How Far Should an Iquisitor Go?

[Guy from the East]

Hello,

This is a DM question.

How far should you let an Inquisitor go when dealing with NPC's ?
Interrogations. Gather Information. Dealing with enemies who surrender. etc.

Here is my example.

Currently Running a Council of Thieves Campaign and I did not allow evil characters but allowed the rest of the alignment spectrum.

The Party consists of.
A gnome Cavalier Order of the Cockatrice. N
A halfling Rogue. N
An Elven Bard. NG
A Human inquisitor of Zon Kuthon. LN

Now myself and the player of the Inquisitor sat down to figure out some guidelines on how far the line is for what his character can do when it comes to dealing with "heretics" as he likes to call them. We're in Cheliax there are strict rules in place but not as ardent as I thought. There is a lot of Grey areas on how you can deal with other races if you are not Cheliaxian and human. There are also the tenants of his religion and that of the nation eg. Asmodeus. There is also the corruption in the Dotori or the "the lazy lawmen" as some would put it.

Now without getting into spoilers. Interrogating captured enemies has lead to some lets just say colorful narrative. Also certain interactions with key individuals can be a tight rope walk for the most part.

All my players are veterans and we all have a great deal of fun with this discussion. I would like some outside thoughts to see where this will go in future games.

[Sean Mahoney]

I guess I am a little confused.

He is an Inquisitor of Zon Kuthon... so someone who does not claim to be preaching the ways of Zon Kuthon can not be a heretic. They are just non-believers. To my knowledge Zon Kuthon does not propose a monotheistic point of view, so if someone isn't preaching heresies, I don't see any reason to go all inquisitor on them.

Which brings us to the campaign. The fact that he is an inquisitor would no, in my opinion, allow him to break the tennents of his faith in order to get info from something or someone that has nothing to do with his faith.

The problem I would see is that torturing would not breaking, but upholding the tenants of Zon Kuthon. So he SHOULD be torturing the guard. The problem becomes who is god is, rather than what his class is.

Sean

[Melil13]

I dont think you really know what the role of an Inquisitor is in a church.

They kind of uphold the rules of the church. I play mine as kind of like secret agents for their gods. They dont go after heretics per-say but they go after enemies of the church.

* A fellow Cleric rebel against his god and serves an opposed force. Maybe stole something and its the Inquisitors job to smite the misguided fool or capture him.

* A Holy relic was stolen by a band of thiefs. Its his job to hunt them down and get it back.

* Your God foresees a great threat in the future, he assigns his Inquisition to investigate and prevent it.

My Inquisitor follows Gorum (God of War). Since we are in a Good Aligned Campaign, i view it as my duty to teach the weak to fight back / defend themselves. There is a war coming and my PC is doing his best to prepare this little town to fend off its enemies.I work along side a Cleric of the same god to pull of an interesting tag team.

If i wasnt so morally bound i could even go for the Mercenary. I will join your side and bring the powers of Gorum to bear against your enemies!

They also make good "Thief Catchers" or Bounty Hunters.

[Deadbeat Doom]

PFSRD wrote:

Grim and determined, the inquisitor roots out enemies of the faith, using trickery and guile when righteousness and purity is not enough. Although inquisitors are dedicated to a deity, they are above many of the normal rules and conventions of the church. They answer to their deity and their own sense of justice alone, and are willing to take extreme measures to meet their goals.

Just pointing out that the Inquisitor can safely ignore the laws of his church, but not the will of his Deity. Also Inquisitors do not just hunt down heretics; anyone that could be seen as opposing your god's will is a potential target. Lastly, with your player's neutral alignment, I would say that torture would fall into the category of "extreme measures" and would therefore be acceptable; especially considering he follows the patron deity of suffering, whether it is being given or recieved.

[Kolokotroni]

The short answer is as far as you and your group are comfortable with.

An inquisitor of Zon Kuthon is not someone you want to be a prisoner of... the Lawful Evil deity of Envy, Pain Darkness and Loss is not about to put a moratorium on torture. An inquisitor of this deity really ought to be pretty ruthless when seeking information.

[Bigtuna]

I would let the players do whatever the players think is reasonable - and then chance their aligment to evil if they startede using torture on a regular basis.

Don't even have to mention it to the players - they might consider themselves neutral, but someone casts detect evil or holy word they are in for a surprise.

If the players object have an NPC advice them to change their ways - and if they act more neutral and less evil change the aligment back again.

But don't tell players they are "evil" if you can avoid it. some will start to look at what "chaotic evil" means and take that as a a permission to be even more evil...

[The Shaman]

Well, considering that the inquisitor is lawful neutral, I'd say he (or she?) would be somewhat restrained in their methods, for a Kuthite at least. The character is almost certain to be a sadist and/or masochist (it's pretty much a faith requirement) though with such an alignment I imagine they might be more philosophical about it, basically believing suffering and pain are necessary for improvement, proper living, or whatever. In general, unless there is a good reason to go full out, I imagine the character is more likely to use intimidation or reasoning rather than outright torture - but chances are most people won't be foolish enough to provoke a Kuthite to do his worst. The player's daily meditation probably involves more pain than most people can imagine.

As for "heretics", Zon-Kuthon afaik doesn't have many issues with other cults, so unless your LN player wants to earn some major evil points he shouldn't care that much about people who aren't either his personal enemies or actively work against his faith. Then again, in Cheliax there will probably be a fair number of both.

[Jeranimus Rex]

Uhhh, yeah the inquisitor's deity pretty much allows quite a bit of leeway when dealing w/ NPCs.

I'd suggest grabbing a copy of both Faiths of Corruption and w/e the other Golarion Deity splat book is. That should give a good idea on how his deity functions.

Yeah, LN Kuthites are fun mental excersizes.

[Mikaze]

Jeranimus Rex wrote:

Yeah, LN Kuthites are fun mental excersizes.

Boy howdy are they ever. Been fiddling around with a LN Kuthite inquisitor concept that could work with both a heroic party or an evil party. Getting into such a character's head, keeping them human(so to speak) and relatable but still fundamentally twisted inside, and finding a balance between demonstrating their horrifying wrongness while not shooting right past everyone's comfort levels is quite the juggling act.

Taking the "feels too much" and "possessively protective" routes mentioned in Faiths of Corruption. Still possesses a strong sense of empathy for others, but it's been distorted into something unhealthy by past tragedies.

[Deadmanwalking]

A bit Off-Topic, but:

Inquisitors should go precisely as far as anyone else. No further, no less far. The name of the class is just that, and an Inquisitor should be no more likely to resort to torture (or other nastiness) than, say, a Rogue of the same alignment. Any criteria you have for such behavior are up to you, but they shouldn't change based on class.

Now, seeing as how this is an Inquisitor of Zon-Kuthon, there's probably very little he won't do under the right circumstances, but that's just as true of a Cleric of Zon-Kuthon or any other devout follower.