The Inquisitor’s Symposium

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“Black sapphires, onyx gems, grave dirt—all the necessary ingredients for the raising of undead are here in your satchel, Menlo. Perhaps you would explain how such an unlikely circumstance came to pass.”

—Valthro Ionex, Pharasmin Inquisitor

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INQ101: Welcome to the Inquisition

Introduced in the Advanced Player’s Guide, Inquisitors are everything that I love to roleplay: single-minded, “for the Greater Good” religious warriors, menacing and uncannily observant, who fear little—even the retribution of their gods. Yet if you look online in forum topics about the Inquisitor, you'll see many players who think that the class is something of a walking identity crisis, at least mechanically. As a ¾ divine caster, you can't control the battlefield or slay enemies with spells like a Wizard or Sorcerer; as a ¾ BAB class with a d8 hit die, you can't expect to hop into combat and tank all day; as a 6 + INT skill class, you can’t get away with zero out-of-combat contributions. You're MAD, requiring decent scores in at least four attributes—STR, DEX, CON, and WIS—with visible benefits to boosting the other two. You get Teamwork feats aplenty, but not the ability to share them with teammates; your spell list mirrors the “me first” attitude. The Inquisitor class chassis is a mysterious parcel addressed to you, the player, with no note.

Behind the purely mechanical questions of how to build and play Inquisitors lie broader questions about what Inquisitors are: where they fit into the scheme of faith and religion on Golarion, and where the similarities and differences lie between Inquisitors and their other divine brethren (notably Clerics, Warpriests, and Paladins). Being a newer class in the scheme of the Pathfinder system, Inquisitors have fewer publisher-official guidelines than do Clerics or Paladins, which have existed in some iteration since Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Larger supplements like Inner Sea Gods can get us part of the way there, but the rest of our conclusions are left to extrapolation. To help us explore the mechanical and existential niche of the Inquisitor, therefore, we'll look at the class alongside three other divine classes, and in the end make some educated guesses about how Paizo sees Inquisitors as distinct from the rest of the pack. As a standard disclaimer that applies to this entire guide, I (like everyone who plays RPGs) have a limited knowledge base to draw from. Rules are complex; sometimes I misinterpret them. My understanding of Golarion’s politics, pantheon, and history is imperfect. I may not be up to date on the latest errata. I may make mistakes! Send me an e-mail about those mistakes, and I promise to amend them as best I can while crediting you, the reader.

And now, cry “Onward!” to some general thoughts about Inquisitors:

As with all of the divine classes, there is no such thing as a "stock" Inquisitor, because each Inquisitor serves a different deity; even two Inquisitors worshipping the same deity might cleave to different aspects of that deity’s aims or domain portfolio, leading to wildly divergent roleplay styles.
My opinion is that, whichever deity you choose, Inquisitors are best built and roleplayed with the aims of your deity in mind. Although you can cheese your way into a strictly "optimal" Inquisitor who takes all the right feats at exactly the right times, what’s the use of playing a divine servitor of Gozreh if you don’t whip out your +3 Trident of Sub-Optimal DPR every once in a while? Inquisitors get plenty of tricks on their own without any investment from the player, and frankly speaking, your GM will probably thank you for not munchkining the class too much, because they’re already capable of putting out nauseating levels of damage. As a GM myself, I advocate strongly for bonus flavor feats, the bonus skill point system introduced in Pathfinder Unchained, and other house rules that some would deride as Power Creep. However, I also insist that my PCs not optimize too heavily: compelling characters have realistic flaws and weaknesses, and it’s a royal pain in the arse to have to accommodate one uber-gamer in the bunch when everyone else is just trying to tell a good story. Your mileage may vary! Throughout this guide, you’ll often see traditionally sub-optimal choices marked in black.
Unlike Clerics and Paladins, who are bound to codes of conduct and try to embody all aspects of their deities, Inquisitors are morally flexible, often choosing to follow only one of their deity’s aspects, duties, or qualities. Perhaps you're okay with going sober for a night as an Inquisitor of Cayden Cailean if it means that you'll be able to liberate those slaves more effectively; perhaps an Inquisitor of Pharasma might work with a lesser necromancer temporarily, as long as doing so enables them to crush that powerful cult trying to turn one of their members into a lich. Morality and ethics can be hazy to an Inquisitor, as they always are when your motto is "The Ends Justify the Means."

From the minute you decide to play an Inquisitor, it behooves you to start thinking about which "corner" of your deity's broader agenda you want to devote yourself to. Which tenets are you willing to give your life to uphold? Which are you willing to bend—or even break? Which transgressions goad you into immediate action, and which are you willing to bide your time over? More than many other classes, Inquisitors have the potential to make our mutual Pathfinder story richer through their convergence of the ideals of faith and brutal, pragmatic reality. It's your job (and your GM's job) to make that story as fascinating as possible.

INQ102: Survey of Divine Classes

The Inquisitor vs. The Cleric

Let’s begin with pure mechanics: class structure, spell list, and domain powers. For starters, Clerics get a full 9 levels of spellcasting; although Battle Clerics exist thanks to divine casters’ lack of spell failure in armor, most Clerics will lean into the caster side of their role. Clerics also prepare their spells each day, similar to the Wizard, which means that they can react more flexibly to different situations, as long as they had a good hunch at preparation time which spells the day might call for. Domains affect Clerics more strongly than they do Inquisitors (for those unfamiliar with divine casters, Domains are thematic suites of abilities granted by deities that grant bonus spells as well as special abilities that can typically be used several times per day): one Cleric with the Nobility and Luck domains might be a powerful buffer, whereas a different cleric might go the debuffing route with the Madness or Darkness domain. Inquisitors get one Domain that grants them zero bonus spells, causing them to feel less wedded to the theme than Clerics do.

In contrast with the more caster-ish feel of Clerics, Inquisitors were clearly designed to feel more at home amid the chaos of battle. Their Judgment, Bane, and Solo Tactics abilities coupled with their self-buffs put their offensive capabilities far ahead of Clerics. To make up for their sheer damage output, Inquisitors are less versatile than Clerics in their spellcasting, due to their spontaneous casting mechanic—think of them like divine versions of the Bard class. As an Inquisitor player, you'll be able to cast any spell you know at any time, but that makes your choice of which spells you know that much more important: a spell has to be consistently, universally effective in order to get the nod from an Inquisitor, while Clerics can afford to mix and match niche spells as needed. Outside of combat, Inquisitors are able to conserve spell slots through their skill bonuses, and can easily take on the role of party face with minimal investment. Clerics, meanwhile, are often stuck casting spells to get results.

In terms of roleplay flavor, Clerics feel much more attached to the everyday goings-on of their religion: they often live and interact with other clergy members or faithful on a daily basis, and are expected to regularly perform all the rites, rituals, and duties of their office. Clerics also attempt to align themselves as closely as possible with the ideals of their deity—indeed, they can incur divine retribution if they don't. Inquisitors get to occupy a much more nebulous space within the overall tapestry of their faith (which suits them just fine!) leading to more heterogeneous roles and personalities. Maybe you see members of your faith every day; maybe you spend months infiltrating other religions or cults. Maybe you answer to the ecclesiastical hierarchy of your church; maybe you answer only to your own interpretation of your deity's code. Maybe you wear the symbol of your god openly on your person; maybe no one knows which god you serve until it's too late. If Clerics are the black and the white, then Inquisitors are the gray.

tl;dr for combat: Clerics are good, versatile spellcasters, but will never be combat monsters without specific builds; Inquisitors are combat-effective very quickly thanks to Judgment and Bane, but have weaker, more rigid spellcasting.

tl;dr for out of combat: Clerics need spells to make up for skills, and strive to embody all aspects of their deities; Inquisitors use skills well already, and pick and choose aspects of their deity to fight for, usually not subscribing part and parcel to the doctrine.

The Inquisitor vs. The Paladin

Speaking of the black and the white: Paladins. To the outside observer, Paladins seem like those Lawful Stupid guys and gals who just can't leave well enough alone; much like Clerics, however, there's a very good reason why they can't leave well enough alone: they risk having their powers and abilities stripped from them if they fall too far from the ideals of their deities. As the player of a Paladin, you care less about whether you achieved the aims of your faith than about how you achieved the aims of your faith. If a Paladin of Abadar has to lie, cheat, swindle, and extort in order to topple that corrupt judge, then she is no Paladin in the eyes of her god. The victory was no victory at all. An Inquisitor of Abadar, however, may have considerably more latitude in how to restore justice: catch the judge accepting a bribe that the Inquisitor herself arranged? Fake a religious vision to scare the judge straight? Preach to the masses until an armed mob stages a coup? Abadar is Lawful, but his Inquisitors don't necessarily need to act lawfully at all times—so long as the overall agenda of law, order, and civilization is advanced.

Paladins' reputation of being Lawful Stupid also comes from the fact that they're, well, limited by which stats they're incentivized to bump. You need good CHA for spells, smites, saves...but you also need STR, CON, and some DEX to be an adequate front-line tank. Naturally, you dump both INT and WIS to achieve good scores in the other four attributes. Now what? Your Perception is shit, and even when you notice that someone is acting suspiciously, your Sense Motive is also shit. 2 + INT skill points per level doesn't leave much breathing room in out-of-combat roles, so you'll probably pick Diplomacy and Knowledge (Religion) and call it a day. Congratulations, you're now stuck roleplaying a Golden Retriever. Inquisitors, on the other hand, feel much more flexible: Stern Gaze gives you excellent bonuses to both Intimidate and Sense Motive, and with 6 + INT skill ranks per level, a WIS focus, Perception on the class list, and your various detect [alignment] spells, the wool just can't be pulled over your eyes. You're wool-proof. Having so many of the bases covered naturally leaves Inquisitors free to specialize: do you want to be a mage hunter, a divine rogue, a social skill monster, an assassin for your deity, a tactical terrifier? The choice is entirely yours.

The price that the Inquisitor pays for her increased flexibility and spell levels, of course, is that they're much more up-and-down combatants than Paladins. Inquisitors require one swift action for Judgment, one swift action for Bane, possibly several standard or swift actions to self-buff, and a few move actions to get positioned for Teamwork feats before they're "ramped up" and ready to truly wreck face. Paladins? They don't need any wind-up time. They just run in and beat enemies to a pulp with full BAB, heavy armor, unbeatable saves, self-healing, and immunity to fear, disease, and charm effects; the only tactical decisions they have to make in the course of a combat are when and whom to Smite. Their steady strength actually turns Lawful Stupid to their advantage: they're as obvious as a fox in a hen house on the battlefield, which diverts attention away from the squishier party members—including you. In combat, Inquisitors let the Fighters and Paladins have the spotlight for a bit as they make their preparations and get their buffs rolling. Once Bane, Judgment, wrath, and divine power are in effect, any enemy of any alignment can be turned into a fine red mist within a round or two.

tl;dr for combat: Paladins are steady-state tanks who don't need much help to perform in combat; Inquisitors need a period of "wind-up" at the start of combat, after which they excel at high levels of single-target burst damage.

tl;dr for out of combat: Paladins are bound by their alignment, stat blocks, and limited skills, making Lawful Stupid and a sole focus on Diplomacy or face skills too easy to fall into; Inquisitors can solve problems laterally, both in terms of their skill set and how they're willing to employ that skill set.

The Inquisitor vs. The Warpriest

In combat, Warpriests feel like a combination of Paladins and Inquisitors. Like Paladins in that they are sturdier (thanks, heavy armor and swift-cast healing) and smashier (thanks, bonus combat feats); like Inquisitors in that their action economy is complicated (thanks, swift-cast buffs), they take a few rounds to reach their peak, and their damage is capable of spiking to sickening levels (thanks, Sacred Weapon) once they hit that peak. If we were to draw an analogy to modern military roles, Warpriests are the shock troopers, while Inquisitors are special ops; they've got about the same damage output, but they achieve it in entirely different ways. Thanks to Warpriests' ability to mimic full-BAB classes for the purpose of meeting feat prerequisites, their bonus combat feats, and their boosts to weapon damage regardless of what the weapon is, Warpriests can often go for more complex or later-blooming builds like Vital Strike, Cleave, unarmed, or thrown weapon builds that Inquisitors simply don't have the feats or early entry for. As an Inquisitor player, you will likely need to stick to the basics with your combat feats in order to come up with a fully-baked, effective build.

Those distinctions carry over into general adventuring, too—Warpriests are never subtle. They're the kind of people who won't shut up about whether you've accepted Sithrak as your god yet or not, and might just burn your house down if you take too long to decide. Admirable wrecking balls when pointed in the right direction, but not the kinds of people you want undertaking sensitive, independent investigations. Compounding the issue is their lack of skill ranks per level, which forces them to rely on spells out of combat. Relying on a skill monkey is fine when you're with the whole group, but Warpriests would have difficulty interrogating someone, navigating through an aristocratic party, or picking out the perp with their eyes shut. The skill ranks that Inquisitors get lead to mechanical independence, which in turn leads to RP independence.

tl;dr for combat: Warpriests put out egregious amounts of damage, and more closely resemble Fighters in their builds; Inquisitors stick to a few tried-and-true combat builds, while relying on buff spells, Teamwork feats, Bane, and Judgment to keep their damage output high.

tl;dr for out of combat: Warpriests are divine Hulks (AM SMASH) with all the subtlety that role entails; Inquisitors can operate alone or in a team, shuffling skill ranks around as needed to fill just about any role in a team's composition.

Conclusions

If we were to rank our four divine classes in various areas, they might look like this:

Offense: Inquisitor = Warpriest = Paladin (vs. Evil enemies) > Paladin (vs. non-Evil enemies) > Cleric

Defense: Paladin > Warpriest = Cleric > Inquisitor

Spellcasting: Cleric > Inquisitor = Warpriest > Paladin

Utility: Inquisitor > Cleric > Warpriest > Paladin

Some conclusions we can draw about the niche that Inquisitors are meant to fill:

Inquisitors should not try to tank. You can take a hit decently enough, and you have some tools for escaping sticky situations, but you never want to leave an enemy alive long enough to retaliate if you can help it. Medium armor, d8 hit die, and no real bonus to saves (stalwart excluded) do not a tank make, so try to ensure that the deadliest targets in a combat are also the deadest, preferably before they realize they should be focusing their tender ministrations on you.
Inquisitors should try to get as many extra attacks as possible, within reason. Thanks to Judgment, Bane, and self-buffs, Inquisitors can boost themselves into full-BAB territory when attacking. Core Monks will look on you with greenest envy as you proclaim that accuracy has “just never been an issue.” Importantly, however, Inquisitors are not a full-BAB class: at ¾ BAB, you qualify for BAB-gated feats slowly and your iterative attack progression is delayed. Because Inquisitors can deal an additional 2d6 damage per attack (4d6 in later levels) through Bane, you need as many extra attacks as you can reasonably get. Two-Weapon Fighting, as we'll see in the Combat Styles section, isn't a great way of achieving this goal, but buff spells like haste and feats like Rapid Shot are just the drugs to satiate our attack habit.
Inquisitors should use their spell slots primarily to self-buff. You will never have the save DCs of full casters. Repeat that to yourself every time you sit down at your table like you're at a ¾ Casters Anonymous meeting. Unless you invest significantly (and even with significant investment your offensive casting is likely to be mediocre) you will not be able to use debuff, blast, or save-or-suck spells reliably, ever. This limitation is a blessing in disguise, however, because it clarifies the purpose of your spellcasting: to self-buff. The Inquisitor spell list features some wonderful self-buffs that you should be positively salivating to get your hands on. Divine power, wrath, magic circle, acute senses—the list goes on and on. You get some team buff spells like bless or communal protection from energy and should use them as pre-combat buffs if possible. In combat, however, your spells are for you, so don't feel bad about buffing yourself into a frothing cloud of steel and divine retribution and tearing the field apart like you were meant to.
Inquisitors should pick spells that are always, always useful. It's an old precept for spontaneous casters, but a good one to remember: barring certain favored class bonuses, you will only ever know 6 spells per spell level. That's not a great variety. When you find yourself thinking about choosing a spell for your spells known on your next level-up, first ask yourself whether you'd use it every day (or nearly). If your answer is "no," you're not picking a good spell known—you're picking a good scroll or wand. Spells known should be your warhorses, your standbys, your old chestnuts. The best ones can function in and out of combat, against every enemy type, with a good effect, and preferably without a save if it affects an enemy. Tall order, yes, but those criteria really help separate the wheat from the chaff.
Inquisitors should leverage their skills wisely. Monster Lore makes you great at Knowledges; where does your team have gaps in those skills? Stern Gaze makes you excellent at sniffing out lies and intimidating people; how can you turn those skills to your advantage? Some archetypes can do stealth, trapfinding, bluffing; does your party need a Rogue alternative? Inquisitors can do lots of things (and some, like Intimidate, even have uses in combat) but the responsibility of deciding exactly what your Inquisitor does lies with you.
Inquisitors should work toward the goals of their deity without worrying too much about their methods. Inquisitors are the living embodiment of the famous Machiavelli quote: "The ends justify the means." If you can keep your hands clean and still accomplish something, extra brownie points to you, but Inquisitors aren't afraid of getting their hands dirty, either.
Summing up. You specialize in single-target burst damage after one or two rounds of "wind-up." Through judicious use of skills, spells, class abilities, and Teamwork feats, you have a plethora of combat tricks up your sleeve, and while your access to them will be patchy at first, you'll eventually have enough coverage between them to keep you combat-effective all day long. Your 3/4 BAB progression, lack of bonus feats, middling spell DCs, and spontaneous casting don't allow many of the tricks of full martials (maneuvers; feat-heavy combat builds; oodles of iteratives) or full casters (save-or-suck spells; preparation of situational or niche spells; metamagic feats like Quickened Spell) but you'll be able to do everything at 85% where they'll be stuck doing one thing at 100% and everything else at 20%. You can be built into damn near anything, which means that you'll need to discuss the party's composition needs closely with your GM and teammates.

(Image Source)

“I love rumors! Facts can be so misleading, where rumors, true or false, are often revealing.”

— Col. Hans Landa, Inquisitor

INQ109: Inquisitorial Development

Throughout this guide, you’ll see feats, spells, class features, etc. rated using a color coding system that was first introduced by Treantmonk and since copied in many other guides. Everyone tends to use their own colors, though, so here’s what we’ll be working with:

Blue abilities are the absolute best of the best: options that define the way an Inquisitor is played, or that otherwise provide some exponential leap in effectiveness. Try your utmost to pick up these options.

Green abilities are almost universally useful, a good pick for nearly any build. If they’re not gamebreakingly powerful, they’re definitely holding up the line at a solid B+.

Yellow abilities are our C standard, neither good nor bad. In some circumstances, yellow denotes situational abilities that might be useful to some playstyles but not others.

Red abilities are the traps. Stay away from these.

Black abilities are mostly for flavor. Although they won’t find a home in most builds, I include them because I savor the flavor! If you’re not rolling Drunken Sing-Along on an Inquisitor of Cayden Cailean, you’re a disappointment to your god.

The Chassis

d8 Hit Die: In line with other ¾ casters like Bards. I would have preferred a d10 for a class that mostly gets into melee range, but it is what it is.

¾ BAB: Although it hurts not to have full BAB progression like your siblings-in-spirit, the Paladins, your ability to hit is quite solid between spells, Bane, Judgments, and Teamwork feats like Outflank. ¾ BAB does mean delayed access to many combat feats and iterative attacks, however, so you won't be blitzing into any fancypants, BAB-restricted feat lines like Cleave or Critical Focus. Good, plain combat fare for the Inquisitor, yessir.

¾ Casting Progression: You're a spontaneous divine caster, so choose your spells known wisely, remembering that you won't have the DCs to consistently hit with spells that require a save. We'll prefer self- and team buffs, and leave the offense, debuffs, and battlefield control to the full casters who do it best.

Armor Proficiencies: You're proficient with light armor, medium armor, and shields. I really would have preferred heavy armor be made available at the outset, as it is for the Paladin and Warpriest. The front line needs you, so many melee Inquisitors will have to come up with the proficiency through a feat or invest in a Mithral Breastplate to make do with medium armor.

Good Fortitude and Will Saves, Bad Reflex Save: This could be a great deal worse. The old adage goes that failed Reflex saves will hurt you, failed Fort saves will kill you, but failed Will saves will kill your entire team. That’s not far from the truth. You can pick up feats like Lightning Reflexes if you're really worried about the Reflex save, but I prefer strong Fortitude and Will saves any day of the week. Your stalwart class ability will leverage those strong saves even more.

Skills: 6 + INT is great, on par with Investigators and Bards, the other skill masters (I don’t count Core Rogues, and even Unchained Rogues can only lay a dubious claim to the Skill Master title). Your list is excellent, and includes Perception, all the interaction skills, and all the relevant Knowledge skills for monster identification. Think about getting the Dangerously Curious trait and the Divine Deception feat to pump Use Magic Device, because wands and scrolls (especially from the Cleric list) greatly expand your spellcasting options.

Domain: You only get one, unlike a Cleric, and you don't get any of the bonus spells unless you’re a Green Faith Marshal. That said, the domains feature powerful options to fit just about any playstyle. Even if there are no good domains in your deity’s portfolio (lookin’ at you, Gozreh) you can always substitute an Inquisition for your domain.

Weapon Proficiencies: You're proficient with simple weapons, hand crossbow, shortbow, repeating crossbow, and longbow. The other weapon proficiency you get is up to your choice of deity; these options can range from great, like Gorum's greatsword, to terrible, like Irori's unarmed strike. Your race selection might also provide options for expanded weapon proficiencies, a fact that I encourage you to consider as you build an Inquisitor.

Class Features

(1) Judgment: Judgment is one of your better class features, and I think it's a shame that I see it used so artlessly so much of the time. "Which Judgments are you pronouncing?" I’ll ask in a session. "Justice and Destruction," comes the expected answer, right on cue. From a design perspective, those choices make sense: Pathfinder at higher levels devolves into a game of rocket tag where players are penalized for doing anything other than liquefying their enemies as quickly as possible. When the enemy is slinging around world-ending magic that can kill you with one or two unlucky die rolls, any action other than murdering as fast as possible starts to look like a sucker’s move.

In an ideal world, however, I believe that each of the Judgments would have a niche in which it could operate on equal footing with the other Judgments. Up against a horde of weaker enemies? Resiliency for DR. Up against one big bruiser? Protection for AC. Up against casters or undead? Purity. Up against elementals? Resistance. The issue is that many of the Judgments are simply too weak to justify picking them, an issue that I think merits some buffs to the “lesser” Judgments. As it stands, there are no meaningful alternatives to Justice, Destruction, and Purity; consequently, there are no incentives for using Judgment creatively to invent new tactics. This dynamic leads to an exodus out of the base class and into archetypes, many of which trade away Judgment entirely. I’ll be proposing my changes to Judgment below, and I’d encourage fellow GMs not to see that as threatening. Judgments need to be equivalent in order for the opportunity cost of picking one over another to be impactful, and defense will never be such an overwhelmingly powerful option in Pathfinder that you risk making a player OP. Inquisitors constantly opting for the boost to damage and to-hit? Now that breaks encounters...and mechanics aside, I know you’re tired of handing your players nails just because they won’t pick up any tool other than that damn hammer.

Destruction: Straightforward and good. No fixes needed.

Healing: Rare will be the combat that lasts long enough for this to heal a significant amount of damage. If you are anticipating a longer fight, sure, drop it at the beginning and let it do its work—every little bit helps.

((Three fixes to this one: first, bump the fast healing up to 2 to begin with. Second, make the Judgment last half your level in rounds, minimum 1, after combat finishes, as long as it remained unchanged throughout combat. Third, stabilize automatically when reduced to negative hit points, again as long as Healing Judgment had been active for the entire combat. Taken together, these three changes make your healing factor a bit more potent, net you some free post-combat recovery, and prevent you from bleeding out absent a Heal check.))

Justice: Sacred or profane bonus, which will stack with just about every other bonus you can get. This is what makes you equivalent to a full-BAB class, and much as I hate to say it, it'll be your go-to Judgment for your whole career if your GM doesn't like the fixes provided here.

Piercing: Spell Resistance is a definite problem for full casters who want to land debuffs or save-or-dies. Remember that grinding sound you heard coming from your Sorcerer’s teeth when she whiffed on that disintegrate? Yeah, that was SR at work. You won't be needing much SR penetration, because you won't be casting debuffs or save-or-dies (saves-or-die, like attorneys general?) with any regularity; the better bonus is the boost to concentration for when you're casting defensively, which will be much of the time.

((Honestly, the bonus to concentration checks seems out of place here, being more defensive than offensive. I'd keep the SR penetration, but add +1 to the save DC of a particular spell or school at 1st, 7th, 13th, and 19th levels. You still won't be able to compete with full casters (not much room for metamagic, fewer spells per day, lower DCs despite the buff) but it would bridge the gap enough that a dedicated WIS build could feel more confident stepping into a combat casting role.))

Protection: The bonus here is just too piddly. Past 13th level or so enemies are capable of buggering your AC six ways from Sunday no matter how hard you've focused on it, so it's always been to your benefit in Pathfinder to focus on other elements of defense (e.g., saves, DR, energy resistance) that can help you when AC starts to fall flat.

((I can think of three potential fixes to this Judgment, all different, and all with their own benefits and drawbacks:

Double the bonus AC at every increment and give the same bonus to CMD. It's simple, but a little inelegant.
At 1st level, you gain a bonus equivalent to what partial cover would give you (+2 AC, +1 Reflex); at 7th, the bonus jumps up to the equivalent of regular cover (+4 AC, +2 Reflex); at 13th, you get a constant 15% miss chance, and at 18th, that miss chance jumps to 30%. In this scenario, you still provoke AoOs, and your bonuses only stack up to what normal cover or concealment would provide (i.e., you do not receive additional bonuses at 1st level for partial cover, and total concealment at 18th level only gets you to 50%, not 80%).
Add the ability to negate some amount of AoOs or iteratives per round with a Sense Motive/Intimidate check, flavored as the Inquisitor being able to intuit how and where an enemy will attempt to strike, or striking enough fear that the enemy falters for a split second. This option capitalizes on Stern Gaze and helps characters survive later levels, where iterative attacks, reach, and horrible riders on successful hits are commonplace.))

Purity: Awesome bonus to all saves, and double for curses, poisons, and diseases at 10th level. Too awesome, even.

((My only nerf on the list. Either lose the bonus to all saves, or else give us a flat +2 or something vs. curses, poisons, and diseases. It’s too much.))

Resiliency: DR is universally great. The issue you’ll run into later is that nearly every enemy will have the means to bypass your DR.

((If I were going to fix this ability, I'd bump up DR every third level instead of every fifth, move DR/Alignment to 7th level, and make 13th level DR/—. If DR/— was too excessive, I'd maybe keep it at DR/Alignment and add SR to the DR gained every third level, maybe starting at 10 or 15. It won’t break the bank, because players would be opting out of offensive options in order to use Resiliency. Just remember that: opportunity costs.))

Resistance: You won't always need it, but when you do, it's invaluable. Stacks with resist energy.

((As with so many of the defensive options on this list, I just think Resistance is too lackluster. Why should you have to wait until 13th level to get the amount of benefit you could have gotten by casting resist energy, a 2nd-level spell? Makes no sense to me. So, my proposed change: linear growth, 1 point of energy resistance per level, but does not stack with resist energy. You get to decide whether you want to burn the spell slot for full protection or burn a Judgment for a less heavy duty effect.))

Smiting: The Inquisitor’s Bane class ability functions as a temporary increase to enhancement bonus, not a permanent increase, as in the weapon enchantment. Practically, this means that we can’t penetrate greater forms of DR just by switching on Bane. We’ve got align weapon on our spell list, but the rest is up to us. That makes Smiting pretty decent!

((Looking at what you've got already makes it clear what you need: the ability to pierce DR/—. Based on the trajectory of the base ability, I'd stick that in around 14th level. If that's off the table (and I get it, monsters have DR/— for a reason) you might arrange some kind of ability to "sunder" or otherwise negate natural armor bonuses (Flensing Strike is a good example of how this might be done), nullify supernatural senses, or ignore select immunities/resistances of monsters you’ve identified. Again, GM fiat reigns supreme here, but they're all options to discuss.))

