Of all the new base classes, the inquisitor is the only one I haven't played before. I guess it's because I'm unsure of what the class does, and how it performs in the long run.
So, what is your experience with the inquisitor? How well does it perform in actual game play, and does it stand up well as you level? What about higher levels (10+). Does the class have enough staying power to keep up with the other classes, or does it begin to fall short. Or does it even outclass some of the other classes?
Just from reading the text, it seems to be similar to a divine bard; it has the same number of skills, and a similar number of spells.
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It's my favourite class by a mile.
Calling it a divine bard isn't really accurate. In gameplay terms it's like a more martial cleric or a more casty Paladin with more skills than either.
Really what the Inquisitor has to offer is its versitility. You can play an effective ranged, melee, tank, buff or healing type character with ease. We played through Carrion Crown with a party of inquisitors and they worked really well. I can't think of another class you could say that with.
As for the role of the inquisitor, it depends how you play it. Inquisitors are similar in many ways to Rangers, both track, both can be ranged, melee or both and both make excellent monster hunters. Rangers probably make better archers but Inquisitors are more adaptable as a rule.
In play they tend to get better the longer a fight goes on, with Judgements, Bane and other swift actions they can buff themselves well and they have a good selection of buff spells to increase their combat abilities. Basically an inquisitor can easily double their BAB through buffs alone and they can dish out good damage.
Add to that great monster identification abilities, fantastic initiative bonuses and the ability to intimidate everything and there really isn't a class that feels more like a badass than the Inquisitor.
Give it a go, you'll be glad you did.
It's my favourite class by a mile.
Calling it a divine bard isn't really accurate. In gameplay terms it's like a more martial cleric or a more casty Paladin with more skills than either.
Really what the Inquisitor has to offer is its versitility. You can play an effective ranged, melee, tank, buff or healing type character with ease. We played through Carrion Crown with a party of inquisitors and they worked really well. I can't think of another class you could say that with.
As for the role of the inquisitor, it depends how you play it. Inquisitors are similar in many ways to Rangers, both track, both can be ranged, melee or both and both make excellent monster hunters. Rangers probably make better archers but Inquisitors are more adaptable as a rule.
In play they tend to get better the longer a fight goes on, with Judgements, Bane and other swift actions they can buff themselves well and they have a good selection of buff spells to increase their combat abilities. Basically an inquisitor can easily double their BAB through buffs alone and they can dish out good damage.
Add to that great monster identification abilities, fantastic initiative bonuses and the ability to intimidate everything and there really isn't a class that feels more like a badass than the Inquisitor.
Give it a go, you'll be glad you did.
That's very cool!
How do you like the inquisitor spell list? I understand that they get a bunch of unique spells.
Inquisitors are agents of their deity. What exactly they do will depend on the nature of the deity. While they operate outside a lot of the normal rules their power still comes from their deity. They are often spies, trouble shooters, monster hunters and assassins, but fill many other roles.
From a game point they are one of the most versatile classes in the game. They may not have the staying power of a full martial class but they have a lot of class abilities that can more than make up for it if only for short periods of time. Judgments can give them a lot of different abilities depending on what is needed. Bane allows them to lay down the hurt on whatever they happen to be fighting at the time.
What they do better than anyone else is investigation. With perception, sense motive and intimidate as class skills it is hard to hide things from them. Many of their spells also are very useful for finding things out. Being able to detect any alignment and tell when someone is lying to you is a huge advantage for any investigator. They also have a lot of divination spells on their list including speak with dead, Find Quarry, and True Seeing.
With six skill points per level and bonus to lot of skills they make excellent skill monkeys. Take the feat Improved monster lore and you will be even better at identifying creatures than a bard. Spells like invisibility, disguise self, and nondetection makes trying to spot them very difficult.
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I played one as my second-most-recent character and it's an awesome class, for the reasons Mysterious Stranger outlined.
I love the Preacher variant - you can force enemies to reroll crits against your friends, which is very handy, especially for ranged Inquisitors (they get less out of the Solo Tactics ability that they lose).
