Dazzling Inquisitor (Inquisitor Build)

Dazzling Inquisitor

Half-Orc Inquisitor with the Conversion Inquisition 17/Cavalier(Gendarme) with the order of the Cockatrice 2/Rouge(Thug) 1
Fear me!

The Primary Purpose of the Dazzling Inquisitor is to intimidate his foes, both in and outside of combat. His main method is dazzling display, but he gets a few other tricks down the road. He is also a decent front line fighter.  Your first two levels are Cavalier (Gendarme) with the Order of the Cockatrice. Next you dip one level of Rogue (Thug). The rest is Inquisitor with the Conversion Inquisition.

Attributes

Str>Wis>Con>Dex>Int>Cha

Put your increases into strength. If your wisdom is under 16, make sure that is maintains pace with the spells you can cast. With the Conversion Inquisition, Charisma does nothing for this build.

Also, choose the half-orc favored bonus, by adding ½ to intimidate checks every level.

15 Point Buy
STR: 18 (16+2)
DEX: 13
CON: 14
INT: 7
WIS: 14
CHA: 7

20 Point Buy
STR: 18 (12+2)
DEX: 13
CON: 14
INT: 7
WIS: 16
CHA: 7

25 Point Buy
STR: 18 (14+2)
DEX: 13
CON: 16
INT: 7
WIS: 16
CHA: 7

Traits

Unnatural Presence: This allows you to demoralize animals and vermin. Very useful!
Bully or Brute: +1 To intimidate

Feats

1: Cavalier: Power attack, Weapon Focus: Falchion
2: Cavalier: Dazzling Display
3: Rogue: Furious Focus
4:
5: Intimidating Prowess
6:
7: Cornugon Smash
8:
9: Shatter Defenses
10:
11: Antagonize
12:
13: Persuasive
14:
15: Dreadful Carnage
16:
17: Dodge
18:
19: Gory Finish
20:

Suggested Gear

Standard weapon enchantment (keen helps) and armor enchantments. Grab a falchion for some sweet 18-20 crit range. You want the heaviest armor you can get - full plate? Nothing too special besides that. Ominous and Cruel weapon enchantments will help your cause.

Spells

Litanies are great, grab some of those. Besides that, Persuasive Goad and Instrument of Agony will be helpful.

What the Build Looks Like at...

This assumes a 20 point buy and only mundane equipment (not even masterwork)

Level 1: We are just a cavalier right now. Might as well grab a horse animal companion for a flanking buddy, as we won’t be riding for too long. We don’t have dazzling display yet, but we do have an intimidate +5. Other than that, we attack at +6 (18-20) for 2d4+6. 12 HP, 20 AC.

Level 4: We have dazzling display with +14 and all the usual inquisitor tricks, plus a few rogue and cavalier tricks. Other than that, we attack at +7 (+9 against shaken) (18-20) for 2d4+9. 34 HP, 20 AC.

Level 8: We intimidating at +26. With Judgement of Destruction, and power attack, we are attacking at +10 (18-20) for 2d4+15. 62 HP, 20 AC.

Level 12: We are intimidating at +34. With Judgement of Destruction and Justice, and power attack, we are attacking at +14/+8 (18-20) for 2d4+20.   90 HP, 20 AC. (Against Shaken opponents, DPR 23)

Level 16: We are intimidating at, um. +47, which means even if you roll a one on your intimidate check, you demoralize a CR 20 Red Dragon Wyrm for 2 rounds. With Judgement of Destruction and Justice, and power attack, we are attacking at +21/+13/+8 (18-20) for 2d4+23, which isn’t too shabby. We’ve got 118 HP, 24 AC.

Level 20: We are intimidating at +55, which means you have a 30% chance of demoralizing the CR 39 Lucifer for two rounds. With a decent ominous weapon and a good roll, you have a chance of making him flee! With Judgement of Destruction and Justice, and power attack, we are attacking at +25/+16/+11 (18-20) for 2d4+27, which isn’t too shabby. We can also have protection up, yielding 146 HP, 25 AC.

Tactics

First round, dazzling display as a standard action, then charge in. Cause about half of the enemies to be frightened through your rogue archetype so that you only need to fight half at a time.  You can completely destroy enemies groups by having many or most of them flee, then picking off the remainder and killing the rest.  Cornugon smash and dreadful carnage will allow you to continue demoralizing in combat. Then, your level 9 shatter defenses will allow you to treat demoralized enemies as flat footed!

The rogue thug archetype allows you to increase the length of demoralize by one round, or change it to frightened if it would go for 4 rounds or longer. You also get sneak attack against all those flat footed enemies! Your Order of the Cockatrice Cavalier dip gives you +2 to hit demoralized enemies - which should be everybody.

If up against guys who can’t be demoralized, you still hit with an alright amount of punch, so get in there swinging. You also have a number of spells up your sleeves, and a decent wisdom score to back it up.

Your intimidate will also be very, very useful outside of combat.


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