need help making a cleric/inquisitor for a "low magic" setting

[EnemyTaiyou]

Preface: DM for a side-game wants to run a "low magic" setting with Pathfinder. What he means is that magic is at the level of superstition. There's no fireballs or rays being slung about (think of it as a house ruled spell restriction), but covert effects like buffs and curses are allowed. HP is more like karma and luck, as far as taking damage and healing is concerned. There are consequences for taking mortal wounds though, and I'm pretty sure healing can't fix that, and of course, resurrection isn't covert. Finally, Transmutation is also psuedo-delayed (happens off screen), and is more an element of horror.

So far: we had one session where I played as a half-elf inquisitor with the protection domain; we started at level 6, but with no gear. We managed to scrounge up some mundane equipment, and soon realized that we're likely going to be very strapped for gold. On top of this, our party size is three. In our first encounter, against a standard CR 5 Orc camp, we were TPK'd even though we used the element of surprise. The world is completely random generated, so there's no idea about what's in store, until we get into it.

Based on that, may I have suggestions or ideas for how to build a cleric or an inquisitor that can help the party survive? Additionally, any tips on essential party composition that would be generally successful would be good.

[StoneCipher]

Low magic settings are very DM dependent and what you can get away with may be decided by reasoning with the DM and not necessarily technical spells.

Perhaps you can convince the DM to rework healing spells so that, through divine intervention, you "bless" the character so that the next time they would receive damage, the wound miraculously isn't as bad as it would have been. Something like giving them temporary damage reduction or hit points.

Aside from that, focus all your power on buffing since that's the only thing you can rely on to work as intended.

Also, carry medical supplies wherever you go and have a good heal check. Your DM may allow out of combat healing if you bandage wounds properly and "pray" for a quick healing.

Edit: Basically anything that can be sold as not directly visible and overtly magical is what you want to examine. It sounds like your DM will allow things to work, just not be seen. This is actually a lot easier to attain as a cleric than an arcane caster since buffs are the cleric's main tool. Just pray to your god and bless people a lot in the name of said god and I think your DM will be happy.

[EnemyTaiyou]

The healing works fine because we don't consider it a "mortal" wound until the player dips below their con score in HP (like if you're at 7 positive HP, and your con is 10), then we may say they have a grisly wound - but something they can yet recover from. Anything above that is akin to wearing down one's luck or fate - and healing is very much the idea of replenishing that luck through god's blessing or whatever.

I like the idea of bringing real healing (the skill) into the mix - I hadn't taken that skill, but I might ask my DM if we can change up some things or retrain to suit the campaign. I took the Protection Domain since it passively takes care of a scaling buff to my saves, and being an inquisitor, I was able to get the Bane effect as an attack/damage buff. I wasn't planning on going arcane at all, but I'm curious about suggestions for a battle cleric build, and how that'll compare with the Inquisitor.

[Abd al-Azrad]

I had an archer Inquisitor build I was toying with a while back which could work fairly well in this setting.

Basically all you do is self-buffs, stealth (class skill, high Dex, Disguise Self, Silence at higher levels), then shoot people to death with Bane, Wrath, Judgements and Rapid Shot / Deadly Aim. It makes for a pretty terrifying sniper with all those AB and damage bonuses, and if you can move to a good sniper spot before a fight breaks out, no one will know that you're casting spells.

Or that you were there, killing them from hundreds of feet away.

[Doc_Maynot]

While 3rd Party, the Super Genius Games Archetypes replace Spellcasting (However, not the domain) on an inquisitor. My two preferences are Physical Exemplar or Weapon Champion.

[Psyren]

While 3rd Party, the Super Genius Games Archetypes replace Spellcasting (However, not the domain) on an inquisitor. My two preferences are Physical Exemplar or Weapon Champion.

If you want no spells at all, just use that and pick an Inquisition instead of a Domain.