(1) Monster Lore: Monster Lore's one of those abilities that effortlessly improves your ability to play multiple roles in just about any party; it gives you your WIS bonus in addition to INT on all Knowledge rolls made to identify creatures, which can be some of the most critical checks to pass to identify fast healing, regeneration, DR, SR, etc. It's a favorite for archetypes to trade away, but try to keep it if you can—it'll serve you well, especially if your GM insists that you pass a check to gain meta-knowledge of monster type weaknesses or other vulnerabilities. Nothing worse than watching your Rogue friend try to sneak attack an Elemental because "Johnny O’Gankshanks didn't know it was an Elemental!" (Thanks to /u/Ro9ge for reminding me that Constructs, happily, can be sneak attacked!)

(1) Stern Gaze: Stern Gaze is the ability that puts mechanical oomph behind your roleplaying inquisitoriality—and yes, I'm sticking with that word—by giving you a bonus equal to half your level (minimum +1) to Sense Motive and Intimidate. If that shopkeep is wondering whether he managed to cheat you out of a few extra gold, gulp, he definitely didn't. Then you crack your knuckles and remark on what a lovely shop he has, and what a pity it would be if anything happened to it. Inquisitors are savvy, perceptive, slightly foreboding figures in their faiths, and Stern Gaze gives you the firepower you need to project that image. Some favored class bonuses (notably the Half-Orc's) can give you a boost to Stern Gaze, making for even more powerful fear-wielders.

(1) Detect Alignment: Unless your enemies are packing some high-caliber abjuration magic, detect alignment will let you flag potential enemies before they reveal themselves to be enemies. If you're banking on encountering many enemies of the same monster type within a certain area, Monster Lore can help give you information about which alignment to "scan" for (e.g., you'd want to use detect chaos when scanning for Fey).

(2) Cunning Initiative: Getting your WIS bonus to initiative in addition to DEX is amazing because, well, it's always better to shoot first. Han would have made an excellent Inquisitor. Going first lets you pronounce Judgment faster, lay down self-buffs, move into an advantageous position, etc. Very few reasons not to be an initiative junkie in a game like Pathfinder, where the upper levels encourage a “who shoots first, shoots last” mentality. Combine with traits like Reactionary or feats like Improved Initiative for even more madness.

(2) Track: Using Survival to follow tracks is situational, to be sure, but nearly nobody does it better than you, between Track and the spells you get that also improve the Survival. It's thematic, too, what with Inquisitors being the "you can run, but you can't hide" class.

(3) Solo Tactics and Teamwork Feats: I'm going to include these together, as they're basically a single feature. You'll get a whole mess of Teamwork feats throughout your career; rather than grant these feats to teammates as a Cavalier would, however, you act as if they had those feats for the purposes of determining which benefits you get, which neatly eliminates the problem of getting your team to coordinate feat selection. Allied Spellcaster, Coordinated Charge, Outflank, Lookout, Shake It Off—there are more Teamwork feats published all the time, and some of them are very powerful. Many players tend to forget about these or trade them away, despite their strength if your tactics are solid.

(5) Bane: You merely adopted the dark! Bane is amazing and definitely qualifies as one of the class-defining abilities of an Inquisitor. Of note, the +2 enhancement bonus stacks past +5, but I’ve heard conflicting reports about whether that enhancement bonus allows you to penetrate exotic forms of DR (Cold Iron at +3, Adamantine at +4, and Alignment at +5). Check with your GM, because I’ve not been able to find a Paizo-official errata about it yet. You're probably starting to notice that Inquisitors are strapped for swift actions between Bane and Judgment. Thankfully, many of your best self-buffs are standard actions, so you can Judgment + Move + Buff in Round 1 to get near your position, then Bane + 5-ft. Step + Full Attack in Round 2. In general, I think it's okay to metagame your knowledge of types and subtypes a little here—if you're clearly fighting goblins, there's no reason to roll a knowledge check for it before declaring your bane.

(5) Discern Lies: The immediate action means that you should be able to activate it as someone says an utterance to fact-check it. Will negates, and there's no restriction on being intentionally evasive. Then again, Inquisitors specialize in squeezing straight answers out of, shall we say, uncooperative persons, so you might need this power only occasionally.

(8) Second Judgment: You get two Judgments instead of one whenever you activate the ability. Manifestly great.

(11) Stalwart: It's basically evasion for Fortitude and Will saves—if a passed save would do half effect, you instead get no effect. There aren't as many Fort- or Will-partial spells/abilities as there are Reflex-partial spells/abilities, which is the only reason it gets green instead of blue. It also doesn't function in heavy armor, which screws Inquisitors who dumped DEX and invested.

(12) Greater Bane: Woooooo woooooo, all aboard the Bane Train! Yessiree, 4d6 damage on top of every hit turns you into even more of a buzzsaw than you were already.

(14) Exploit Weakness: Sure, why not? Not every enemy has DR, and you won't be dealing a critical every round unless you built around that, but it's a nice effect when it happens.

(16) Third Judgment: Your final Judgment expansion doesn't disappoint, of course. Enjoy.

(17) Slayer: This is a pretty minor benefit for 17th level.

(20) True Judgment: What is it with Paizo and lackluster capstones? Full casters are literally tearing apart the fabric of the universe, and you get a save-or-die that you probably won't be able to land except on lower-CR targets. How's this for math? Most CR 20 creatures have Fort saves in the 18-25 ballpark; assuming your WIS caps out at 22-26, you're looking at save DCs in the 26-28 range. At your best and their worst, you've got a 50% chance; at their best and your worst, 5%.

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“Unclog your ears and listen to my words, little man: you take not one step further.”

—Bodrian the Bloodied

INQ165: Intro to Combat Styles

As we discussed in our Survey of Divine Classes, the Inquisitors have some interesting restrictions on combat styles. It’s nothing concrete, just a handful of design decisions that together encourage or discourage you from pursuing certain options in a fracas. Here are your incentives and disincentives:

Inquisitors have ¾ BAB and spell progressions. These incentivize you to cast personal- or team-oriented spells, rather than enemy-targeted spells; they also discourage you from pursuing high-BAB feat lines like the Improved Critical, Vital Strike, or Two-Weapon Fighting families. With lower BAB comes lower CMB, as well, meaning your maneuvers won’t ever be workable without specific help (the Crime Inquisition, e.g., grants a bunch of Steal feats, and the Battle Mystery can help Ravener Hunters get pretty good at one maneuver).
Inquisitors get no bonus feats. This incentivizes you to stick with builds that can be combat-effective with as little feat investment as possible. Combat Expertise or Mobility are annoying prerequisites for Fighters, but for you, they’re poison, as each feat tax prevents you from getting to the meat of your build for another two levels.
Inquisitors like extra attacks. Again, this all comes down to Bane damage. More attacks = more Bane damage, pure and simple, which is why we’re haste junkies in this class. Apart from the usual survivability benefits of ranged combat, Rapid Shot is a huge factor in the positive column for a ranged play style precisely because it grants an extra attack above and beyond what your iteratives can give you.

The Devastator (Two-Handed)

Pro	Con
Requires nearly no feat investment: take Power Attack at 3rd level and you’re done. This lets you focus on other aspects of your character. Want to bump Intimidation, casting, skills? The world is your oyster.	You’ll be in the thick of the fighting where your d8 hit die and medium armor are weakest. CON should stay at 12, preferably 14, and you should consider picking up Heavy Armor Proficiency, Toughness, or both.
Less MAD than other styles, due to its reliance on STR alone for combat.

Suggested Feat Path

Heavy Armor Proficiency (1)

Power Attack (3)

Final Thoughts

Good reward with very little risk or feat investment makes the Two-Handed playstyle eternally popular for Inquisitors. With all those extra feats you can shore up your spell DCs, focus on skills or saves, or pick up a Deific Obedience. What you give up in combat depth you make up in the breadth of your other roles.

Inquisitors who choose the Ravener Hunter archetype can select the Battle Mystery, which grants a huge array of bonus combat feats (Weapon Focus, Greater Weapon Focus, Improved Critical, Martial Weapon Proficiency, Heavy Armor Proficiency, Improved and Greater Maneuvers) through various Revelations. If you’re truly strapped, the archetype is a great way to compensate for your combat weaknesses without sacrificing much of the Inquisitor chassis. Then again, I'm heavily biased for the Ravener Hunter because it's fantastic. Seriously.

The Marksman (Ranged)

Pro	Con
Rapid Shot and Manyshot. More attacks = more Bane procs = more damage. I wish there were a subtler or more varied way of saying that.	Ranged combat is incredibly feat-intensive. This is the biggest strike against the combat style; you’ll be getting up to speed until at least 9th level (barring a dip in Zen Archer) due to all the feat taxes.
Clustered Shots. DR can become a real problem at later levels, but this feat lets you ignore some portion of DR on every full attack.	Fewer Teamwork feats function at range. The Ranged Tactics Toolbox alleviated this issue somewhat with feats like Coordinated Shot and Target of Opportunity, but Bowquisitors can still find themselves at a bit of a loss for what to pick. The Preacher archetype is your best friend if you’re not going for one of the other Big Ones.
Ranged combat is inherently safer than melee combat. With your strong Fort save, you might even consider dumping CON down to 12. Do keep a melee weapon on hand, though, for the inevitable times when an enemy breaks through to the back line.	You’re a bit more MAD than melee Inquisitors. Not by much, but a little. DEX decides your accuracy and many feat qualifications; STR gets you access to compound bows; CON is constant; WIS is necessary for casting and Domain abilities.
Full attacks are much easier to pull off from range. A good GM will find ways to mess with cover, etc., but at the end of the day, ranged attacks are just brokenly good in Pathfinder. In other news, the sky is blue.
Ranged combat is compatible with flight. Nearly everybody will be flying eventually, and ranged characters are much better equipped to deal with that than melee characters.

Suggested Feat Path

Point-Blank Shot (1)

Precise Shot (3)

Deadly Aim (5)

Rapid Shot (7)

Clustered Shots (9)

Manyshot (11)

Hammer the Gap (13)

Improved Precise Shot (15)

Lob Shot has the annoying prerequisite of Far Shot, but should be taken early in the feat chain if you need a way to ignore cover—until Improved Precise Shot at 15, you’re shit outta luck on cover. Crossbow users will need Rapid Reload and possibly Crossbow Mastery in order to make that route viable, while thrown weapon users will probably need Quick Draw and Close-Quarters Thrower. More feat taxes…

Final Thoughts

High investment and high reward are the name of the game for a ranged play style. You’ll spend every last ounce of your character’s potential and versatility in order to become good at one thing—but boy, what a powerful one thing. Listed below are a few ideas that might make your Bowquisition a bit easier on you:

Although a three-level dip is no small thing, the Zen Archer monk archetype can provide a total of six bonus feats: two bonus feats chosen from Far Shot, Point-Blank Shot, Precise Shot, and Rapid Shot; Perfect Strike; Weapon Focus; Point-Blank Master; and Improved Unarmed Strike (important because it lets you make AoOs against those attempting to sunder your bow). In addition, Zen Archers use their WIS modifier instead of DEX to determine accuracy; Inquisitors of Erastil can pick up this ability through the Erastil's Blessing feat. You'd be delaying your spellcasting and class abilities significantly, but this is still a powerful option.

Inquisitors who choose the Ravener Hunter archetype can select the Wood Mystery (for Wood Bond), which specifically improves bows, or the Battle Mystery, which can provide several ancillary feats. Again, I can't recommend Ravener Hunter highly enough, especially for an AP like Wrath of the Righteous, where fighting demons is the name of the game anyway.

If 3rd-party content is allowed at your table, take a look at the Spheres of Might supplement by Drop Dead Studios. Unlike Path of War, which in my opinion breaks the power curve a bit, Spheres attempts to give martials varied (yet balanced) things to do apart from full-attack, five-foot step, lather, rinse, repeat. The Barrage and Sniper spheres in particular have excellent abilities that let you build an effective ranged attacker from 1st level.

The Dervish (Two-Weapon Fighting)

Pro	Con
More attacks = more Bane damage. There are, however, a few TWF-specific caveats that we’ll get into later.	Two-weapon fighting is moderately feat-intensive. Not as bad as ranged combat, but still pretty bad. You’ll need TWF and Improved TWF for starters, plus Double Bane if you want to go that route.
	More MAD than most. TWF feats have high DEX scores as prerequisites, but still require STR for to-hit and damage. If you go the Weapon Finesse route to focus solely on DEX, you’re locked out of DEX-to-damage feats, which require that you wield only one weapon to function. Rock, meet hard place.
	Slower access to iteratives. ¾ BAB = fewer iterative attacks, which hurts a TWF build in the long run.
	The Bane problem. Bane only affects one weapon at a time. You can get the Double Bane feat to patch that hole, but then you’ll use up double your rounds per day… leaving you back at square one, if not square zero.

Suggested Feat Path

Two-Weapon Fighting (1)

Improved TWF (9)

Final Thoughts

The TWF path makes the compelling argument that it's possible to be too invested in maximizing Bane damage. It’s too bad, because those blender builds are a ton of fun, but Inquisitors would do well to look to the example of the Core Monk, a class famous for launching what seems like 25 attacks…only to land two of them. Inquisitors need to be lean and focused in their feat selection and attribute assignment, and TWF unfortunately doesn’t lend itself to those goals.

The Duelist (Finesse Fighting)

Pro	Con
A DEX focus gets you more, on balance. More DEX means better initiative, no ACPs, and a boost to your Reflex save.	Weapon Finesse is moderately feat-intensive. Three feats minimum, with an additional fourth if your GM lets you take Piranha Strike.
	Limited weapon selection. Inquisitors don’t have a huge variety of weapons to choose from, so you’ll likely be stuck with your god’s favored weapon. The appropriate feats for deities that have them are listed in the Feats section.

Suggested Feat Path

Weapon Finesse (1)

Weapon Focus (3)

DEX-to-Damage Feat (5)

Piranha Strike (7)

Final Thoughts

I have to admit, I’ve got a soft spot in my heart for Weapon Finesse, having come up playing Rogues and Investigators. It’s not optimal, for sure: you’ll need four feats to do what STR builds can do in two, and even then the Devastators will probably still come ahead in damage thanks to the 1.5x damage multiplier when two-handing weapons… but if Pathfinder were meant to be a purely mathematical affair, we’d dispense with roleplay altogether and sit around comparing spreadsheets for fun. More than we do already, I mean. There are far, far more DEX-boosting races than STR-boosting races, many of them fun as hell. I encourage you to give a Grippli Inquisitor, or an Undine Inquisitor, or hell, even a Ratfolk Inquisitor a try. The best, most memorable builds often lie somewhere south of optimal.

The Mage (Spellcasting)

Pro	Con
You have the means already. While extra investment in feats, traits, and equipment never hurts a caster, Inquisitors already have the tools necessary to do some kinds of casting on their own.	Naturally occurring plateau. It’s an unfortunate fact of life that ¾ casters have a harder time with save DCs than full casters. This becomes even more of an issue when you consider that Will saves in the Bestiaries scale faster than even the save DCs of full casters anyway.
Versatility. Every bit of investment in spellcasting makes you that much more versatile. Some FCBs give you a wider roster of spells known; feats can increase your SR penetration or save DCs. All give you greater efficacy against a wider variety of targets.	Not much room for metamagic. Fewer spell slots at higher levels means less room for modification of existing spells through metamagic. A Rod of Extend Spell might be a worthy investment for getting as much mileage out of your buffs as possible, though.

A Selection of Feats

Destructive Dispel

Dispel Synergy

Spell Bane

Spell Focus

Spell Focus, Greater

Spell Perfection

Spell Penetration

Spell Penetration, Greater

Warrior Priest

Final Thoughts

The thought on every casting-focused Inquisitor’s mind should be, “How can I make my enemies fail more of their saves?” You don’t get many no-save spells; you don’t get much static battlefield control, like walls or pits; you don’t get spells or hexes that help you by tanking saves. How, then? Boosting your own spell save DCs is certainly an option, and for those purposes Spell Bane will probably give you the greatest bang for your buck. Because you can’t rely too heavily on save DC boosts, however, it’s best to supplement with methods of lower your opponents’ saves. Some domains (Madness especially) can drop Will saves down, but your best bet is to make enemies shaken and sickened, both of which apply a -2 penalty to saves. Thanks to Stern Gaze, Inquisitors who engage even a little with Intimidation should have no trouble demoralizing opponents for the shaken condition, and certain spells or enchantments (cruel weapons, e.g.) can tag on the sickened condition, as well. You’ll never be a Wizard or Sorcerer, but doing your part in the debuffing ensures that you’ll benefit just as much as the full casters in your group will.

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“It can be a fearsome weapon, patience. One that few men ever learn to use. A hard thing, to keep your mind on killing once you’re out of danger and your blood’s cooled off.”

—Inquisitor Sand Dan Glokta (The First Law Trilogy)

INQ265: Advanced Combat Styles

In addition to the main combat styles, Inquisitors also have several adjuncts available to them—smaller feat paths, force multipliers, scaffolds that can improve upon existing capabilities. You’d have a hard time making an Inquisitor “build” out of any one of these, but they’re all strong, modular options to consider adding if you happen to have extra space.

The Anatomist (Vital Strike)

Pro	Con
Full attacking won’t always be possible. Let’s face it: not every combat pits PCs against enemies and makes them whack away at each other until someone dies. You’ll need to use your move action sometimes, and when that happens, a Vital Strike is better than a standard attack.	Very late access. You won’t be able to grab the entry-level feat until at least 9th level, and you’ll be waiting until 15th to get the Improved version. Lacking a fourth iterative attack, you never get access to Greater Vital Strike.
DR penetration. Plain and simple, one big hit suffers less from DR than three little hits.	Bane, bane, bane. Bane is counted as precision damage (i.e., not modified by criticals, Vital Strike, etc.) so your single attack action per round will put out a piddly amount of Bane pain.
Plays nicely with some Divine Fighting Techniques. Gorum and Torag have two of the best Divine Fighting Techniques; that’s largely due to their ability to slot Vital Strike into actions that otherwise wouldn’t qualify for Vital Striking (charges in Gorum’s case, and AoOs in Torag’s).	Finicky action economy. I’m not convinced even Paizo knows how Vital Strike figures into their action economy. It can’t be applied to full-round actions (like charging) or actions-that-are-not-actions (like attacks of opportunity) but other applications are less clear about what constitutes a standard action, and what constitutes an attack action, which is a type of standard action. Does it apply to Spring Attack? Who knows?
Attack at highest BAB. Your iteratives will never be all that stellar, so it’s nice to be able to attack with your highest bonus.

Suggested Feat Path

Vital Strike (9)

Vital Strike, Improved (15)

Final Thoughts

Does it get you much in the long run? Perhaps not. But melee Inquisitors should have many of the feats they need by 9th level, which might leave them free to add another tool to the toolbox. If you’re an adherent of Gorum or Torag, Vital Strike becomes practically mandatory so you can pick up those deities’ excellent Divine Fighting Techniques: Gorum’s gives you some powerful anti-casting tools, while Torag’s synergizes extraordinarily well with trip tactics. Due to its BAB requirements, this feat line will always be better for Paladins, Warpriests, Fighters, and Swashbucklers—but that’s no reason for Inquisitors not to join in the fun, too.

The Phalanxer (Reach)

Pro	Con
Increased threatened area. More threatened area means more AoOs, and more AoOs mean better use of the action economy and Bane damage. Adding feats like Combat Patrol can increase your threatened area to absurd ranges.	No 5-ft. Reach. It stinks, not threatening right next to you. Worshipers of Shelyn can use the Bladed Brush feat (which they’ll already be selecting anyway, most likely) to alleviate this issue.
Keeps you back from big bruisers. We ideally want as much distance between us and baddies as we can get, and reach weapons accomplish that goal neatly.
Innate proficiency. We’ve already got simple weapon proficiency, which is all we need to get rolling with a longspear. Comes out of the box effective.

Suggested Feat Path

Combat Reflexes (1)

Dodge (3)

Mobility (5)

Combat Patrol (7)

Final Thoughts

Reach characters planning on taking advantage of AoOs will need to balance DEX and STR in their initial point buy, as no DEX-to-damage or Finesse feats exist for spears (Shelyn’s Bladed Brush excepted). Even with this split focus, spears are still incredibly effective for Inquisitors, giving them better defense and better offense with minimal investment. The addition of Combat Patrol makes large swaths of the battlefield a no-fly zone for most enemies unless they want to get speared constantly. You’ll typically need to switch from your reach weapon if an enemy is truly dead set on closing with you, so Quick Draw or Quick Stow can be useful additions to this build. Or, ya know, just wield a glaive and use Bladed Brush to choke up.

The Rager (Cleave)

Pro	Con
A little less BAB-intensive. You’ll still have slower access than most full martials, but it’s not as painful a wait as for Vital Strike.	...but still very feat-intensive. You know the drill.
Attack at highest BAB. See Vital Strike.	Racial feat shenanigans. The best Cleave feats are for Dwarves only, including Orc Hewer, Goblin Cleaver, Giant Killer, and Cleave Through. Good thing Dwarves make such good Inquisitors, no?
Good support from enchantments. Culling and mighty cleaving weapons are your go-tos for weaponry; advancing will help with positioning for the perfect Cleave.	AoE Bane can be tricky. Unless your GM is lobbing you softball encounters full of multiple enemies of the same type or subtype who like to cluster together, Cleave is likely to proc Bane damage on only one hostile.

Suggested Feat Path

Power Attack (3)

Cleave (5)

Great Cleave (7)

Cleaving Finish (9)

Improved Cleaving Finish (11)

Orc Hewer (Dwarf) (13)

Cleave Through (Dwarf) (15)

Final Thoughts

On balance, I like the Cleave route a bit less than the Vital Strike route. Vital Strike, whatever its problems, is at least feat-light, whereas Cleave takes significant investment for far-less-significant return. I’d leave this path to the Fighters and Barbarians.

The Specter (Intimidation)

Pro	Con
Baked-in bonuses. Stern Gaze gives you an instant edge over the competition with half your level to Intimidate; Half-Orcs can optionally take the FCB that gives a further half your level to the skill. Many cheaper magical and alchemical bonuses grant even more bonuses.	[Mind-affecting] tag. The Demoralize action is a mind-affecting fear effect, which means that many enemy types—Constructs, Oozes, Plants, Undead, Vermin, some swarms, and a handful of Outsider subtypes—will be naturally immune to even your best Intimidate rolls. Not even the Antipaladin’s Aura of Cowardice beats blanket immunity to mind-affecting effects. Be prepared for this tactic not to work all the time.
Resource-light debuffing. Demoralization is an inexhaustible source of debuffing and battlefield control for Inquisitors. Add a few enchantments (cruel, malevolent, dazzling radiance, and gory) and you’ll be able to make enemies shaken, frightened, dazzled, sickened, or blinded with minimal effort.	Still feat-intensive.
Enables sneak attack for Sanctified Slayers. The Intimidate route is practically required for Sanctified Slayers in large part due to Shatter Defenses, a feat that allows them to treat shaken enemies as flat-footed. Flat-footed enemies proc sneak attack, and endless sneak attacks are the ultimate dream of any Rogue or Slayer.

Suggested Feat Path

Everyone seems to agree that using Intimidate to demoralize a single enemy as a standard action is wasting the action economy. For this reason, most Intimidate builds try build toward demoralizing as a swift or free action, demoralizing multiple enemies at once, or both. There are a few paths for each.

The Nonlethal Intimidator

Enforcer (1)

Bludgeoner (3, Optional)

Merciful weapon

This feat path is the lightest of them all, and also the most accessible to Finesse Inquisitors. Basically, Enforcer allows you to demoralize an enemy as a free action any time you deal nonlethal damage; Bludgeoner can help you get nonlethal damage on lethal bludgeoning weapons, or else the merciful enchantment will do it for any weapon. Nonlethal damage is its own discussion, but the big advantage of Enforcer is the fact that you cause them to be shaken for a number of rounds equal to the damage you dealt. That’s going to be an enormous number of rounds. Don’t bother with the Merciful Bane feat—the lethal damage from Bane and the nonlethal damage from your weapon will meet in the middle somewhere. Sarenrae’s Divine Fighting Technique can use this feat path to unreal advantage. Check it out in the Feats section and the “Blade Savant” sample build.

The Lethal Intimidator

Power Attack (3)

Cornugon Smash (7)

Cruel weapon

The requirements to get into the Cornugon Smash feat line are a bit steeper than for Enforcer. There’s Power Attack itself, and you’ll have to wait for Cornugon Smash at 7th level before you have a means of demoralizing as a free action. A cruel weapon will let you dogpile further debuffs onto the shaken condition.

The Mass Intimidator

Weapon Focus (1)

Dazzling Display (3)

Shatter Defenses (9)

Violent Display (11, if Sanctified Slayer and allowed)

Dazzling Radiance weapon

Malevolent armor

Intimidating one enemy at a time is simple enough, but if you want to have a force multiplier for your patented Scary Face, the Mass Intimidator is where it all comes together. Weapon Focus is a tax, but Dazzling Display starts to get intriguing: as a full-round action, demoralize every enemy within 30 feet who can see you. Toss in Shatter Defenses, and every shaken enemy is flat-footed against you; malevolent armor lets you add your enhancement bonus to attack rolls against flat-footed enemies. Once you hit a shaken, flat-footed enemy, Violent Display can proc Dazzling Display damn near every round.

Final Thoughts

Each of the paths presented here is presented in the barest possible fashion, so as to be modular. Lethal + Mass is great, but also benefits from Intimidating Prowess, if you somehow have the room. Nonlethal + Mass goes down much smoother with Sarenrae’s Divine Fighting Technique, but it’s not mandatory. Your build reflects your goals. I should mention that I’m not an expert on intimidation; that credit goes to the author of this guide on the noble art of Intimimancy. As far as I know, the guide hasn’t been updated in a while, but it’s still the gold standard for how to build a scary character. Traits, feats, items—it’s all there.

INQ301: Race and Inquisition

Core Races

Dwarf

Pro	Con
Excellent stat distribution. +2 WIS and CON make you a better caster and tank, while a penalty to CHA is about as irrelevant as we could hope for.	Strictly mediocre favored class bonus. Getting a little boost to one Judgment won’t make a huge difference in your combats, and it’s obviously useless for archetypes that trade away Judgment.
Phenomenal magehunter potential. The Hardy racial trait gives you +2 to saves vs. spells and SLAs, which is excellent. The Steel Soul racial feat bumps that number up to +4, bordering on explosively awesome.	Lower base movement speed. It stinks, but you can make up for it by charging, selecting the Travel domain, getting a reliable source of haste, casting expeditious retreat...when you need mobility, you’ll have it.
No movement penalties for heavy armor. Most Dwarves will become melee Inquisitors; most melee Inquisitors should have heavy armor proficiency. QED.
Racial darkvision.

Other Features

The Barrrow Warden racial trait is excellent for an undead-heavy campaign, while Spell Smasher outperforms in caster-heavy campaigns. Fey Thoughts and Fey Magic can expand your skill and spell options, respectively. Sky Sentinel helps against flight, a common enemy tactic in later levels.

Final Thoughts

...and my axe! Sturdy and spell-resistant, dwarves have all the makings of wonderful melee Inquisitors. Archetypes like Spellbreaker or Witch Hunter will help them specialize in anti-caster tactics, while burning a feat to pick up Heavy Armor Proficiency will allow them to stand confidently on a battlefield. You're always going to be a little slower than your teammates, so consider the options listed in the table above to get you into the thick of it faster.

