A true Inquisitor - is there such a beast? [Archive] - Wizards Community

A true Inquisitor - is there such a beast? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Aktariel
02-09-07, 05:11 PM I have, for almost as long as I've been reading fantasy novels, been enthralled with Inquisitors in said novels - you know, the tall, gaunt, chilling, sword-slinging, spell weaving, we're-not-quite-sure-he's-still-good-or-even-human type inquisitor. So I start playing DnD, and what do I find? Nothing. There is nothing like this character at all. And I know, there's the Church Inquisitor, and the Shadowbane Inquisitor, but they just don't fit the flavor. And yes, I could make or borrow a gish build that would do almost everything I want it to, but it wouldn't have the same flavor. A prestige (or even better, base) class would be terrific. So.

Is there such a beast? I don't care if it's WoTC, or Third Party. If so, where can I find it?

And if not, suggestions for creating said class?
Tempest Stormwind
02-09-07, 05:25 PM Flavor is completely mutable. Remind me to introduce you to our party's leader, a detective and bounty hunter and in his own way an inquisitor against a threat that no one knows exists... with all of his levels so far in Ardent (a psionic class that is essentially similar to a cleric of a philosophy), planning to take a few in Crusader soon.

That said, you might want to look into the Tome of Magic. The binders there are directly inspired by goetic magic (i.e. the historical "pacts with the devils" that the Inquisition hunted down), and I recall there being a PrC based on the Inquisitor itself. I don't remember the mechanics off the top of my head, but it's the closest I can think of. The only other one that comes close is the vigilante in Complete Adventurer, really.

If you're willing to scrap spells, the Ghostwalker can get everything else. It was unofficially updated for 3.5 here (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=347888). If you're willing to go third-party, the sighted seeker (in Untapped Potential) comes pretty damn close as well -- it's essentially a Seer/Ranger hybrid PrC, but either class can enter it on its own.

What, exactly, draws you to the *inquisitor* part of this? You're looking for a skilled gish, mechanically.
Darth Sephiroth
02-09-07, 05:28 PM Not really a spellcaster but I have my INQUISITOR (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?p=10900856) that could be made to fit into most settings with a few modifications.
Aktariel
02-09-07, 05:33 PM *shrugs*

Erm... let me make myself a little clearer. I am not looking for a historically classical inquisitor. I am looking for a fantastically classical inquisitor. I realize I'm looking for a gish. Like I said, I can build or borrow those. And I know that I'm going to wind up playing one of those. I simply wondered if there might not be an inquisitor prestige class somewhere with something like the following abilities:

Full or Medium BAB
Full or Medium Spellcasting Progression
A few (two or three) nifty abilities - perhaps smite corrupt and a few others?

Something combining Emerald Magistrate, Quori Mindhunter, and Shadowbane Inquisitor? Which is not a whole lot like what I'm looking for, but the best I can come up with.

Perhaps I should look at Heroes of Horror...
MerlintheTuna
02-09-07, 05:40 PM Have you considered a Duskblade, from the PHB2? It's a gish base class whose sole focus is dealing damage -- it doesn't have much (if anything) in the way of utility spells, but one does not smite the wicked with Grease, even if it is funnier. You end up with full BAB, d8 hit die all the way, and a pretty large number of spells, even if almost all of them are blasts.
Aktariel
02-09-07, 05:45 PM Funnily enough, I considered adding a PS to my original post to the effect of, "Please don't tell me to play a duskblade." Yes, I've considered it. Yes, they're alright. Yes, I might start there but I wouldn't go 20 all the way, and gish builds have nicer flavor. And abilities.

EDIT: In addition, as much as I like and as often as I play straight blasters, utility spells seem somewhat necessary to an inquisitor build. Things like mark of justice and charm person come to mind.

Second Edit: Let's add another flavor consideration (yes yes I know, flavor shmavor) - very little armor.

*sigh* I suppose I'll move over to the Char Ops board and see what I can stir up in the way of an anti-spellcaster light armor-wearing spellslinging yet still subtle gish build...
Tempest Stormwind
02-09-07, 06:05 PM *shrugs*

Erm... let me make myself a little clearer. I am not looking for a historically classical inquisitor. I am looking for a fantastically classical inquisitor. I realize I'm looking for a gish. Like I said, I can build or borrow those. And I know that I'm going to wind up playing one of those. I simply wondered if there might not be an inquisitor prestige class somewhere with something like the following abilities:

Full or Medium BAB
Full or Medium Spellcasting Progression
A few (two or three) nifty abilities - perhaps smite corrupt and a few others?