Spell selection is decent. The healing isn't great but they can heal and they have some nice buffs and utility stuff in there. Most of the Inquisitor-only spells are more flavourful than anything, I think, but I like Judgment Light - it's versatile and has some pretty handy effects (Smiting is a great party-buff). Blistering Invective is also notable - it's not exclusive to Inquisitors, but they can have fantastic Intimidate checks with little effort. Similarly Litany of Sloth, shared only with the Paladin - prevents a single enemy from taking AoO or casting defensively for a round, no saving throw.
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The spell list is pretty decent. I like castigate as an offensive spell, the various litanies are pretty good and heroism, divine power and freedom of movement are all excellent buffs.
As for healing I have heard people say that they are worse healers than bards or druids and that's nonsense. Healing isn't about hit points, any idiot with a wand can heal hit points, rather it's about access to lesser restoration, restoration and heal. Both the other classes I mentioned don't get these spells, the inquisitor does.
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They do get them, but they get them late. They get Restoration 3 levels behind the cleric (2 levels behind the oracle), and Heal 5 levels behind the cleric (4 behind the oracle). That's a lot of levels without key spells. These spells also take up a higher portion of the Inquisitor's spellcasting resources (spells known slots, and their higher-level spell slots). As do the HP spells when you're not spamming a wand of CLW.
When I played the Inquisitor, we suffered through quite a few annoying diseases before I was able to learn & cast Remove Disease - and then I ended up spending all of my highest-level spell slots on Remove Disease in one session. Then at level 10 I found myself in desperate need of Neutralize Poison, but hadn't learned the spell yet (I had only two 4th level spells known) and even if I'd known the spell I'd spent both my 4th level slots in the fight immediately prior, which had come within a hair's breadth of TPK. Compare to my druid who was never without an emergency Neutralize Poison starting at about level 6-7.
I have heard people say that they are worse healers than bards or druids and that's nonsense. Healing isn't about hit points, any idiot with a wand can heal hit points, rather it's about access to lesser restoration, restoration and heal. Both the other classes I mentioned don't get these spells, the inquisitor does.
Actually, the druid gets both Lesser Restoration and Heal before the Inquisitor does - levels 3 and 13, respectively, compared to levels 4 and 16.
Inquisitors are definitely better healers than bards. They're on par with an Alchemist with Infusions who gets the same spells at the same levels. They maybe have the edge on the druid because of Restoration (maybe - the importance of being able to personally cast Restoration is campaign-dependent, and a Samsaran druid can add Restoration to their list and win hands-down). But they aren't nearly as good as clerics, oracles, or a witch with the Healing patron (who gets Lesser Restoration, Restoration, and Heal quicker than the Inquisitor and gets more spells).
An Inquisitor can be the party healer, but they will run out of spells fast. As a result they won't be able to use as many of the Inquisitor's buff and utility spells. They will be especially reliant on wands and scrolls - they can use these to cast Restoration and Heal at the same level as clerics do because they're based on class spell list and caster level and don't actually care about spell level.
Barring the fact the one I'm playing just died to a critical from a Frost Worm (110 damage with a single, g$* d$+ned, bite) I love the crap out of them. You can practically do anything with this class. Need an archer? Inquisitor's can do that. Need a tank? They do that too. Skill monkey? Comes standard. Healer or buffer? They'll do in a pinch. Melee damage dealer? Hell yeah! Trap finding? There's a spell for that. Anti-mage? You'll put your party rogue to shame! The only thing you lack is arcane spells, and cow bell.
On the note of being an anti-mage, you would be surprised at how well the do compared to their monk or rogue counterparts. While more susceptible to blasting, due to their low reflex save and lack of evasion, their massive fort and will saves coupled with the stalwart class feature makes debuffing a near impossible task. They can even use judgement to give themselves bonuses to saves. They also get an awesome spell called burst of speed, +20ft move speed and don't take AoO's for one turn as a SWIFT ACTION. You can be anywhere on the battlefield in a single turn. Couple that with Travel domain and no where will be safe for those pesky mages. Hell, you even get dispel magic which you can use to counter spell them!
