Hey everyone,
I've got an 8th level inquisitor. He generally uses two weapons and charges into melee. He's got great damage output, and 1-6 he was absolutely amazing to play. At 8th level his survivability seems to be about nil, and keeps getting dropped after two or so hits.
What priorities change at that level? How is 7-11 play different from 1-6? I'm going to retrain him a bit and I'd like to know what I should keep in mind; Almost all of my Pathfinder experience is below level 7.
Character Profile or the spoiler here:
Kargen Mikok
Race
Dwarf
Classes/Levels
Inquisitor 8
Gender
Male
Size
Medium
Age
60
Alignment
NG
Deity
Sarenrae
Languages
Dwarven, Common
Strength 22
Dexterity 16
Constitution 0
Intelligence 0
Wisdom 3
Charisma -3
About Kargen Mikok
Init +6; Senses Perception +14
DEFENSE
AC 21, touch 13, flat-footed 18 (armor +7, Dex +3, natural armor +1)
hp 47
Fort +6, Ref +5, Will +9
OFFENSE
Spd 20 ft.
Melee
Adamantium +2 Heavy Mace +14/9 or +12/7(dual wielding)
+1 Sickle +13 or +11(dual wielding)
Cold Iron Scimitar and silver LT mace for DR issues
Ranged
Mighty Composite Longbow (+1 from str) +9/+4
Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Base Atk +6; CMB +12; CMD 25
Feats: Combat Reflexes, Power Attack, Precise Strike, Outflank, Two Weapon Fighting
Traits: Vagabond Child, Ease of Faith
Skills: Bluff +13, Climb +9, Diplomacy +15, Intimidate +11, Knowledge(Arcana) +4, Knowledge(Dungeoneering)+4, Knowledge(Nature) +4, Knowledge(Planes) +6, Knowledge(Religion)+5, Perception +14, Sense Motive +14, Spellcraft +5, Survival +7
armor check penalty -2
Spells Known
0-Detect Magic, Guidance, Create Water, Disrupt Undead, Light, Sift
1-Protection from Evil, Cure Light Wounds, Shield of Faith, Cause Fear, Burst Bonds
2-Confess, Lesser Restoration, Silence, Invisibility
3-Retribution, Hunter's Eye, Blood Biography
GEAR
+1 Mithril Chainmail, Belt of Giant Strength +4, Natural armor amulet +1, Fly potion, See invisibility scroll x2, Endure elements potions x2, Alchemist Fire x5, ring of feather fall, CLW wand, Protection from Evil wand, 100 ft rope, masterwork thieves tools
I posted here because it was for a PFS character, and we have some additional limitations to deal with as a result. I suppose the advice forum would have still have been the better place though.
Firs thing that jumps out is that your AC is very low for 8th level, that kind of AC works for a barbarian with DR and heaps of HP, but you have neither. You have IMO too much coin tied up in weapons which is leaving you vulnerable.
This could be viable depending upon tactics, but I would want want to be invisible, or buffed for a large part of combats. Can you describe your typical tactics, and perhaps the situations that have gotten you downed?
You have too few HP. Way to few. If you want to go melee you need more.
Also dual wielding is quit bad for the inquisitor. It synergizes badly with bane and your great strength.
I would either retrain archer, or take tougness and go sword and board. And just use the shield as defensive item. I am also a big fan of long buffs, and Heroism is a great buff for a lot of uses! Last but not least how did you use your favorite class bonus?
Most of my favored class bonus went to HP. I think I will retrain my ability score increases to up my Con to help with my HP problem, and either retrain to a 2-handed build or maybe go all the way to archer. I've noticed the dual wield build hasn't been effective for a few levels, so much stuff has nasty DR I've mostly been only using one weapon lately anyway.
Its that 10 Con, has me wincing, I seldom go with less than 14 for a combat class. Two Weapon Fighting does seem to hurt you to, I would be concentrating upon using your bane weapon and swap out your two weapon fighting feats.
As far as tactics, it varies based on what we are fighting. Lately I've been using judgments to bypass DR by making my weapon good aligned and to improve my saves, mostly.
My specific tactics also vary a lot by group composition. I usually try to fill the hole- in lower levels I could sub as meat shield/rogue/caster to cover whatever we were lacking. I seem less able to do that now.
Well you know that with bane your weapon counts as a +4 weapon and that should help with DR too ;-)
Pathfinder does favor specialization, and that is exacerbated as you progress through the levels. Two weapon fighting really needs some kind of extra damage to make it viable, if you want to continue with it I would be using the destruction judgment.
I am not really familiar with the retraining rules, but if you can I would up your con - ideally 16 since you are a dwarf - put favored class bonus into hp and possibly take toughness. I would get a Jingasa of the Fortunate Soldier to, small boost to AC, but being able to ignore a crit is a life saver.
Actually I wouldn´t do that. The Dwarfs fav class bonus is JUST PLAIN awesome for Inquisitor. Check it out
Actually I wouldn´t do that. The Dwarfs fav class bonus is JUST PLAIN awesome for Inquisitor. Check it out
Mmmm! Yes it is, if you plan to stick with TWF putting that on destruction is a no brainer, or at least a strong choice.
Drop the dual wielding. Its a waste for just about anyone, and you really don't have the feats to spare for it.
Get toughness.... you're a dwarf. You dropped your con down to 8 and then had the racial put it at 10? ..... When you point buy, you want the racial bonuses on the highest stats, not the lowest ones.
Get die hard. You're going to be using it.
Retrain for hit points.
Start another character. A melee combatant with d8 hd and a 10 con? .... you won't last as long as the pog fad.
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Actually you have a decent dex, and str to do damage. You could potentially be a very solid ranged character with the damage bumps from inquisitor, and the low con will not hurt as much if you are far from the front lines. Just stand behind your friends and full attack, still outputting decent damage, while the enemies have to go through your allies to get to you.
Retrain your feats into point blank shot, rapid shot, precise shot, and manyshot. retrain your stat increases to dex, and get a dex belt with a magic composite longbow (adaptive maybe?). Bane and destruction judgement (especially with dwarf favored class, which you have been taking for this, right) synergize very well with archery. Once you have the feats pick up deadly aim and clustered shots, along with weapon focus to boost your to hit. Try to retrain your spells known as well, you made very thematic choices, but you want more buffs that can affect your ranged combat skills.
Also, you cannot just retain fcb, you have to retain out of the class, into a new one, and back to the old class, for 10 points per level. Have fun trying to afford that at a maximum of 6PP a level.
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Also, I second BNW's recommendation of starting a new character,not because you will die(at least if you follow my archery recommendation), but because it is always nice to have a different character on hand for versatility. You can choose which character to play to match each scenario. My druid and magus are about the same level (3&4) and it is really nice being able to choose if I want to play an arcane or divine character depending on party composition. On the high level end, choosing between gunslinger and sorcerer (7&10) allows me to fill holes in damage dealing or arcane casting and balance the party out. The system works.