Elf

Pro	Con
Great favored class bonus. Inquisitors will never not need bonus spells known, so you’ll see this FCB consistently rated blue.	Low-light vision, but no racial darkvision.
Weapon familiarity. Elves get access to a good variety of weapons, especially ranged weapons. If you also spend a feat to get martial weapon proficiency, you can access the Elven Curve Blade and Elven Branched Spear, two of the best melee weapons around.	Abysmal stat distribution. +2 INT does nothing for you unless you’re a Living Grimoire, and +2 DEX will only be useful to Finesse or Ranged Inquisitors. A penalty to CON makes for one awkward, frail character.

Other Features

The Overwhelming Magic trait might be good for Monster Tacticians, who'll need Spell Focus (Conjuration) as a prerequisite to some good summoning feats.

Final Thoughts

Ah Elbereth Gilthoniel? Honestly, there's little to recommend the Fair Folk to an Inquisitor build. The stat distribution is all wrong for every archetype but Living Grimoire, and the main perks (weapon familiarity and the FCB) can be duplicated in the Half-Elf. These poor guys were really meant to be Wizards and Magi, not Inquisitors.

Gnome

Pro	Con
	Generally poor stat distribution. I’ll never turn my nose up at +2 CON, but the penalty to STR hurts badly, and +2 CHA is pretty useless.
	Low base movement speed. The Dwarf also has this problem; the Dwarf, however, gets a pass, because it is an incredible race for an Inquisitor. The Gnome is not.
	Mediocre favored class bonus. Defensive casting is okay, but it can’t hold a candle to spells known or Stern Gaze bonuses.
	Low-light vision, but no racial darkvision.

Other Features

Only so much lipstick you can put on a pig, kids.

Final Thoughts

Woof. A disappointing performance from the gnomes, who were always meant to be Sorcerers, Rogues, Bards, Oracles, or the like. I love the quirky little guys, but they have nothing going for them here.

Half-Elf

Pro	Con
Floating stat bonus. Always good to have the option; yours will go into STR, DEX, or WIS, depending on whether your focus is melee, ranged/finesse, or casting.	Low-light vision, but no racial darkvision.
Free skill focus feat. If you don't get Ancestral Arms, enjoy your free skill focus feat. Perception's never a bad idea.
Ancestral Arms. Getting access to any martial or exotic weapon is extremely strong. It competes with Adaptability, but most Inquisitors will need the Skill Focus less than they'll need more weapon choices. If you're only interested in elven weapons, select the Weapon Familiarity trait instead.
Great favored class bonus. Again, more spells known = more flexible casting. Never say no except in the very first levels when you'll have access to orisons only.

Other Features

A Living Grimoire can parlay the free Skill Focus (Linguistics) into the Orator feat, which gives you all the face skills you'll ever need.

Final Thoughts

Half-Elves almost always make a good showing in racial selection, and the Inquisitor is no different. Floating stat bonus, excellent FCB, and the ability to grab better weapon proficiencies make this race a strong choice.

Halfling

Pro	Con
Improved saves. +1 to all saves via Halfling Luck is neat to pick up for free. Fearless also makes it harder for enemies to break your Judgment through fear tactics.	20-foot movement speed. You can and probably should rectify this with the Fleet of Foot alternate racial trait.
	Poor stat distribution. CHA doesn't do much for us, and you're missing a WIS boost.
	Shitty favored class bonus. Many archetypes trade away Teamwork feats, and anyway, how often during the day do you want to change them?

Other Features

None of the alternative racial traits (apart from Fleet of Foot, which is mandatory) catch my eye in any particular way. Usual disclaimer about Fate's Favored being an awesome trait on Halflings.

Final Thoughts

Much like Gnomes, Halflings were simply meant to be a different class. Your stat distribution alone makes playing a Halfling Inquisitor a very tough swim against a very strong current.

Half-Orc

Pro	Con
Floating stat bonus. Again, always nice to get to choose where that goes.
Racial darkvision.
Bonus weapon proficiencies. Holy cow, the falchion and greataxe are both amazing weapons that the Inquisitor doesn't naturally get access to; those with the Chain Fighter alternate racial feat can pick up flails and heavy flails, as well. Two-Handed builds will salivate over this.
Two excellent favored class bonuses. Half-Orcs can take the Human FCB (more spells known, eternally blue) or choose to get half their level to Knowledges when identifying monsters and to Intimidate. Both FCBs are amazing, but the second is especially great for demoralize builds looking to pump their numbers sky-high.

Other Features

The Acute Darkvision and Dragon Sight alternate racial traits are good ones to grab (Dragon Sight especially, if you're not demoralizing professionally) for improved darkvision. Overlooked Mastermind is the perfect fit for sneakier Inquisitors like Cloaked Wolves or Heretics. I've never been such a fan of Orc Ferocity, so if you're like me, you'll be looking for replacement traits, two of which jump out: Toothy (for a primary natural attack, 1d4) or Sacred Tattoo (which grants a +1 luck bonus to all saves, boosted to +2 when you take the Fate's Favored trait).

Final Thoughts

There's a reason why Pathfinder's poster-child Inquisitor is a half-orc. They're scary, capable combatants with amazing FCBs, bonuses to Intimidate that stack with Stern Gaze, great weapon proficiencies, and opportunities for better saves, vision, and natural attacks.

Human

Pro	Con
Floating stat bonus.	No darkvision or low-light vision.
Free bonus feat. This is what humans are famous for, and on feat-strapped classes like the Inquisitor, this starts to look even more appealing. Highly recommended for ranged builds, who'll need all the feats they can get.
Free skill point every level. Synergizes naturally with the Inquisitor's focus on skills.

Other Features

The alternate racial traits are only rarely worth it, except in situations where your bonus feat mimics one of the alternate racial traits (e.g., the Spell Penetration feat and the Unstoppable Magic racial trait—you can't get SP twice, but if you take UM as your replacement for the bonus feat, you can pick up SP later on).

Final Thoughts

You'll work around your lack of darkvision. Light is a cantrip, after all. Apart from that, Humans are manifestly excellent, giving Inquisitors more of the feats that they're so starved for.

Selected Other Races

A complete treatment of every Pathfinder race would be exhausting and minimally fruitful. I'll cover some of the highlights among Golarion's less common peoples, but there are a few criteria that you can use to make your own selections:

Stat spread. Look for bonuses to WIS, CON, or DEX/STR (depending on your style of play). Penalties to WIS or CON are bad enough that they immediately put the race into the red, while penalties to DEX or STR can usually be worked around with some creativity. Bonuses or penalties to CHA and INT are the least relevant for Inquisitors.
Favored class bonuses. Because the Inquisitor is a newer class, not every one of the featured or uncommon races has a favored class bonus. Extra HP or skill points are never bad things, of course, but as commodities they're not quite as precious as something like spells known. Some races can take alternate racial traits that allow them to be treated as humans, which most GMs would rule qualifies you to select the excellent Human FCB. Go for it, if that’s the case for your race.
Base speed. You want 30 feet per round, obviously, not 20.
Size. STR-based builds will probably want a medium-sized race. Finesse, Ranged, and casting-based Inquisitors can consider small-sized races.

Aasimar

Pro	Con
Solid stat spread. CHA will at least help us with face skills (or enable us to dump CHA safely, more likely) and WIS is always needed. If you're allowed variant Aasimar, you definitely want the Archon-blooded, which gives you +2 CON and WIS, plus bonuses to Sense Motive and Intimidate. Could there be a more inquisitorial Aasimar? (Honorable mention goes to the Garuda-blooded, which is ideal for ranged or finesse Inquisitors with +2 DEX and WIS, see invisibility, and useful bonuses. Thanks to /u/ogrehalo for pointing out this combo!)	Overly specific favored class bonus. Unless you're fighting Outsiders most of the time, this isn't for you; take the bonus HP (or Human FCB, with Scion of Humanity) and call it a day.
Racial SLA, 1/day. Base Aasimar get daylight, a good 3rd-level spell, while other variants get different SLAs.
Racial darkvision.

Other Features

If you're going to be fighting any undead in your campaign, take the Deathless Spirit alternate racial trait instead of Celestial Resistance—the resistance to negative energy and boosts to saves vs. energy drain, negative levels, etc. are simply too good to pass up.

Final Thoughts

Variant Aasimar are really the way to go; the base package doesn’t give you anything that you couldn’t get elsewhere. As stated above, the Archon- and Garuda-blooded variants are best at preserving your bonus to WIS, so they’re what I’d go with for melee and ranged Inquisitors, respectively. I do wish that Aasimar had a better FCB, but your GM might allow you to take the Human FCB if you select Scion of Humanity to become mostly human. Check it with them!

Grippli

Pro	Con
Racial darkvision.	No favored class bonus. We're used to that by now.
Decent stat spread. +2 DEX/WIS, -2 STR makes you a likely candidate for finesse or ranged play.
Climb speed. Another excellent ability, folded right in. You get a +8 racial bonus to Climb, the ability to take 10 on your check even when rushed or threatened, and no longer count as flat-footed when climbing.
Small size, normal speed. You're stealthier, more accurate, and harder to hit, but you still have a base movement speed of 30 feet. That's a package that very, very few races get.
Agile Tongue feat. Grippli get access to Agile Tongue, which lets you perform melee touch attacks from 10 feet away. Many Domain abilities are touch range, along with several of your spells—it's a great investment if you can swing it.

Other Features

Since Grippli already have the stat distributions to be good finesse Inquisitors, you'll obviously want the Princely alternate racial trait for access to rapiers and a bonus to two of your commonly used face skills. Princely conflicts with Toxic Skin, which I'm actually kind of cut up about—your Grippli Poison is free, deals DEX damage, and can be used as a swift action, albeit with a mediocre save DC. If you're dead set on not being a finesse frog for some reason, go ahead and take that.

Final Thoughts

As stated above, Grippli make for great Weapon Finesse builds. There's some interesting synergy between Agile Tongue and the Crime Inquisition—getting the ability to use Improved and Greater Steal from 10 feet away could make you a real nuisance on the battlefield. Add the Sanctified Slayer archetype, greater bane, and the Piranha Strike feat and you won't even miss DEX-to-damage (although Weapon Focus: Rapier and Fencing Grace are still options if you really want them).

Oread

Pro	Con
Amazing stat spread. +2 STR/WIS, -2 CHA is literally perfect for melee Inquisitors. Tough to beat.	Lower base movement speed. Allow me to introduce you to Messrs. Slow and Steady. It's unfortunate, but melee Inquisitors probably won't have to move much except when positioning for the start of combat. You can always use expeditious retreat.
Mostly Human. More spells known through the Human FCB. You want this.™
Racial darkvision.
Good racial feats. If you're doing a two-handed build with an Oread (and you should) you'll have enough room in the build to access some nifty scouting abilities in the form of Oread Burrower and Oread Earth Glider. Having a burrow speed, including the ability to burrow through solid stone, expands your tactics considerably.
Racial SLA, 1/day. You won't get much use out of magic stone, so trade it for Treacherous Earth for a useful bottleneck or choke point.

Other Features

Go ahead and drop your acid resistance for the +1 Natural Armor bonus from Granite Skin; Crystalline Form and Treacherous Earth are also worth the swaps in alternate racial traits. Mostly Human is an absolute must if you intend to do any casting; the versatility that more spells known gives you is too good to pass up.

Final Thoughts

Oreads are an incredibly solid pick for a melee Inquisitor. Your two racial traits that boost your AC will help ease the early level survival-crunch, so enjoy them.

Tengu

Pro	Con
Amazing weapon proficiencies. Kukris, falchions, and elven curve blades are wonderful to get your hands on when you only get simple weapons in-class.	Low-light vision, but no darkvision.
Decent stat distribution. The penalty to CON hurts, but might be surmountable with FCBs and the Toughness feat. At least you've got WIS, even if DEX only excites Finesse and Ranged Inquisitors.	No favored class bonus. It's okay. You should really be taking HP on a Tengu anyway.
Built-in natural attack. You can't complain about free damage.

Other Features

I want to love the Gifted Linguist feature—and I do, on Rogues or others who can use it more effectively—but it just doesn't do much for you unless you pick up the Skill Focus (Linguistics) and Orator feats. If you don't have room for those, just get the Glide alternate racial trait.

Final Thoughts

If you're going the Weapon Finesse route, give the Tengu a serious look. Go elven curve blade, Weapon Finesse at 1st level, Piranha Strike at 3rd. You'll never hit quite as hard as a Two-Handed Inquisitor, but you'll get better touch AC, Reflex saves, and Initiative to compensate somewhat.

Tiefling

Pro	Con
Variant heritages. There are many more good variant heritages for Tieflings than there are for Aasimar. The Asura-Spawn (+2 DEX/WIS, -2 CHA), Demodand-Spawn (+2 CON/WIS, -2 INT), Devil-Spawn (+2 CON/WIS, -2 CHA), Oni-Spawn (+2 STR/WIS, -2 CHA), and Qlippoth-Spawn (+2 STR/WIS, -2 INT) are all excellent choices that provide unique SLAs and skill bonuses.	Shoddy stat distribution. This applies to the base Tiefling only. You're golden if you can take a variant.
Decent favored class bonus. Same as the Half-Orc, bonus to Knowledges and Intimidate. Perfect for the Intimidancer builds I know you're concocting in your head. Although you have to give up some good alternate racial traits to get it, Pass for Human can get you the Human FCB.
Racial SLA, 1/day.
Racial darkvision.

Other Features

I'd recommend Prehensile Tail, Scaled Skin, and potentially Maw or Claw (if you're looking for another attack on a melee build) for just about any Tiefling. Too useful.

Final Thoughts

On balance, I'd say that the Tiefling falls slightly behind the Aasimar on account of their stat penalty. Tieflings do have a much better Intimidation set-up, if you want to go that direction. Variant heritages are a make-or-break deal for Tieflings, so ask your GM about them today; if you're not allowed, you'll likely be better off with a Half-Orc.

Undine

Pro	Con
Mostly Human. Get that sweet, sweet Human FCB.
Fairly good stat array. You're pretty much locked into a ranged or finesse build with an Undine, because that penalty to STR is too big to overcome. If you're willing to work around that limitation, more power to you.
Native swim speed. Very nice—you won't need it all the time, but man, is it useful when you do.
Racial SLA, 1/day. Hydraulic push uses your caster level and WIS modifier as your CMB bonus, so you'll actually be able to push people around pretty will with this. Always fun to hurl enemies off of bridges, cliffs, rooftops, etc.
Racial darkvision.

Other Features

If you're not a fan of hydraulic push or feel that a 1/day SLA isn't worth the investment, Amphibious and its associated water breathing are a fantastic pick; you also might as well get Hydrated Vitality, which isn't great, but will at least save a little on end-of-day healing. None of the alternate racial traits replacing your cold resistance really blow my skirt up. Just hang on to it.

Final Thoughts

Another solid showing from the geniekin. You'll have to sink a bit more into feats due to your STR penalty, but other than that the Undine has more to recommend it than not.

(Image Source)

“This child is an unholy demon. I’m sending it back to hell, where it belongs.”

— Judge Claude Frollo

INQ351: Domain Analytics

For those just joining us in the world of tabletop roleplaying games, a word about domains: domains are thematic packages of abilities that are granted by the various deities of Golarion and beyond. Every deity has five domains available to his or her adherents, but there are a variety of Empyreal Lords, Archdevils, and other powerful planar beings that may have a domain portfolio, too. The class that normally interacts the most with the domains is the Cleric: they pick two domains, each of which grants them an exclusive list of domain-only bonus spells. As I mentioned earlier, Inquisitors also get access to domains, but on a much more limited basis. Where Clerics get two domains, Inquisitors get one; where Clerics get bonus spells, Inquisitors do not. Other than that, Inquisitors’ domain abilities function as their Cleric brethren and sistrens’ do. In addition to the normal domains available to you depending on your choice of deity, Inquisitors also have the option of picking an Inquisition; these “mini-domains” are based around ideals that an Inquisitor might pursue regardless of deity. Green Faith Marshals get access to the Animal and Terrain Domains, so I’ll be reviewing those, too.

Deity	Alignment	Domains	Favored Weapon
Abadar	LN	Earth, Law, Nobility, Protection, Travel	Light crossbow
Asmodeus	LE	Evil, Fire, Law, Magic, Trickery	Mace (In-class)
Calistria	CN	Chaos, Charm, Knowledge, Luck, Trickery	Whip
Cayden Cailean	CG	Chaos, Charm, Good, Strength, Travel	Rapier
Desna	CG	Chaos, Good, Liberation, Luck, Travel	Starknife
Erastil	LG	Animal, Community, Good, Law, Plant	Longbow (In-class)
Gorum	CN	Chaos, Destruction, Glory, Strength, War	Greatsword
Gozreh	N	Air, Animal, Plant, Water, Weather	Trident
Iomedae	LG	Glory, Good, Law, Sun, War	Longsword
Irori	LN	Healing, Knowledge, Law, Rune, Strength	Unarmed strike
Lamashtu	CE	Chaos, Evil, Madness, Strength, Trickery	Falchion
Nethys	N	Destruction, Knowledge, Magic, Protection, Rune	Quarterstaff
Norgorber	NE	Charm, Death, Evil, Knowledge, Trickery	Short sword
Pharasma	N	Death, Healing, Knowledge, Repose, Water	Dagger (In-class)
Rovagug	CE	Chaos, Destruction, Evil, War, Weather	Greataxe
Sarenrae	NG	Fire, Glory, Good, Healing, Sun	Scimitar
Shelyn	NG	Air, Charm, Good, Luck, Protection	Glaive
Torag	LG	Artifice, Earth, Good, Law, Protection	Warhammer
Urgathoa	NE	Death, Evil, Magic, Strength, War	Scythe
Zon-Kuthon	LE	Darkness, Death, Destruction, Evil, Law	Spiked chain

Deific Domains

Air Domain

Base Domain Powers	Subdomain Replacements
Lightning Arc: A weak blast. Inquisitors don't blast; they are the blast.	Wind Subdomain Wind Blast: It's better than Lightning Arc, but only by a bare margin. Bull rush can help knock enemies into walls or over cliffs, at least.
Electricity Resistance: Pretty weak for a second domain power.	Cloud Subdomain Thundercloud: No-save deafened within the cloud is powerful, especially against casters. The ability to move the cloud is nice, as is the damage per round (although that will quickly become inconsequential). An item like the Goz Mask will let you take full advantage of your enemies' blindness. Lightning Subdomain Lightning Rod: As an Inquisitor, you don't really get any spells with the [electricity] descriptor, so this power is useless.

Animal Domain

Base Domain Powers	Subdomain Replacements
Bonus Class Skill: Knowledge (Nature). You already get it in-class.	Feather Subdomain Bonus Class Skill: Fly, which you don't get in-class, plus a maneuverability boost. Yes, please.
Speak with Animals: Mostly fluff.	Feather Subdomain Eyes of the Hawk: Racial bonus. Half your level to Perception on a WIS-based class, plus an initiative bonus during surprise rounds in which you can act. Perception is wonderful; this is wonderful. Fur Subdomain Predator's Grace: Swift-action boost to your speed. You've already got expeditious retreat, but this is a nice addition. Pity your swift action economy at the start of combat is already so full. The improvements to vision in dim light are just icing. Insect Subdomain Exoskeleton: Enhancement bonus. It's a great little ability that lets you turtle up when you're flanked or foreseeing being attacked by multiple enemies. Usual caveat about Inquisitors being strapped for swift actions applies.
Animal Companion: Your very own animal companion. Extremely powerful, even without the Teamwork feat-sharing that the Sacred Huntsmaster archetype gets. The Boon Companion feat is a must with this domain to ensure that your companion stays on par with you.

Artifice Domain

Base Domain Powers

Subdomain Replacements

Artificer's Touch: At-will mending is a cute little QoL improvement, but the attack against constructs is generally weak.

Alchemy Subdomain

Divine Alchemy: Note: The wording on this subdomain is broken for spontaneous casters. You and your GM will have to work that out.

The primary advantage of potions over spells is that you can drink as a move action, rather than the standard action to cast a spell, and administer self-only buffs to teammates. It’s a strong contender, especially replacing Artificer’s Touch.

Dancing Weapons: The dancing enchantment is pretty good for many martial classes. You only get Bane damage when you’re wielding the weapon, though, which drastically limits the power’s usefulness. You also get a measly number of uses per day.

Construct Subdomain

Animate Servant: Carry around a bunch of daggers to animate, or animate some trees to attack. Animate objects is a good spell, and you get to use it several times per day by the end of your career.

Industry Subdomain

Aura of Efficiency: You have to select the Urban Acolyte trait to get access to this subdomain. Aura of Efficiency opens up some lateral thinking hardness shenanigans (using a normal steel blade to chop through a stone wall, e.g.) but with only a few rounds per day, you’re unlikely to get much mileage.

Toil Subdomain

Aura of Repetition: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: The Spell! This could be powerful, or not, depending on what your enemies were doing when you activated it. Will negates.

Trap Subdomain

Supernatural Trap: Much like the name of the subdomain, this is a trap. Traps are pretty weak in general, and your save DC is never going to be super high. You're better off getting glyph of warding, greater if you want to be a trapmaster.

Chaos Domain

Base Domain Powers

Subdomain Replacements

Touch of Chaos: Forcing an opponent to reroll any d20 and take the poorer result, even for one round, is quite powerful. That's concentration checks, attack rolls, skill checks, combat maneuver checks, saves, and more. Good for assisting your casters in making a BBEG feel the pain, especially since the touch attack doesn't require a save to work.

Azata Subdomain

Touch of Elysium: Sacred bonus. Enchantment effects are some of the worst in the game, potentially turning you or one of your allies against the rest of your group. You really don't want your Wizard angling that prismatic wall your way, do you? The bonuses to escaping grapples and ignoring difficult terrain are icing.

Demodand Subdomain

Faith-Stealing Strike: To use this strike, you must target someone who uses divine spells, then hit them, then damage them, and finally hope that they fail a Will save. All this in order to make them lose their casting for one round. That's way too many "ifs" for a weak payoff.

Demon Subdomain

Fury of the Abyss: Enhancement bonus. Hefty, hefty scaling bonuses to melee attack rolls, damage rolls, and CMB for one round. If you're an Inquisitor of Gorum or something similar, this is a stellar pick that will eventually outstrip even Bane.

Chaos Blade: Hedging weapons lets you bypass DR completely as a 1st-level spell. Align weapon is a 2nd-level spell. You really don’t need this.

Entropy Subdomain

Hasten the End: If you could reduce the duration of active buffs with every attack, this power would be worthwhile. Once per day? Far, far too weak.

Protean Subdomain

Aura of Chaos: It forces enemies to make an interesting choice: do I declare an action I don't want to do, counting on myself to fail the Will save, or do I declare an action that I do want to do, counting on myself to succeed? Your chances of using this predictably will actually increase as you level and Will saves get higher. How many times does that happen?

Revelry Subdomain

Intense Celebration: Morale bonuses on your list include bless, wrath, aid, instrument of agony, heroism, righteous vigor, shared wrath, blessings of luck and resolve, and heroes' feast. Some of your most powerful buffs, Extended for free. Definitely not a bad deal, especially as it replaces a turd of a domain power.

Riot Subdomain

Aura of Bedlam: You have to select the Urban Acolyte trait to get access to this subdomain. Even with the mark against it for being mind-affecting, Aura of Bedlam is powerful. Force no-save concentration checks (with penalties) for every enemy caster in the aura? Yes, please.

Whimsy Subdomain

Unexpected Whimsy: It's Lawyer Morty, hahaha, look at him go! The DC is even lower than usual for you, but a rash of failed saves protects the team for one round and gets you bonuses to skewer your frolicsome enemies.

Charm Domain

Base Domain Powers

Subdomain Replacements

Dazing Touch: No save, they're just dazed for one round. A conductive weapon would help your action economy.

Love Subdomain

Adoration: Mind-affecting: ding. Will negates: ding. Only protects against one attack: ding. Too much to dislike here, not enough to like.

Charming Smile: Charm person lasts for hours per level, whereas Charming Smile lasts only rounds per level. That’s unacceptable.

Captivation Subdomain

Entrancing Aura: The Perception debuff might be useful for sneakier Inquisitors—a Perception debuff is functionally the same thing as a Stealth buff. The bit about reducing fascination requirements is useless for you; litany of fascination is one of the only spells you have that fascinates, and it does so without a save.

Lust Subdomain

Anything to Please: Mind-affecting: ding. Will negates: ding. It's at least marginally better than Adoration, because losing a powerful item, attacking your enemies, or dropping prone are all fairly powerful effects.

Community Domain

Base Domain Powers

Subdomain Replacements

Calming Touch: The healing is bad; you don't need it. Removing shaken, fatigued, or sickened is slightly better, but those effects also tend to wear off quickly.

Cooperation Subdomain

Synergistic Touch: This domain power seems tailored for Inquisitors. You get plenty of Teamwork feats, and sometimes you'll actually want your party members to have those feats instead of relying on Solo Tactics. Obviously red if you traded away your Teamwork feats.

Family Subdomain

Binding Ties: The idea of taking on a family member's suffering as your own is thematic, yes, but mechanically bad. You'd be better off just ending the condition that's bothering them with dispel magic, delay poison, or delay disease.

Unity: You get good saves as an Inquisitor, and doubtless many of your compatriots could benefit from substituting yours for theirs. The issue is that you get so few uses of this power.

Education Subdomain

Teaching Moment: You have to select the Urban Acolyte trait to get access to this subdomain. Giving your whole team flexible rerolls within a minute of a Nat 1 or 20 is very good. The only thing that would make this power better would be more uses per day.

Home Subdomain

Guarded Hearth: Sacred bonus. If you have time to spend picking your battleground, Guarded Hearth is an excellent power. Your WIS modifier to all attack rolls and saves for every creature within the radius? That's amazing. Just make sure not to leave the hearth's area—the radius never gets all that large. Also note that this won't stack with your Justice or Purity Judgments.

Darkness Domain

Base Domain Powers	Subdomain Replacements
Bonus Feat: I mean, hell, I'm not going to say no to Blind Fight for free.
Touch of Darkness: Miss chances are always good damage mitigation for your party, and the ability to just slap this on a BBEG and move on will greatly improve your survivability.	Night Subdomain Night Hunter: Excellent at early levels before you get invisibility on your spell list, Night Hunter quickly tapers off in usefulness as more and more enemies start getting some form of sight in darkness. Blindsense, Blindsight, Scent, see invisibility, true seeing, and even garden variety Darkvision will all negate this ability. Shadow Subdomain Whispering Shadows: I don’t think you’ve got the spell list to take proper advantage of this power.
Eyes of Darkness: Saves you some spell slots on daylight. I wish you got this for minutes per level.	Loss Subdomain Aura of Forgetfulness: Will negates. Causing casters to lose spells is cool, but by 8th level they probably won't mind losing some 1st-level spells. Moon Subdomain Moonfire: Weak blast, weak condition. Pass.

Death Domain

Base Domain Powers

Subdomain Replacements

Bleeding Touch: Weak damage. Pass.

Shadow Subdomain

Whispering Shadows: I don’t think you’ve got the spell list to take proper advantage of this power.

Undead Subdomain

Death's Kiss: Somehow even less useful than Death's Embrace. The crowning turd in a turd-like domain portfolio.

Death's Embrace: How often do you expect to face negative energy channeling?

Murder Subdomain

Killing Blow: It's a fairly small amount of bleed damage, you have to crit first, and you only get to use it a few times per day.

Plague Subdomain

Touch of Virulence: You have to select the Urban Acolyte trait to get access to this subdomain. As an Inquisitor, you don't have ways of making people diseased. Pass.

Psychopomp Subdomain

Spirit Touch: When you need ghost touch weapons, you really need them. Nice to have this trick up your sleeve.

Destruction Domain

Base Domain Powers

Subdomain Replacements

Destructive Smite: Morale bonus. You get a lot of morale bonuses in your spell list, and this won't stack with them. That said, it's a great boost to your damage if you're currently morale-less.

Torture Subdomain

Painful Smite: It’s kind of like the Enforcer feat, only instead of a bonus to duration you get a bonus to the Intimidate check. Pretty good!

Destructive Aura: Turns every combat into a game of rocket tag: your enemies get the same bonuses against you and your party members as you get against them. Those aren’t odds I like.