Basically, they can do anything. They won't out damage your barbarian, they won't out skill monkey your rogue, they won't out heal your cleric. But what they will do is be a back-up for everyone else. While you can easily fill most any roll, you also act as the party's safety net. Whether someone died to an untimely critical (stupid worm) or just didn't show up this week, you will never have a completely empty roll. Even if you're wizard calls in sick, just use your massive intimidate to convince and NPC to join you for a session or two.
Aaaalllrighty!!!
Ladies and gentlemen!
King of The Crossroads, I can tell you that Inquisitor is a very awesome class. Like the Paladin who has Smite Evil, Inquisitor has Judgement. The bigger the level, you can have more judgements at the same time and that makes Inquisitor nearly as good as Paladin when it comes to fighting Evil Outsiders. One another interesting feature that I also like very much is Bane. The good thing is that, before you say that you use Bane, is that you can choose it to be of the subtype of the enemy you fight plus you can change it in the middle of battle. Inquisitor also has many interesting features and special abilities, I was, when I first saw that he gets Teamwork Feats, it was a relief to find out that those feats don't require the other party members to have them for the Teamwork Feats to function. As for the spells, I like that the Inquisitor casts them like a Sorcerer, it has Holy Smite, Flame Strike etc, powerful spells which I like. To summarize, Inquisitor is like a mix of Paladin and Cleric.
Anyway, if you take feats from Ultimate Magic Book, you can further enhance Inquisitor's Judgement and Bane abilities to become much deadlier. I have an Inquisitor of Iomedae, which I made as a companion to aid the Paladin of Iomedae in the introduction story for the Paladin which was played by one of my friends. Here he is:
Theodric Voralius, Inquisitor of Iomedae 13th lvl;
Human (Chelaxian)
Str 18; Dex 16; Con 18; Int 14; Wis 27; Cha 12;
AC: 30; Touch: 13; Flat-Footed 27;
Fort +12; Ref +7; Will +17;
Base Attack: +9/+4
CMB: +13; CMD 26;
Traits:
Birthmark (+2 vs Charm and Compulsion spells and spell-like abilities);
Indomitable Will (+1 to all Will saves);
Instead to take a single Domain from the Cleric List, I took an Inquisition from the Ultimate Magic book.
Inquisition (Valor):
*Touch of Resolve: Remove Fear from a single creature (3 + Wis modifier use per day);
*Fearless: Immune to fear;
Feats:
1st - Weapon Focus (Longsword), Improved Initiative;
3rd - Favored Judgement (Evil Outsider);
5th - Judgement Surge
7th - Insightful Gaze
9th - Extended Bane
11th - Extra Bane
13th - Critical Focus
Teamwork feats:
*Outflank
*Precise Strike
*Back To Back
*Swap Places
Gear:
+3 Holy Keen Longsword, +3 Mithral Breastplate, +3 Heavy Steel Shield, Belt of Physical Might (+2 to Dex and Con), Gauntlets of Strength +2, Headband of Wisdom +4, Amulet of Iomedae (+2 to AC vs Evil), Ring of Protection +3;
I think this is enough, I only didn't write spells, special abilities, and skills.
Anyway, I like this character very much, so I will keep the character sheet of him, because he can always be a good NPC that can sometimes give aid to PCs who venture in very dangerous adventures.
Untill next time!
Peace!!!
I'm lovin all the inquisitor love in this thread. I will be echoing a lot of what's already been said, but much of it bears repeating. The inquisitor is the swiss army knife of classes. If you want to focus on damage, they get that in spades. If you want to tank, you can focus on that and not worry about losing damage cause you still have bane. Is ted feelin poorly after that fight, good thing I brought cure spells to the party. Need a skill monkey? Take a trait for disable device and you can rogue with the best of them. And the domain ability probably saves my ass once a session.
Also AdrianGM- you forgot to pick up one of these.
Alrighty, I'm convinced that the inquisitor is cool. So much so, that I've decided to make an inquisitor as a backup character in case my witch bites it in Skulls and Shackles. Here's what I have so far:
Nag Hellscream
Lizardfolk Inquisitor (Infiltrator) 1 of Desna
Str: 16
Dex: 14
Con: 16
Int: 12
Wis: 16
Cha: 8
Feats: Multiattack
Domain: Travel
Basically, he's a spy who works for the Pirate Council that rules the region. He and other operatives infiltrate ships and gather information, see that the codes are being obeyed, and determining which, if any, pirates are doing something they shouldn't be. He's a lizardfolk because, well, who would expect a brutish, primitive, lizardfolk to have the cunning, dedication, and subtlety to be a spy?
