Tank Inquisitor

Hitman187 · Jun 25, 2011

Hello I am playing in a Eberron based pathfinder game, we are 13th level currently, and I had just retired my cleric of the Silver Flame (by plot, he couldn't die besides suicide).
My new character is a Human Inquisitor, but unfortunately I have to become the tank since our old tank also retired his character. The problem is I need to be an inquisitor, don't want to multiclass, but I will be 75% or so of our non caster damage and have to be tanky (our group make up is an arcane trickster, wizard, and artificer).
I have 3 feats reserved for my greater Dragonmark of Finding, one for a role-playing feat (research from Eberron), but besides that I can spend almost all of my 140,000 gold and other four feats anyway I want. I was hoping I could get some suggestions, especially about any custom built magic items because I have been trying to make some but they are either to expensive or too cheesy.

By the way my character is Lawful Evil and lacks sanity.
Thanks in advance.

Mad Hamish · Jun 25, 2011

I confess that this is theorycraft, my next character is going to an inquisator but I haven't seen one in play yet, nor do I have a lot of experience with pathfinder.
You've got to decide how you want to approach things.
At 13th level you've got 5 judgements a day and 2 judgements at a time so you're well placed there.
Generally I'd recommend that you always use Justice and you'll commonly want to use the second one to bump AC, provide DR or energy resistance depending what you're up against.
A large threat range weapon is worth getting as you are extremely likely to confirm crits so you might want to pick a god that grants access to on or spend a feat on it. Improved Critical or Keen is also worth it.

You've got some low level spells that bump AC and other that give hit bonuses so a lesser rod of quicken might be worth the expense.

as far as feats go Power Attack is always a strong option for damage.
Greater Bane gives you another source of damage

Note that you've also got 4 teamwork feats to select Precise Strike, Outflank, Shielded Caster look like reasonable options. Hopefully either some other member of the party does hth or there will be summoned creatures who'll do it.

Dingo333 · Jun 27, 2011

I recommend:

Elf Race: Access to rapier and short sword and a dex bonus

Two Weapon Fighting: As you want as many chances for that bonus from your judgments to kick in, 4 attacks sound good to me, plus rend

Sun Blade: it is a short sword that does 1d10, not 1d6 damage, They are 50k each but when you have 140k that is not bad. Also see if you can get an alternate version "Moon Blade" that will work for an evil person like the Sun works for a good person

Mithral Agile Breast Plate: will give you the best of Dex based AC and Armor Based AC

Also, LE but lacks sanity? sounds more CE. And there happens to be a Madness Domain. But my favorite is the Travel domain, so I would recommend a deity with the travel domain (+10 speed, ignore difficult terrain and teleport as needed)

Hope this all helps

StreamOfTheSky · Jun 27, 2011

Dingo333 said:
I recommend:

Elf Race: Access to rapier and short sword and a dex bonus

I recommend Dwarf. Wis bonus for a wis-based class, and +2 con helps with tanking, as does the whole never reduced in speed by armor or load. Decent enough free proficiencies, and a great assortment of other racial features.

Dingo333 · Jun 27, 2011

StreamOfTheSky said:
I recommend Dwarf. Wis bonus for a wis-based class, and +2 con helps with tanking, as does the whole never reduced in speed by armor or load. Decent enough free proficiencies, and a great assortment of other racial features.

I wont go into the whole elf vs dwarf bit but I will point out ability difference.

Dwarfs get a +2 to Wis and Con, good for a wis focus spells tank
They get a -2 to Cha, and inquisitor is also the face of the party around 3 of every 4 social encounters, even with a bard or sorcerer around and there is neither (assuming slightly)

Elf gets a +2 to Dex and Int, good for a dex based tank and the Int boost helps with skills and KN checks on monsters
They do get a -2 to Con, and this translates to 26 less hit points between a dwarf and an elf at level 13

This means that the dwarf will be using the favored class bonus to gain a skill point while the elf uses it to gain a hit point meaning the dwarf comes out only 13 ahead in Hp and 0 ahead if you get toughness at some point

Also, the elf has no penalties to Cha and Wis making them slightly better in social encounters

StreamOfTheSky · Jun 28, 2011

I didn't realize the OP needd to be the party face. In fact, given the whole "lacks sanity" thing, it was a kind of counterintuitive assumption to make.

As far as general advice... If 3E feats are an option grab Parrying Shield from Lords of Madness. A single feat to apply your shield AC as an unnamed bonus to your touch AC. Which coincidentally in Pathfinder also means it adds to your CMD. There's also the similar Shield Ward feat in PHB 2, but it is inferior in this case since it requires another feat first (for +1 shield AC) and only applies to one type of shield (like heavy shields) instead of all.

For your teamwork feats... wow is Lookout amazing. Paired Opportunists helps with controlling your threatened area. Precise Strike is never bad, and Outflank is a natural to pair it with. Depending on how your DM interprets Swap Places to work with your solo tactics class feature, it might also be worthwhile to pull an ally out of harm's way.

Evidicus · Aug 15, 2011

Dingo333 said:
I wont go into the whole elf vs dwarf bit but I will point out ability difference.

Dwarfs get a +2 to Wis and Con, good for a wis focus spells tank
They get a -2 to Cha, and inquisitor is also the face of the party around 3 of every 4 social encounters, even with a bard or sorcerer around and there is neither (assuming slightly)

Elf gets a +2 to Dex and Int, good for a dex based tank and the Int boost helps with skills and KN checks on monsters
They do get a -2 to Con, and this translates to 26 less hit points between a dwarf and an elf at level 13

This means that the dwarf will be using the favored class bonus to gain a skill point while the elf uses it to gain a hit point meaning the dwarf comes out only 13 ahead in Hp and 0 ahead if you get toughness at some point

Also, the elf has no penalties to Cha and Wis making them slightly better in social encounters

Unless you pick up the Heresy Inquisition which allows you to skip Charisma entirely and use your Wisdom modifier for Bluff and Intimidate.

Heresy Inquisition - Pathfinder_OGC

This allowed me to focus my ability scores a bit more for my Inquisitor, and actually fit more with his character personality. If he needs to do a Diplomacy check, he still has a reroll available to him a few times per day. That said, there aren't many situations he can't Intimidate his way through instead.

If I was making a pure tank, I'd probably go this route, focus on Strength, and pick up Heavy Armor proficiency. Dwarf would give you a good mix of Strength, Constitution and Wisdom.

If you have your heart set on Human, no reason a similar build wouldn't work there too.