Hello!
A friend of mine has offered to run Mummy's Mask and allow gestalt characters. I like the Inquisitor for utility and skill monkey reasons, but am having a hard time finding something that jives well.
I've looked at swashbuckler and paladin. I've seen other threads here that mention Inquis/ranger. ACG, ARG (pre-mades, not custom races) and APG, and Psionics Unleashed (ultimate) are all allowed.
I want to be able to support, damage, and overall be useful to the party.
So far, we also have a Cleric/Shaman, Monk/Ninja, and Barbarian/Psi Warrior.
Help me find race and class combo with Inquisitor to keep up with and support these guys!
EDIT: The GM has allowed rollign stats as well, and I've got 18, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14.
The overall idea here from the GM is not to worry about power levels or balance, but to have fun. Anyone scoffing at the power level here, well, it doesn't matter.
Ranger?
I would normally say ranger since it has better stat synergy...but your stats are awesome enough that getting a bit of CHA is not a problem.
Swashbuckler has the advantage of having 2 handed like attacks despie the fact that it is built around non TWF sword and board. So, combined with the fact that it tends to have a DEX focus, it has fairly good AC. And if you go inspired blade (hey, take advantage of those stats by getting all the mental ones involved), you can get dex to damage from level 1 without restricting your race options (that is a bit more catch up early on though- you only hit like a 2 hander when you when you get precise strike at level 3)
Paladins of course have a large advantage as tanks as well though- they can swift action heal themselves. If you go human so that you have a spare feat at level 1 , then fey foundling (+2 per dice on healing) is amazing. Admittedly, you can do that with any race, but I would want a buffer since the feat doesn't come into play until level 2 (so having an extra feat for things like power attack is always good)
Ranger and maybe slayer are also options. I am mostly thinking of the fact that they get TWF or archery feats. Those tend to be good when you have large static bonuses to damage (like from the destruction judgement- justice for extra attack on top of a gestalt's full BAB is not bad either)
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Well, the original purpose of Gestalt was to make sure that the big 4 roles (Martial, Arcane Magic, Divine Magic, and Skills) were filled in parties that were smaller then 4 people. Right now you have a pure divine caster (cleric/shaman), a mediocre skill guy (monk/ninja), a beatstick (Barbarian/Psi Warrior) but you have no Arcane support at all. So I would recommend an arcane class, Wizard if you can live without armor or Magus if you still want to front-line. Honestly, if you could convince the rest of your part to diversify a bit and each take an "off-role" (a skill guy who can off-heal, a divine caster that also had full BAB progression, etc.), you would be better off if somebody got knocked out of the fight or even just had to miss a session.
With an inquisitor you could go zen archer monk for ranged or a wild shaping druid. both work of wisdom so there is some synergy there.
I'm running ROTRL with a zen archer monk3/inquisitor X build. Essentially this becomes a single stat class with a lot of casting and versatility to add to the total archery dominance. This is probably the best inquisitor multiclass I've seen. With the inquisition domain the player is able to be the focal point of all the interactions and also dominate skill checks and combat pretty well.
Leaning more towards melee than casting.
Inquisitor/Draconic Sorcerer, getting into Dragon Disciple right away. You lose armor, but you gain raw stats, Arcane casting (with Mage Armor, Blur, Mirror Image if you need any of them), and a d12 hit die. Keep your Inquisitor levels rolling since you'll want those stacking bonuses and later class features, your to-hit doesn't take a nose dive, and you have lots of bases covered.
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Leaning more towards melee than casting.
Go Swashbuckler/Inquisitor then. Stat synergy is only so-so, but with those stats you can easily go something like this:
Str 14 Dex 20 (+2 Race) Con 16 Int 17 Wis 18 Cha 15
Then go Inspired Blade and have more than enough Panache, all the skills you'll ever need, and Fencing Grace from level 1. Plus enough Str for Power Attack.
Take whatever spells float your boat, do okay from 1st to 4th, and then wreck everything from 5th level onward. Should be loads of fun.
Leaning more towards melee than casting.Go Swashbuckler/Inquisitor then. Stat synergy is only so-so, but with those stats you can easily go something like this:
Str 14 Dex 20 (+2 Race) Con 16 Int 17 Wis 18 Cha 15
Then go Inspired Blade and have more than enough Panache, all the skills you'll ever need, and Fencing Grace from level 1. Plus enough Str for Power Attack.
Take whatever spells float your boat, do okay from 1st to 4th, and then wreck everything from 5th level onward. Should be loads of fun.