WOW. That baldric bane is pretty awesome. Particularly cause most stuff in the chest slot sucks.
Str Ranger here. The avatar is an 8th level dwarf inquisitor of ANGRADD who only failed a save once cause of his stupid high saves.
He fought Hammer+Shield (not twf) and was freaking awesome as a tank and melee damage dealer.
I wasn't sure about Inquisitor at first. So I gave on a try in Forgotten Realms game. I played a Inquisitor of Mask and had a blast with the rogues. We had a straight rogue and fighter/rogue as well as a Evoker Wizard Specialist. I end up filling the role of healer using Cure Light Wounds wands as I didn't have any cure spells known.
I found the Inquisitor to be very good in melee with buffing spells, Judgement and Bane they were a killing machine. In the game I had rod of less quicken to get my buffs on in 1 round as I moved activating Judgment then attacking the next round activating Bane. Then there is solo tactic and team work feats. I had the rogues picking up outflank and precise strike to work with me.
Outside of combat I found the 6 skill point per level and large list of class skills very useful. Then add the class features of stern gaze, discern lies, monster lore, and detect alignment made me very useful along some utility spells.
Defense they are great too with Stalwart and two good saves and you Wisdom is you casting stat.
Flavor wise I was thieve guild enforcer on the religious side hunting those who worshiped Cyric. It made for some interesting games.
One of the great benefits is the teamwork ability and feats.
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The only people I've seen dislike the inquisitor (mine is only 2nd level in PFS) were because they were really wanting a super focused character. In other words, they really wanted a primary caster or straight fighter. Not a hybrid class like this.
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3rd - Favored Judgement (Evil Outsider);
5th - Judgement Surge
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Where are these from? I'm not finding them in the PRD.
Favored Judgement and Judgement Surge are both from ultimate magic.
My experience with the inquisitor is that I have trouble finding his place in life. I'm not very good with these hybrids. I always feel like I should have full BAB when I'm in the front lines with them. YMMV of course.
In our current group, we have a dwarves inquisitor. He has the feat breadth of experience. He also uses guns and a returning silver hammer. As a dwarf, he wears full plate and is one of our front line fighters. He has Named Bullet at the right time, so can unleash lots of damage when he needs to. Maxwell has always been the goto guy for those knowledge skills.
What? Anyway I have a Half orc inquisitor 10 and he is very useful in and out of combat if a bit tricky to keep track of resource-wise,due to the fact that i am simultaneously running a barbarian, a wizard and a cleric too!
currently playing a fighter2/inquisitor3 of Pharasma in Carrion Crown, my first Pathfinder character in my first RP game after a decade of not playing. I had planned on the Inquisitor part of the character to only be a dip (Im supposed to be the party tank) but I fell in love with the versatility of the class.
- Between Judgement Surge and Precise Strike added to the power attack/furious focus combo he's doing crazy amounts of damage and I don't even have Bane yet. I took 'Surge to help offset being slightly behind as a result of the multiclassing but I think its a great option even for a straight Inquisitor.
- Spells felt limited at first but with the buff I get from Judgement I typically just cast Expeditious Retreat to up my movement and head right to the front line.
- And being the 'undead expert' in Carrion Crown has been great outside combat also.
- Although I haven't maxed out Intimidate due to all the undead its still pretty good, and Im counting the days til I pick up Blistering Invective.
- I went with the Heresy Inquisiition to soften the pain of my own CHA 8
Tons of fun to play in and out of combat, you're going to love it!
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My PFS Inquisitor is 11th level and I'm looking forward to playing Eyes of the Ten. It is my favorite class because it can do a bit of everything. It can easily be out-specialized, but I prefer generalists to specialists, so I'm used to that.
I took a bonus spell at every level, and unless you're opting for a low spell concept, I think that it should be the way to go. Having the extra flexibility in spells is another wonderful perk.
