I'm really excited about the character concept, but I don't have a strong grasp of Pathfinder rules. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
The idea is he's an inquisitor who has devoted his life to hunting immortals on the behalf of Pharasma. Those who would cheat death or extend their lives by unnatural means are his quarry. But he's getting old and the immortals he hunts remain as deathless as ever. It's beginning to dawn on him that his enemies may prevail simply by outliving him. As he comes to terms with his mortality, he is tempted to seek his own means of abnormal longevity. Some adversaries take more than a lifetime to hunt down, but will he violate the tenets of his own faith to defeat them?
The campaign starts at 3rd level, 20 point buy. He's 57 years old and suffers from the subsequent aging effects (-3 STR DEX CON, +2 INT WIS CHA). My goal is to provide some healing, lead the pack in Wisdom and Knowledge-based skills, and provide ranged combat support with a heavy repeating crossbow. Without further ado, he are his stats:
Race: Human
STR 8
DEX 16
CON 8
INT 14
WIS 16
CHA 10
Skills:
Heal +9 (3 ranks)
Knowledge Arcana +8 (3 ranks)
Knowledge Nature +8 (3 ranks)
Knowledge Planes +8 (3 ranks)
Knowledge Religion +8 (3 ranks)
Perception +9 (3 ranks)
Sense Motive +10 (3 ranks)
Spellcraft +8 (3 ranks)
Stealth +9 (3 ranks)
Survival +9 (3 ranks)
Feats:
Coordinated Shot (teamwork feat)
Point-Blank Shot
Precise Shot
Weapon Focus (repeating heavy crossbow)
Traits:
Schooled Inquisitor
Touched By Divinity (with Healing Domain so I can cast Cure Light Wounds 1/Day as a spell-like ability)
Domain (or Inquisition):
Spellkiller Inquisition
Spells:
Orisons - Stabilize, Acid Splash, Detect Magic, Light, Read Magic, Disrupt Undead
1st Level - Divine Favor, Shield of Faith, True Strike, Cure Light Wounds
As you can see, he's not the party face. He's supposed to be the old sage, imparting knowledge and noticing what others don't. The only thing I'm bummed about dumping is his intimidate skill, as I do imagine he uses fear to get what he needs.
In particular, I am looking for advice regarding his attribute balance, skill balance, feats, traits, spells, and domain (or inquisition). So, basically, everything! To reiterate, his roles will be healing, Wisdom and Knowledge-based skills, and ranged combat support. Any equipment or general inquisitor advice would be great, too.
Thanks for taking a look at my character!
Well first and foremost Inquisitors are not healers. Yes we get a couple heals but those spells should be used to take down the immortals. Heals for inquisitor should really only be used for emergencies. Personally I think the cloistered cleric might be a good alternative. You would still get all the knowledge skills (+1/2 your level) Maybe the gm could work with you about the penalty of diminished spellcasting, since I think you are giving up far more than what you are gaining. But that would give you good knowledge checks (and not just on the monsters) and you would be a decent healer (channel divine is awesome at low levels) Also you could look into the healing or knowledge domain. I tend to use the feather domain with the inquisitor but the spellkiller is pretty nice I would maybe swap out weapon focus for deadly aim
To be honest I think Inquisitors are very poor casters, their *very* limited casting range lets them throw out 2ish spells an encounter and is enough to leave them depleted.
They are extremely strong damage dealers so better to choose another class or build a damage dealer instead, otherwise you'll find yourself useless for most of the combat.
It was misleading of me to list healing as the first of my three priorities. He doesn't need to be our party healer, but I would like him to heal in a pinch. I figured maybe I could just carry a wand of cure light wounds. I did first conceive of the character as a cleric, but found the stingy number of skill ranks too limiting. Still, Cloistered Cleric does sound like a possible alternative I had not considered.
I didn't design this character to be a primary caster. As long as he can buff his attacks and toss out a couple heals, I figured he would be fine. But if I've set myself up for disappointment, I'd love to know what to instead. In terms of damage, will not a heavy repeating crossbow dish out a respectable amount? How could a character like this better contribute to combat? Considering his old age effects, I thought a crossbow was the right way to go, since his low strength would not impact his ranged attacks.
Many thanks for the constructive feedback. I really want to make this character the best he can be!
With the -3 to the physical attributes I would lean more towards a spellcaster (who gets +2 to all mental attributes) Inquisitors can heal in a pinch, but yeah the wand is your friend :) That is my biggest issue with the cleric and why I love the inquisitor, I really think the cleric should get 4+Int. With the str penalty I agree the crossbow is the way to go. I think you can apply rapid shot to the repeating crossbow, I would take that at lvl 3 (with divine favor up you negate the penalty to hit while adding +2 damage per bolt. There is a trait called Fate's favored which gives you +1 to luck bonus so you could make that +3 and use divine favor every serious encounter.
