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The Fighter will always be near the top if all you look at is damage. If that's all you care for then Fighter might be better. However, the archer Inquisitor is a very competent choice. They are a versatile class that can pump out great damage with their bane ability, are useful at identifying monsters, are spell caster, etc. Playing one scenario as an inquisitor is not going to give you a great feel for them. In fact, they don't fully come into their own until they get their bane ability.
Vote: Stick it out with the Inquisitor.
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Pretty much what Lab rat said. In our region we had one guy with the archer fighter build and another who had the inquisitor. Yes, the inquisitor couldn't get the shear damage output but the AF was useless in the role-play sections where the inquisitor would shine with discern lies so that we had an easier fight when an NPC turned out to be not who she said she was.
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Take Nosig's advice on this. One issue you come into when you have played multiple boatloads of scenarios is that you have difficulty finding a scenario to play. I will use 2 examples (From the St. Louis area) to show it
1) Player X
Player X has multiple lvl 12 characters. They play one character all the way to 12 and then start over again. At this point they are down to less than 15 or so scenarios left. However, They only have one character at one specific level and so in reality they have 1 scenario they can play. This makes it very tough to actually play.
2) Nosig
Nosig has a character at almost every level. Although Nosig has played almost everything, he has a character that can play any of the scenarios he has left. So on any given game day, Nosig has a much better chance of playing than Player X. As a result, Nosig doesn't have much trouble putting a table together even with the few scenarios he has left.
The advice I usually give players is that you should at least stagger characters every 4 levels. This way you have at least 1 character in each tier.
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Yeah, if you play PFS enough you can play lots and lots of characters! So don't worry about playing one character til it's through.
As far as an archer is concerned, really any archer can be made to deal sick damage. My archer bard was killing one thing per round in a 10-11, doing more than 110 damage per round without critting, bypassing DR of pretty much everything with the obscene amount of different arrows he has. Yeah, you can do more, but really it isn't worth the versatility drop anyway. My bard gets the advantage of knowing what the enemy is, therefore always knowing his DR, getting spells (pfft, you put up a wind wall? How about a dispel magic?), etc...something that the fighter class has more trouble getting.
As an inquisitor, you would get spells and judgments that would make the character more than worth it. I've seen the fighter archer in action, and it's pretty nuts. I've also seen an archer inquisitor, and it was also nuts...maybe not quite as nuts in the pure raw damage department, but still a formidable character. As well, they brought a lot more to the table in things other than damage.
Name for a Sarenrite? No, I refuse. (read: I'm not a Sarenrae fan)
(As an aside: I honestly think summoner can be made into a better archer than a fighter, because you can get 2 archers)
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Just surmising from this and other posts, I'm pretty sure I ran that game Sunday. One of the downsides to having such a large table is that each individual character gets less of a chance to do things. Especially when one or two characters are well above tier and dealing more damage than the poor goblins can take, and you're the one still at first level. So it wasn't the best situation to get a look at everything the inquisitor can do.
As for what to play going forward, one of the things I love about Pathfinder is how flexible character creation is. There is a lot of variety even within a single class. I don't have an Inquisitor in PFS, but I'm running one through Rise of the Runelords right now and am really enjoying it. In terms of keeping up with other characters damage output, I try not to make that the priority for my character, but inquisitors can be very effective, since most of the abilities they have to buff themselves stack. Judgement is a sacred bonus, Divine Favor is a luck bonus if you choose it as on of your spells and have time to cast it,, at 5th level you get Bane, as an archer you should have Point Blank shot and Precise Shot in your first few feats and eventually Rapid Shot, Multishot, and/or Deadly Aim. A fighter would be able to get those feats earlier, but he's not going to have the skill points or spells to do as much out of combat. The biggest downside I've seen to running a range based inquisitor (mine's a gunslinger/inquisitor) is that there aren't many great teamwork feats for range, but every time the Halfling steps up and Intimidates a room full of Ogres (by way of Blistering Invective) I smile.
I also second the notion of having multiple characters. I'd say right around when your character hits 4th it's good to have another level 1 ready.
Anyway, it this is who I think it is, I'm happy to look over the character with you before the next game and make some suggestions.
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And what's wrong with Sarenrae? I picked her for the scimitar proficiency just in case I get stuck in melee.
Personal preference. There's really technically nothing wrong with her, and she is a decent goddess to worship...however...
Where I am, Sarenrites are a dime a dozen. We call her the "Wal-Mart Goddess."
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Yeah, I can tell by the character name, we're talking about the same game. I wish I had pushed you guys a little harder to play up, as I think you could have handled it. We hadn't run a season 4 locally in a long time, and I think my talking up the changes scared some of the group too much. If it hadn't been a season 4, you'd have had to add 1 to the APL and you wouldn't have had a choice. I hope you enjoyed the games regardless. The 7 player table also makes things a lot easier for the group. If we'd had one more player show up, we'd have split into two tables. I tend to feel the smaller groups are more fun for everyone.
Anyway, good to see another local on the boards, and I hope you have fun with the character!
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The best part of PFS? Build both. Run both. or all three... Sit at a table and say, "What do we need here? I've got Agent X the Ninja assassin, or Shooter Jack, or What's His Name the Inquisitor." By the time they are all 5th or so, you'll most likely know which one is more fun for you. (or not... I have 3 at 10th-11th level and I love them all!).
(edit: I think you should have titled this thread - "I think I might be too indecisive, maybe...". It would have been funny!)
Agreed. One thing is I tend to bring out a new character when my previously character reaches 3rd level. That way, you have a character in every tier.
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I'll take the local game discussion into PM so as not to get too off topic on the board.
In terms of background/choosing a deity for your character, Sarenrae can be a good choice. I think she is so popular with cleric types because of her domains and the general good nature of her background, etc. For an inquisitor who truly does want to use his powers for good, Sarenrae works. Though this tends to get overlooked sometimes with the short game times in society, remember that worship of Sarenrae is illegal in Taldor, thanks to the history between Taldor and Qadira, so that also presents some interesting possibilities for role-play, as several of the scenarios take place in Oppara or other parts of Taldor. Getting scimitar proficiency is a nice bonus.
I went a different direction with my inquisitor and worship Calistria (get your minds out of the gutter, everyone!). Besides being the goddess of lust, she's also the goddess of revenge, which worked well with my more hard boiled noir detective concept.
Erastil works well, I think, if you want him to be more of a "people's hero," and clearly he favors archers.
Iomedae is another solid choice for a "justice" based inquisitor, and if I remember right you went with Silver Crusade for your faction, too. Longsword is a decent bonus proficiency, and arguably just as good as scimitar as a secondary weapon (with archer as your main focus), unless you plan on going the improved critical route or weapon finesse/dervish dance down the line. The latter two would work well with your likely high dex as an archer, but then you'd be combining two feat intensive tracks. Of course, as a worshipper of Iomedae, you might have to buddy up with all the Paladins running around, and that can be a buzzkill.
If you want to model him after the historical inquisitors, I don't know... maybe Abadar? More about accomplishing the churches goals than determining what's right or wrong. Or put another way, law first, good/evil second. This didn't seem the direction you were going with the role play, though.
Others can probably offer more suggestions and a better knowledge of the world than me. I'm still learning a lot of it myself.