And as mentioned above, Bane Baldric rocks.
^.- heh? Strawman statement based on some bias against the class? I'm sure plenty disagree with Inquisitor as "poorly designed", or saved by"the sheer power of spells" as their spells aren't all that powerful nor do they get very many to work with.
Same here.
currently playing a fighter2/inquisitor3 of Pharasma in Carrion Crown...
Tons of fun to play in and out of combat, you're going to love it!
I'm actually considering a monk dip for mine. I'm glad to see that even being two levels behind, you're character can still handle business. I have high hopes for my inquisitor, which will be my first try at the class.
If you are meticulous with your options and resources at first, once you have the full grasp you should be VERY pleased with it!
I'm lovin all the inquisitor love in this thread. I will be echoing a lot of what's already been said, but much of it bears repeating. The inquisitor is the swiss army knife of classes. If you want to focus on damage, they get that in spades. If you want to tank, you can focus on that and not worry about losing damage cause you still have bane. Is ted feelin poorly after that fight, good thing I brought cure spells to the party. Need a skill monkey? Take a trait for disable device and you can rogue with the best of them. And the domain ability probably saves my ass once a session.
Also AdrianGM- you forgot to pick up one of these.
Thanks a lot for the Baldric Bane, I can't believe that I missed that in the Ultimate Equipment book. Maybe this has just give an idea for a quest or something, "retrieve the Baldric Bane from the Dark Tower". Yes, Kevin Lodge syndrom, it feels good when you get new ideas :)
Amulet of Iomedae (+2 to AC vs Evil)What's this from?
That's an amulet made by me :) I give a simple name like Amulet of Iomedae, due to the fact Theodric Voralius is an inquisitor of Iomedae, and purpose of this amulet is to protect him from all manner of evil creatures, thus giving him +2 to AC vs Evil. Simple as that :)
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Poorly designed, but saved by the sheer power of spells.Er... no.
Of all the APG classes they are the best designed. They are thematic and consistent with a bunch of cool options and several ways they can be played.
I'd love to hear your justification for calling them poorly designed.
The biggest two are that
1: They seem to be designed as archers by the proficiencies, but make really bad ones (no support in class abilities. At the time of publication, there were no teamwork feats that benefited archery)
You don't have to play them as archers but they can make good archers. Teamwork feats are a bonus but you don't need them to make the class powerful. If all you see is archer when looking at the inquisitor then you are missing the point of the class.
2: Judgement scales badly: +1 and another +1 every X levels is really bland and not very useful due to the slow speed of growth. An ability like this should be boosted by an ability score, benefit the entire party, be at will instead of X per day, flat out scale better or some combination of those (At least it isn't a standard action).
It works well. The point is that you have a versitle buff which you can then stack with other buffs: heroism, bane, magic vestment whatever is appropriate. There is no buff in the game that is as versatile as judgement. When you understand that judgement is not the whole class but merely one of a group of abilities this makes sense.
The design is also pretty 3.5 and feels weird with PF conventions: Judgement is a x/day with scaling number of uses ability, while PF made all of these into rounds based on class level and an ability score that can be divided in any pattern desired.
Wrong.
Paladin Smite? Cavalier Challenge? Monk's Quivering Palm? Every Cleric domain ability/Sorcerer bloodline ability/Wizard school power with uses per day? I could go on, there's loads of x/day abilities.
There are also no customizable options not shared by other classes (deity/domain, spells known and, if neutral, profane/sacred)
Not sure what you are getting at here. There's a bunch of inquisitor only spells, they have unique abilities and their versitility is their key selling point.
Their remaining class abilities run the gambit from good (Bane) to "duplicates a low level spell" (almost everything else)
Stern Gaze? Cunning initiative? Stalwart? Exploit Weakness? Show me the spells here.
Magus is better than 3.5's multiple attempts at such a class, actually letting you BLEND the two styles instead of use them consecutively. It has multiple viable options, works well with additional material that isn't necessarily made to compliment it and has unique abilities that scale well.
Not in the APG, I specifically mentioned that. Besides every Magus is generally the same. Rapier/scimitar and shocking grasp. Rinse and repeat (yawn). To say that the Magus has more versitility than the inquisitor is just wrong.
