Infiltrator cleric

[Douglas Muir 406]

Not, repeat not, infiltrator inquisitor.

Here's the setup: up until 5th level, this NPC is a cleric of God X. Then her church gets wiped out and she has a crisis of faith. She ends up switching sides to God Y, who is opposed to God X. God Y's church sends her back to infiltrate the church of God X. (Makes sense, right? After all, she knows everything about them.)

So she's now 10th level. Could be straight cleric, could have multiclassed or gone PrC for a level or two -- but I want her to be able to cast 5th level spells. The main thing is, I want her to be good at her job... viz., lying, deceiving, and staying alive in the middle of an enemy church full of people who'd kill her in a moment if they knew who she really was.

Yes, I know the infiltrator inquisitor is designed for exactly this. But this is the backstory she's got. Can we make this work? Clerics are so painfully low on skill ranks that she almost has to be a human with a decent Int. Even so, most of what she does will have to be via magic and/or domain powers. So what would work here?

Doug M.

[Reynard_the_fox]

Not sure of the rules of it, but could you get the benefits of the Heresy inquisition (or whatever it is that gives you Wis to bluff, etc.) with 1 level of inquisitor? Because if so, I'd do that. Otherwise... well, a 9th level cleric can cast 5th level spells, so that leaves you 1 level of splash to work with. Unfortunately the relevant stuff from Master Spy don't kick in until level 2, so I'd go with Rogue.

[Douglas Muir 406]

A lot of PrCs do the annoying "no new spells at 1st level, then +1 caster level thereafter". So you could be a cleric 8 / whatever 2 and have 5th level spells.

That said, maybe she should be 11th level. And, yeah, the Heresy Inquisition is pretty handy. If only the other Inquisitor stuff stacked with clerical spells and powers!

-- Hm. It all gets a lot easier if we that upon her conversion she was granted a miraculous transformation by which her cleric levels for God X became inquisitor levels for God Y.

Doug M.

[GozrehTime]

The most recent FAQs and such seem to indicate that it is, in fact, permissible for a cleric to take an inquisition instead of a domain (d20pfsrd's inquisitions page says so, at least). Either Conversion or Heresy could work for this. As long as your other domain grants good spells, the lack of spells from the inquisition isn't much of a loss.

The other idea is, of course, to go with oracle. You'll still have full casting from the cleric list, but, crucially, you're charisma-based and you have two more skill ranks per level to work with (in fact, if you go Lore and are keen on skill ranks, you can even take the revelation that improves your intelligence). However, it seems a lot easier for an oracle to change allegiances, since he/ she is granted powers innately rather than by devotion, so you kind of lose the cool flavor of an apostate cleric losing and gaining power.