Something combining Emerald Magistrate, Quori Mindhunter, and Shadowbane Inquisitor? Which is not a whole lot like what I'm looking for, but the best I can come up with.

Perhaps I should look at Heroes of Horror...I find it amusing you go "historical" inquisitor and then specify spells. :p

1) An ardent handles this EXACTLY. They're rather build-as-you-go anyway. They're medium base attack, full manifesting, a few unique abilities as you pick up mantles (specifically, the Conflict, Corruption and Madness, Deception, Fate, Guardian, Justice, The Planes, and Repose mantles fit the bill for an inquisitor, along with (to some extent) the Physical Power, Mental Power, and Knowledge mantles). The ardent feels totally different from other ardents depending on which mantles you take and which order you take them in, so I'd be willing to bet your solution lies in here.

2) Witch Slayer. That's the inquisitor PrC I mentioned earlier. It's 5-level, full base attack, no spellcasting -- but it can be inserted into virtually any build without too much of a concern. It has all the abilities you'd expect that distinguish an inquisitor from another gish, so build a gish with more spellcasting than normal and add in Witch Slayer. (Ardent comes pretty damn close.)

Off the top of my head, Ardent 10 / Quori Mindhunter 5 / Witch Slayer 5 is a pretty decent minigish inquisitor, although I'd have to look up the manifesting progression on the mindhunter. Alternatively, look into the Sighted Seeker that I mentioned earlier; it can be a pretty damn good inquisitor or bounty hunter.

Oh, and consider the City Slicker feat at first level. It adds a few skills, including Gather Information, to your list of class skills for all classes. It alone can turn any class into a good investigator, which is the cornerstone of an inquisitor.
Aktariel
02-09-07, 06:25 PM Oddly enough, I was just considering making this a psionic build - I talked to the guy who's going to DM this, told him what I wanted to play, and basically, he said that he could see having psionic characters hunt down arcane characters - out of control ones, at least... He mentioned that it's most likely going to be a "psionics is different" world with a twist - psionics can affect magic but not the other way around. Which sounds totally broken but might be utterly fun :D

Thanks for the suggestions.

PSI find it amusing you go "historical" inquisitor and then specify spells. :p
What did you mean by "go 'historical' inquisitor? I was trying to convey that that was what I didn't want...
periscope
02-09-07, 07:27 PM I would suggest a straight level 20 psion (Seer). Clairvoyant sense lets you scope out places easier than scrying (and it can see whats on the other side of that door even if you've never been there), metafaculty helps hunt down the ones that got away, and you can always burn a feat to get psionic charm. Matter agitation could be a good way to get information from a bound prisoner, crystal shard can help with your offense (no save, just a ranged touch attack that can be boosted to 20d6, and as a power, ignores DR).

Barring that there is an item, one of the third eyes. It tells you whenever someone lies to you. COULD be useful...
Aktariel
02-10-07, 04:19 PM I would suggest a straight level 20 psion (Seer). Clairvoyant sense lets you scope out places easier than scrying (and it can see whats on the other side of that door even if you've never been there), metafaculty helps hunt down the ones that got away, and you can always burn a feat to get psionic charm. Matter agitation could be a good way to get information from a bound prisoner, crystal shard can help with your offense (no save, just a ranged touch attack that can be boosted to 20d6, and as a power, ignores DR).

Barring that there is an item, one of the third eyes. It tells you whenever someone lies to you. COULD be useful...

Yes - except that straight Psion 20 nets you jack in the way of BAB. Gish is what we're looking for here, though granted your power list is pretty good.

A build of Kalashtar Ardent 9/Quori Mindhunter 5/Sanctified Mind 6 would net a BAB of 16 and a ML of 18 - a pretty good mix for a gish, but we wind up with a bunch of anti-psionic abilities and the abilities don't mesh well with the flavor I'm shooting for. The DM might be lenient enough to allow me to change the flavor of Sanctified Mind to be anti-magic, but I'd prefer to do it with out houseruling or homebrewing...

A PsyWar 8/Illithid Slayer 10/Sanctified Mind 2 nets a BAB of +18 and an ML of 18, but in addition to the above problems, it has less power than a traditional gish might (IE, the ML is quite good but the power list is still PsyWar, which does not have the same oomph that a psion of equivalent ML would have.)

Psion 5/Elocater 4/Sanctified Mind 6/Quori Mindhunter 5 nets us a BAB of 16, and an ML of 15... again, a slightly underpowered PsyGish, and with a lot of anti-psionic abilities...