Catastrophe Subdomain

Deadly Weather: The fact that you have to change the weather each round hurts, as does the fact that you can't exclude friends from the effects.

Hatred Subdomain

Hateful Aura: Will negates. The effect is minor unless you've got a group of enemies abusing buff spells or Aid Another.

Rage Subdomain

Rage: Rage, even on a limited basis, is very good. No surprises there. Don’t expect your Rage powers to do you much good—the ones without level requirements are pretty crappy.

Earth Domain

Base Domain Powers

Subdomain Replacements

Acid Dart: See Air Domain.

Metal Subdomain

Metal Fist: One round of Improved Unarmed Strike. Whoop de woo.

Petrification Subdomain

Fossil Form: Gaining the staggered condition probably isn't worth the benefits. I'd sooner turtle up with Exoskeleton from the Vermin subdomain.

Radiation Subdomain

Radiating Touch: Apart from being an asshole and irradiating people's belongings, I don't see much use for this. The object has to be unattended, Will negates, and even if they fail their save, sickened isn't the worst condition they could get.

Acid Resistance: See Air Domain.

Caves Subdomain

Tunnel Runner: Insight bonus. Spider climb, extended darkvision, your level to Stealth, and your WIS modifier double-stacked with Cunning Initiative? If you spend considerable time dungeoneering underground, take a serious look at this one.

Evil Domain

Base Domain Powers

Subdomain Replacements

Touch of Evil: Sickened isn't the worst condition in the world, but it's also not the best. Best use is probably to weaken an enemy up for one of your spells.

Cannibalism Subdomain

Consume the Enemy: Profane bonus. It all adds up to a pretty hefty boost to your spell DCs. You've got to be fighting one type of enemy consistently, but if you are, it's mechanically strong.

Demodand Subdomain

Faith-Stealing Strike: See Chaos Domain.

Demon Subdomain

Fury of the Abyss: See Chaos Domain.

Devil Subdomain

Hell's Corruption: Anything that makes your spells more likely to land is a perk in my book, but Cannibalism subdomain actually does this better.

Plague Subdomain

Touch of Virulence: See Death Domain.

Sahkil Subdomain

Touch of Paranoia: All niche cases, all pretty worthless.

Scythe of Evil: We'll assume that you're fighting mostly good creatures if you've chosen this domain. If that assumption is true, fantastic! Unholy is a good weapon quality to have when fighting good creatures.

Corruption Subdomain

Spark Malfeasance: Will save every round, and sickened is a minor condition.

Fear Subdomain

Feed on Fear: At 8th level, 2d6 damage is a drop in the ocean.

Daemon Subdomain

Whispering Evil: Mind-affecting, and Will negates. Otherwise, mass fascination isn't bad.

Kyton Subdomain

Pain is Power: When you get this power, you'll probably have a <50% chance of activating it. If you do, great, it's a nice spell. It'll get better with age, from the number of rounds that it's active, to your chances for passing the concentration check, to the number of times per day that you can use it.

Fire Domain

Base Domain Powers

Subdomain Replacements

Fire Bolt: See Air Domain.

Arson Subdomain

Call Fire: Boy, what a turd. Reflex negates, and you have to have a visible source of fire within 60 feet.

Smoke Subdomain

Cloud of Smoke: A 5-foot radius? *Sigh.* Oh, well. It's still better than Fire Bolt.

Fire Resistance: See Air Domain.

Ash Subdomain

Wall of Ashes: Wall of Ashes, I wish I knew how to quit you. This is a top-notch battlefield control power on par with many of the wall spells on the wizard/sorcerer list. Not to be outdone by those spells, this wall blocks line of sight, reveals invisible creatures, and potentially blinds enemies passing through it—and because it lasts minutes per level, you can afford to use this power in every combat, right off the bat.

Glory Domain

Base Domain Powers

Subdomain Replacements

Touch of Glory: Untyped bonus. Bluff a god! Convince a king! Intimidate a paladin! With Touch of Glory, you can give your party members the ability to succeed at damn near any CHA-based skill check. Oh, and Channel Energy, but who needs to hear about that?

Chivalry Subdomain

Bolstering Touch: There are other domain powers that deal with fear better. This one is strictly okay.

Honor Subdomain

Honor Bound: Enchantment effects suck, but many allow repeated saves already. You're better off shoring up defenses against them proactively, rather than reactively.

Divine Presence: Your DC is never going to be that high, and all it takes is one enemy getting through to muck everything up. It's also not advisable to base your combat strategy on not attacking—might work as a panic button, but hopefully you won't need one all that often.

Heroism Subdomain

Aura of Heroism: Ahhh, much better. Heroism is a good spell. You've already got it on your list, but having it as a swift-action cast is nice.

Hubris Subdomain

Divine Demand: As a rule, I don't like powers that could go horribly, horribly wrong, and losing all your spells and domain powers for 1d4 + 1 rounds certainly qualifies. The reward simply isn't worth the risk here.

Legend Subdomain

Witness the Legend: Untyped bonus. Despite sounding like something that a douchey frat boy would say right before doing a keg stand, Witness the Legend is actually a good power: you're kind of like a divine wingman, making sure that others get the credit over you. Only two strikes against it: first, that you draw from your daily charges of Touch of Glory to use it; and second, that you get so few uses per day. Bumps up to green because of your free feat.

Good Domain

Base Domain Powers

Subdomain Replacements

Touch of Good: Sacred bonus. A one-round super buff. It's nice.

Azata Subdomain

Touch of Elysium: See Chaos Domain.

Friendship Subdomain

Powerful Bond: Telepathy isn't useless, but it's also not as useful as most of the other domain powers in this portfolio, including the domain power it replaces.

Holy Lance: Evil enemies abound in Pathfinder, and you just picked up a means to stick it to them. Bane + holy weapon can result in disgusting amounts of damage being dealt to evil creatures, especially in builds with lots of attacks.

Agathion Subdomain

Protective Aura: Deflection and resistance bonuses. Your party will have Cloaks of Resistance and Rings of Protection by Level 8; the aura won't stack with them. If for some reason you have lots of summoned creatures, leadership cohorts, familiars, or animal companions, this might be more worthwhile.

Archon Subdomain

Aura of Menace: Imposes a no-save penalty to AC, attack rolls, and saves on everything within 30 feet. Definitely a good combo.

Redemption Subdomain

Aura of Sanctification: It's not bad, just narrow. Other domain powers will be more universally useful.

Healing Domain

Base Domain Powers

Subdomain Replacements

Rebuke Death: Weak, weak heal.

Medicine Subdomain

Blessed Surgery: In contrast to healing spells, the Heal skill is actually a very good investment for you, and this power equates to a free cure light/cure moderate wounds several times per day. If you're allowed to take the Heal Skill Unlock from Pathfinder Unchained, Blessed Surgery becomes much, much better, acting as a force multiplier with Treat Deadly Wounds. At Level 5, TDW heals 10 HP or 2 ability points; at Level 10, 40 HP or 4 ability points; at Level 15, 90 HP or 6 ability points; and at Level 20, 240 HP or 12 ability points. Toss in the Psychic Sensitivity, Psychic Healing, and Incredible Healer feats, and you’ve got a pretty powerful back-up healer. See this thread for more information.

Restoration Subdomain

Restorative Touch: It won't relieve the bigger, badder conditions, but all in all, not a bad power.

Healer's Blessing: Ah, much better. This’ll save you plenty of money on wands of cure light wounds over the course of your adventures.

Resurrection Subdomain

Gift of Life: What about this power resembles a gift? You bring them back to life for a minute, tops, after which they die again. Good luck explaining that turn of events to their loved ones.

Knowledge Domain

Base Domain Powers	Subdomain Replacements
Bonus Class Skill: All Knowledge skills. You already get the Knowledges that are important for monster identification, but how are you ever going to make it to the top of /r/trebuchetmemes if you haven't trained Knowledge (Engineering)?
Lore Keeper: I’m not a fan of gearing this ability around a melee touch attack. Besides, Monster Lore (and the Improved Monster Lore feat, if you grab it) will probably have you covered on identification.	Espionage Subdomain Deep Cover: You have to select the Urban Acolyte trait to get access to this subdomain. Another domain power that’s broken for spontaneous casters. Even if you resolve that with your GM, your deep cover still won't be much good—the Will save won't fool everyone, so you're better off using nondetection. Memory Subdomain Recall: Insight bonus. Your WIS modifier will cap out around +11 or +12, and the people trying to make Knowledge checks (Wizards, Investigators, Lore Warden Fighters, etc.) are usually very good at them anyway. It’s a nice power, just unnecessary in most cases.
Remote Viewing: Clairvoyance-Clairaudience is a good Divination spell. It lasts minutes per level when you cast it normally, and rounds per level here, which probably won't give you enough time to observe anything tactically useful.	Aeon Subdomain Void Form: Deflection bonus. Won't stack with your Ring of Protection or hedging weapons. The more interesting effect is immunity to crits when in void form. I don’t see a few rounds per day as worth it for your second domain power; you might disagree. Education Subdomain Teaching Moment: See Community Domain. Thought Subdomain Read Minds: It's faster than detect thoughts, at least. Unclear whether you still run the risk of stunning yourself in the presence of an enemy with an INT of 26 or higher, as you seem to "skip over" that round of detect thoughts and go straight to the third round.

Law Domain

Base Domain Powers

Subdomain Replacements

Touch of Law: Yeah, okay, I'll bite. Taking 11 on any roll you want for one round could certainly save your ass if you roll poorly. More useful in early levels, when the dice influence your outcome more strongly.

Devil Subdomain

Hell's Corruption: See Evil Domain.

Inevitable Subdomain

Command: The spell command is already weak for ¾ casters, and it doesn't get better here. Pass.

Judgment Subdomain

Chastisement: Might net you a tiny boost in damage if you were blasting...which you shouldn’t be.

Legislation Subdomain

Prohibition: You have to select the Urban Acolyte trait to get access to this subdomain. Higher-level enemies are going to laugh in your face as they swallow the 10 damage and proceed to wreck you.

Loyalty Subdomain

Touch of Loyalty: Sacred bonus. Get a +4 boost against Enchantment spells and fear effects. It's the duration that sets this apart: one hour, as opposed to most Touch domain powers' rounds per level.

Staff of Order: Hedging weapons lets you bypass DR completely as a 1st-level spell; align weapon is a 2nd-level spell. You don't really need this.

Archon Subdomain

Aura of Menace: See Good Domain.

Kyton Subdomain

Pain is Power: See Evil Domain.

Slavery Subdomain

Master's Yoke: Language-dependent, mind-affecting, Will negates. Not to mention enemies can ignore the command if they really need to nail you.

Sovereignty Subdomain

Demand Subjugation: Anything that lets you cast geas multiple times per day is great. Creative users of this power will find almost limitless applications.

Tyranny Subdomain

Tyrannical Strike: So...no Will save for at least one round, am I reading that right? It's better than the Inevitable subdomain, but not by a whole lot.

Liberation Domain

Base Domain Powers

Subdomain Replacements

Liberation: Wooow. Freedom of movement with no action cost for your level in rounds. “He rolls a check to grapple and...yep, you’re grappled.” “I dismiss your reality and substitute my own.”

Freedom Subdomain

Liberty's Blessing: They just get to re-do the save. No bonuses, no rerolls, nothing. Kinda disappointing.

Self-Realization Subdomain

Perfected Form: Sacred/profane bonus. Eh, It's a nice static bonus. With strong Will saves and WIS for a casting stat, how often are you expecting to get polymorphed against your will?

Freedom's Call: If you thought Liberation was great, wait until you can do it to all your friends! Get ready to be the party MVP in literally every combat.

Revolution Subdomain

Powerful Persuader: Don't get me wrong, rerolls are cool, and you love to intimidate people, but you only get it a few times per day and it pales in comparison with Freedom’s Call.

Luck Domain

Base Domain Powers

Subdomain Replacements

Bit of Luck: Reroll any d20 for one round. Simple, effective, unbelievably worth it.

Curse Subdomain

Malign Eye: Anything that gives your save DCs a boost is a worthy trick. The enemy can always hit you to cancel it, so try to ensure you've got defensive measures up and running or are ready to lock them down.

Good Fortune: Rerolls are excellent! I only wish you got more uses per day. (Thanks to /u/IllogicalBlox for pointing out my flawed thinking on Good Fortune!)

Fate Subdomain

Tugging Strands: It's basically Good Fortune in reverse, and it has the same issue: how do you know you want your enemy to give up their first roll unless you can see what it is?

Imagination Subdomain

Base Domain Powers

Subdomain Replacements

Strength Surge: Enhancement bonus. I'd love if the duration were longer, but making your martial buddy (or animal companion) a combat god for a round definitely isn't a bad option.

Competition Subdomain

Athletic Exploit: Untyped bonus. You have to select the Urban Acolyte trait to get access to this subdomain. A well-placed Acrobatics or Escape Artist check can save your life...but you don't have either of them on your class list. Swim and Climb checks you can get by with one rank in.

Ferocity Subdomain

Ferocious Strike: Inquisitors are already good at hitting things. This makes you hit quite a bit harder, so long as you're in melee.

Fist Subdomain

Wooden Fist: See Plant Domain.

Self-Realization Subdomain

Perfected Form: See Liberation Domain.

Might of the Gods: Enhancement bonus. You can't use it for attack rolls, which is too bad, and you probably won't run into many STR checks that you can't think your way around...but the image of an Inquisitor suddenly gaining +20 STR is hilarious. Just bulk up for a round to defeat that Barbarian in an arm-wrestling contest using the power of Cayden's brews.

Resolve Subdomain

Bestow Resolve: It's equivalent to using two cure light wounds on people after a battle, but preemptively. Seems like a minor effect, but can add up over the long haul.

Sun Domain

Base Domain Powers

Subdomain Replacements

Sun's Blessing: Most Inquisitor archetypes can’t channel, and those that can are pretty bad.

Light Subdomain

Blinding Flash: This can potentially blind mobs of lower-level enemies in a single swoop. Careful not to dazzle your teammates.

Revelation Subdomain

Guided Eyes: This would be more useful for Clerics, who don't get Perception in-class. You've already got it, plus perceive cues and acute senses. No need.

Thirst Subdomain

Wilting Glare: It's better than Sun's Blessing, at least?

Nimbus of Light: Abuse light sensitivity, deal automatic damage to undead, dispel darkness abilities with no check...this is actually really good.

Day Subdomain

Day's Resurgence: Just use keep watch. You can get this effect for the price of a 1st-level spell.

Thirst Subdomain

Withering Nimbus: You'll run into plants and aquatic creatures far less often than you'll run into undead.

Travel Domain

Base Domain Powers	Subdomain Replacements
Domain Bonus: Increase your base speed by 10 feet. Cheers!	Portal Subdomain Sacred Portal: Increase the DC to force a door. Wooow.
Agile Feet: Ignoring difficult terrain helps keep you mobile and 5-ft. steppin’ on the battlefield. Never bad.	Exploration Subdomain Door Sight: This domain has a thing for doors, huh? Door Sight is an okay scouting tool, if a bit tedious to use. Portal Subdomain Travel As One: You don't get any teleportation spells. Trade Domain Silver-Tongued Haggler: Untyped bonus. You're already great at Sense Motive, but this will make you better at Diplomacy and Bluff, too. If you're playing a sneakier Inquisitor archetype, this is blue.
Dimensional Hop: You get oodles of feet per day, especially given that you’ll only be teleporting a few feet at a time in most combats. The fact that hopping is a move action and doesn’t provoke makes this ability ludicrously good.

Trickery Domain

Base Domain Powers

Subdomain Replacements

Copycat: The benefit to mirror image is that you cast several mirror images, allowing you to shrug off multiple hits. Having only one mirror image doesn't do you a lot of good.

Ambush Subdomain

Chameleon Aspect: It's not great for melee'ers, but for archers who expect to be at range most of the time, this is green. Miss chances be strong, yo. Also of note—this might be for kobolds only? Check with your GM.

Deception Subdomain

Sudden Shift: While it won’t get you entirely out of harm’s way, it’s fantastic for getting into or out of flanks. Inquisitors, with their Teamwork feats, can surely appreciate that.

Espionage Subdomain

Deep Cover: See Knowledge Domain.

Greed Subdomain

More for Me: I'll admit to not understanding this one very well, or at least not understanding how it would be used. Doubling up on things like healing would be pretty good, but all in all, it seems like stealing buffs from your teammates is a dick move. I think this spell would be better if you could affect enemy spellcasters with it, taking their buffs.

Innuendo Subdomain

Fool's Privilege: You won't need help making those Intimidate checks (unless your group rules wrongly that Nat 1s on skill checks are automatic fails) and someone else will probably be doing the Bluff and Diplomacy. Not bad, but better options available.

Master's Illusion: Veil usually lasts for several hours, which is good; this lasts for several rounds, which is bad. Also (and I hate to sound like a broken record here) the DC is never going to be very high for you. All it takes is one successful save to raise the alarm.

Thievery Subdomain

Thief of the Gods: It's a good power, but most Inquisitors won't have Sleight of Hand or Disable Device on their class list. If you do (gestalting with Rogue, Trapfinding Slayer talent as a Sanctified Slayer, etc.) then it becomes green.

Vermin Domain

Base Domain Powers	Subdomain Replacements
Familiar: The Greensting Scorpion provides +4 Initiative, a natural synergy with Cunning Initiative. Familiars are always, always good.
Vermin Friend: You don't get wild empathy.
Tremorsense: Flying creatures will beat it, of course, but being able to find invisible enemies, enemies shrouded in magical darkness, etc. is a huge boon.

Void Domain

Base Domain Powers

Subdomain Replacements

Guarded Mind: Insight bonus. Confusion, fear, charm, compulsion...there are a lot of really nasty spells that use the [mind-affecting] rider, and you don't want to be subject to any of them.

Dark Tapestry Subdomain

It Came from Beyond: Most Inquisitors don’t get summons. For Monster Tacticians, however, this is blue.

Part the Veil: Initial Will negates, and they get a save every round. If you've got a way to tank their saves, this might bubble up to green.

Isolation Subdomain

Aura of Isolation: Difficult terrain is powerful stuff, preventing 5-foot steps—and therefore any full attacks with movement, barring Pounce. You get this ability for a short number of rounds per day, however, and it's mind-affecting, which means some enemies will be straight-up immune.

Stars Subdomain

The Stars Are Right: You don't get the bonus spells like Clerics do.

War Domain

Base Domain Powers

Subdomain Replacements

Battle Rage: Another ability that martials will love you for. Toss it on the Barbarian as you run by and watch him wreck face.

Duels Subdomain

Divine Challenge: Sacred bonus. It's too bad the AC bonus doesn't scale, or this would be rated higher. As it is, it's only useful to Inquisitors who use Feint; that means Infiltrators and anyone picking up sneak attack dice.

Tactics Subdomain

Seize the Initiative: Allowing another person in the party best-of-two on an initiative check for every battle of the day is powerful, powerful, powerful stuff. If you've got a heavy debuffer or battlefield controller (Witch, Wizard, etc.) who absolutely needs to go quickly in order to do their thing, Seize the Initiative will make them love you.

Weapon Master: Even a limited form of the Brawler's Martial Flexibility is insanely powerful. If you've got the systems mastery to use it effectively, this ability is incredibly strong.

Blood Subdomain

Wounding Blade: Useless for ranged Inquisitors. For melee Inquisitors, it's a free source of bleed damage.

Water Domain

Base Domain Powers

Subdomain Replacements

Icicle: See Air Domain.

Flowing Subdomain

Go With the Flow: Can't be used offensively, so it's best used to remove fear or confusion from teammates.

Oceans Subdomain

Surge: It's certainly better than Icicle, and because it's keyed to WIS and your level, you actually have a decent chance of making the CMB check.

Rivers Subdomain

Current Flow: The big draw here is that it can increase your land speed by 10 feet, too! The Swim bonus is just icing.

Cold Resistance: See Air Domain.

Flotsam Subdomain

Sift: Step 1: Get yourself a dunk tank. Step 2: Pull out random treasures. Step 3: ??? Step 4: Profit. Seriously, though, fence your stuff fast, because it'll disappear within 24 hours. Might be best to move on before they find out. This is another power that depends entirely on GM fiat, so collaborate with them to make sure you're not stepping on any toes.

Ice Subdomain

Body of Ice: DR 5/— and cold immunity for rounds per day? That's an insanely good package. I'd much rather have cold immunity for a few rounds per day than resistance all the time.

Weather Domain

Base Domain Powers

Subdomain Replacements

Storm Burst: Weak blast. Nope.

Seasons Subdomain

Untouched by the Seasons: Instances where you need protection from extreme temperatures won't be common.

Lightning Lord: It seems strong at first, but this will probably equate to 3d6 damage 2/day to most enemies on the field. That's a little over 10 damage per use, with a Reflex for half. Bleh.

Monsoon Subdomain

Refreshing Rain: Nonlethal damage is relatively uncommon, but the removal of exhaustion, fatigue, nausea, and sickening is a good effect.

Storms Subdomain

Gale Aura: Preventing 5-foot steps within a 30-foot radius is amazingly powerful.

Animal & Terrain Domains

Green Faith Marshals have access to Animal & Terrain Domains by default, but it's unclear whether other archetypes do. At the very least, Green Faith Marshals are the only Inquisitors who get the 1st- through 6th-level Domain spells added to their spell list. Note that GFMs still have to spend spells known to learn their bonus spells, and because the domains were originally meant for Druids, a number of powers don’t have a corollary in the Inquisitor class.

Aquatic Domain

Base Domain Powers	Bonus Spells
Sealord: Channeling is fairly weak, and this only affects sea creatures. Bleh.	Hydraulic push, slipstream, water breathing, freedom of movement (already have on spell list), black tentacles, freezing sphere
Seastrike: It's an all-day ability, so if you're in an aquatic campaign, the ability to use weapons normally underwater might be very good.

Arctic Domain

Base Domain Powers	Bonus Spells
Call Cold: Same basic problem as Sealord: it only affects creatures with the Cold subtype.	Frostbite, aspect of the bear, sleet storm, wall of ice, aspect of the wolf, freezing sphere
Banish Flame: It only affects fire creatures or effects, but the versatility is a selling point.

Badlands Domain

Base Domain Powers	Bonus Spells
Subsistence: One campaign in fifty might run into the rules for subsisting without food or water in a desert.	Cloak of shade, feast of ashes, cloak of winds, spike stones, wind blades, find the path (already have on spell list)
Wasteland Stride: Many GMs will rule that because you don't get Woodland Stride, you can't get Wasteland Stride.
Badlands Spirit: You don't get Wild Shape.

Cave Domain

Base Domain Powers	Bonus Spells
Cavesight: Functionally unlimited darkvision at good range. Useful for humans, and if your GM rules that this lets races with innate darkvision see even further, maybe even blue.	Detect aberration, stone call, deeper darkness (already have on spell list), echolocation, wall of stone, conjure black pudding
Tremorsense: Wow. Wow wow wow. 60-foot tremorsense is amazing, perfect for catching invisible beasties.

Crocodile Domain

Base Domain Powers	Bonus Spells
Familiar: You'll never see me turn up my nose at a familiar. Free Alertness and rerolls on skill checks are amazing.	Touch of the sea, savage maw, water walk, strong jaw, legend lore (already have on spell list), mass owl's wisdom
Death Roll: It would be pretty powerful for a dedicated grappling build, but your 3/4 BAB and lack of bonus combat feats won't ever allow you to be a dedicated grappler.
Ambush: Hey, free stacking sneak attack dice! This is even better for archetypes or multiclass builds that are already getting access to SA, like the Sanctified Slayer, for whom this ability is blue.

Desert Domain

Base Domain Powers	Bonus Spells
Heat Shimmer: You don't get this for many rounds per day, and the effect when struck is weak (dazzled, 1 round, Fort negates). In later levels, true seeing will cut right through your concealment chance, too.	Cloak of shade, shifting sand, cup of dust, hallucinatory terrain, transmute rock to mud, sirocco
Servant of the Sands: Some types of djinn are extremely powerful; if you can make it to a desert, being able to cut costs on services rendered (including wishes for Efreet or Marid) could be well worth the time investment.

Eagle Domain

Base Domain Powers	Bonus Spells
Familiar: Again, I'll never mark a domain down for giving you a familiar, especially a familiar with flight.	Aspect of the falcon, eagle's splendor, fly, river of wind, overland flight, eagle's aerie
Hawkeye: For ranged Inquisitors, this is blue—a free mini-true strike, several times per day!
Aerial Evasion: If you're taking this Domain as a Green Faith Marshal, you have built-in access to flight, which means free evasion and improved evasion! Both are excellent abilities that will save your ass from any number of fireballs and breath attacks.

Erosion Domain

Base Domain Powers	Bonus Spells
Rusting Touch: Same basic problem as with the Sunder maneuver: you’re destroying your own loot.	Expeditious excavation, soften earth and stone, disable construct, rusting grasp, transmute rock to mud, symathetic vibration
Erosion Aura: Definitely OP against Constructs, but of limited use elsewhere.

Frog Domain

Base Domain Powers	Bonus Spells
Familiar: See Eagle and Crocodile domains.	Jump, delay poison (already have on spell list), lily pad stride, shout, blessing of the salamander, confusion
Sticky Strike: The bonus on the CMB check might actually allow you to make this once in a while, but it's still difficult to see what the tactical use is; most enemies in later levels will be larger than you anyway, so you'll be pulling yourself more often than pulling them.
Webfoot: Swim and climb speed equal to your land speed, the ability to breathe underwater indefinitely...even if you only need those skills occasionally, Webfoot still gives you a huge amount of versatility.

Jungle Domain

Base Domain Powers	Bonus Spells
Brachiation: The climb speed is strictly inferior to Webfoot from Frog Domain, but the bonus to Acrobatics is interesting: you might be able to activate it temporarily to get through a crowded battlefield.	Glide, tar ball, venomous bolt, arboreal hammer, blessing of the salamander, swarm skin
Trap Sense: You still don't get Disable Device or Trapfinding in-class, so this is of limited utility.

Monkey Domain

Base Domain Powers	Bonus Spells
Familiar: See previous domains.	Beguiling gift, spider climb, cacophonous call, freedom of movement (already have on spell list), summon nature's ally V (dire ape or girallon only), confusion
Monkey Athletics: You don't have most of these skills in-class, but if you're playing an archetype that lets you become more rogue-like, this is definitely a good bonus.
Ranged Legerdemain: Again, excellent for more rogue-like Inquisitors. In fact, Rogues wish they had access to this domain.

Mountain Domain

Base Domain Powers	Bonus Spells
Foothold: Not much use beyond making a small patch of terrain difficult for enemies.	Stone fist, stone call, cloak of winds, stoneskin (already have on spell list), geyser, suffocation
Thin Air: The prospect of ability drain is intriguing, but they'll need to fail a buuuunch of Fort saves to get anywhere close to incapacitated.

Panther Domain

Base Domain Powers	Bonus Spells
Hunter's Senses: Unlike Cavesight, this explicitly lets you increase the range of innate darkvision, but only lasts for a few minutes per day. You get scent, as well, but bloodhound can get you scent as a 2nd-level spell.	True strike (already have on spell list), darkness (already have on spell list), deeper darkness (already have on spell list), moonstruck, commune with nature, mislead
Move in Darkness: Fantastic stealth ability—you'll be in darkness frequently if you're playing sneakier Inquisitors. See whether your GM will allow a +1 bonus per two levels to help with scaling, rather than a +2 bonus per four levels.

Plains Domain

Base Domain Powers	Bonus Spells
Migrating Herd: This power will only work for Monster Tacticians, as base Inquisitors don't get any summon monster spells. (Green Faith Marshal and Monster Tactician don’t stack—this is only if your GM rules that all Inquisitors can take Animal & Terrain Domains.) The duration extension will help in early levels, but quickly becomes overkill; how often will you want that ankylosaurus around for 20 minutes of combat? Quadruped herbivores are strictly non-magical, too, so there's an opportunity cost to using Migrating Herd to summon, say, an Elephant instead of an Azata.	Mount, chameleon stride, haste, aspect of the stag, control winds, find the path (already have on spell list)
Pounce: Even a few times per day, even on a 3/4 BAB class, Pounce is incredibly powerful. Two-handed and two-weapon fighting Inquisitors will love this power.