Instead of swashbuckler go cavalier and take the daring champion archetype. They get pretty much what you want from the swashbuckler and also get cavalier abilities. You get both the precise strike and cavaliers challenge which means double your level to damage. Add in bane and judgments and you are looking at some absurd damage. You also get bonus teamwork feats from both classes and the ability to grant them to your teammates. Order of the Lion gets a dodge bonus on challenge and can grant others more a bonus on saves vs fear and bonus on attack rolls.
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Instead of swashbuckler go cavalier and take the daring champion archetype. They get pretty much what you want from the swashbuckler and also get cavalier abilities. You get both the precise strike and cavaliers challenge which means double your level to damage. Add in bane and judgments and you are looking at some absurd damage. You also get bonus teamwork feats from both classes and the ability to grant them to your teammates. Order of the Lion gets a dodge bonus on challenge and can grant others more a bonus on saves vs fear and bonus on attack rolls.
Daring Champion is very solid as well (and a better Class than Swashbuckler by default), but for Gestalt with Inquisitor having all good Saves (Swashbucklers have Good Reflex, while Cavaliers only have Good Fortitude, something Inquisitor already provides) and the ability to use Int as well as Charisma for Panache is very nice if doing a Gestalt build. As is the automatic Improved Critical at 5th level.
It's still a bit better offensively, and the Teamwork Feats do synchronize well, but I feel like Swashbuckler has some advantages as well.
Investigator is also an excellent choice, though one with a s&%$load of moving arts and lacking both full BAB and bonus Feats (which can be problematic on a melee character).
Of course, if I was doing this, I'd probably just go Investigator/Brawler and be Batman...but what to pair Inquisitor with was the question of the day.
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With stats like those you could gestalt with Commoner and still pull your weight, but that is neither here nor there.
I'd recommend going with the Slayer, full BAB, good reflex saves, and with the Ranger Combat Style talents, access to some bonus feats. You'll also have studied target and sneak attacks. It'll basically be like combining the best aspects of the Vanilla and Sacred Slayer inquisitors into one creamy package.
Although I have to admit there is a great appeal of going with a druid and turning into a T-rex with judgement abilities.
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Gestalt Brawler(Winding Path Renegade is the archetype I like) if you want to be ridiculously adaptable(changeable teamwork feat+martial flexibility=I have the feats for this situation) If you don't want that, then I'd suggest Warpriest(Sacred Fist is the archetype I like) and go pummeling style for some sweet casting action.
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Freebooter ranger with the Flagbearer feat. You give out a scaling bonus to hit for all of your allies and yourself that the monk/ninja will LOVE, and you do it all day, everyday, plus you improve flanking bonuses for everyone AND you get better BAB, all good saving throws, and plenty of bonus feats and nifty abilities.
You already get the skills so you could add a simple fighter. Gestalt is one of the ways to make that class good.
Or barbarian/bloodrager. Rage combined with all the inquisitor goodies would be neat.
But I guess what I would be doing is gestalt inquisitor and hunter. Sure, both get 3/4 bab but they make up for it with neat special abilities. This way you get tons of bonus teamwork feats, many ways to buff (judgement) two sets of spells with nice lists.
I'm not sure how BAB is calculated with gestalt PCs. Do you get the higher of both on a level by level basis? If so you should start with a single level of full BAB class in one of both. That way each level one of you classes gets a +1 and you end up with full BAB.
Those stats are redonkulously good. WOW.
I agree with the assessment that Arcane casting is currently quite limited. I think that the Cleric/Shaman is going to handle a bulk load of casting support, though, and if they have similar stats, they'll be able to effectively Wandering Spirit into Lore for the Sorc/Wiz spells you need each day.
That leaves you with a couple interesting options that still focus on melee: Magus, Bloodrager, Bard, and Skald are all good additions in terms of adding casting versatility. If I were to pick from those options, my choice would definitely be Bloodrager due to the nature of Gestalt play, which would tick you up to full BAB and make use of those stats extremely well. Having a "dump stat" Int of 14 is craziness.
Str: 18
Dex: 16
Con: 18
Int: 14
Wis: 17
Cha: 15
Recommended Bloodlines: Arcane, Elemental (Air), or Aberrant - these are the best 3, by far.
Archetypes: Primalist for sure, which will allow you to take a small selection of Rage Powers in place of the Bloodline Powers you might not like with no actual penalty. Steelblood is also good and you can take both it and Primalist.