If a spellcaster would be better given the old age effects, maybe an Oracle would work? At least they get four skill ranks per level instead of the cleric's measly two. But an Oracle relies on Charisma, and we already have a sorcerer and bard in the party, which is why I thought the Wisdom-based inquisitor would round things out a bit.
I think the cloistered cleric gets 4+ too. what do you have in the party currently?
We already have an infernal halfling sorcerer and an archaeologist human bard. There's a fourth player, but we don't know what she's going to be yet.
If you would like a martial character despite being old you could try a synthesist summoner, although the fluff may not be to your taste.
My suggested fluff, be like Iron Man, use a Marut suit. >.>
Another option would be Zen Archer monk for the first 3 levels, then go into inquisitor. The problem is monks don't have a lot of knowledge skills.
The Zen Archer uses Wis on attack rolls with bows, which means you won't be able to drop str. without penalty, but since you Dex wont need to be high (to make bow attacks anyway) it should work out OK.
Finally you'd have to wait until 4th level to pick up spell casting.
I think I'll swap out Weapon Focus with Rapid Shot at 3rd level.
I will also replace the Schooled Inquisitor trait with Fate's Favored.
Boosting my CON a little so I no longer have a -1 penalty sounds good too. The years have made him weak and frail, but as is he's a little too frail. I don't want to be a liability.
XMorsX, can you explain your advice regarding the feather domain? I though AC stood for armor class, but the feather domain doesn't appear to offer any such benefit.
AC from feather domain? Another way (if you have the feats) is to go with guided hand probably not worth the investment though. Depending on what the bard does, it sounds like you guys could use some melee. I agree the con should be boosted maybe the str too. Synthesist would be a good idea actually. Maybe some demon you slayed and its body is summoned to you to help you fight against it's brothers
Thanks for the clarification and excellent advice, XMorsX!
Just curious, cant find touched by divinity anywhere, is that the right name and what book is it from? Personally I still would learn cure light in case you really need to get a decent heal in. Wrath is sort of meh.
I found Touched by Divinity on Hero Lab. It's a campaign trait from Wrath of the Righteous. Apparently it's also found in the Demon Hunter's Handbook.
Wrath looked inferior to Divine Favor because it can only be directed at one enemy you can see. It does stack with Divine Power (Divine Favor doesn't), but I doubt I'm even going to gain access to 4th level spells.
Do you happen to have a link so I can read up on it, trying to find it but no luck
I couldn't find it anywhere either, but basically you get a silver holy symbol of your chosen deity for free. Also, you choose one domain associated with your deity and get the use of that domain's 1st-level domain spell as a spell-like ability once per day (CL equals your character level).
Use a light repeating crossbow. With your judgments, bane, arcane strike, deadly aim, clustered shots, eventually high critical chance and spells like divine favor and wrath your damage should be respectable.
Why would anyone use a light repeating crossbow instead of a heavy repeating crossbow? Both require a full round action to load a new case of 5 bolts, and both can be reloaded by pulling the reloading lever as a free action. The only difference I can see is the light repeating crossbow costs less and deals less damage. What am I missing?
Oh I forgot wrath does give you the improved crit feat for free at level 12. Not sure either why you would not go with the heavy repeating crossbow. I know with a normal crossbow, light is better for reloading time.
I think you should let his dex be hurt by his age as well. You spend to many resources in keeping him a bit better in combat. This is a great character ide. But IMOP this is a man that will out think the immortals not out shot them. I think you should accept that he is a supstandart warrior and make him an amazing commander and planner. He may have been a great warrior in hus time but what made him what is wasent an int of 10 and a wis of12 and a cha 8 as xmors is suggesting.
Does the rapid reload work on the repeating crossbow? Just looking at the description it doesn't state that. It's a free action to load the repeating crossbow (5 times) would be nice to lower the reload. Hmm actually you can go with rapid reload heavy crossbow (as a pre req) and when you get crossbow mastery you can ditch the repeating crossbow for a normal heavy crossbow...dang that is nasty
wrath already gives improved critical at 12th anyways so he should drop improved critical since he was going to have to get it at level 13. Keen edge is a great spell with it's longer duration and effects more than one opponent so once it can be cast it gets rid of the need for wrath. At that point maybe stop using wrath and start using true strike instead.
Inquisitors don't prepare spells, their awesomeness prevents that :) By the time you get to level 12 and wrath gives you improved crit you can cast it at least 6times a day so really you should have it available for every encounter. level 3 has some really nice buff spells overall so thats why I would save the improved crit for wrath and use greater magic weapon, magic vestment and Resist energy. But that is me
I think you should let his dex be hurt by his age as well. You spend to many resources in keeping him a bit better in combat. This is a great character ide. But IMOP this is a man that will out think the immortals not out shot them. I think you should accept that he is a supstandart warrior and make him an amazing commander and planner. He may have been a great warrior in hus time but what made him what is wasent an int of 10 and a wis of12 and a cha 8 as xmors is suggesting.