Plane of Air Domain

Base Domain Powers	Bonus Spells
Bonus Class Skill: Fly as a class skill and the ability to train ranks without needing a glider is pretty cool. Won't turn my nose up!	Feather fall, elemental speech, fly, planar adaptation, overland flight, mass planar adaptation
Aerial Agility: The bits about maneuvering in areas of subjective gravity are mostly fluff unless you plan to do a lot of adventuring on the Plane of Air. Better are the huge bonuses to Fly and Acrobatics (to jump) for a bunch of rounds per day.
Wind Savant: How often do you run into wind effects or gases? That's yellow unless your GM has a particular love of gas traps. However, you also get the option to take a small elemental as your familiar; that's blue.

Plane of Earth Domain

Base Domain Powers	Bonus Spells
Spelunker: All of the bonuses (ignoring difficult terrain, DR, etc.) are good, but far too narrow to see much use. Pass.	Stone fist, elemental speech, burrow, planar adaptation, passwall, mass planar adaptation
One with the Stone: Novel movement types are always cool. Of course, you could just get yourself a small earth elemental familiar, who can use this power at-will.

Plane of Fire Domain

Base Domain Powers	Bonus Spells
Fire Hardened: Yawn. Resistance is easy for Inquisitors to come by, with resist energy and protection from energy on your spell list.	Obscuring mist, elemental speech, ash storm, planar adaptation, scorching ash form, mass planar adaptation
All-Consuming Flames: Limited uses per day, and only affects two allies' weapons. Meh. Get yourself a fire elemental familiar instead.

Plane of Water Domain

Base Domain Powers	Bonus Spells
Aquatic Veil: It's a weird little ability: makes you better at swimming, but has some out-of-water uses, too, by extending the range at which you can deliver a touch spell. Might not be bad.	Touch of the sea, elemental speech, water breathing, planar adaptation, solid fog, mass planar adaptation
Hydraulic Crush: I'll say and say again that Inquisitors aren't blasters, but dang, this is powerful against tightly-massed enemies. Maybe one of the only second-tier powers in the Planar domains that's worth keeping. Water elemental familiar is still an option.

Ruins Domain

Base Domain Powers	Bonus Spells
Ruin Touch: Great for smashing through walls, iron bars, gates, doors, etc. I won’t say no!	Magic stone, stone call, meld into stone, rusting grasp, commune with nature, stone tell
Remembrance: Free divination ain’t bad, and you’ll spend plenty of time in abandoned ruins if you’re in a dungeon-crawling campaign. I’m still just not excited by it.
Surefooted: Kind of a paradox at play: by 8th level, you should mostly be flying, and any difficult you terrain you encounter is likely to be magical. I’d love getting this at 1st level, but alas...

Serpent Domain

Base Domain Powers	Bonus Spells
Familiar: Again, always good.	Charm animal, animal trance, poison, strong jaw, snake staff, charm monster
Slither: How often do you need to squeeze through narrow spaces?
Venom Immunity: The 6th level power is far too narrow; the 12th level power gets considerably better.

Swamp Domain

Base Domain Powers	Bonus Spells
Natural Healing: Channeling is a fairly weak option even for Clerics, and being limited to Animals, Plants, and Vermin makes it even weaker for you. Pass.	Hydraulic push, burst of nettles, lily pad stride, cape of wasps, insect plague, mass fester (already have on spell list)
Reed Hunter: The blindsense/sight only applies to fog, water, or vegetation, which is too limited.

Vermin Domain

Base Domain Powers	Bonus Spells
Vermin Whisperer: You don’t get Wild Empathy.	Ant haul, summon swarm, vermin shape I, vermin shape II, insect plague, swarm skin
Sudden Sting: Lousy damage (pun intended) and a mediocre stagger are the best you can come up with, Vermin? Nah nah nah.

Vulture Domain

Base Domain Powers	Bonus Spells
Death's Companion: Never get hit with another disease or save-or-die again! That's actually quite good.	Deathwatch, glide, death knell, death ward (already have on spell list), breath of life, circle of death (already have on spell list)
Agent of Rebirth: Hey, so now you can reincarnate people, a power that you definitely didn't have as a base Inquisitor. Getting to choose between two reincarnated races helps ensure that your friend doesn't have to come back as a Goblin (but she should definitely want to).

Wolf Domain

Base Domain Powers	Bonus Spells
Improved Trip: It might not be super useful to your average Inquisitor, but Sacred Huntsmasters who choose the Ankylosaurus, Wolf, or other companion with Trip will find all kinds of ways to abuse team trip tactics.	Hunter's howl, bloodhound (already have on spell list), aspect of the wolf, strong jaw, tireless pursuers (already have on spell list), find the path (already have on spell list)
Pack Flanking: Even when using this ability "passively," it’s still superior to Outflank, which is a high bar to set. Being able to designate a square to "flank" from is also great. Sacred Huntsmasters and Monster Tacticians will find this particularly amazing, as the masters of where their animal companions or summons flank from.

Bonus Feats: Even without Deeds, Grit, and DEX-to-damage, an Inquisitor with a gun is a terrifying thought, allowing you to resolve attacks against Touch AC. The only strike against the style is that you lose out on all those tasty iteratives. Get Rapid Reload ASAP with this style, and consider Amateur Gunslinger for a little Grit—Deadeye and Quick Clear are probably your best picks for Deeds.

Chivalry Inquisition

Inquisition Powers

Mount: Even if you don’t go all-in on the Mounted Combat style, riding can still be amazing, maximizing your action economy.

Faithful Steed: Your mount gets to share some of your Judgments. Sure, why not?

Clandestine Inquisition

Inquisition Powers

Inner Strength: Hey, this one's pretty nice—almost like a Warpriest. The healing isn't too shabby, and getting to remove a condition on top of that is icing.

Politics Inquisition

Inquisition Powers

Labyrinthine Words: Another one that's 2/3 of the Conversion Inquisition. Having Diplomacy on the list is a boon.

Heart's Desire: Depending on how willing your GM is to play ball, this could be incredibly powerful or fairly trivial. I also love the idea of a deity answering your questions about what your rivals are doing: "Dear Rovagug, is Jennifer planning on stealing my boyfriend?" “SHE TOO WILL BE MADE TO BATHE IN EMPIRES OF BLOOD.” “...so that’s a yes?”

Possession Inquisition

Inquisition Powers

Self-Control: Competence bonus. Again, compulsion effects are bad news. Bonuses never hurt.

Beast Ride: Maybe of some use as a scouting or eavesdropping tool? I'd like it if it lasted minutes per level instead of rounds per level. Hard to do much in two minutes, maximum.

Body Snatch: Using magic jar to possess an enemy's body is definitely a better move than just lying there bleeding, but you know the usual adage about not needing to get hurt or knocked unconscious in order to use your skills.

Inquisition Powers

Mend the Broken: Somehow even worse than cure light wounds. It’s free healing, though, so...yellow?

Cleanse Impurity: Jeez, did this Inquisition give me a case of whiplash. Cleanse impurity is incredibly powerful, giving you crazy bonuses on SR penetration CL checks, dispel magic checks, remove curse/disease/poison checks...restoration indeed.

Revelation Inquisition

Inquisition Powers

Burn the Shroud: Weak, weak touch attack. Hard, hard pass.

Reveal Form: Mind-affecting, Will negates. Can't do anything with that that you couldn't do with dispel magic.

Inquisition Powers

Sin Sense: Untyped bonus. You'd obviously have to be Evil to use this power, but it's a good boost to skills you're likely to be using a lot anyway.

Indulge: I'm trying to think of ways to use this, but coming up short. Tack on mind-affecting and two Will saves, and it's not a winning combo.

Spellkiller Inquisition

Inquisition Powers

Bonus Combat Feat: Disruptive makes you that much deadlier against enemies attempting to cast within the area you threaten, and it's usually only available to Fighters. Definitely a solid gain.

AC Bonus: Sacred bonus. I wish the AC bonus scaled better, and I wish the stagger rider only allowed one save (or better yet, none at all). Nevertheless, it targets Fortitude, which most arcane casters won't be able to pass reliably.

Tactics Inquisition

Inquisition Powers

Inquisitor's Direction: You'll almost always have something better to be doing with a full round of combat, but if you know a teammate will be more effective than you, it's nice to have the ability to grant haste in your pocket.

Grant the Initiative: Now here's a kicker of an ability: Cunning Initiative for your entire team. Fantastic through and through.

Torture Inquisition

Inquisition Powers

Orisons

Detect Magic: You'll need it, so get it.

Guidance: Competence bonus. Sure, the buff is small, but it's versatile and free.

Oath of Anonymity: Untyped bonus. Incredibly powerful infiltration magic, especially for a cantrip. Almost every Inquisitor will want this at some point.

Acid Splash: You'll hopefully have better attack options, but a ranged touch attack is never a bad trick to have, and it can occasionally nullify fast healing, regeneration, etc.

Light: If you're human you'll need this anyway, but there are some fun tricks you can pull with light even if you've got Darkvision: cast it on a pebble, then toss it into a room; cast it on an arrow to make a distracting shooting star; see to the bottom of a pit. Applications are limitless for the creative.

Create Water: Hey, can be useful.

Detect Poison: Situational.

Disrupt Undead: Situational, but good against incorporeals at low levels.

Read Magic: Your Spellcraft skill probably won’t be high. Read magic might be worth it to avoid those scroll deciphering checks.

Resistance: With Cloaks of Resistance, this cantrip’s shelf life is extraordinarily limited. Powerful in early levels, though.

Stabilize: Sometimes you can’t reach an unconscious and dying teammate in the heat of battle. It’s nice to be able to prevent them from bleeding out while you handle business.

Bleed: Just hit them again.

Brand: It's very inquisitorial, but...nah. Wait for greater brand if you’re into the concept.

Daze: Will save, immunity for 1 minute, humanoid-only, affects nothing above 4 HD. Blech.

Sift: Wow, it's actually worse than just using Perception.

Virtue: A standard action to grant one temporary HP. Pinnacle of action economy, that.

1st-Level Spells

Bless: Morale bonus. Yes, Bless is good. Good use of spells known, good way to help the team.

Divine Favor: Luck bonus. Good bonus, stacks with luck-enhancing traits like Fate's Favored, long enough duration to last during a combat. All signs are go for a blue.

Fallback Strategy: Torag worshiper only. A non-specific reroll on any d20 you want for minutes per level is formidable. Torag is truly the god of contingency planning.

False Face: Nice long duration, and you can maintain a stable of identities that are ready to be assumed at a moment’s notice. Great for intrigue, infiltration, or simple catfishing.

Keep Watch: A super underrated quality of life spell, especially if someone on your team is into crafting. The fact that it will eventually scale to include everyone in its effect is cool, too.

Wrath: Morale bonus. Stacks with divine favor, and gives Improved Critical on top of that at level 12.

Bane: Bless is better, but bane still isn't too bad. Just don't count on the BBEG failing his save...for you.

Barbed Chains: A gem of a spell in the early and mid game: trip is good, shaken is good, frightened is even better. Later, when you're fighting big enemies, enemies that fly, enemies with ungodly CMD scores, etc., this doesn’t do much.

Ears of the City: Get the low-down on any location, topic, or rumor without tipping anyone off or spending time. And use your Perception skill instead of Diplomacy to do it! Win, win, win.

Expeditious Retreat: Enhancement bonus. Can always find a use for more movement speed, and at minutes/level it wouldn’t make a bad wand. The enhancement bonus won't stack with haste or Boots of Springing and Striding.

Hedging Weapons: Deflection bonus. Won't stack with your Ring of Protection, but can definitely help alleviate the pain of not having one if you truly need that ring slot. Depending on your deity, the weapons might deal more damage than your real favored weapon, and in DR-ignoring, incorporeal-hitting force damage, too. A strong contender to beat spiritual weapon.

Heightened Awareness: Competence bonus. Nice duration, and synergizes naturally with your WIS focus and Monster Lore ability. The initiative boost is just icing.

Litany of Sloth: Swift action cast is interesting, as is the clause about preventing someone from casting defensively. Pity it only lasts one round.

Opportunistic Loyalty: Help yourself to an enemy caster’s buffs! Quite, quite good.

Protection from [Alignment]: Deflection and resistance bonuses. Good AC and save bonuses, though they won't stack with Rings of Protection or Cloaks of Resistance. The enchantment and bodily contact clauses are more interesting. Protection from Evil is likely your best bet if you have to pick one.

Secret Sign: Not at all your typical powergaming selection, secret sign is nevertheless a great pick for creative players. Tell the town watch that the spy will be designated by a certain invisible mark, then watch your rival get nicked. Set a mark for a heist that your group is pulling. Fill a room with cursed or trapped items and mark the one safe item. Convince someone they’re receiving messages from the gods because they really are the only one who can see the writing on the wall. Options galore, with the only limit being your i m a g i n a t i o n.

Secret Speech: Calistria worshiper only. It’s weird—it’s not a language of its own, like Thieves’ Cant, but rather a flexible message that you can hide within any parcel of spoken language: whether my mouth says “It’s lovely weather we’ve been having lately, isn’t it?” or “So, how did you begin your career in burlesque dancing?” you (and everyone that I mentally designate) still understand “Don’t drink that soup, it’s poisoned.” That’s a nice ability.

Strand of the Tangled Knot: Nifty defensive ability that could absorb some big blows if your timing is good.

Aspect of the Nightingale: Competence bonus, Shelyn worshiper only. The best aspect of this spell (if you’ll forgive the pun) is the reroll against Charm spells. Minor buffs to Perform and Diplomacy are mostly fluff.

Cause Fear: Decent for early levels, but doesn't scale at all.

Compel Hostility: Of more use if you're a tankier Inquisitor.

Detect Demon: It's ironically better at early levels—if you use it at higher levels, you're likely to accidentally stun yourself by detecting a demon with very high mental scores.

Detect Undead: Similar to detect demon. Note that you can get an at-will version of this through an Exorcist's Aspergillum (Wondrous Item).

Ear-Piercing Scream: You're no blaster, but this scales reasonably well and sonic damage is rarely resisted. Worth consideration.

Egorian Diplomacy: The main downside to using Intimidate in social contexts is that people tend not to respond positively when you threaten to murder their family. This spell can take that downside away, pending a Will save. I’d still recommend using Diplomacy as often as you can—more flies with honey, and all that jazz.

Hide from Undead: This could actually be pretty useful in some situations.

Hide Weapon: For Cloaked Wolves and other weapon-hiders only.

Lend Judgment: Judgments can be very powerful, and allies can always benefit.

Litany of Weakness: Forcing that big bruiser not to run or charge at the start of combat could be an interesting tactical choice.

Lock Gaze: Concealment for the rest of your team is good, but you're unlikely to be able to stick this on the BBEG as you'd usually want to, since Will negates.

Longshot: Good especially for Black Powder Inquisition or thrown weapon builds.

Lucky Number: Luck bonus. A fun little spell that will find a use no matter what the initial roll comes up as. Low? Reroll! Middling? +2!

Remove Fear: It's a good bonus, but situational.

Shadowfade: It’s invisibility, but only functioning in areas of darkness. Saves you a higher level spell slot if you’re going to be sneaking in a cave, darkened camp, etc.

Shield of Faith: Deflection bonus. Useful before you get that Ring of Protection. Hedging weapons probably retains a little more high-level utility.

Abadar’s Truthtelling: Abadar worshiper only. It’s zone of truth, but as a 1st-level spell. Decent scroll.

Alarm: Situational, but potentially useful. I’d sooner pick up keep watch, which has other benefits, too. Either one you pick, a wand won’t cost you much and will keep you going for many, many nights of adventuring.

Brand of Conformity: This is a really cruel spell, actually; it permanently destroys the target's ability to speak its native language. That’s cool flavor for an evil Inquisitor, but mechanically only worth a scroll.

Cloak of Secrets: Excellent for intrigue-heavy campaigns and all the private whisperings therein. A scroll will suffice.

Cure Light Wounds: The wand pick par excellence. You’ll take enough damage in a day that you can’t afford to burn all your spell slots on cure light wounds.

Deadeye's Lore: Sacred bonus. This spell plus your existing Track ability is interesting, and you might need to track at some point.

Disguise Self: Untyped bonus. Just get a Hat of Disguise, or a scroll if you absolutely can’t muster the gold to buy the item.

Funereal Weapon: Funereal weapon is a decent spell for its level, but if you can hold out a little longer, you’ll get huntmaster’s spear, which pierces all DR for specified enemies. I’ll bite as a scroll, though.

Nature's Paths: It’s definitely no candidate for a spell known, but would be excellent as a wand or scroll for outdoor tracking and general expeditioning, especially if you don’t have a Hunter, Ranger, Druid, etc. on the team.

Peasant Armaments: Milani worshiper only. Here’s what desperate weapon wanted to be: weapons for the whole team, they function as the closest simple or martial equivalents, and everybody gets proficiency.

Recharge Innate Magic: Okay if you have some.

Refine Improvised Weapon: If you’re not a worshiper of Milani, here’s your other option for the times when you find yourself weaponless. I’m 99% sure that Samwise Gamgee was just constantly casting this on his cast iron frying pan throughout the events of Fellowship.

Sanctify Corpse: Sanctify corpse is a scroll, if it’s anything. Even then, only good in necromancy-heavy campaigns.

Shield of Fortification: Sneak attacks and crits will mess you up but good. Fortification armor, however, is extraordinarily expensive, clocking in at +1, +3, or +5 enhancement bonus (for 25% chance to negate, 50% chance, and 75% chance, respectively). As a 1st-level spell, shield of fortification could conceivably make a good wand, protecting you over many battles. If you’re looking for more than a 25% chance to negate, you’ll have to wait for a scroll of greater shield of fortification when you get access to 3rd-level spells.

Speechreader’s Sight: As a scroll, it’s good at its job. Getting it made permanent for 2,500 gp is an interesting option in intrigue-heavy campaigns.

Sure Casting: It’s kind of like true strike, but for Spell Resistance. That won’t become prevalent for a while, but it’s never too early to pick up a wand—you’ll use it later on.

True Strike: Insight bonus. When you need it, you really need it. For my money, a wand is best.

True Appraisal: Maybe, maybe as a scroll for that one time when you come across an enormous hoard of treasure and have to assess it accurately and quickly. Otherwise, get someone in town to do this. I don’t know of many GMs who are willing to put up with the finicky Appraise rules solely for the purposes of cheating their players out of a few gold.

Weaponwand: Wands are great, hence the ability to use them without sacrificing a hand to wield is also great. Although there’s a danger of recursion and subsequent space-time paradoxes, a wand of weaponwand used in conjunction with sure casting or true strike would be quite potent.

Animal Purpose Training: Sacred Huntsmasters will be training Handle Animal anyway. No one else needs it.

Authenticating Gaze: I like it for flavor; it’s far too niche for a spell known or even a scroll, however.

Batrachian Surge: Grippli only. Water breathing, swim speeds, etc. are great bonuses; however, at a handful of rounds per casting, the benefit won’t stick around long enough for you to enjoy them. At least it’s a swift action to cast.

Bed of Iron: Sleep out of your armor, or get a comfort enchantment for a few gold.

Bless Water: Just ask a local Cleric to make some for you.

Blessing of the Watch: Morale bonus. Welp, they did it: they found a way to make bless bad. This is an NPC spell, really.

Bowstaff: You're better off just having a back-up weapon.

Burst Bonds: Escaping manacles or shackles is far too situational, and later on you’ll have freedom of movement. Scrolls don’t really work, either, as anytime you’re bound you’re likely to have your possessions stripped, too.

Command: One round, limited commands, Will save negates. Meh.

Curse Water: Of even less use in most campaigns than bless water.

Deadeye’s Arrow: Erastil worshiper only. It’s a weak blast, and you’ve got mundane ways to achieve the beacon effect.

Desperate Weapon: It doesn’t eliminate any of the penalties for using an improvised weapon, so even if you do find yourself needing a weapon desperately, this spell does no better than just picking something up at random.

Detect [Alignment]: Only good if you've taken an archetype that traded away your at-will version of all four of these.

Detect Faithful: If you need to find out where other members of your faith are, ask around. Won’t be a problem unless you worship Lamashtu or something.

Doom: Standard action demoralize isn’t a good use of actions when using Intimidate, and it’s no better in spell form.

Fabricate Disguise: All it does is shorten how long it takes to create a mundane disguise, a power that is the very definition of niche.

Forbid Action: There are too many ways to mess you up that don’t involve your forbidden action.

Forced Quiet: Short duration, limited use. Wait a level for silence.

Gorum’s Armor: It’s a tiny amount of damage, and only applies against natural attacks. Skip.

Grappling Scarf: Some free silk rope is okay. Everyone will be flying eventually, though.

Guardian Armor: People have the armor they have for a reason. Monks don't need it; arcane casters don't want it due to spell failure; everyone else probably has armor the same as yours or better than yours. Why are you casting this, again?

Handy Grapnel: Grappling arrows already exist.

Haze of Dreams: Desna worshiper only. Short duration, will save negates, one target, weak effect.

Hex Ward: How often will you fight witches?

Hidden Diplomacy: Two chances to fail: the Intimidate check itself and the Will save. Just get Pearly Colgate the Paladin to use Diplomacy.

Hide Bruises: Even for Evil characters, the benefit is minor. NPC spell.

Hobble: Targets get a save every round, and the spell doesn’t prevent 5-foot steps.

Horn of Pursuit: Announce your presence to everyone, why don't you?

Inflict Light Wounds: Maybe hit them with a weapon instead?

Instant Clot: Bleed effects are fairly rare.

Instant Portrait: For those many times when you need to describe a perp to the city watch. /s

Interrogation: One question per two caster levels, and they're still free to lie to you? Nope.

Invisibility Alarm: Somehow even less useful than alarm.

Itching Curse: Weak effect, Will save negates, doesn't scale past 5 HD. Pass.

Know the Enemy: Insight bonus. It’s a good benefit that suffers from a 1-minute casting time. Unusable in combat.

Linebreaker: Half-orc only. You probably won't be doing much bull rushing or overrunning.

Open and Shut: So it's an illusion spell...but only for doors.

Peacebond: A standard action will foil you here, as the people whose weapons you most want to glue to their bodies will be the most able to beat the STR check.

Persuasive Goad: Circumstance bonus. Neither the bonus nor the damage scales. You’re better off using some items to achieve a higher Intimidate score.

Pick Your Poison: Cayden Cailean worshiper only. At best, it buys you a little time to cure the poison that’s actually affecting your teammate and prevent ability damage.

Pierce Facade: Better to pump your general Perception score, rather than boosting it specifically to see through disguises.

Planar Orientation: This is niche even for a prepared spell, and that’s saying something.

Poisoned Egg: Norgorber worshiper only. Most poison is mechanically bad. This poison is mechanically worse.

Preserve Grace: Develop your own moral compass, please.

Returning Weapon: Pretty useless. Even thrown weapon builds will want a Blinkback Belt or something similar, because the returning enchantment fails if you move after throwing.

Reveal Secrets: Will negates, which might be a Very Big Deal© since your target immediately becomes aware that you tried to magically compel them to reveal the secret. Most folk don’t take kindly to that.

Sanctuary: Sooner or later, you need to attack.

Scarify: nonlethal damaged is healed in parallel with lethal damage, but that’s the only perk to this spell. I’d sooner just heal a little extra lethal damage with a wand of cure light wounds.

Speak Local Language: Hindered by the fact that you have to know the language that you’re imparting. You probably won’t be putting many skill ranks in Linguistics, so...

Spiked Armor: Here's an idea: get armor spikes!

Stalwart Resolve: Great effect that will won’t do you a bit of good at rounds per level.

Stunning Barrier: It’s the same basic idea as strand of the tangled knot, but this spell has a tiny bonus where the other spell has a huge bonus.

Theft Ward: Tengu only. Whoa! Whoa! Who’s in my personal space? No one, ya dingus. Stop letting your shit get stolen.

Tireless Pursuit: Do you know anyone who uses the rules for forced marching? No? Neither do I.

Touch of Combustion: Ifrit only. Terrible damage spell. As weak as they come.

Unerring Weapon: Bonuses to confirmation rolls are weak; you're not a Swashbuckler. Duration is too short, too.

Vocal Alteration: Good for Vigilantes, not for you.

Wartrain Mount: If you're a Sacred Huntsmaster, you'll be investing in Handle Animal anyway.

Weapons Against Evil: Iomedae worshiper only. Your weapons won’t function against anything that has DR higher than 5/, which limits the spell’s shelf life considerably.

Winter Feathers: Tengu only. It’s endure elements, but only for cold climates and only for birds. You do the math.

2nd-Level Spells

Anticipate Thoughts: Insight bonus. On a successful save, you get an excellent defensive buff; on a failed save, you also get a potent offensive buff. Both bonuses get better as rounds progress. Only downsides here are the relatively short duration and the [mind-affecting] tag.

Boneshaker: I love this spell. It's flavorful as hell, the damage scales pretty hard for a 2nd-level spell, and you can use it to abuse AoOs against the undead. Non-intelligent undead don't even get a save.

Defending Bone: Pharasma worshiper only. DR against a wide swath of damage types that is never bypassed by enhancement bonuses or special weapon materials, and it lasts for a ridiculously long time. Great defensive spell to keep you on your feet during protracted fights.

Focused Scrutiny: Untyped bonus. An absolute must for nearly any important social interaction. It even comes with nice perks for demoralize builds.

Ghost Whip: Fuck yeah, ghost whip! 15-foot range, hits against incorporeals’ Touch AC, ignores even total cover, impossible to sunder or disarm, and grants free drag, trip, disarm, and reposition maneuvers? I hear sick a guitar riff every time I think about this spell.

Huntmaster’s Spear: Doesn’t get much better than a 24-hour duration, and you’ll usually have a decent idea of what enemies you’ll be facing in a day. Add on the ability to get free bane rounds and pierce any amount of DR on a masterwork spear (with reach!) and you’ve got a hell of a package.

Inflict Pain: Even a successful save leaves an enemy fucked up for one round. It’s [mind-affecting] and [pain], so be smart about when you attempt it.

Litany of Duty: Untyped bonus. Oh, man. Reroll any enchantment spell you’ve been subjected to as an immediate action. Incredible.

Mortal Terror: The debuffs start nice and get nasty fast, with a chance to reduce anyone failing their saves to a gibbering heap within a few rounds. On a successful save they’re shaken for one round, which isn’t much by itself, but better than nothing. Definitely a top-shelf spell.

See Invisibility: Enemies will go invisible, and that's a fact.

Silence: Excellent for covert ops and brutal against casters, silence has never been a bad pick.

Stricken Heart: You’ll grow old waiting for that spell crit, but staggered is still a powerful condition that prevents full attacks from melee bruisers and forces casters into an unpleasant choice. And no save, either, which takes it at least to green, possibly to blue, depending on how much time you spend in melee.

Acute Senses: Enhancement bonus. Acute indeed! Perception is an important roll to make, and this makes you insanely good at it. Pity the duration isn't longer, or this would be blue.

Blistering Invective: You diss someone so hard they literally catch on fire. It's flavorful, mechanically strong, and a delight to unleash.

Bloodhound: Competence bonus. The duration is excellent, and adding unusual modes of perception like scent is never a bad idea.

Brand of Hobbling: Fail a Fort save, cut someone’s speed in half (including 5-foot steps) more or less permanently. If you can tag a runner with it, so much the better.

Brow Gasher: No-save bleed damage and a progressive debuff that eventually blinds the enemy. I like what I see.

Build Trust: The duration is good, the ability to reroll failed CHA-based skill checks is good, and there's no wording stating that you're limited to Diplomacy checks. Make sure you're doing whatever you can to pass those checks, though, because each reroll prompts a new Will save.