Indeed.
I've started building a character with the Inspired blade swashbuckler/vanilla Inquisitor concept. Swash adds Cha to initiative at third level with panache, and inquis adds Wisdom at second, so by third level that's a +11, without feats.
Pshaw, Kryzbyn, you could do the worlds greatest non-paladin paladin ever!
Grapthar Warvan, Orc Scarred Witch Doctor + Corpse Hunter Ranger
- Great saves
- Great Bonuses vs. Undead
- Str & Con matter, and not really anything else
- 6+ Skills/Level
- Hexes for flight, immunities, healing & undead smiting
- Awesome spell versatility
- You will always have something to do, regardless of the opponent
- Use Earth Breaker or Greatsword depending on DR
- Power Attack is the only feat you need
- Ranger archery combat style feats w/o prerequisites + Adaptive Bow + 28 Str = Profit
(I'm guessing there are some undead in Mummy's Mask, but I've never played)
If you want to be versatile, it's tough to beat, and could be very hilarious!
I once saw a gestalt goblin inquisitor/rogue simply dominate a game. Damage on top of damage with saw tooth sabres. I don't have a copy of the build anymore, but it was wicked.
Are you deadset on inquisitor?
Rogue//cleric could serve as well, with more skills besides. Heck, cleric//inquisitor checks out. Alternatively, those stats are pretty damn hot.
Inquisitor doesn't really get a lot out of gestalting, as they already have an ok hd, their bab is average, they have spells already, and more skills doesn't get them a lot of mileage.
List of inquisitor stuff that'd be redundant if you pick it up from another class:
Good Fort
Good Will
D8 hd
6 skill ranks/lvl
Bane weapon
Standard Action usage (i.e., he needs to cast spells or attack, can't do both already. Also a mild contention for swift action economy from judgements, and bane weapon enhancement, I believe)
List of stuff inquisitors don't have.
Full BaB
Good Reflex
D10 or d12 hd
Great defenses, Divine Grace, SR, DR, high AC, Miss chances etc. (except for spells, which admittedly is a big exception)
List of stuff they already have, but more of it wouldn't be redundant:
bonus Damage/hit mechanic. Flurry of blows, smite evil, sneak attack, rage, favored enemy, all that good stuff.
Slow spellcasting
Skill bonuses
Looking this over, I'm tempted to guide you towards a martial full BaB guy of some sort.
Ranger, Barbarian, Bloodrager, Slayer(although watch the swift actions), Fighter, Monk, Cavalier, Investigator, Brawler, Gunslinger(I like this one a lot), Paladin, and finally, the swashbuckler.
Personally, my favorite reccommendations are the monk, although it'd probably work better with cleric, the swashbuckler and the gunslinger. They could all be pretty deadly if allowed to run wild.
Finally, the druid could combine pretty wonderfully with the inquisitor. They're both fighty/casty classes, and they don't overlap all that much in how they do it.
For alternate ways to build a divine/skillfull support guy, looky here:
Paladin(or antipaladin)//bard
Paladin//Ninja
Rogue//Divine Caster
Oracle//Ninja
Bard//Oracle
Investigator//Divine Caster (you can pull it with your stats, 16 int is fine)
Slayer//Cleric(or other divine casters) (This one keeps a lot of the feel of your idea, but with full BaB and 9th level spells)
With stats like those you could gestalt with Commoner and still pull your weight, but that is neither here nor there.
I'd recommend going with the Slayer, full BAB, good reflex saves, and with the Ranger Combat Style talents, access to some bonus feats. You'll also have studied target and sneak attacks. It'll basically be like combining the best aspects of the Vanilla and Sacred Slayer inquisitors into one creamy package.
Although I have to admit there is a great appeal of going with a druid and turning into a T-rex with judgement abilities.
Also to add to that Stalwart and Evasion with 3 good saves. Be a half orc with Fate's Favored and Sacred tattoo for +2 to all saves. As well that adds to Divine Favors luck bonus to attack and damage.
Take the bolt ace archetype for gunslinger a go full Van Helsing hunting mummies and other undead creatures :D
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Why stop with just one class? I feel inquisitor has plenty of class features to abuse. You could do 2 levels of monk for evasion and wisdom to AC; 2 levels of paladin for divine grace and a smite evil (like at levels 1 and 5 to get the BAB); a few levels of alchemist to get a mutagen; etc.
Because the GM is already allowing Gestalt rules, which are complicated enough to audit and check the interactions as it stands. Suggesting that his character multiclass with one half of his gestalt is liable to get him slapped...
