype and is something that I thought has long been missing as an option for inquisitors. Mechanics are also very clean and well done. The Stain of Guilt ability is rather slick and an awesome ability to throw at enemies! Finally the Circuit Judge can share it's judgements with his mount. Overall this is a perfect example of a themed archetype that of the traveling judge meting out justice in all of the rural and frontier villages and towns.

Next up we have the Duplicating Accessor. Have to admit that this little diddy took me by surprise as the concept isn't something that I normally associate with inquisitors. However, after reading it I have come to the conclusion that it is fitting. In a nutshell the archetype allows an inquisitor to create copies of himself. This is an illusion (shadow) effect which improves as the character progresses. The illusion summoned is sort of like a phantasmal proxy sent from the character's god to help her out. Only one bit of confusion is the wording used to describe how the ability does not inflict cumulative Wisdom damage. You see, a duplicating Accessor can take Wisdom damage to further enhance her duplicates. This is the only part of the archetype that I believe should be cleaned up. The other abilities granted are both unique and very flavourful.

The lineage master is the next archetype we have and involves the use, and control, of an opponent's blood. The archetype grants the inquisitor a blood pool which is used to activate certain abilities after a successful attack. Some interesting choices are offered which makes for some unique combat options. The archetype itself is alright, but I feel as though it’s a bit out of place. I am not so sure about how/why it fits in with the inquisitor nor why it’s called a lineage master. I would have thought that a Crimson Arbiter or something similar would have more suited as a name.

Ossuary Chaplain follows on the heels of the lineage master and is … great. All that I have to say is gun and bullets made of ground up bone!

The Relic Seeker is next up and offers us a slick relic hunting inquisitive archetype which also gains trapfinding. Really like this option as it mixes enough rogue-ish tricks with the base class to make it both effective and fun to play.

The Revelator archetype grants an inquisitor oracle mysteries while also inflict upon the character an ever increasing negative to will saves. This I am not keen on. I do not think that it is a good idea to incorporate negatives such as these into a class/archetype. Saves are usually critical in higher level play, especially will saves, and can prove detrimental if one is unsuccessful.

A Righteous Assassin, as you can well imagine, is the blessed killer of his clergy. They gain sneak attack as well as the ability to summon forth a one-handed weapon. As the character levels he is able to enhance his blade similar to a soul knife. However, they give up spellcasting to gain these abilities. The idea of a sneak attacking inquisitive assassin is awesome but losing out on spellcasting is not something that I would be willing to do as it’s one of the hallmarks of the inquisitor (besides bane and the judgements of course).

Sacred Commander is next on the rooster and offers us an excellent group buffing inquisitor archetype. They gain the ability to use a much improved aid another as well as sharing teamwork feats and bolstering an allies saves if adjacent to them. An excellent addition to the book! I enjoy characters that can bolster and buff their teammates and the sacred commander does it with style.

The last archetype is the Varying Verdictist, which brings the weight of their judgement down upon the guilty literally as they can alter their size from tiny to … gargantuan size!

That's it for the archetypes, next we have a new base class; the Vengeant. The class is based on the 4E Avenger and I have to say that it’s a very well done conversion to Pathfinder. For those that do not know it’s a non-armored full BAB class that has good Reflex and Will saves as well as martial weapon proficiency. However, the real “awesomeness” comes from the special abilities; oaths and censures. Oath strike allows you to roll twice on your first attack versus an enemy while the censures are baneful effects that can be applied to a target that is currently affected by the vengeant’s oath. The class also has access up to 4th level inquisitor spells. This is an extremely well done version of the 4E class and is a very pleasant surprise.

Next up we have a couple of prestige classes; the Infernal Enforcer as well as the Soul Arbiter. The Infernal Enforcer is somewhat monk-like and combines divine spellcasting and monk ability progression. It also incorporates “Circles” which are specialized areas of expertise. The Soul Arbiter progresses both psionics as well as divine spellcasting. This one can be be summed up as a spy that enforces the will of the church via subterfuge and mental prowess.

The product is rounded out by having an assortment of new inquisitions as well as gear. Both are written up nicely and expand the options which the book provides. I didn’t notice anything that really stood out, as far as my own tastes are concerned, and most are what you would expect.

Overall I rate this product as a solid 3.5 with some some misses and hits. I will round this one up to 4 as most of the material is well done. Although the real super star, at least for me, is the Vengeant. It’s clean mechanics and well done execution make for a great addition to your game.