Darkness: You never know when this might come in handy.

Escaping Ward: Halfling only. Useful spell for positioning and defense.

Fear the Sun: AoE light sensitivity that you can easily turn into a save against blindness with any one of your numerous illumination control spells. Have at ye!

Guarding Knowledge: Insight bonus. A natural synergy with Monster Lore, guarding knowledge will protect you from some of the very worst monster abilities.

Hidden Presence: Will negates, but suppressing even extraordinary or supernatural senses is quite the selling point.

Honeyed Tongue: Nice long duration, and best-of-two is a great mechanic, especially if you're having to be nice to someone for a change.

Inheritor’s Smite: Sacred bonus, Iomedae worshiper only. Uncommon bonus, swift action cast, buff to hit, free bull rush with no AoO...all systems are go.

Invisibility: Perennially useful.

Mark of Blood: The ability to find someone at all times is highly useful.

Perceive Cues: Competence bonus. Good boost to skills you're already going to be using a lot. Nice long duration. Stacks with acute senses. All systems are go!

Protection from [Alignment], Communal: Pick Good or Evil, whichever your group faces most often, and enjoy.

Psychic Reading: Even with the chance for some inaccurate information, your Sense Motive skill checks are likely to be sky high, and this is a form of divination that doesn’t allow for a save, making it excellent against other casters. Just take what you learn with a grain of salt, including information like alignment.

Resist Energy: It scales pretty quickly, and can make tough fights easy when combined with quell energy.

Spiritual Weapon: It gets iterative attacks, penetrates DR, hits incorporeal creatures, and can attack an enemy without continued action input from you. It won't ever be a powerhouse, but free damage is still a win, win, win.

Sun’s Disdain: Fear the sun is for crowds, but sun’s disdain is for solo operators. Permanent light blindness? I’ll have what she’s having.

Tactical Acumen: Insight bonus. You're already a Teamwork feat powerhouse, and feats like Outflank paired with tactical acumen can be powerful indeed.

Tactical Miscalculation: Enemies with reach and Combat Reflexes will be more than a little put out by this spell. Keep the [mind-affecting] and [emotion] riders in mind.

Voluminous Vocabulary: Tongues doesn't give you the ability to read or write, and this does. Besides, you'll mostly be using tongues to understand one language you don't speak, not many.

Weapon of Awe: Sacred bonus. Excellent pre-combat buff spell.

Bestow Insight: Insight bonus, human only. It's good for skill buffing. You're probably better off saving your 2nd-level slots and using guidance, though. Less effective, but far more efficient.

Detect Magic, Greater: It's a nice upgrade to detect magic, but you probably won't want to be burning 2nd-level spell slots on it.

Detect Thoughts: What are "surface thoughts," exactly? Who knows? That's half the fun. Careful using this around BBEGs, as a high enough INT score will stun you.

Diminish Resistance: Fort saves will get sky-high in the later levels, so don’t count on landing this. Definitely useful if you manage to, though.

Flames of the Faithful: Not the greatest, but some enemies do have fire vulnerabilities. Might be better off hitting them with blistering invective, though.

Hold Person: Will negates. Probably best off leaving this to the Wizard, since they get a save every round.

Holy Ice Weapon: Undeniably cool, but holy crap, you have to tote around 5 lbs. of powdered silver?

Hunter's Lore: Thanks to the Monster Lore class feature, Inquisitors are pretty good at identifying enemies. This makes you better.

Instrument of Agony: Morale bonus. The boost to Intimidate isn't bad if you've got a demoralize build, and nauseated is a hell of a condition if you can proc it successfully. Passing that ability through SR, a Will save, and the [mind-affecting] tag will severely limit your target choices, though.

Iron Stake: Haha, this will fuck up fey and demons pretty badly. Definitely a must-get if you’re going up against the denizens of the First World or the Abyss.

Mindshock: Pairs well with the Enforcer feat. If you don’t have that, you might not get much mileage out of nonlethal damage, especially since so many immunities (mind-affecting, critical hits, pain effects, etc.) will negate the bonus.

Qualm: Even if you stick the landing on the Will save, you’re effectively just dazing them for a round, which isn’t that great.

Quell Energy: You still get one round of effect even if the target passes its Will save. Could be effective against dragons, elementals, etc.

Righteous Blood: Great as a buff spell for a frontline Paladin or Warpriest. If you don’t have those on your team, skip.

Rovagug’s Fury: Rovagug worshiper only. No way your trip will succeed against most larger targets, but hordes of minions? Good there.

Savage Maw: Adding a natural attack is never a bad idea. A free swift action Dazzling Display is icing.

Shadowmind: Useful for blinding enemies that see in supernatural darkness, pending a save.

Shield Other: Good tanking spell.

Spell Gauge: It's actually pretty nifty, but many times SLAs are the ones you have to watch out for. Also, a Will save negates. That's bad news when you're targeting nothing but casters with it.

Spindrift Spritz: The spell’s chassis is solid; I think it’s more appropriate as a 1st-level spell in terms of power, however, given the low severity of the listed conditions.

Surmount Affliction: What soothing word wanted to be.

Tremor Blast: This could be nice against large groups of weaker enemies.

Undeath Sense: Lasts a bit longer, comes out of the gate a bit faster. Modest trade-off with detect undead.

Urgathoa’s Beacon: Strong if you’re a necromancer; useless if you’re not.

Align Weapon: There’s been some discussion as to whether the +2 bonus from the Bane class ability allows Inquisitors to bypass DR/Alignment earlier than other classes. My inclination would be to say yes, but your GM may differ. If the answer is no, align weapon becomes a good wand pick vs. Outsiders, etc.

Brittle Portal: Rovagug worshiper only. Go ahead and punch your way through that stone wall! The World Ender loves you for your destruction, and creative players will appreciate the possibilities of moving laterally through a dungeon.

Consecrate: This is not something you’ll be slinging around every day, but keeping a scroll on hand for hallowing unclean sites is an okay idea.

Cure Moderate Wounds: Cure Light is just as good, and the wands are cheaper. You’ll be able to wield wands of cure moderate if you find them, though, and that’s a boon.

Delay Disease: Ratfolk only. You could theoretically keep this running permanently, only letting it lapse once you finally heal the underlying condition.

Delay Poison: Nice long duration. Poisons can be no bueno, and this spell will help stave off ability damage until someone can cure it.

Desecrate: As consecrate, but for Urgathoan Inquisitors or similar.

Discovery Torch: Enhancement bonus. It's a neat little spell, light combined with a few skill bonuses. Duration isn't bad. Pairs nicely with fear the sun.

Enchantment Sight: Such a useful spell! People who’ve been magically compelled to do something are often the worst kinds of trouble in a campaign, full of backstabbery and sabotage; enchantment sight lets you figure out which enchantment spells are active on anyone in your surroundings, as well as the approximate levels of the spells affecting them. Another strong contender for permanency at 2,500 gp.

Find Traps: Acute senses will work for most applications. Find traps still has its role to play as a scroll, however.

Follow Aura: Far too narrow for a spell known, but tracking auras is one more reason you’re the tracking master.

Garrulous Grin: Could find a use or two in an intrigue-heavy campaign. Use with secret sign for extra shenanigans: “He’s been marked as a drug mule using an invisible sign upon his person, my lady, a sign which through my magics I am able to reveal to you. If you question him about it, he is likely to become evasive—the final proof of his guilt.”

Invisibility Bubble: Underwater invisibility. What will those crazy kids at Paizo think up next?

Knock: Could be useful, but the DCs get quite high. An auto-success would have been better.

Nondetection, Lesser: Good for general anti-divination use, and without all of the expensive material components. At minutes per level, however, you’re not going to be able to screen yourself for any significant portion of the day. Probably best in focused social encounters where you know someone with divination magic might be trying to glean information about you.

Open Book: Might be useful on a BBEG or other important figure in campaign, but you probably won't be the one casting it, as it’s much better for prepared spellcasters. Will negates.

Remove Paralysis: It's a nasty condition, so I’ll always recommend a scroll or two.

Restoration, Lesser: Scroll scroll scroll, especially if you don’t have two other casters on the team who can cast it.

Rotgut: Good for getting targets drunk, either to coerce/ambush them, or else as a tactic against some groups of humanoids who might be delighted to discover that their water has, by some miracle, turned into wine.

Shackle: A scroll if there ever was one. Who knows? You might need to take prisoners at some point.

Spiritual Squire: A longer duration would have been great. Aid another is probably the best use of its actions.

Tongues: This spell has always been a good pick. A scroll will do, though.

Undetectable Alignment: It's an okay benefit, but you won't need it that often. Scroll it.

Whispering Wind: Tactical communication is always difficult during coordinated operations, but a scroll of whispering wind might alleviate the pain a little.

Zone of Truth: Interrogations do come up, but note that smart enemies will dodge the truth or pass their Will save.

Abeyance: Far too limited, can only be used once, doesn't cure the curse. Pass.

Aid: Morale bonus. Bless gives you the same benefit for multiple party members as a 1st-level spell.

Ally Across Time: One duplicate won’t be helping you out much. We’ll wait for army across time.

Beacon of Guilt: Highly situational spell for when you’re trying to catch a thief or something similar.

Bestow Weapon Proficiency: One minute per level? Nah.

Billowing Skirt: The clothing clause is restrictive, and it’s a standard action to cast. Isn’t half the point of feather fall that you can use it as an immediate action?

Blessings of Luck and Resolve: Halfling only. Remove fear does it just as well, and as a 1st-level spell.

Bloodbath: Generally speaking, it's not a good idea to deal damage to yourself just to deal damage to enemies.

Bullet Ward: Even with all things serving the Beam, how often do you face enemy Gunslingers?

Calm Emotions: Will negates, and concentration is bad.

Castigate: Why not just demoralize instead?

Conditional Favor: I’d rather use something like conditional curse or geas to extract good behavior from someone. This is too finicky.

Confess: As flavor, it’s as inquisitorial as they come; 2d4 sicken is not a great use of a 2nd-level spell slot, however.

Corruption Resistance: Way too narrow.

Death Candle: Will negates, and the effect isn't very strong.

Death Knell: See above.

Delay Pain: Only guards against a few conditions, none of which are life-threatening.

Demand Offering: It’s like a Disarm or Steal maneuver in spell form. Probably just as likely to work, too.

Detect Relations: Really seems like you shouldn’t need a spell to figure out whether two people are family.

Disguise Other: Same issues as disguise self. There are better methods available.

Display Aversion: For use against vampires only, who will most likely make their save and realize that it’s just a figment.

Distressing Tone: Blergh. Short duration, limited targets, Fort negates, and you have to spend a full-round action.

Early Judgment: Flavorful, but mechanically useless.

Effortless Armor: If it were hours per level, this would be a hell of a spell. Minutes? Blech.

Enshroud Thoughts: Too narrow. Hopefully nobody’s trying to modify your memory on the regular.

Enthrall: Will negates, it takes a full round to cast, and you probably have an average CHA score.

Escape Alarm: Stop right there, criminal scum! Fun but mechanically poor.

Fairness: Abadar worshiper only. Far too narrow.

Fleshy Facade: NPC spell.

Flickering Lights: I mean, this will just fuck shit up and make your team hate you. If you want light, cast daylight. If you want darkness, cast deeper darkness. I don't know of any group that wants the lighting to randomly switch between supernatural darkness and bright daylight.

Force Anchor: I want to love this one—it's so cool. The damage sucks, though, and the debuffs aren’t meaty enough for a 2nd-level spell.

Ghostbane Dirge: Will negates. Again, better off buying some weapon blanches...or using the GHOST WHIP!

Ghostly Disguise: Too narrow.

Haunting Reminder: Fun as making someone permanently scared of you sounds, is there a mechanical benefit to it? Nah, probably not.

Healing Token: You won’t really have the spells available to be a dedicated healer. Leave this role to the Cleric.

Hidden Blades: Way too niche for anyone but a Cloaked Wolf.

Hold Fey: See hold person above. This is even more situational.

Howling Agony: Yeah, casters are just going to choose the "scream" option and disintegrate you with their remaining standard action.

Improve Trap: Traps? Nope.

Inflict Moderate Wounds: Yeah, no. Much better options available.

Inner Focus: Best for Evil characters who can’t reveal their faiths in public.

Instant Weapon: Only for melee characters. If you're getting this for its simulated ghost touch ability, you're better off just buying some weapon blanches or using the incomparable ghost whip.

Kalistocrat’s Nightmare: The anti-Midas Touch...and about as useful as that sounds.

Know Peerage: Wow, what a niche spell. Not for you.

Light Prison: Iomedae worshiper only. The damage is terrible, and the blind isn’t much better, with so many options already available to you.

Litany of Defense: Duration is faaaar too short. Besides, you need your swift actions.

Magic Siege Engine: How often do you use siege engines, again?

Muffle Sound: Duration is very short, and the spell failure chance will just piss most people off. Only rogues would see much use.

Necrostasis: They still have to fail their save, which seems out of character for most undead-specific spells. I’d pass.

Protection from Outsiders: You have specify type and subtype of outsider, which might get too fine-grained for most adventuring parties.

Quick Change: Inquisitors can’t change shape.

Retributive Reparations: About the only thing I'd put this on is a component pouch/divine focus, but you can just buy extras.

Returning Weapon, Communal: For when you have an entire group of thrown weapon builds!

Revealing Light: Of dubious effectiveness, even against stealthy creatures.

Rumormonger: Too narrow.

Sacred Bond: Expensive material components for your level. Besides, you're not a healer.

Sense Fear: You don't need to sense fear. You're the one who causes it. YOU ARE THE ONE WHO KNOCKS.

Sense Madness: Too narrow.

Shamefully Overdressed: Well, let's see: it would only be useful against enemies that wear clothing; it can't be used to remove armor, per the donning rules; there's no guarantee that they'll remove a magical piece of attire; and enemies get SR and Will to negate. As a combat spell, it’s ridiculously bad. As flavor? You’ll never find better.

Shared Suffering: Please don’t plunge a dagger into yourself just to deal some damage.

Shield of Shards: Even for shield users, the damage is incredibly low and you lose your protection while the spell is active.

Shifted Steps: Better off having someone else cast ghost sound.

Soothing Word: It would be good if you were under the effects of multiple conditions, but if that's the case, you're already toast.

Spellcurse: Most enemies won't be buffed this much, and the damage (especially if they pass their Will save) is anemic.

Spiral Descent: But you don’t get the ascent version? Strange.

Stoke the Inner Fire: As you’ll see later, the flaming weapon enchantment is as weak as they come.

Telepathic Censure: Too narrow.

Unholy Ice Weapon: Unless you've been stripped of possessions and imprisoned by Good-aligned outsiders...?

Vexing Miscalculation: Only guards against one critical. Blah. Fortification armor will do you one better.

3rd-Level Spells

Bone Flense: 1d6 damage per CL with no cap, then 1d4 bleed and sickened for rounds afterward? Holy crap, that’s good. I don’t even care that a Fortitude save negates. The only real fly in the ointment is that you have to be Red Mantis or using a sawtooth sabre, an arrangement that’s unlikely for most inquisitors unless they worship Achaekek.

Channel Vigor: Whoa, whoa, whoa. Haste? +6 to Fort or Will saves? +4 to ranged attack rolls? Switch between effects as a move action? Where have you been all my life, channel vigor? (/u/Shaffi points out that many of the spells published in Inner Sea Gods are in fact not deity-specific, so all Inquisitors can rejoice that they get such a good spell!)

Deadly Juggernaut: Luck bonus. At minutes per level, you stand a good chance of building up to maximal effect: +5 to hit, +5 damage, and DR 10/—. Juggernaut’s Pauldrons can give you this spell for free three times per day—give them some thought if you’re playing with Automatic Bonus Progression rules.

Dispel Magic: Versatile and powerful. Perfect for a spell known.

Forced Mutation: -4 to CON is a hit against anyone, and -4 CHA might hinder some casters or feint/demoralize builds as well. Add a free deformity on top of that, and you’re looking at a strong spell.

Hunter's Eye: Competence bonus. Ignore most forms of concealment, functional see invisibility, and a huge boost to Perception, all wrapped up in a nice little package.

Magic Circle vs. [Alignment]: Deflection and resistance bonuses. Protect the squishy back line or your front line partners for a good duration. Magic circle vs. evil will likely see the most use.

Righteous Vigor: Morale bonus. Great boost to attack and HP, and can be cast on others in case you've got morale bonuses going already.

Second Wind: Emergency swift/immediate action cure moderate wounds when you’re below ¼ HP. Hell. Yes. This might be the only thing standing between you and perma-death in some cases.

Shield of Darkness: 50% miss chance for rounds/level that beats true seeing and blindsense. You’ll still need to worry about tremorsense, blindsight, and scent, but even taking those limitations into account, this is a powerful ability.

Terrible Remorse: It's a pretty brutal spell that's especially effective at shutting down big bruisers with weak Will saves and high STR. Even better because it staggers and gives a penalty to AC on a successful save!

Apparent Treachery: No flanking, no buff spells, and targets provoke AoOs from their own erstwhile allies. If you’ve got a friend with illusion magic, you could get some serious in-fighting rolling with this spell.

Blinding Ray: Dhampir only. Fear the sun or sun’s disdain + blinding ray allows you to give a target light sensitivity, then blast them for damage and long-lasting blindness. This targets Fort saves, too, so good against casters.

Burst of Speed: Untyped bonus. With its ability to ignore AoOs and move you through enemy spaces (not to mention its swift action cast) burst of speed is ideal as a mid-combat positioning tool or substitute for a full-round Withdraw action.

Claim Identity: Untyped bonus. The duration is excellent, you get a boost to the Disguise check, and nobody will believe the target when he says he's you. You're not naturally great at infiltration, Bluff and Disguise not being such important skills for the base Inquisitor, but this would be a good way to do it if you needed to.

Clay Skin: The worst part about stone skin is the material component costs. What if you could still get DR/Adamantine with no material costs, though? That’s what clay skin is here for. It won’t soak quite as much damage, but 50 damage you don’t take is 50 HP you don’t have to heal later.

Damnation: Will only negates half of the damage, and you're likely to fight a lot of enemies who use Evil spells or SLAs. This one will continue to grow as you level because it's keyed off of your opponent's spell levels, not your own.

Daylight: Necessary for dispelling magical darkness.

Deeper Darkness: More tactical options than daylight.

Dimensional Anchor: Great against those tricksy casters and Outsiders.

Frosthammer: Kostchtchie worshiper only. It’s decent damage with no save and a free trip attempt using your CL and WIS modifier instead of CMB and STR. Quite good!

Heroism: Morale bonus. I mean, yep, it's great, no surprises there.

Hide from Undead, Greater: Now the spell doesn’t cancel if you attack or cast! For non-intelligent undead, this means death as you cut them apart.

Invisibility Purge: Help out your martial teammates. Only invisible stalkers are immune.

Keen Edge: Its duration is plenty good, and it saves you some enchantment costs if you don’t want to spend the +1 on keen.

Litany of Eloquence: No save, but the duration is only one round and fascinated is a difficult condition to take advantage of directly. Best used as a distraction on a BBEG while you handle a minion or two.

Magic Vestment: Nice long duration, great effect. If you’re playing as a Ravener Hunter with access to some of the armor Revelations, talk to your GM about whether they qualify for magic vestment. They should.

Night of Blades: Norgorber worshiper only. I love wall spells, no matter the variety.

Nondetection: By this level, you've probably pissed off a few BBEGs with divination magic, and you don't want them to know where you are. Good for infiltrating organizations, too.

Penumbral Disguise: Competence bonus. Gives a hefty boost to Disguise and Stealth that stacks with adjustable disguise or disguise self in all but bright light. If you're a sneaky Inquisitor, this is an awesome spell that Rogues would love to poach.

Prayer: Luck bonus. Won't stack with divine favor, but this is still a nice little combo buff/debuff.

Quell Energy: Great debuff against elementals and others that use elemental energies. Even a successful save gives you some protection.

Selective Invisibility: Hmmm. Issue is that enemies will notice if one of their compatriots just gets up and starts fighting with thin air. Maybe for shrugging off hits while you focus on one big enemy? But if you’re going for that, why not use...

Shield of Fortification, Greater: Crits and sneak attacks will kill you. This spell gives you the equivalent of a +3 armor enchantment for as long as it’s up, so go ahead and take advantage!

Shield of Wings: Ragathiel worshiper only. A flight speed plus fire resistance (and eventually immunity) is wicked. Gonna have to play a Ragathite Crimson Templar one of these days!

Witness: Nothing says your target has to be human. Excellent for spying, and gives you some meta-knowledge about which senses your target has.

Bloody Arrows: Stackable bleed damage! Nice. Zen Archers and others with crazy amounts of ranged attacks will love you for this buff. Good for self-buffing ranged Inquisitors, obviously.

Cast Out: Even if the enemy passes the Will save, you still dispel one ongoing enchantment or possession effect. Friends might not thank you for dealing damage to them in order to get the dispel, however.

Coordinated Effort: Similar to the Tactical Leader archetype’s special ability. Quite good, but limited by the fact that you need to be part of any “team” in order to proc the selected feat.

Daybreak Arrow: Another option to consider in the blinding ray/fear the sun/sun’s disdain suite of light sensitivity tactics.

Draconic Malice: Nullifies fear immunity and immunity to mind-affecting conditions...but only for living creatures. Womp womp.

Eldritch Fever: Disease immunity will stop it outright; however, a single Fort save in return for permanent sickened and constant concentration checks can make a caster’s life hell.

Fearsome Duplicate: Halfling only, competence bonus. You could probably find a use for a larger, more intimidating version of yourself from time to time.

Find Fault: Insight bonus. You tend to be pretty good at monster identification due to Monster Lore, but archetypes that gave it up will find this useful. The boost to your next attack roll is just gravy.

Halt Undead: Non-intelligent undead get no save. Not a bad way to take three enemies out of a fight with minimal fuss.

Litany of Order: Double damage vs. chaotic creatures is ridiculously good; only the Paladins, Warpriests, and Clerics of the party will see any benefit, however.

Litany of Warding: I'd sooner pick up Combat Reflexes, but more AoOs never hurts.

Locate Weakness: The utility depends on the threat range of your weapon. Could be green for crit-fishing builds.

Magic Weapon, Greater: Enhancement bonus. Won't bypass DR, and won’t stack with your normal enhancement bonus.

Protection from Energy: I prefer resist energy in most circumstances.

Raven's Flight: You're limited to one turn, but having access to flight is never bad. The main use I would envision for this spell is getting positioned at the start of battle, but burst of speed can probably do it just as well.

Resist Energy, Communal: Particularly good against enemies with strong elemental affinities, like dragons or elementals.

Stage Fright: Multiple targets, Will negates. A decent anti-caster tool that Spellbreakers and Witch Hunters should consider.

Adjustable Disguise: The ability to change the disguise and a good duration make this a worthier choice than disguise self, but you probably still won't be doing enough disguising to make this worth a spell known.

Align Weapon, Communal: The duration will last you only one combat, but everyone penetrating DR/Alignment can make for severely foreshortened fights against Outsiders and the like.

Arcane Sight: It's definitely better than detect magic, but one is an orison that you can use at-will, and this is a 3rd-level spell—a precious resource. A scroll will probably suffice.

Blood Biography: A great quality of life spell that will help you dissect what happened in crime scenes, battlefields, etc.

Cleromancy: The full-round cast makes cleromancy an unlikely choice for mid-combat. For skill checks outside of combat, it’s quite nice.

Cure Serious Wounds: Again: excellent spell, but any healing you do needs to come from a wand. Your spell slots are for combat and skills.

Detoxify: Just the slightest bit too niche for a spell known, but still a nice effect.

Gullibility: Untyped bonus. Some good applications if you’re trying to run a con or something similar.

Insect Scouts: Man, I really like this spell. You get information about joints you're casing (I still think like a Rogue, even after all these years) and the ability to reroll some saves or skill checks if you fail them in the course of breaking in. It's probably too situational for a spell known, but a scroll might be handy.

Locate Object: It’s a fairly weak spell for 3rd level, but hey, you never know.

Planar Inquiry: You'll be getting an Outsider that's aligned with your philosophies, hence one that generally wants to help you and not, ya know, slaughter you. Your GM will decide how much meta-information the Outsider is able to furnish, though.

Remove Curse: The cleric will always be better at this, but you should for sure keep a scroll or two handy.

Remove Disease: See above.

Retributive Reparations: Not as a spell known, but quite the pick for a scroll if you’re trying to hang onto a McGuffin.

Riversight: Cool in concept, too narrow in execution for anything but a spell.

Speak with Dead: So they can lie to you, or refuse to answer? Jeez, these guys. Might be useful as a scroll. Occasionally.

Spiral Ascent: Teleporting up is generally more useful than teleporting down.

They Know: Every Inquisitor should grab a scroll of they know at some point; it’s just too, too flavorful.

Agonizing Rebuke: Hobgoblin only. [Emotion], [mind-affecting], [pain], SR applies, and Will to negate, all for a little bit of nonlethal damage. Blergh.

Anti-Summoning Shield: Your chances to prevent summoning cap out at 75%.

Aquatic Trail: Seafaring campaigns only.

Aura of Inviolate Ownership: Unless your DM is fond of the Steal or Disarm maneuvers, this won't be of any use.

Banish Seeming: It has its uses, but by and large dispel magic will always trump it.

Battle Trance: Half-orc only. Can't move away from enemies that attacked you, take INT damage, lose ability to cast spells without passing a concentration check. Hell, no.

Bite the Hand: Narrow application + Will save = no thanks, Tom Hanks.

Blessing of the Mole: Competence bonus. Most races have darkvision already, and the Stealth bonus certainly isn’t taking home any prizes.

Blood of the Martyr: Gross as hell and not mechanically strong. You have cure light wounds, others have infernal healing.

Blood Scent: Orc only. You have bloodhound, which gives you scent as a 2nd-level spell. Pass.

Continual Flame: Light or an ioun torch will serve for normal visibility purposes, and you’ll want something like daylight to dispel magical darkness.

Countless Eyes: Useful for the tanks in the party; leave it for a full caster, though.

Delay Poison, Communal: Delay poison is nice because you can delay for a long time; if you split up the duration, everyone will wind up getting poisoned.

Detect Anxieties: Long cast time, Will negates, risk getting stunned, mechanically weak...but what flavor!

Detect Desires: Same basic problems and flavorful eccentricities as above.

Disrupt Link: If you're focusing on taking out the familiar or animal companion instead of its bonded Wizard or Druid, you're focusing on the wrong thing.

Disrupt Silence: Too narrow.

Divine Illumination: You can't channel.

Domination Link: If vampires are the main targets in your campaign, pick it up. If not, don’t.

False Alibi: Norgorber worshiper only. Highly, highly situational, and without a doubt an evil spell to cast.

Fester: Far too limited in scope. Most monsters with fast healing or regeneration also have ways to stop that regeneration.

Flexile Curse: Fortunately for your wealth by level, the broken conditions eventually go away (unlike Sundering or something similar) but when are you going to have hours to wait while an enemy's armor degrades?

Free Swim: Good if your campaign is aquatic, bad if not. You know the drill by now.

Full Pouch: Alchemical items are cheap, and this is way too weak for a 3rd-level spell. 1st-level, maybe.

Glimpse the Hidden: Strictly inferior to see invisibility.

Glyph of Warding: Not for a spell known. A Wizard might prepare this while fortifying an area, but you need something that you could reliably use every day.

Guardian Monument, Lesser: Again, a cool spell for a Wizard to reward a village with, but not for you.

Hidden Speech: Too niche for a spell known.

Holy Javelin: Low damage, short duration, and minimal effort for opponents to remove the javelin. Pass.

Horrifying Visage: Best case, enemies get the sickened condition under restricted circumstances. Not worth it to me.

Improve Trap: Kobold only. An NPC spell.

Inflict Serious Wounds: Bleh. Just attack.

Instant Fake: More suited to Arcane Tricksters.