Alchemist is also versatile, relatively original (and yet is still a classic fantasy archetype), very unique in mechanics and work well without even touching its "spells"
Funny you should have a go at the inquisitor for having x/day abilities and then defend a class that has x/day abilities...
Summoner, while poorly balanced, is an interesting concept and, again, has many options that make no two summoners alike.
Yeah but really unbalanced. Plus again they are not as versitile as an Inquisitor, you can't do a ranged Summoner or a buffing Summoner or a healing Summoner. It's eidolon or bust.
Poorly designed, but saved by the sheer power of spells.Er... no.
Of all the APG classes they are the best designed. They are thematic and consistent with a bunch of cool options and several ways they can be played.
I'd love to hear your justification for calling them poorly designed.
The biggest two are that
1: They seem to be designed as archers by the proficiencies, but make really bad ones (no support in class abilities. At the time of publication, there were no teamwork feats that benefited archery)
2: Judgement scales badly: +1 and another +1 every X levels is really bland and not very useful due to the slow speed of growth. An ability like this should be boosted by an ability score, benefit the entire party, be at will instead of X per day, flat out scale better or some combination of those (At least it isn't a standard action).
The design is also pretty 3.5 and feels weird with PF conventions: Judgement is a x/day with scaling number of uses ability, while PF made all of these into rounds based on class level and an ability score that can be divided in any pattern desired. There are also no customizable options not shared by other classes (deity/domain, spells known and, if neutral, profane/sacred)
Their remaining class abilities run the gambit from good (Bane) to "duplicates a low level spell" (almost everything else)
Magus is better than 3.5's multiple attempts at such a class, actually letting you BLEND the two styles instead of use them consecutively. It has multiple viable options, works well with additional material that isn't necessarily made to compliment it and has unique abilities that scale well.
Alchemist is also versatile, relatively original (and yet is still a classic fantasy archetype), very unique in mechanics and work well without even touching its "spells"
Summoner, while poorly balanced, is an interesting concept and, again, has many options that make no two summoners alike.
What makes you think the Inquisitor is Archery oriented at all. I took one look at that class and thought melee oriented. It really has little in the way of ranged benefits.
I found in playing an Inquisitor that judgement are quite good and work very well. At low level they are bland and weak but once you get second and 3rd judgement you can mix and match combos of judgements.
Teamwork feats with solo tactics is great, as is bane. Stalwart is very nice. The other class features are useful too. Sure some can be done with a spell but if you don't need to use a spell then that's better to for me as Inquisitor with a low number of known spells being spontaneous caster.
I think the Inquisitor is one of the better designed classes.
Inquisitor, mechanicly is one of my favorites.
It shines early in RP situations, and by mid level in combat as well.
Aside from buffs and heals, his spells are more "inquis-ity" and less combat effective, but when they're needed, look out.
I agree that this is one of the better (if not best) class design Paizo has released thus far.
I'm actually considering a monk dip for mine. I'm glad to see that even being two levels behind, you're character can still handle business. I have high hopes for my inquisitor, which will be my first try at the class.currently playing a fighter2/inquisitor3 of Pharasma in Carrion Crown...
Tons of fun to play in and out of combat, you're going to love it!
Judgement Surge definitely helped in my case - since I only have 1 Judgement per day I Surge every time, usually go Justice first round for the +2 to attacks, and once Ive determined how easy/hard the enemy is to hit I switch to Destruction for the +3 to damage. And since me and the rogue are buddies adding Precise Strike was pretty sweet tooin terms of keeping up with damage output.
I admit the "until the end of combat" mechanic is a little wacky but its worked out for me for the most part. There were some low-level encounters that lasted way too many rounds but while other buffs were wearing off I was still going strong. BUT there was the time I charged into a building solo and declared Judgement on the wraith I found.......but when his 3 buddies showed up I had to retreat outside and wait for the rest of my party. GM ruled I had left combat so Judgement was done for the day.
Good news is, in most cases Im not really noticing that it works differently than some of the other class's abilities.
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I'm actually considering a monk dip for mine. I'm glad to see that even being two levels behind, you're character can still handle business. I have high hopes for my inquisitor, which will be my first try at the class.