GM's slap hard, all that dice rolling gives them a mean wrist.
There's no reason to believe the GM would be opposed to a complicated build. After all, he's already allowing gestalt (that phrase always struck me as odd, I'd have said "running a gestalt game"), he's obviously up for handling complex character builds.
No, sadly. This GM is green, but wants us to have fun. Which is why I'm not going crazy with it, two classes are enough.
It all depends on what you want to emphasize. Inquisitors can already do most things. You could grab a full BaB, d10 HD class for martial toughness; a full-casting class for spells (I think shaman would be interesting, but it might overlap with the cleric/shaman); or rogue/bard/investigator for skills and tricks. And with those stats you can make even odd combinations work, so try something interesting like inspired blade swashbuckler or wizard/magus.
Inquisitor/Ranger could be a good build I think. You get access to all Martial weapons, all good saves, better BaB and HD, Combat Style with you can take Archery or Crossbow to be a good switch hitter especially if those stats are in order, Favored Enemy would be a good stack with Bane and Judgements, spells like Lead Blades and Gravity Bow will be nice from Ranger when you hit lvl 4 and you have the Inquisitor spellcasting before then. You also have the Hunter's Bond to either bond with your party or an Animal Companion(and if you want a better list you can always go Beastmaster Ranger to get the whole Druid list)
I like the flashiness of the inspired blade swashbuckler's fighting style, so I'll stick with that. Others in the group have taken things that add damage or attacks if crits are made by others, or if the target is denied it's Dex to AC. Both of which my character will do a lot of. There's plenty of synergy there! So, while it may not be the best of options, I think it will be fun and will compliment (most of) my party members.
I've played a inquisitor/magus before, and they both use a lot of swift actions for their things. It's nice to be in the position of having too many cool things to pick from, but a lot of times I needed a lot of things earlier in a fight, but had to parse out my swift actions.
They kind of trip over themselves with all the swift actions.
By the way, there are a ton of good suggestions here that I'm filing away for future use. Keep the ideas coming, and if any of ya'll want to think about how to flush out a inspired blade swashbuckler/vanilla inquisitor with feats and such (fencing grace is a given), I'm always open to ideas!
Since this will be in Mummy's mask, I'm assuming there will be plenty of undead, so I'm going for the Final Death inquisition. I've chosen Fencing Grace, as I've said, for my first level feat. I think I'm going to use plumekith aasimar for the race, and worship Horus. Thougths?
Here's something functional, but "flashy".
Inquisitor 20, all the way. Take 5 levels of Gunslinger, then swap your Gunslinger half into the Grand Marshal Prestige Class.
Be the Lawbringer.
I've wanted to find a Gestalt game to do this in for a while but can't find one that also allows Advanced guns (I mean, you HAVE to use a Revoolver or a Shotgun. It's just not the same otherwise.).
Yeah Final Rest, Adding Wis to damage for disrupt undead, and later my rapier can act as a disruption weapon (I should be critting like crazy then).
Off the top of my head I'd say grab Paired Opportunists, Outflank and Combat Reflexes.
Traits along with Inquistions/Domains are out there that allow you to use Wisdom for things you normally can't. Like Wisdom for any physical skill.
Make sure you have some thrown light weapons handy, your Precise Strike deed will allow you to add to their damage. Some creatures you don't really want to get next to.
Yeah, those are among the first to be chosen when the time comes.
traits wise I'm gonna go with Rich parents and Undead Champion (campaign trait for MM) or whatever that gives a +1 trait bonus to knowledge religion and damage vs undead.
This choice may end up changing which inquisition I use...
With all high stats like that, I always think of Champion of Enlightened/Irori. Some sort of monk would gestalt well with the Inquisitor. Zen Archer or the Psionic Marksman would also be very good. You might also take a level of Empyreal Sorcerer and go Dragon Disciple for a little bit of Arcane support and some serious thumping if you are sure about the melee route. Use your spells for self buffing.
I have to say though, that I am currently running a level 8 ZAM with several dips and I can still keep up with the pure Fighter for DPR as long as I can roll the dice well.
As for race, look no further than your favorite flavor of Aasimar.
Lookout is a great teamwork feat for an inquisitor. If any of your party acts in the surprise round, you do too, and you get a full-round action if you weren't surprised in the first place!
I really like the 'preacher' archetype as well though, it trades out teamwork feats for some reroll abilities a few times per day. It's nifty.