Isolate: Most enemies later on will be able to see invisibility, hence will be immune to the effects of this spell.

Light of Iomedae: Iomedae worshiper only. The best application is as an anti-invisibility tool, but you already have see invisibility and invisibility purge. This only affects undead, so I’d let it go.

Lightning Lash: Measly damage, with a Fort save negating what little there is. The image is cool, but nah.

Litany of Entanglement: Will negates, and won't work on flying creatures, which get more common as levels progress.

Litany of Righteousness: You don't have an aura.

Mantle of Calm: I don't care if everyone's raging, you don't want to take a -2 hit to attack while giving them +2 to all saves.

Meticulous Match: Way too narrow. Another prepared spell.

Miasmal Dread: Half-orc only. Why are you not using Dazzling Display instead? Why waste a 3rd-level spell?

Mythic Severance: Anyone with mythic power is going to beat your save DC. Skip.

Obscure Object: Too narrow.

Pack Empathy: You've got better ways to do a sit rep than this.

Pillow Talk: A lot of potential downside here, with not a lot of upside in sight.

Reaper's Coterie: Profane bonus. The bonus type is hard to come by, but at rounds/level, how much of a boost do you expect to get? You can't kill fast enough to rack up anything decent. Get deadly juggernaut instead—that lasts minutes per level.

Respectful Quiet: Chelaxian only. I’d stick with silence.

Retribution: Inflict pain does it just as well—if not better—as a 2nd-level spell.

Sadomasochism: Zon-Kuthon worshiper only. Don't take damage to demoralize. Just demoralize.

Searing Light: At the level you get this, on average you'll be dealing 13-18 damage with it. For reference, many CR 7 undead in the Bestiary have 75+ HP. Not worth it.

Seek Thoughts: Slightly better than detect thoughts, but still not great for a 3rd-level spell.

Selective Alarm: Why not use alarm?

Slave to Sin: Worst case scenario for an enemy is sickened and staggered. We’re starting to get into the higher levels, where we need to ask more of our spells.

Soul Vault: Far too niche.

Spotlight: I think you've got better ways to exploit light sensitivity, and the main guys you'll try to be tagging with this (stealthy, invisible, etc.) will probably pass a Reflex save.

Stunning Barrier, Greater: You've got magic circle. Stop trying to get hit!

Sweat Poison: Grippli only. Puny Fort save DC.

Trial By Fire: If you're trying to deal damage, there are better ways; if you're trying to demoralize, there are better ways.

Unhallowed Blows, Greater: You’re not undead, I think?

Wall of Split Illumination: If you could see through the wall, this spell would be blue. If the wall stopped movement through it, this spell would be blue. As is, it provides no tactical advantage beyond forcing enemies to spend a move action getting onto your side of the wall.

Ward the Faithful: Magic circle has a smaller bonus, but includes everybody, even the heretics.

Winged Weapon: Don't need no stinking throwing weapons.

4th-Level Spells

Army Across Time: Much, much better than its little brother. You’re the teamwork feat master, and this spell gives you the ability to abuse that mastery to no end. All the Aid Other actions will help, as well.

Beacon of Luck: Sacred bonus, Desna worshiper only. +2 to all saves is worth the price of admission on its own. An uncommon bonus type and giving allies rerolls on saves pushes this spell well into the blue zone.

Blade of Light: Sacred bonus. To-hit buffs, free daylight and ghost touch, automatic confirmations against sunlight-vulnerable enemies, extra damage...the benefits of this spell just keep on rolling. Definitely an “I win” button for melee Inquisitors when facing undead of any kind.

Divine Power: Luck bonus. Strictly better than divine favor (by a wide margin) but won't stack with it. Learn both, in case one level of spell slot is in higher demand that day. Fate’s Favored is a tacky trait choice in my opinion, but it will improve this spell noticeably.

Enchantment Foil: Untyped bonus. With a metamagic rod of Extend Spell, this can easily last all day. As I say continuously, enchantment effects are some of the worst in the game; the ability to bluff your way into making the enemy caster think that they own you is gravy.

Freedom of Movement: Perennially excellent. This spell is the reason people love the Liberation domain so much.

Judgment Light: Fantastic spell. You can put out the Judgments whose effects you want, use judgment light, then switch Judgments as a swift action next turn if you want a different active Judgment.

Smite Abomination: Untyped bonus, Pharasma worshiper only. Whooooa! Free Smite against any one Undead creature, using your WIS bonus instead of CHA? What sorcery is this?

Thaumaturgic Circle: Magic circle’s older cousin, and good for a variety of planar adventures. I like that you get to pick which elemental affinity or Outsider race you’re protecting against as you cast it—versatility is exactly what Inquisitors need from a spell.

Undeath Ward: Keeps non-intelligent undead and intelligent undead with fewer HD out, no save. A great “oh shit” button in cases of emergency, or else a phenomenal protective tool for ranged Inquisitors.

Battlemind Link: Pretty good even for regular Inquisitors; probably blue for Sacred Huntsmasters.

Brightest Light: Good for dispelling darkness—what more needs to be said?

Cleansing Fire: Don’t come here for the damage, because it’s meager. What’s good about this spell is the constant, pulsing dispel magic on [evil] effects. Great for stripping enemies of buffs or shutting down nasty necromancy spells as they’re cast.

Cold Iron Fetters: It’s obviously OP against fey and demons, but it’s also versatile enough to shine against larger, slower enemies or flying enemies. Watch out, though, because any GM worth their salt will try to sunder the shackles and have done.

Conditional Curse: Bestow curse is powerful, and conditional curse is still just as good. After all, you can set just about any condition you want, as long as it doesn't ensure death. Highly hazardous to life and limb? Sure. Few things apart from "spend a full week swimming in an active volcano" ensure death, so you've got a lot of leeway here.

Coward's Lament: Trivializes spellcasters and ranged enemies.

Death Ward: Undead and their ability drain can go get stuffed.

Denounce: Oh, but I love the flavor of this spell. You can use it to cause infighting during combat, or to turn the tide of a social encounter in your favor.

Fear: You still get the equivalent of a successful Dazzling Display even if enemies pass their saves. If they fail, well, panicked is a terrific debuff condition.

Fleshworm Infestation: Wow, gross. This will shut down casters and fast movers pretty quickly.

Forceful Strike: Extra DR-penetrating force damage, free bull rush with a hefty bonus, made as part of a full attack...good stuff.

Invisibility, Greater: Excellent for combat, and blue for an Inquisitor with sneak attack dice. If you’re just after the miss chance from concealment, remember shield of darkness from earlier levels.

Litany of Escape: As a swift action, save your friend from being pinned or swallowed whole. Worth my money.

Named Bullet: Obviously blue for ranged builds, named bullet lets you go nova with a guaranteed critical on the first round of combat. Great even for melee Inquisitors if they have the time to pre-buff.

Protection from Energy, Communal: Monster Lore will let you identify which element an enemy is liable to use. The shortened duration isn’t an issue, because you’ll only use this spell to make it past a hard fight or elemental hazard.

Shared Wrath: Morale bonus. Wrath is good. Give it to your friends!

Stoneskin: It's powerful indeed, but features an expensive material component. I’d keep clay skin around for most workhorse uses, then bust out stoneskin for truly difficult fights.

Transplant Visage: "Three lives were owed to the Many-Faced God. A debt must be paid, girl..." Holy crap, it's the Faceless Men spell! Obviously evil to use, but what flavor...

Awaken the Devoured: I doubt you’ll pass the Will save often, but if you do, the damage scales pretty well and bestowing the confused condition for rounds per level will straight-up end encounters. Even affects multiple enemies. Your enemies have to be daemons, however, so probably only useful as a spell known in campaigns like Wrath of the Righteous.

Brand, Greater: Making an enemy permanently sickened whenever they're within 30 ft. of you is pretty cool, especially if you’re doing a “trust but verify” and expect that you might run into an enemy again.

Deathless: Ideal for casting on party members with the Diehard feat. If no one has that, I’d probably skip the spell.

Flash Forward: Inquisitors of Gorum will find a lot to like with their deity’s Divine Fighting Technique and this spell. Too bad you still have to act as if charging, though—that opens up a lot of issues with difficult terrain, conditions like blindness that might be affecting you, etc.

Geas, Lesser: 7 HD limit isn't ideal, and Will negates; even so, there are some powerful things you could do with this spell.

Glimpse of Truth: You can do some worthwhile things with this spell—tag an invisible enemy, spot an illusion, discover a magically concealed door—but it's hard to parlay into combat effectiveness.

Holy Smite: It's got a similar problem as the other alignment-based nukes you get this level (i.e., nuking your teammates as well as your foes) but at least you'll probably be fighting many more Evil enemies than Lawful, Chaotic, or Good enemies.

Leashed Shackles: The rare Reflex save! Casters will dispel it, which stinks, and you might not be able to hit the faster foes to entangle them in the first place. If it's got a use, it's on the big bad bruiser, who will remain entangled even if he destroys the anchor point.

Mark of the Reptile God: The best use is a quick and dirty -2 to an enemy’s saves on a ranged touch attack. Treat any CHA damage you get as a happy coincidence.

Order's Wrath: Same issue as the other alignment-nuking spells in 4th level.

Sphere of Warding: I like that possession effects simply end without a save. Maybe worth a look in undead-heavy campaigns.

Tough Crowd: Insight bonus. Duration's good, skill bonuses are good. Only gives a boost to one save, though, so it seems a little underwhelming for a 4th-level spell.

Aerial Tracks: Likely won't come up enough to be worth a spell known.

Aura Sight: Detect [Alignment] will work just as well for most adventuring purposes. If you wanted to, however, the 7,500 gp price tag is well worth it to have constant aura sight running.

Brand of Tracking: High-level casters will still have plenty of tools to foil your tracking. It’s thematic and unique to Inquisitors (good as an intimidation tactic!) but I’d leave this kind of thing to Wizards and the like at this level.

Crusader's Edge: The duration is much better than your Bane, so it might be worth getting a scroll if you anticipate facing a lot of evil Outsiders. Probably not a good spell known outside of Outsider-centric campaigns, though.

Cure Critical Wounds: Again, you need to spend your resources on wands of cure light wounds, as they’re the most reliable, cost-effective, and alignment-neutral means of healing in Pathfinder.

Curse of the Outcast: Curse of the outcast + brand of conformity = One permanently fucked up life. Good in intrigue-heavy games or against enemy Bards.

Deceitful Veneer: Another intrigue spell.

Divination: As with planar inquiry, how much you actually benefit from a successful casting will depend on what meta-information your GM is willing to give up.

Dungeonsight: Similar to insect scouts, and a similarly good candidate for a scroll. Extra tactical knowledge never hurts.

Find Quarry: A scroll once in a while won’t break the bank.

Neutralize Poison: Delay poison will buy you some time, and you can use this to remove the poison. I’d still leave it to a full caster, if possible.

Restoration: It's got expensive material components. Probably best to leave to the Cleric of the group unless you’re playing as a backup healer.

Sending: As teleportation, planar shifts, and other shenanigans begin getting more common in later levels, you should have something to contact lost team members.

Ardor's Onslaught: The text doesn't specify that you hit only enemies, just "neutral creatures." This will probably make it a big no-no in most groups.

Ban Corruption: Even if your GM wants to use the corruption rules, this still requires concentration, and Will negates.

Blightburn Weapon: Hurts you, too. Pass.

Burst of Glory: Sacred bonus. I dunno, I’m just not excited about it: the radius is small, the bonus is small, the temporary HP are small, and the light isn’t anything you couldn’t already do with a cantrip. As a 1st-level spell, this would be something to get excited about. As a 4th-level spell? No.

Chaos Hammer: Same issue as ardor's onslaught.

Charon’s Dispensation: Far too niche. How often do you come into contact with the River Styx in Pathfinder?

Curse of Magic Negation: Will negates, and the spellblight itself isn't too good. Casters who fumble their spell don't lose the slot, and the check to beat their SR never gets too difficult.

Daze, Mass: This spell is somehow even worse than daze because...well, who in their right mind would use a 4th-level spell slot to cause a group of humanoids with 4 HD or less to lose one turn?

Death Knell Aura: This spell makes it easier to get off a death knell, but the effect is far too weak at this level to be worth it. Plus, successive death knell castings don’t stack—the bonuses come from the same source.

Defile Armor: Magic vestment will serve you better in the end.

Detect Scrying: Knowing when an enemy is scrying you is useful information, and the duration is permanent right off the bat; however, your spells known are limited. Let the Wizard take care of anti-divination duty.

Discern Lies: This is part of your Inquisitor package already. If you traded it away, just rely on Sense Motive instead.

Dismissal: Most powerful planar entities will beat the save or have a way to return back to your current plane when dismissed. Again, best for full casters.

Forced Repentance: You have better ways of shutting down a single enemy.

Harvest Knowledge: An evil Psychic who knows everything about the world because she’s been slowly bottling up souls and using this spell on their receptacles: devious. Not great for PCs, though.

Healing Warmth: Maximum 5d8 healing. Just use your wand.

Hold Monster: Enemies get a save every round, and it only affects living creatures. You’ll never stick this on someone for long, if at all.

Hollow Heroism: I mean, you wouldn't ever have to utter the keyword, enabling you to use this spell as a normal heroism. The circumstances where you could betray someone with it are limited.

Inflict Critical Wounds: No, no, no. Still no. DROP IT.

Interrogation, Greater: It's...still bad.

Litany of Admonition: I thought the point of the Litany spells was to give you a one-round debuff with no save? This allows a Fort save but still only gives you a single round of debuff. Useless.

Litany of Dependability: Many enemies pass their checks on average rolls. Not much of a debuff, is it?

Litany of Sight: Glimpse of truth gives you true seeing for one round as a 4th-level spell, and see invisibility is a 2nd-level spell. Why does this spell exist?

Magic Siege Engine, Greater: Uh...?

Peacebond, Greater: Not much better than Peacebond. Enemies fearsome enough that you'd want to remove their weapons are probably strong enough to pass a STR check with flying colors, not to mention that manufactured weapons get rarer as you level.

Perceive Betrayal: Truly dangerous plotters are likely to have made themselves immune to thought detection, rendering this spell irrelevant in most cases.

Persistent Vigor: The duration is too short to give you much healing or protection against conditions.

Planeslayer's Call: Meh, a minor boost to CL isn’t worth it. Casters will be smart enough not to cast fire spells at fire creatures, too.

Probe History: Not demonstrably better than making a Knowledge check.

Quieting Weapons: Silence is better for ambushes.

Rebuke: The damage is laughable for this level, and it’s Fort for half. The spell gets better if you're fighting worshipers of the same god, but how often do you expect to be doing that?

Red Hand of the Killer: Will negates, the hand can be covered, and anyway, it's waaaaaay too narrow for spells known.

Remove Radioactivity: Too niche except in Fallout-style games.

Reprobation: Spells targeting members of your own faith again.

Rune of Ruin: You're destroying the usefulness of your own loot.

Sanctify Armor: Magic vestment will do this just as well.

Sessile Spirit: Okay in occult games, but nowhere else.

Shadow Barbs: Actively hurts you. I’ll look elsewhere, thanks.

Sleepwalk: Far too narrow.

Spell Immunity: Most enemies that want to kill you with spells have enough spells that they can afford to kill you creatively.

Spindrift Spritz, Mass: Minor conditions at this level.

Straightjacket: No aspect of this is powerful enough to warrant a 4th-level spell.

Tireless Pursuers: At least you can bring your team along? Useless unless your team uses the rules for forced marching.

Unholy Blight: The last of the alignment nuke spells in your arsenal, and also the least likely to be used in most campaigns.

Ward Shield: Doesn't work against many spells, and most Inquisitors won't be using shields anyway.

5th-Level Spells

Dimensional Blade: You know how Gunslingers are super deadly because they can target ranged touch AC? Yeah, this spell lets melee folk do that for a round. Dimensional blade will let you cut through certain enemies like butter, especially with iterative attacks. Against enemies that use mostly DEX or spells for AC, it won't do much; fortunately, touch AC tends to be the lowest of the ACs as you go up in level because of the predominance of oversized enemies. If you're anticipating only making one attack, true strike is probably better.

Disrupting Weapon: The usual caveat about Inquisitor DCs not being all that high applies, but you're still going to be forcing a lot of saves on your hapless undead friends. No SR, either!

Heretic’s Tongue: Geryon worshiper only. Absolutely incredible anti-caster tool, with some AoE crowd control effects, too. Pity about the faith restriction.

Righteous Might: Inuk chuk! DR 10/Alignment, a size increase, and stat bonuses for rounds per level? Where do I sign?

Wall of Silver: One of the very, very few battlefield control powers that Inquisitors get, and consequently highly valuable. The damage and debuffs for evil creatures get downright nasty, and the wall blocks [evil] spells entirely. Great stuff.

Banishment: Again, the DC is never going to be as high as a Cleric's, but the option to add to it if you've done your homework is a nice touch.

Break Enchantment: Dispel magic will suffice in a majority of situations, but when it doesn't, there's break enchantment.

Divine Pursuit: Inquisitors don’t get many movement buffs on their spell list, so this spell is valuable. Don’t go haring off on your own, though, unless you feel like dying.

Forbid Action, Greater: Its little brother is kind of a stinker, but this is actually quite good because enemies don't get repeated saves in future rounds; if they fail that Will save, they're going to be stuck not attacking or casting for 13+ rounds.

Foster Hatred: Fomenting riots, playing enemy groups off of each other, destroying friendships through prejudice—you’ve got a lot of opportunities for creativity with this spell.

Freedom’s Toast: Cayden Cailean worshiper only. Freedom of movement will probably do the job just as well, but it’s undoubtedly fun. Get your mate out of the clink with the power of alcohol!

Hunter’s Blessing: All-day Favored Terrain and Favored Enemy. The spell never scales past +2, but with the ability to swap out your enemies and terrains every day, I’d say you’re still getting a deal.

Lend Greater Judgment: That's a potent buff for a friend, but remember that they lose the benefit if you swap Judgments midway through combat. Obviously useless if you traded away Judgment to an archetype.

Spell Resistance: Remember that SR makes it difficult for allies to target you with spells, too, although you can always choose to lower your SR for your own spells.

Stoneskin, Communal: Still just as expensive as stoneskin. Ideal for boss fights only.

Sun’s Disdain, Mass: Mass blinding is a great tactic. Honorable mention goes to mass sun’s disdain + blade of light for instant crit confirmations.

Telepathic Bond: What sending wanted to be. Perfect for scouting and tactical coordination.

True Seeing: Of course true seeing is powerful—the question is whether you want to spend on the material cost. Remember that you've got glimpse of truth as a 4th-level spell if you just need the effect for a moment, although the cost effectiveness of GP/duration is in true seeing's favor.

Alaznist’s Jinx: Magehunters will probably love this spell, especially with some means of tanking an enemy’s saves or feats like Disruptive that make defensive casting harder. For most, the save DC just won’t be reliable enough against enemy casters.

Chains of Light: CR 13 creatures have Reflex saves that usually run in the 8-12 range, which means that most creatures at that CR will make the save around 50% of the time (DC 10 + 5th-level spell + WIS modifier of +5, as an example). That's not great, especially since they get a save every round, but paralyzed is a powerful condition, and the ban on extradimensional travel is icing. If you've got ways to boost your DCs or cripple an enemy's saves (Touch of Madness from the Madness Domain or the Spell Bane feat, for example) this probably goes to green or even blue.

Decapitation: Bumping up the critical modifier and damage is nice, but it only works with slashing weapons. If you're running a slashing weapon build, it deserves some consideration.

Geas/Quest: No combat utility due to the casting time, but otherwise as powerful as lesser geas. I prefer conditional curse in most scenarios.

Litany of Thunder: Fort negates. Might be good on casters, though, who definitely care about being deafened.

Litany of Vengeance: Sacred/profane bonus. A good "focus fire" spell, if you can coordinate your team for a round. Green if you traded away your Judgments—Justice doesn't stack with this.

Atonement: Thematic yet extraordinarily expensive.

Commune: Relies on the GM's goodwill; has an expensive material component and long casting time.

Hallow: Clerics will probably do this better, but a scroll is okay for you, too.

Mark of Justice: Maybe as a scroll? The only benefit this has over conditional curse is forcing compliance out of someone.

Unhallow: Same as for hallow.

Banishing Blade: Bull rush isn't a great maneuver at this stage in the game. You've got better tools for dealing with Outsiders.

Blood Ties: Wow. Evil, evil, evil. Also way too narrow. This is probably an NPC spell.

Castigate, Mass: Fear and mind-affecting immunities are starting to become extraordinarily common by this level, as are high Will saves. You won’t get any significant mileage out of it.

Claim Identity, Greater: It's got a component cost and isn't appreciably better than claim identity. If you're stealing someone's identity, you're probably knocking them out or otherwise rendering them helpless anyway—you don't need to tote them around as a porcelain mask.

Command, Greater: Still has limited commands and an overreliance on failed Will saves.

Compelling Rant: A spell to be used by NPC cult leaders, etc. You certainly don’t want to take any kind of WIS damage voluntarily.

Cure Light Wounds, Mass: Bad, bad, bad.

Dispel Balance: You've already got a number of deflection bonuses up and running, and they won't stack.

Dispel [Alignment]: You have banishment, dispel magic, and break enchantment, all of which are better and more versatile than these spells.

Flame Strike: I’m begging you, don’t blast.

Ghostbane Dirge, Mass: I'm not saying you'll never fight a group of incorporeal enemies, but is it worth a 5th-level spell known when you have such easy access to ghost touch weapons or spells?

Guardian Monument, Greater: DR 4/magic isn’t even a speed bump to enemies at this level.

Inflict Light Wounds, Mass: Incredibly, this is even worse than mass cure light wounds.

Mage's Decree: It's better than sending, but you still probably won't want to spend a spell known on it.

Profane Nimbus: It's a paltry amount of damage for this level.

Resounding Blow: Puny damage, Fort negates.

Sabotage Construct: It's limited in scope, but a successful Will save still leaves the construct confused for one round. A scroll would be perfect.

Sacred Nimbus: Slightly better than profane nimbus due to the number of Evil enemies you'll be fighting in most campaigns, but still a poor choice overall.

Shroud of Darkness: Shadowmind isn’t a great spell, and this is basically mass shadowmind.

Soulswitch: Most Inquisitors won’t have familiars, and even if you do, what’s the mechanical point here?

Spell Immunity, Communal: Same issue as spell immunity.

Unwilling Shield: 250 GP for rounds per level. Pass.

6th-Level Spells

Blade Barrier: You get so few battlefield controls as an Inquisitor, but this is one of them. You get some soft cover, and enemies still take half damage on a successful Reflex save to pass through the wall.

Dispel Magic, Greater: Just as versatile as its little cousin.

Heal: Ah! Finally, a good healing spell, right at the end. Just a flat 150, every time. Works wonders, and can be used as an undead nuke if necessary.

Inspiring Recovery: Morale bonus. Your one and only resurrection spell, and it’s a good one for mid-combat: heal, buff, and resurrection rolled into one. You’ll never be the primary miracle worker, but you can fill in in a pinch.

Invoke Deity: Now that’s what I call a capstone spell! It’s a little pricey on the material components, but fortunately the spell doesn’t specify that they’re consumed in the casting. Even the powers for mediocre domains appear to be really good, so have fun, go nuts.

Named Bullet, Greater: Still fantastic.

Unshakeable Zeal: Morale bonus. Failing is something we do quite often in Pathfinder, thanks to the vicissitudes of the d20. Getting a +4 bonus to any check you failed for hours per level is an amazing perk that you’ll want to have running on yourself every day.

Bite the Hand, Mass: Summons are deadly at this level. Even a few turned against their masters can be enough to drastically turn the tide of battle.

Emblem of Greed: In addition to being able to turn very innocuous, non-threatening weapons (e.g., masterwork daggers) into a very conspicuous, threatening weapon (+3 spell-storing flaming burst glaive) you also use your caster level for your BAB, giving you a fourth iterative and better chances to hit. Very choice.

Neutralize Poison, Greater: Insta-win against poisons and any effects thereof. Strike those from your “things that worry me” list.

Overwhelming Presence: They get a Will save every round, but if they recover early they get hit with some big penalties, and even a successful save staggers for one round. Definitely one of your better offensive 6th-level spells.

Rotting Alliance: Ho ho ho. Positively wrecks groups of enemies, if given an opportunity to work for you over a few days. 1d6 CHA and CON damage is quite nice on the front end, too, although the usual caveats about save DCs at higher levels apply.

Umbral Strike: Good damage that ignores concealment and potentially renders the victim blind for the whole encounter. Rough against casters.

Unconscious Agenda: BWAAAAMP. BWAAAAMP. That's right, you can now incept people! I like it—there are so many opportunities for screwing with politics and intrigue with this spell. When you cast it depends on how your GM approaches the question of whether people know when they’ve failed a Will save.

Artificer's Curse: Depends on how frequently you run into magical items—at this level, plenty of enemies can wipe the floor with you with no aid.

Blessings of Luck and Resolve, Mass: Morale bonus, Halfling only. If it’s for the whole party, this spell is starting to become more worthwhile. Heroes’ feast is generally superior if you have the time to eat every day.

Heroes' Feast: Morale bonus. Not a bad package of buffs to start a day of adventuring with, but you're unlikely to want to cast it all the time. It says "every creature partaking of the feast is cured of all sickness and nausea, and receives the benefits of both neutralize poison and remove disease," which I would take to mean that you don't have to have the entire feast to get those benefits, just "partake" for a few bites. If many people in your party are poisoned or diseased, it's definitely worth it—and if you're running keep watch, you can afford to feast every day. The bonuses vs. fear and poison are quite good.

Holy Word: Probably the only nuke spell worth getting, but I still wouldn't recommend it if you've got non-Good party members.

Litany of Madness: You get at least one round of confusion, which is good. Don't count on it giving you more than that, though.

Vision of Lamashtu: Not actually restricted to Lamashtu worshipers, although it’s most certainly evil. Your compulsion (geas) and curse (conditional curse) spells are the best riders for this ability, as their range makes them difficult to pull off in combat.

Find the Path: It'll get you out of maze, which is a brutal spell. It's also handy for general navigation.

Knock, Mass: A scroll, not a spell known.

Lost Legacy: What a way to wreck someone's life. Not much mechanical use, like many of the more flavorful curses on the Inquisitor's list.

Sarzari Shadow Memory: Great spell for a scroll. At this level, you need to stack the deck entirely in your favor when going after big bosses, and sarzari shadow memory helps you do it. Plus, you get to pray to Achaekek, who will forever be my main mantis.

Arbitrament: Good way to piss off your team, unless you're all some flavor of Neutral.

Balance of Suffering: 9d6 + CL puts you at around 50 HP dealt and healed, on average. That’s not terrible, but I’d rather use heal to heal and attacks to hurt. If your target passes their save, you’re looking at 35 HP dealt and healed, on average, which is looking less and less appealing.

Besmara’s Grasping Depths: Only useful at sea. You’ll know when you’re playing such a campaign.

Blasphemy: Same as for arbitrament.

Circle of Death: It caps out at 8 HD, and has a 500 GP material cost. No thanks.

Cleanse: Forget this one, kiddo, and get heal.

Commune With Texts: It’s a scroll, if it’s anything.

Cruel Jaunt: The restrictions are too fiddly for a 6th-level spell, your pinnacle of power.

Cure Moderate Wounds, Mass: A thousand times no.

Death Knell Aura, Greater: As with the base spell, it’s nice to be able to trigger death knell faster, but death knell is easily outclassed as a buff and doesn’t stack with itself. What, then, is the point?

Dictum: See arbitrament and blasphemy.

Fester, Mass: You probably won't meet many enemies who want to heal each other in combat.

Forbiddance: This is for the Wizard setting up his demiplane, not you.

Glyph of Warding, Greater: Still not for you.

Harm: Same basic problem as the inflict line of spells: by the time you get them, you've got much, much better ways of dealing that damage.

Inflict Moderate Wounds, Mass: Blergh.