If you are going to dip Monk, consider two levels. All your saves go up, and you get evasion. When you get stalwart at 11th level, then everything becomes "I make my save so I'm not affected".
I'm thinking about taking that dip now, but at 11th level I think that the siren's song of high level spells will be too tough to resist.
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I see the ranged proficiency as part of the versatility package.
If you're going to do ranged combat, you probably want a bow, and if you don't want a bow you probably want light, heavy, hand, or repeater crossbow. You can easily give a character comprehensive ranged capability with only four weapon proficiencies (plus all simple).
Melee, however, has a number of sub-styles, each dependent on a different sort of weapon. Two-hand fighters will want a two-handed weapon, sword-and-board want a one-hander, dex builds need something they can finesse, TWF might want a single light weapon or might want a one-hander and a light weapon (ex: rapier-and-dagger). And then you've got weapon properties like reach, trip, disarm, and crit range/multiplier. Giving a class only a handful of martial melee weapon proficiencies invariably ends up biasing them towards a particular melee style - for example, rogues and bards get finesse options, but no two-handers or reach - or else they have a distinct flavour, like monks.
If you tried to give Inquisitors proficiency in four melee weapons it'd either look dis-unified (greatsword, longsword, rapier, glaive) or else you'd end up making those proficiencies useless to anyone who didn't like that style (the rogue list isn't much use for THF). On the other hand, all ranged inquisitors are set and a melee inquisitor is still going to want a backup ranged weapon.
It's also easier for an Inquisitor to get a melee martial proficiency than a ranged one. Of the CRB races, Dwarves and half-orcs give melee proficiencies without ranged proficiencies, and none gives ranged proficiencies without melee (elves and half-elves give both/either). Of the major deities, 15 grant proficiency in martial/exotic melee weapons, compared to just Erastil with the Longbow (4 favour simple weapons).
In conclusion, without giving Inquisitors proficiency with all martial weapons, you can't give them proficiency in weapons for every melee style, but you can easily give them the proficiencies for ranged combat either as a primary or secondary function. Making a melee Inquisitor is a little like making a battle cleric in that you probably want to make sure your race or deity gives you a good weapon proficiency. But unlike the battle cleric, the Inquisitor also gets to pull out a longbow when it looks like melee isn't a great idea.
And saying Inquisitors are ranged because the iconic is makes about as much sense as saying that rangers are designed as crossbow wielders because that's the iconic's style.
Their remaining class abilities run the gambit from good (Bane) to "duplicates a low level spell" (almost everything else)
Why are Detect Alignment and Discern Lies bad just because they duplicate spells? Unlimited use of a 1st level spell is still very handy, and getting Discern Lies as an immediate action without spending a spell means you can always make a quick magical check on someone's truthfulness, even as they're saying something suspicious - to use the spell you need to cast as a Standard action ahead of time.
What makes you think the Inquisitor is Archery oriented at allAn inquisitor is proficient with all simple weapons, plus the hand crossbow, longbow, repeating crossbow, shortbow, and the favored weapon of her deity. She is also proficient with light armor, medium armor, and shields (except tower shields).There's also the iconic.
Paladin Smite? Cavalier Challenge? Monk's Quivering Palm? Every Cleric domain ability/Sorcerer bloodline ability/Wizard school power with uses per day? I could go on, there's...The key part is "scaling number of uses", referring to how they gain an extra use at a fixed point of their progression. Wizard school powers are normally "3 + your Intelligence modifier" while Cleric has "3 + your Wisdom modifier" and Sorc bloodlines are "3 + your Charisma modifier", while Quivering Palm is flat out once a day (as opposed to "1/day and another use every X levels"). While Cavalier and Paladin do use the method of scaling, they are effected by class level itself, not "every x levels" (and Paladin's smite is dramatically more than Judgement does), but Inquisitor's Judgment
Alchemist is also "class level + his Intelligence modifier".