You make a valid point, Cap. Darling, and one I've been thinking a lot about. Though XMorsX's stat allocation definitely optimizes this character's combat performance, it doesn't quite reflect what I imagine he was like when he young. Here's what I imagine his stats used to be before the years caught up with him:
STR 11
DEX 17
CON 15
INT 12
WIS 14
CHA 8
He's always been deadly with a crossbow, and no slouch upstairs either. So this what he looks like in his twilight years:
STR 8
DEX 14
CON 12
INT 14
WIS 16
CHA 10
I've never thought of him as particularly charismatic, but I do imagine him to be an intimidating figure. I decided to trade out the Spellkiller Inquisition for Heresy to help with Intimidation and Stealth. I also took out my ranks in Heal and put them in Intimidate. The Touched by Divinity trait was traded for Reactionary. I think I'll switch to the Witch Hunter archetype, since it appears to fit my concept better than a regular inquisitor.
It's been a difficult balance to strike between character concept and making him a viable combatant, but this feels close.
Actually, the Preacher archetype looks more useful, even if the fluff doesn't fit. I didn't care for Teamwork Feats or Solo Tactics anyway.
I agree, XMorsX. The archetypes are cool, but they sacrifice broad abilities for more situational ones, and I don't wanna do that. Here's what I settled on:
STR 7
DEX 15
CON 12
INT 14
WIS 16
CHA 9
Skills:
Intimidate 10 (3 ranks)
Knowledge Arcana 8 (3 ranks)
Knowledge Nature 8 (3 ranks)
Knowledge Planes 8 (3 ranks)
Knowledge Religion 8 (3 ranks)
Perception 9 (3 ranks)
Sense Motive 10 (3 ranks)
Spellcraft 8 (3 ranks)
Stealth 8 (3 ranks)
Survival 9 (3 ranks)
Feats:
PBS
Precise Shot
Rapid Shot
Shake It Off (teamwork feat)
Traits:
Fate's Favored
Reactionary
Domain:
Heresy Inquisition
Thoughts?
Well, that was somewhat disappointing. Had our first session today. First fight I failed my save and was paralyzed for the entire encounter while the others killed monsters.
Why do I do this? I intentionally create suboptimal characters and then get disappointed when they don't do well in combat. I set myself up for failure.
Fortunately, the GM did say we could revise our characters if we like. I thought about removing the aging effects, but I feel like that would defeat the whole purpose of the character.
Still, I am open to any suggestions to improve the character. Maybe there's some other way to represent his age mechanically?
You failed a save, it doesn't matter what character you play or how strong, a bad roll will negate everything. The old aged template is a massive trade off, you're loosing -6 points two gain 3 points.
An alternative could be to play as an old Dwarf, they live much longer than humans so you can be considerably older and technically wiser. Pick up the feat "breadth of experience" and you'll gain +2 to all knowledge checks. Bump up your intelligence mod to +3 for that extra knowledge boost and skill point.
Alternatively you could be an elf for their bonus to dex and int.
The trade off is you miss the extra level 1 feat and extra skill point per level.
You're absolutely right, Deadalready. It was bad luck, plain and simple. There was pretty much nothing I could have done.
Your advice is sound, XMorsX. I probably should switch to a more useful inquisition. In terms of primary caster, perhaps becoming a blaster cleric would work? But you're right, I did want to still be a martial character.
I pooh-pooh'd it initially, but I am slowly warming up to the idea of being a synthesist summoner. The idea of actually becoming a marut in battle is almost too good to resist.
You can also consider to play the "immortal hunter" in his younger days. You know how he is when he is old and it is a great concept. But pehaps exploring his youth before he gros's old. That way he will also be powerfull, with several immortals on his consience, when old age comes to him.
Okay, change of plans. After our first session, the GM and I decided to revise my character. We need a front line melee combatant, and my character is the best candidate. He's still the same character, we're just ignoring aging effects. Any advice on how to rebuild this guy for melee would be great! I'll post a build as soon as I've got something.
We have a bard who will be pretty good at identifying monsters, but I will probably be better. That said, my INT is currently 12 and I've distributed my skill points as follows:
Climb 7 (1 rank)
Intimidate 6 (3 ranks)
Knowledge Arcana 5 (1 rank)
Knowledge Dungeon 5 (1 rank)
Knowledge Nature 5 (1 rank)
Knowledge Planes 5 (1 rank)
Knowledge Religion 5 (1 rank)
Perception 8 (3 ranks)
Sense Motive 9 (3 ranks)
Spellcraft 7 (3 ranks)
Stealth 8 (3 ranks)
Survival 8 (3 ranks)
Of course, I get a +2 bonus when making skill checks to identify the abilities and weaknesses of creatures.
The Intimidator sounds interesting, but my charisma is pretty low right now, so I'd have to switch things around.
As for the other two, Pharasma doesn't offer the tactics domain, rage domain, or anger inquisition, so those are probably out. Unless there's a deity who does and fits my character concept.