We need a psionic anti-magic prestige class...

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Aktariel 02-09-07, 05:11 PM	I have, for almost as long as I've been reading fantasy novels, been enthralled with Inquisitors in said novels - you know, the tall, gaunt, chilling, sword-slinging, spell weaving, we're-not-quite-sure-he's-still-good-or-even-human type inquisitor. So I start playing DnD, and what do I find? Nothing. There is nothing like this character at all. And I know, there's the Church Inquisitor, and the Shadowbane Inquisitor, but they just don't fit the flavor. And yes, I could make or borrow a gish build that would do almost everything I want it to, but it wouldn't have the same flavor. A prestige (or even better, base) class would be terrific. So. Is there such a beast? I don't care if it's WoTC, or Third Party. If so, where can I find it? And if not, suggestions for creating said class?
Tempest Stormwind 02-09-07, 05:25 PM	Flavor is completely mutable. Remind me to introduce you to our party's leader, a detective and bounty hunter and in his own way an inquisitor against a threat that no one knows exists... with all of his levels so far in Ardent (a psionic class that is essentially similar to a cleric of a philosophy), planning to take a few in Crusader soon. That said, you might want to look into the Tome of Magic. The binders there are directly inspired by goetic magic (i.e. the historical "pacts with the devils" that the Inquisition hunted down), and I recall there being a PrC based on the Inquisitor itself. I don't remember the mechanics off the top of my head, but it's the closest I can think of. The only other one that comes close is the vigilante in Complete Adventurer, really. If you're willing to scrap spells, the Ghostwalker can get everything else. It was unofficially updated for 3.5 here (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=347888). If you're willing to go third-party, the sighted seeker (in Untapped Potential) comes pretty damn close as well -- it's essentially a Seer/Ranger hybrid PrC, but either class can enter it on its own. What, exactly, draws you to the inquisitor part of this? You're looking for a skilled gish, mechanically.
Darth Sephiroth 02-09-07, 05:28 PM	Not really a spellcaster but I have my INQUISITOR (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?p=10900856) that could be made to fit into most settings with a few modifications.
Aktariel 02-09-07, 05:33 PM	shrugs Erm... let me make myself a little clearer. I am not looking for a historically classical inquisitor. I am looking for a fantastically classical inquisitor. I realize I'm looking for a gish. Like I said, I can build or borrow those. And I know that I'm going to wind up playing one of those. I simply wondered if there might not be an inquisitor prestige class somewhere with something like the following abilities: Full or Medium BAB Full or Medium Spellcasting Progression A few (two or three) nifty abilities - perhaps smite corrupt and a few others? Something combining Emerald Magistrate, Quori Mindhunter, and Shadowbane Inquisitor? Which is not a whole lot like what I'm looking for, but the best I can come up with. Perhaps I should look at Heroes of Horror...
MerlintheTuna 02-09-07, 05:40 PM	Have you considered a Duskblade, from the PHB2? It's a gish base class whose sole focus is dealing damage -- it doesn't have much (if anything) in the way of utility spells, but one does not smite the wicked with Grease, even if it is funnier. You end up with full BAB, d8 hit die all the way, and a pretty large number of spells, even if almost all of them are blasts.
Aktariel 02-09-07, 05:45 PM	Funnily enough, I considered adding a PS to my original post to the effect of, "Please don't tell me to play a duskblade." Yes, I've considered it. Yes, they're alright. Yes, I might start there but I wouldn't go 20 all the way, and gish builds have nicer flavor. And abilities. EDIT: In addition, as much as I like and as often as I play straight blasters, utility spells seem somewhat necessary to an inquisitor build. Things like mark of justice and charm person come to mind. Second Edit: Let's add another flavor consideration (yes yes I know, flavor shmavor) - very little armor. sigh I suppose I'll move over to the Char Ops board and see what I can stir up in the way of an anti-spellcaster light armor-wearing spellslinging yet still subtle gish build...