Whatever, a wizard/cleric/sorcerer with 3+ability mod per day ability genererally only gain the benefits for 1 round, where as an inquisitor can eventually have three types of benefit at once from ONE use of judgement that lasts for the ENTIRE ENCOUNTER and freely swap benefits each round as a swift action while still being able to perform his full suite of other actions including spellcasting, full attacking and or moving, buffing with spells to add to his judgements AND bane, which also scales. Ok Inquisitors can deal damage in melee, at range, cast spells and still perform many skill based tasks out of combat.Yeah.They sure do suck. LOLZ.
I'm actually considering a monk dip for mine. I'm glad to see that even being two levels behind, you're character can still handle business. I have high hopes for my inquisitor, which will be my first try at the class.currently playing a fighter2/inquisitor3 of Pharasma in Carrion Crown...
Tons of fun to play in and out of combat, you're going to love it!
Judgement Surge definitely helped in my case - since I only have 1 Judgement per day I Surge every time, usually go Justice first round for the +2 to attacks, and once Ive determined how easy/hard the enemy is to hit I switch to Destruction for the +3 to damage. And since me and the rogue are buddies adding Precise Strike was pretty sweet tooin terms of keeping up with damage output.
I admit the "until the end of combat" mechanic is a little wacky but its worked out for me for the most part. There were some low-level encounters that lasted way too many rounds but while other buffs were wearing off I was still going strong. BUT there was the time I charged into a building solo and declared Judgement on the wraith I found.......but when his 3 buddies showed up I had to retreat outside and wait for the rest of my party. GM ruled I had left combat so Judgement was done for the day.
Good news is, in most cases Im not really noticing that it works differently than some of the other class's abilities.
If you read the description of judgement it says if you are unable to participate or do not particaipate in combat you don't gain the benefits, however if you begin combat later against the same enemies the benefits resume. That is paraphrased but there is text to that effect in the apg.
Inquisitors are possibly the best balanced class in the game.
They have lots of build and in-game versatility, being capable of fulfilling nearly any role the player wants, but not all of them at once.
He's effective in many different roles, and will most likely never feel useless or obsolete. He'll excel at his main role and still be pretty good at his secondary ones, without ever stepping on the toes of a specialist.
They have a bunch of cool, unique and useful class features. They have decent defenses and offensive tools, so you don't have to worry too much about any fundamental problem with their survivability, which gives you more freedom to play whatever concept you like.
I often recommend this class because I truly feel it's very balanced and well designed. As a GM you'll never have to worry about an Inquisitor breaking the game, you also won't have to put any extra effort to make sure they can contribute.
tl;dr: It's a great class. Very balanced and flavorful.
If you are going to dip Monk, consider two levels. All your saves go up, and you get evasion. When you get stalwart at 11th level, then everything becomes "I make my save so I'm not affected".
That's the plan. I'm going to take two levels in Master of Many Styles to get Boar Style, and either Boar Shred or Snake Style.
The only down side to evasion is I'll be restricted to light armor. But I suppose that's not too bad, considering this is Skulls and Shackles, and drowning sucks.
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The only down side to evasion is I'll be restricted to light armor. But I suppose that's not too bad, considering this is Skulls and Shackles, and drowning sucks.
When you get a bit of cash, Mithral Breastplate is your friend. Counts as light, ACP only -1. The 4K for the extra +2 AC is a good deal compared to the 8K to upgrade your +1 Chain Shirt to a +3 Chain Shirt.
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When I first saw this class, it looked a bit like it was cobbled together from other classes' abilities that were left on the drawing board. I could almost see a designer going "a variable buff ability would be neat. Spontaneous divine caster, don't have one of those in the game yet. Need to push this new teamwork feat idea too. Heck, let's put it all in one class."
And then I played one.
It IS a very well designed class. Lots of versatility so it always has something to do, but not so overwhelming in power that it marginalizes other classes. It can easily slip into various roles with a little feat/spell choice planning, hits its stride at 5th level, and scales well until 15th level. Can't comment on 15th+ play. Game tends to break at this point anyway.
I honestly think we are looking at the class design benchmark for future editions of the game. A bold pronouncement perhaps, but it is what I feel.
I think it is an interesting class, but you need to have figured out what you want to do with it before you start making it. If you don't specialize the inquisitor it can run into the bard-problem from 3.0 - trying to do everything and not being particularly good at any of it.