PF Eberron Paladin/Inquisitor

[Bearlock]

Hello to everyone

Working on a character concept for a possible eberron game starting at level 6.

Its looking like someone else in the group already has designs on playing an archer, so I was looking to play a melee focused/semi tank inquisitor. However, the inquisitors lack of heavy armor and smaller hd has me a little worried. I know that multiclassing is generally frowned upon, but I was planning on taking at most 3 levels of paladin.

Basically I'm just looking for something to dip into for heavy armor prof, martial weapons, and at least a few levels of a higher hd. I thought about cavalier (order of the star), but the mount doesn't appeal and much of the abilities are level dependent, kind of weak for an at most 1 level dip. So, I turned to the paladin. Opposite problem here, seems kind of pointless to only take 1 level, and I may just be caught in a 3.5 mindset, but level 3 seems like a good point to branch out after nabbing a bunch of good stuff.

Again, planning on being frontlines with heavy armor, not sure if two handed or sword and board yet. Ability scores I plan on being str>wis>con>cha>int>dex. Dex being a dump stat because will be in heavy armor anyway and not too worried about ranged combat, I could switch con and wisdom even, not sure how high the campaign will take us, might not be necessary to have 16 for full casting.

Backstory would be a former soldier for Thrane who after witnessing war crimes by his own forces becomes an inquisitor. Joins the group as an agent of the Diet of Cardinals, opposite to my friend playing a SF cleric who is a personal agent to Speaker Jaela.

So, good idea for 3 levels of paladin? Fits character concept and seems alright to me. Any thoughts anyone may have on build, optimization or the lack there-of, please let me know. Not sure yet what the other characters will be, there could be four more, not counting my buddy's cleric, last I heard they would be a basic-four group.

[Baroncognito]

The biggest problem with a three level dip into paladin is that you do get a lot of charisma dependent abilities, but Charisma isn't really all that helpful to Inquisitors. If all you want is martial weapon proficiencies and heavy armour, there's no harm in going fighter.

[Baroncognito]

Honestly, I'd just use my Deity's favoured weapon (or a racial weapon) and take the Heavy Armour proficiency feat.

[Corlindale]

Yeah, you really won't gain much from 3 levels of paladin with an inquisitor, and you'll significantly delay the powers from judgements and bane. Really not worth it, especially given the lack of Cha-synergy.

You also have pretty nice saves already, so divine grace won't be as exciting, and in any case you can't afford a very high cha. Smite Evil will also be a minor bonus, and only 1/day.

I don't see much in the first 3 levels of paladin that would be very exciting for an inquisitor, in short.

As for your other concerns:
Heavy Armor Profiency: Just spend the feat.

Greater hit die: You'll gain a whopping total of 3 hit points on average by taking 3 paladin levels. REALLY not worth it.

Weapon prof: As the Baron said, use your deity's favored weapon - or just take 1 fighter level if it's really a big concern (or just the feat).

[RFLS]

I'm not 100% sure, but I think there's a Paladin archetype that switches their Cha dependency over to Wis, which would go nicely with inquisitor.

[Baroncognito]

I'm not 100% sure, but I think there's a Paladin archetype that switches their Cha dependency over to Wis, which would go nicely with inquisitor.

I don't believe there is a Paizo archetype that does that. Even the Dwarven Paladin, that's designed not to use charisma, doesn't get Wisdom based casting.

[Psyren]

Why not dip Fighter? More feats are always nice and you won't have to worry about Cha-based abilities or scaling class features (like a mount) going to waste.

[Bearlock]

Thank you everyone for the quick responses


The biggest problem with a three level dip into paladin is that you do get a lot of charisma dependent abilities, but Charisma isn't really all that helpful to Inquisitors. If all you want is martial weapon proficiencies and heavy armour, there's no harm in going fighter.

Honestly, I'd just use my Deity's favoured weapon (or a racial weapon) and take the Heavy Armour proficiency feat.

I figured Cha might help boost my social skills, ie Intimidate, but I just re-read the inquisitor "stern gaze" ability, had missed that earlier. As far as Deity's weapon, Church of the Silver Flame's is the longbow, which I'm already proficient with via inquisitor. (It seems like most people choose their characters deities simply based on favored weapon, nothing wrong with that, but in a set realm it seems kind of cheesy.) Half Orc isn't really the way I want to go, because of backstory and I don't think I can count on greataxes and falchions raining from the DM.


Yeah, you really won't gain much from 3 levels of paladin with an inquisitor, and you'll significantly delay the powers from judgements and bane. Really not worth it, especially given the lack of Cha-synergy.

You also have pretty nice saves already, so divine grace won't be as exciting, and in any case you can't afford a very high cha. Smite Evil will also be a minor bonus, and only 1/day.

I did realize that i was putting off bane, but I'd have it inside of two levels, which should go pretty quick. As far as Divine Grace goes, I was hoping to squeak at least a +1, or at most +2 out of it, and while Inquisitors get good Fort and Will saves, my Ref will be in the gutter due to an already low Dex. I had figured on smiting being kind of an ace in the hole, on an undead or evil outsider it would be +6 to damage and bypass any DR. Not saying it was a GOOD idea, just explaining the thought process.

However, I will probably just dip 1 level of Fighter, gets me all martial weapons, and I'd rather dip and get a feat than spend one on Heavy Armor Prof.

Thanks for the help folks

[Person_Man]

My 2cp:

Inquisitor is a pretty meh Bard-ish class. 3/4 spells, modestly useful/versatile buffs, and some decent Skills. Like most other casters, it really doesn't multi-class well.

Paladin: Smite and Divine Grace are useful, and it has some good archetype options if you don't like the Special Mount (which is one of it's strongest class features, btw). If you go with Paladin, I suggest strait Paladin 6.

Cavalier 4/Anything X with the Horse Master feat gives you a Druid companion with abilities keyed to your character level, instead of your Cavalier level. And you can trade away your other (cruddy) class features for Feats via Archetypes.

Monk: If your DM is nice and allows you to mix and match archetypes, you can actually make a fairly resilient and fun front line Monk, and there are a bunch of potential combos if you use the various Monk feats (Bewildering Koan, Panther Claw, Snake Fang, Punishing Kick, Vicious Stomp, etc). Flowing Monk + Master of Many Styles in particular has a lot of potential.



RE: Mounted stuff: A mount gives your character much better mobility, additional attacks (from your mount), another target/meat shield (which will reduce the number of attacks coming to you), and maybe some special abilities as well. A Small character riding a Medium mount everywhere your Medium party member friends go. And Spirited Charge + Power Attack with a lance wielded two handed and some source of Pounce gives you some of the best damage output in Pathfinder.