Tempest Stormwind 02-09-07, 06:05 PM	shrugs Erm... let me make myself a little clearer. I am not looking for a historically classical inquisitor. I am looking for a fantastically classical inquisitor. I realize I'm looking for a gish. Like I said, I can build or borrow those. And I know that I'm going to wind up playing one of those. I simply wondered if there might not be an inquisitor prestige class somewhere with something like the following abilities: Full or Medium BAB Full or Medium Spellcasting Progression A few (two or three) nifty abilities - perhaps smite corrupt and a few others? Something combining Emerald Magistrate, Quori Mindhunter, and Shadowbane Inquisitor? Which is not a whole lot like what I'm looking for, but the best I can come up with. Perhaps I should look at Heroes of Horror...I find it amusing you go "historical" inquisitor and then specify spells. :p 1) An ardent handles this EXACTLY. They're rather build-as-you-go anyway. They're medium base attack, full manifesting, a few unique abilities as you pick up mantles (specifically, the Conflict, Corruption and Madness, Deception, Fate, Guardian, Justice, The Planes, and Repose mantles fit the bill for an inquisitor, along with (to some extent) the Physical Power, Mental Power, and Knowledge mantles). The ardent feels totally different from other ardents depending on which mantles you take and which order you take them in, so I'd be willing to bet your solution lies in here. 2) Witch Slayer. That's the inquisitor PrC I mentioned earlier. It's 5-level, full base attack, no spellcasting -- but it can be inserted into virtually any build without too much of a concern. It has all the abilities you'd expect that distinguish an inquisitor from another gish, so build a gish with more spellcasting than normal and add in Witch Slayer. (Ardent comes pretty damn close.) Off the top of my head, Ardent 10 / Quori Mindhunter 5 / Witch Slayer 5 is a pretty decent minigish inquisitor, although I'd have to look up the manifesting progression on the mindhunter. Alternatively, look into the Sighted Seeker that I mentioned earlier; it can be a pretty damn good inquisitor or bounty hunter. Oh, and consider the City Slicker feat at first level. It adds a few skills, including Gather Information, to your list of class skills for all classes. It alone can turn any class into a good investigator, which is the cornerstone of an inquisitor.
Aktariel 02-09-07, 06:25 PM	Oddly enough, I was just considering making this a psionic build - I talked to the guy who's going to DM this, told him what I wanted to play, and basically, he said that he could see having psionic characters hunt down arcane characters - out of control ones, at least... He mentioned that it's most likely going to be a "psionics is different" world with a twist - psionics can affect magic but not the other way around. Which sounds totally broken but might be utterly fun :D Thanks for the suggestions. PSI find it amusing you go "historical" inquisitor and then specify spells. :p What did you mean by "go 'historical' inquisitor? I was trying to convey that that was what I didn't want...
periscope 02-09-07, 07:27 PM	I would suggest a straight level 20 psion (Seer). Clairvoyant sense lets you scope out places easier than scrying (and it can see whats on the other side of that door even if you've never been there), metafaculty helps hunt down the ones that got away, and you can always burn a feat to get psionic charm. Matter agitation could be a good way to get information from a bound prisoner, crystal shard can help with your offense (no save, just a ranged touch attack that can be boosted to 20d6, and as a power, ignores DR). Barring that there is an item, one of the third eyes. It tells you whenever someone lies to you. COULD be useful...
Aktariel 02-10-07, 04:19 PM	I would suggest a straight level 20 psion (Seer). Clairvoyant sense lets you scope out places easier than scrying (and it can see whats on the other side of that door even if you've never been there), metafaculty helps hunt down the ones that got away, and you can always burn a feat to get psionic charm. Matter agitation could be a good way to get information from a bound prisoner, crystal shard can help with your offense (no save, just a ranged touch attack that can be boosted to 20d6, and as a power, ignores DR). Barring that there is an item, one of the third eyes. It tells you whenever someone lies to you. COULD be useful... Yes - except that straight Psion 20 nets you jack in the way of BAB. Gish is what we're looking for here, though granted your power list is pretty good. A build of Kalashtar Ardent 9/Quori Mindhunter 5/Sanctified Mind 6 would net a BAB of 16 and a ML of 18 - a pretty good mix for a gish, but we wind up with a bunch of anti-psionic abilities and the abilities don't mesh well with the flavor I'm shooting for. The DM might be lenient enough to allow me to change the flavor of Sanctified Mind to be anti-magic, but I'd prefer to do it with out houseruling or homebrewing... A PsyWar 8/Illithid Slayer 10/Sanctified Mind 2 nets a BAB of +18 and an ML of 18, but in addition to the above problems, it has less power than a traditional gish might (IE, the ML is quite good but the power list is still PsyWar, which does not have the same oomph that a psion of equivalent ML would have.) Psion 5/Elocater 4/Sanctified Mind 6/Quori Mindhunter 5 nets us a BAB of 16, and an ML of 15... again, a slightly underpowered PsyGish, and with a lot of anti-psionic abilities... We need a psionic anti-magic prestige class...