Legend Lore: Expensive, time-consuming to cast, and entirely up to GM fiat. Pass.

Litany of Truth: You have so many other ways of achieving this effect by now. Use one of them instead.

Plague Bearer: Urgathoa worshiper only. Good for biological warfare against commoners and not much else. Enemies certainly won’t have a difficult time shaking these illnesses.

Prognostication: Long casting time, expensive material costs, cryptic answers. Pass.

Repulsion: Will negates, and they can still shoot or cast at you.

Seer’s Bane: Mephistopheles worshiper only. Lacking a means to follow up on your counterstroke, your opposed diviner will heal the damage, remove the curse, and go about business as usual, resolved to be more careful around you next time.

Tactical Insight: For mass combat, so probably not your campaign.

Undeath to Death: Same basic issue as circle of death.

Wither Limb: Forced mutation will get you a withered limb and CON/DEX damage as a 3rd-level spell. Redundant.

Word of Chaos: See arbitrament.

INQ440: Feat Dynamics

As I mention in other places in this guide, there are a staggering number of options available to players for feats. As a GM, I’m in favor of giving my players extra feats that aren’t combat-oriented (usually at every even level or every other even level) to encourage them to think outside the box on selection. Pathfinder doesn’t incentivize anything other than a combat-effective build, but there’s so much more out there that’s hilariously fun to play with. Racial feats! Stunning Irruption! Spirit Ally! Many of the feats listed here are only “useful” in a scenario where your GM is running games as I do, with a little leeway in PCs’ feat selection. I’ll designate these “fun or flavorful yet sub-optimal” feats in black throughout this section. Inquisitor-only feats will have an asterisk (*) before them.

All Characters

Armor Proficiency, Heavy: Two-handed and casting-based Inquisitors may want heavy armor, as it gives them good AC scores with low investment into DEX. The classic mithral breastplate is always an option, too.

Big Game Hunter: Do you have any idea how many enemies past 8th level will be Large or larger? This feat equates to +1 to hit and +2 damage to basically everything.

Cunning Killer: Hoo hoo hoo...what a feat. The only spell this feat will conflict with is anticipate thoughts, which makes it ideal for buffing damage and to-hit on the regular. You’re naturally great at Knowledges, too—what’s not to love?

Deific / Demonic / Celestial / Fiendish / Fey / Hellknight Obedience: The Obedience feats are some of my absolute favorites in Pathfinder, giving an immediate benefit and several thematic abilities later in your career, ranging from daily SLAs to entirely new mechanics. Which benefits you get depend entirely on the entity you worship, of course, so some will be better than others. If you’re given bonus feats that don’t provide large mechanical bonuses, the Obediences are almost always the place I would begin.

Dirty Fighting: The base bonus by itself is decent enough, but take a look at the bottom: “This feat counts as having DEX 13, INT 13, Combat Expertise, and Improved Unarmed Strike for the purposes of meeting the prerequisites of the various improved combat maneuver feats, as well as feats that require those improved combat maneuver feats as prerequisites.” HOLY SHIT. Where has this feat been all my life? Dirty Fighting opens up Style feats, maneuver feats, etc. to Inquisitors, who normally wouldn’t have the INT or build space to pursue any of those avenues.

Diverse Obedience: Really, really ups the ante for Obediences when you can pick one of three boons at each level. And an acceleration of how fast you get those boons? Perfect!

Divine Fighting Technique: Most gods in the Inner Sea Pantheon have a divine fighting technique that provides an initial benefit at low levels and an advanced benefit at 10th level or so. These abilities range from dreadful (Calistria) to amazing (Sarenrae), and will be rated individually in the Deity-Specific Feats section below.

Improved Initiative: The poster child for universally useful feats.

Leadership: They won’t, but if your GM lets you...nah, just kidding. They won’t let you.

Spirit Ridden: The devil’s in the details with this one, and depends greatly on your GM. Maybe that personality change is nothing; maybe you’re getting sudden urges to murder children. If your GM is lenient with it, you’re getting major bonuses to skills with long durations. Imagine suddenly picking up 10+ ranks in UMD when you find that nifty scroll or wand, or for obscure knowledge checks!

* Branded for Retribution: The trade-off here is whether you believe you can hit more times in three rounds, or whether your team can hit more times in one round. For the most part, that’s an easy trade: add a full-BAB archer with Rapid Shot, a full-BAB frontliner, and it’s all too easy to focus fire and cremate an enemy. Great for going nova on bosses. (Thanks to /u/HighPingVictim for bringing this feat to my attention!)

Combat Patrol: With your longspear proficiency, Combat Patrol is actually a great option, although I wish you could somehow poach longarm and enlarge person. It’s an easy way to set up a “no-no zone” and spread the Bane damage around quickly.

Wanderer’s Fortune: Even freedom of movement on a limited basis is excellent, especially when you don’t need to spend a spell slot to do it! Great pick.

Additional Traits: My philosophy as always is to find something flavorful rather than mechanically strong. I see you reaching for Reactionary, you munchkins. Hände weg.

Ambuscading Spell: As a ¾ caster, you want to take any opportunity possible to buff your casting, and with your initiative boosts, Ambuscading Spell is a great bet.

Damned Disciple / Damned Soldier: Diverse Obedience for Hell’s Inquisitors. Choosing boons from two of the three Fiendish Obedience prestige classes really helps you get the most bang for your buck.

Deceitful Incompetence: Like Combat Patrol, another fabulous feat for AoO/reach weapon builds, providing stacking accuracy bonuses when you miss with your AoOs.

Divine Deception: +5 to UMD with divine wands and scrolls. Holy crap, that’s good! Get your hands on some Cleric goodies, kids!

Divine Interference: Functionally, it’s worse-of-two, which is already a bad deal for enemies. Throw a debuff on top, and you’ve got a great ability for keeping allies alive in grueling encounters.

Evolved Familiar: Familiars are already good, but Eidolon evolutions make them even better. What you pick will be based heavily off of the role your familiar will be playing.

* Extended Bane: You can never, and I mean never, have enough Bane rounds in a day.

Feign Curse: What a feat! I like it because it’s essentially an upgraded version of the Witch’s (already excellent) Misfortune hex. At higher levels, it gets more swingy—some enemies will have zero ranks in Spellcraft or Sense Motive, while others will have the ranks to beat your feigned curse automatically. How often do you get “magic” effects that bypass saves and SR, though?

* Improved Monster Lore: Ooh, that’s tasty! Great for any Inquisitors that didn’t trade it away. Knowledge is power.

* Instant Judgment: Getting the ability to change a Judgment as an immediate action opens up several tactical avenues: pick up resistance just as the drake spits acid at you, add on a few points of DR to shave damage off a big hit, etc. Not bad, all in all.

Noble Stipend: 100 gp/week is a lot of money for mundane services and nonmaterial goods. 50 gp is equivalent to 1 lb. of gold. At the time of this writing, 1 lb. of gold is worth roughly $16,000. With that kind of money you can buy hordes of lowly human servitors, or just blow it all on 100 goats/week and start your own farm, pocketing the profits.

Prestigious Spellcaster: If you’re willing to commit the feats, Prestigious Spellcaster will take the casting sting out of PrCs like Evangelist entirely.

Tundra Stride: It’s not quite the Travel domain, but it’s sure close. Because charging, withdrawing, and running all multiply your base speed, you’re actually getting anywhere between 20 and 40 ft. of movement bonuses here.

Weapon Versatility: DR vs. slashing/piercing/bludgeoning damage can be tough to penetrate unless you’re prepared.

* Baneful Judgment: 10 + CR is easy to beat even at 1st level, so you’ll only get better at this skill. Useful for sparing your Judgments in harder one-on-one fights.

* Heavenly Bane: The usefulness here will depend on whether your GM rules that Bane counts as an enhancement bonus for penetrating DR. If so, redundant; if not, far more intriguing.

Agonizing Obedience: Holy shit. This feat is so metal, it shits bats. Absolutely on-point for Hellknight aspirants or Inquisitors of Zon-Kuthon, but the boons are generally a little weaker than for other Obediences. Your call whether to self-mutilate, friendo.

* Channeling Scourge: It’s not unreasonable that an Inquisitor might have picked up channeling abilities from other class levels, and Channeling Scourge will give you the ability to scale that channeling with your class level, as long as you use it to blast people or undead. Not what I would call optimal (channeling is rarely optimal without heavy investment, even for Clerics) but it’s an option that’s there.

Creature Focus: At last, a means of acquiring Favored Enemy outside of a Ranger dip! It’s juuust strong enough not to be counted as a fluff feat, but still probably only a pick if you want an ability that needs FE as a prerequisite.

Expanded Arcana: More spells known, always good. You only get one for the price of a feat, though, and that’s not a great use of resources in a feat-starved class.

* Favored Judgment: Good in campaigns that focus on specific enemy types—Giants in Giantslayer, Undead in Carrion Crown, Demons in Wrath of the Righteous, etc.

* Grant Initiative: Giving your Cunning Initiative bonus to friends always has an opportunity cost, but can be worth it in scenarios where you know someone else could cast an encounter-ending spell or deliver a devastating sneak attack to a flat-footed opponent if only they could act first.

Just Out of Reach: Dodge and Mobility stink as prereqs, but hey, what are you going to do? Fortunately, Just Out of Reach is excellent against all those enormous enemies that can hit you from halfway across the continent.

Lunge: -2 AC for 5 ft. of reach isn’t a bad trade-off. It unfortunately only lasts until the end of your turn, making it unsuitable for an AoO build with a longspear or somesuch. (Thanks to /u/ClosetIntrovert for reminding me of that limitation!)

* Merciful Bane: Taking foes alive is a good tactic in some cases. Inquisitors of Sarenrae have a much better option available to them in their Divine Fighting Technique.

Quick Draw / Quick Stow: These are great filler feats if you ever find yourself with the space, improving action economy in shifting battlefields and negating costly AoOs.

Unsanctioned Detection: A 1/day mega-buff to Perception and Sense Motive might well be worth it to you.

Acrobatic Spellcaster: Best for Inquisitors with light armor, obviously, but still a fun idea because of all the defensive casting you’ll be doing.

Armored Athlete: ...that said, heavy armor is brutal on your DEX- and STR-based checks. Armor enchantments can alleviate some of the pain (e.g., the creeping enchantment to negate Stealth ACPs) but not all of it. If there’s a skill you simply must be good at (Swim in a Ruins of Azlant campaign, e.g.) this is a decent way to do it.

Nimble Moves / Acrobatic Steps: Get out of jail free cards on difficult terrain? Yes, please.

Associate: Despite its appearance in Agents of Evil, Associate is suuuuper flavorful for any Inquisitor. Really helps with the perception that you’re living in a fully fleshed-out world in which organizations continue to exist and work toward their goals when you’re not around.

Believer’s Boon: Mechanically weak, but strengthening your connection to your deity is never bad.

Black Market Dealings: If anyone knows how to access some shady shit, it’s Inquisitors.

Call Out: That’s right: succeed on an Intimidate check, initiate a duel. Extraordinary flavor for Inquisitors, with their single-target burst damage focus.

Combat Vigor: I can’t rate this according to normal standards because of how cheap wands of cure light wounds are, but it’s thematic and cool to be able to heal yourself with nothing more than grit and focus.

Deepsight: Increase that 60-ft. Darkvision out to 120 ft. Will most Inquisitors have the build space? Probably not. Still a great feat.

Detect Expertise: Another power that lets you roleplay your Inquisitor as an “I know all your darkest secrets at a glance” type. Love it.

Devil Sense: Iroran Inquisitors and others who despise devils love this power.

Divine Communion: What would Calistria do? Seduce the town guard? ...yeah, sounds about right.

Esoteric Advantage: While not mechanically strong, Inquisitors are absolutely the types who could pull out some bizarre piece of minutia about a creature to give themselves the upper hand.

Expanded Studies: The feat doesn’t explicitly allow Inquisitors, but I don’t see why they shouldn’t be included; both the Hunter and Warpriest are ¾ divine casters, same as the Inquisitor.

* Exploit Lore: Great Inquisitor-only ability, hampered only by its 1/day limitation.

* Eyes of Judgment: An extra little oomph on your detect alignment SLAs.

Far-Roaming Familiar: Long-distance scouting for those of you with familiars.

Fleet: Straight +5 ft. to base movement speed. Always, always good, but rarely will you have room.

Friendly Switch: Swap spaces with an ally as a 5-ft. step? Cool.

Ghost Whisperer: Highly thematic for an Inquisitor of Pharasma or Urgathoa, and cool in a supernatural or gothic campaign.

Ghostslayer: Even better for Sanctified Slayers, who can now deal precision damage to ghosties.

* Insightful Gaze: Congrats, you’re now the best Sense Motive user in the game!

Lifeless Gaze: Best poker face in Avistan.

Noble Scion / Enlightened Noble: Love these feats! Something for every character concept here. Mechanically, Scion of Lore and Scion of Peace are your best bets.

Rat Catcher: Every party needs a method of handling swarms. Larger enemies, not smaller, tend to be the rule as levels progress, however.

Read Spell Traces: It’s a fun flavor feat for everyone. Likely even more thematic for Royal Accusers and other intrigue-oriented archetypes.

Reflexive Caster: You’ve got plenty self-only abjuration spells. Worth a look?

Sense Assumptions / Loyalties / Magical Interrogation / Relationships: None are going to make it into a normal build. As bonus feats? That’s a different story.

Spirit Ally: The ultimate in harmless feats, a permanent Unseen Servant isn’t going to be threatening to any GM unless you cheese hard.

Stunning Irruption: The flavor feat par excellence, there’s simply no beating breaking down a wall so hard that you stun everyone on the other side. OH YEAAAAH!

Supernatural Tracker: Be the best at tracking there ever was.

Telepathy Tap: TFW your Sense Motive is so high that you can literally read minds.

* Thoughtful Discernment: The fact-check of the Pathfinder universe.

Thrill of the Hunt: Tracking using Survival won’t be universally useful, and the subsequent morale bonus is quickly superseded. That said, what flavor! Amazing for Inquisitors.

Underworld Connections: Riddleport...you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.

Veiled Contempt: Infiltrators would love this one.

Virtuous Creed: Kind of like a Deific Obedience to a positive character trait? I like Humility best for Inquisitors. It’s a strong mechanical benefit, and Inquisitors love to appear less threatening than they really are.

War Blessing: I like some of these powers that give you extra powers from other classes. War Blessing is one such, giving you two of the Minor Blessings that Warpriests get. At only 2/day, these are probably flavor.

Agile Maneuvers: It’s a trap! Even if you’re finesse-based, Inquisitors still don’t have the BAB to compete in the maneuver game long-term. Just leave it.

Eldritch Heritage: Skill Focus requirements, minimum CHA scores, few visible benefits until 11th level. Bards, Oracles, and CHA-based Rogues will all see more upside than you will.

* Extra Bane: Strictly worse than Extended Bane. Pass.

* Judgment Surge: Although second judgment and third judgment will let you apply the surge to more of your active Judgments, 1/day still isn’t worth the investment. Pass.

* Menacing Bane: You don’t get to keep the bane quality, so you’re trading a for-sure +2 to hit and 2d6 damage for a potential +2 to hit for you and allies. That’s waaay not worth it in my book.

Weapon Focus: Weapon Focus is like a learner’s permit: no one likes it in and of itself, but we all tolerate it because it leads to undeniably cooler things.

Weapon of the Chosen / Improved / Greater: Even if the feat chain takes a while to get into, it eventually pays dividends. DR penetration is an ever-necessary tool to have in the toolkit, and Greater Weapon of the Chosen is ideal for Inquisitor builds picking up Vital Strike—rolling twice to hit is tasty when you’re dealing 3x weapon damage.

Archetype-Specific

Cloaked Wolf

Betrayer: Perfect for this playstyle. You’ll be beginning most combats by trying to snag a surprise round, and Diplomacy checks are excellent ways to get them. Between the immediate action attack, a standard action attack in the surprise round, and a full attack as combat opens, you could easily have someone dismantled before they even get a chance to respond, especially if your attack leaves them flat-footed.

Conceal Spell / Improved: Cloaked Wolves can do concealed attacks well, but what about casting? Here’s your answer. Perfect for debuffing people in plain sight. The improved version just gives you mildly better chances at success.

Catch Off Guard: Feat tax, pure and simple. You’d probably get this for free at my table if you were really dedicated to improvised weapons. Why penalize an already sub-optimal style?

Improvised Weapon Mastery: Two feats and +8 BAB later, you’re finally as good at combat with a chair leg as a person with a real weapon is! Again, I think this should be packaged in somehow for those dedicated to improvised weapons, but maybe that’s just me.

Wave Strike: If you’re going for a Feint build, Wave Strike can help you open a combat more easily. Great for Cloaked Wolf/Sanctified Slayer combos.

Intoxicating Flattery: A fun way to lower your opponent’s guard before you hit them.

Secret Signs: A decent adjunct to Conceal Spell, but nothing too earth-shattering. Useful if you’re given some bonus feats to burn and really want to lean into undetectable casting.

Walking Sleight: Sleight of Hand as a move action. Keep pumping it up as a Cloaked Wolf!

Wary Smuggler: The non-weapon item clause impedes this feat somewhat, but it’s still fun as a bonus.

Blade Among the Folds (Heavy Armor Trick): The ACP on DEX-based skills (including Sleight of Hand) will be too high in heavy armors to be worth the bonus from Blade Among the Folds. Too bad! It’s another one that would work well for Cloaked Wolves in a kinder world.

Chairbreaker: An extra 1d4 damage won’t blow anyone’s skirt up, even those using improvised weapon builds. Pass.

Cunning Caster: Waaay too many penalties to the Bluff check. You’ll never pull this off unless the skill has been buffed to obscene levels.

Sly Draw: As far as I can tell, Sly Draw applies only to a Feint performed immediately after you draw your weapon, as in Wave Strike. That’s not too useful. If it applies to all feints when using a light weapon, that’s much better for Cloaked Wolves.

Living Grimoire

Focused Shot: Makes casting-focused Living Grimoires much more viable by letting them use their casting stat for accuracy with bows and crossbows.

Briliant Spell Preparation: Some GMs will let you leave slots open at the start of the day anyway—after all, there’s nothing forbidding you from doing it if you want to take an hour in the middle of the day to re-prepare. Lowering that time penalty to 15 minutes is an okay upgrade. I wish you got more prepared slots, though.

Esoteric Linguistics: With an INT focus, you’re much better at Linguistics than you used to be, which opens the way for some of the fun feats that replace skill checks.

Orator: Replace important face skills with Linguistics! Fun fun fun. And how cool would it be to spew fiery rhetoric off the battlefield, as well as on it?

Legalistic Reading: This is the archetype best suited to make use of scrolls, largely because of the Pragmatic Activator trait and a natural focus on Linguistics. And using scrolls twice? How cool is that!?

Monster Tactician

Evolved Summon Monster: Ah, I’m glad Paizo finally got wise to Pounce and Reach being OP for 1-point evolutions. Even with those abilities off the table, Evolved Summon Monster still gives you unparalleled latitude to customize creatures as you summon them. Worst case, you get better armor or attacks; best case, an evolution like Swim saves the day in a fringe scenario that you don’t usually encounter.

Summon [Alignment] Monster: That much better option for expanding your portfolio of summons? This is it. Five or six new options per summon monster level, and an additional bonus depending on your alignment—Goodies get Diehard, Baddies get to be summoned with a standard action, and Neutries get a +2 resistance bonus to Will saves. (It should be noted that Monster Tacticians already summon creatures as a standard action, so those who selected Summon Evil Monster have a little redundancy for that portion of the feat.) Look. No. Further.

Augment Summoning: Good for keeping trash summons relevant for longer, as well as for when you summon packs of creatures, all of which will benefit from the increased STR and CON.

Expanded Summon Monster: Not bad! You’ll get an even better option for expanding your portfolio later.

Superior Summoning: As with Augment Summoning, this feat keeps your lower-level summons relevant for much longer, in addition to putting more SLAs at your team’s disposal.

Versatile Summon Monster: I’d probably pick Dark/Primordial and one of the elemental templates.

Profane Studies: The duration buff is ultimately irrelevant to Monster Tacticians, who get the minutes/level Summoner versions of summon monster spells. Great boost to Kn(Planes), though!

Ravener Hunter

Abundant Revelations: Extra uses of your Revelations are always fantastic.

Extra Revelation: Remember, you can’t have this one, per the archetype text. :(

Sacred Huntsmaster

Monstrous Companion: Magical beasts make fantastic companions. First of all, they’re intelligent, which makes for even cooler RP. Second, they often come with resistances, SR, SLAs, or exotic special abilities. You want those!

Planar Focus: Expanded options for your Animal Focus, and some excellent ones at that. Plane of Fire focus is especially good for damage output, but check the Sacred Huntsmaster section for a complete write-up.

Beastmaster Style / Beastmaster Salvation / Beastmaster Ire: A relatively new set of feats from Ultimate Wilderness that Sacred Huntsmasters should absolutely want to get their hands on. The basic style feat, which has no real prerequisites apart from CHA 13, lets you substitute a Handle Animal check for your companion’s AC against one attack per round as an immediate action; Salvation lets you do it for a saving throw. Lastly, Ire gives you a frankly insane boost to damage and attack rolls if the enemy even attempted to attack your companion, much less dealt damage. If you’re playing a simple STR/WIS Power Attack build and have the feats to spare, there are very few reasons not to take the Beastmaster line.

Disruptive Companion: You normally have to be a Fighter (or select the Spellkiller Inquisition) to get the excellent Disruptive feat, but companions can get it (albeit at a lesser bonus) with no levels in Fighter. Even better, this feat qualifies companions for feats like Spellbreaker, which can be horrifyingly effective for companions with reach, Combat Reflexes, or both.

Ferocious Beast: Animal companions only. It’s Stern Gaze (well, half of it, anyway) for your companion! Great if you both want to be masters of demoralization.

Totem Beast: Permanent Animal Aspect for your companion! A lenient GM might allow your companion to spend the feat, rather than you.

Evolved Companion: Eidolon evolutions are still quite powerful, even without Pounce or Reach, but perhaps just not universally useful. (Thanks to /u/fishmcfish for pointing out that those two are not allowed!)

Spirit’s Gift: There aren’t any game-changing options among the Shaman spirits, but the fact that you get to choose each day lends it versatility.

Extended Animal Focus: Will you have space? Likely not. Is it useful? Of course!

Feral Grace: Animal companions only. It’s your DEX-to-damage feat if your companion uses Finesse.

Genie-Touched Companion: The genie-touched companion functions as a horse companion, which isn’t too great. If your GM rules that you can make regular companions genie-touched, this feat is at least green, possibly blue.

Tenacious Hunter: Animal companions only. Stealth DCs are nigh-impossible to make vs. invisible opponents, even with +10 to the Perception check. I like that animals can hit flat-footed AC if they do manage to spot the enemy, though—the invisible beasties are often the ones most worried about flat-footed AC.

Monstrous Mount: Seems like you should be able to take it, but you don’t technically have the class features listed.

Sanctified Slayer

Dampen Presence: Blindsense and blindsight are huge pains to deal with when you rely on Stealth to deal most of your damage. That’s no longer an issue with Dampen Presence.

Flensing Strike: The best feat available for Sanctified Slayers, period. You simply cannot do better than the sickened condition and permanently reducing a foe’s natural armor bonus. Besides, the Bleeding Attack Rogue talent is one of the only ones that’s worth taking with your Slayer talents, so you might as well pick up the prerequisite.

Shadow’s Shroud: It’s like shield of darkness, except you can use it for Stealth! Excellent, excellent feat, potentially even rendering a Shadowdancer dip obsolete.

Violent Display: The feat comes with some Weretiger flavor and isn’t PFS-legal, but holy shit, you can see why. Violent Display is the third leg of the Dazzling Display/Shatter Defenses/Violent Display trifecta that allows Intimidation-based Rogues and Slayers unlimited sneak attack, all day long. The chain goes something like this: Intimidate an enemy, which makes them flat-footed vs. the rest of your attacks via Shatter Defenses; execute a sneak attack against the flat-footed enemy; immediate action Dazzling Display via Violent Display to demoralize other enemies within a 30-ft. radius.

Focused Target: Good for boss fights.

Gang Up: Anyone with sneak attack dice loves flanking. Gang Up lets you flank better. ‘Nough said.

Shadows of Fear: Don’t want to do Shatter Defenses? Don’t worry! You’ll still get your SA damage at least once per round if they’re shaken.

Shatter Defenses: The advantage of Shatter Defenses over Shadows of Fear is that it makes the enemy flat-footed against all your attacks until the next round, an arrangement ideal for characters who are full-attacking constantly. On the downside, Shatter Defenses has two feat prerequisites and pretty steep BAB entry for Inquisitors. Your call whether that trade-off is worth it for you. Shadows of Fear could still be viable for Vital Strike or Spring Attack builds.

Accomplished Sneak Attacker: It’s not a great feat in and of itself, but you may need to select it in order to access feats that have more intensive sneak attack prerequisites.

Hellcat Stealth: Sanctified Slayers have a definite edge over Rogues and Slayers in that they can cast spells like invisibility to set up sneak attack. Sometimes you need those spells for other things, though, which makes abilities like Hide in Plain Sight all the more valuable. Hellcat Stealth has its problems—penalty to the Stealth check, lighting restrictions—but overall is one of the only universally available tools for getting sneak attacks off alone and without help from other skills or spells.

Seething Hatred: Again, depends on how single-minded your campaign is about enemy types.

Surprise Maneuver: Makes you full BAB for the purposes of maneuvers, for whatever that’s worth to you.

Surprising Combatant: Hard to know quite where to put this feat. Here, I guess, since Sanctified Slayers benefit so greatly from flat-footed opponents.

Visceral Threat: If you’d rather feint as a Sanctified Slayer, here’s your route, which benefits from Stern Gaze.

Dastardly Finish / Merciless Butchery / Brutal Coup de Grace: This is a trio that works together marvelously for Sanctified Slayers at high levels (15+). Dazzling Display + the Unchained Intimidate Skill Unlock at the start of combat will hopefully drive a few enemies straight to cowering; castigate can achieve cowering at lower levels for single targets. If you move to cowering enemies and coup de grace as a standard action, you get a free Dazzling Display, which then causes more targets to cower...you see how the cycle keeps on keepin’ on. It’s a big feat investment, though, and won’t work on every enemy.

Shadow Strike: Dealing precision damage to targets with concealment is an attractive prospect, especially if you’re playing as a human, for whom lighting rules are prone to give out concealment.

Careful Sneak / Exquisite Sneak: Obviated by the creeping armor enchantment, which is cheap and doesn’t eat into your total enhancement bonus.

Spellbreaker & Witch Hunter

Scrutinize Spell: Oof, is this good for Witch Hunters. Valuable meta-knowledge, bonuses to future Spellcraft checks, and an immediate Intimidate check with a bonus.

Spell Drinker: 1/hour is great, bonus HP are great, untyped bonus to saves is great. Great all around.

Arcane Vendetta: Hate arcane casters? Want to kill them? Arcane Vendetta! Even better for Witch Hunters, who get bonuses to Spellcraft for free.

Atheist Abjurations: Hate divine casters? Want to kill them? Atheist Abjurations! Dispel magic is never a wasted spell known, so get comfortable with using it quite a bit.

Focused Disbelief: Not many ways to acquire SR in Pathfinder, but here’s one for only two feats! The standard action to lower resistance takes it down from blue, just because allies will have to pass a caster level check to buff you unless you slow your roll.

Step Up / Following Step / Step Up and Strike: Your suite of abilities for following casters as they attempt to back away from you. They’re brutal against enemies that are relying on five-foot steps to keep them safe.

Unimpeachable Honor: Between all your defensive abilities, you can probably avoid enchantment effects altogether. If not, however, Unimpeachable Honor ensures that you won’t do any harm while controlled.

Divine Defiance: An untyped +2 to saves against divine spells isn’t anything to snicker at. Opens up some of the later Magehunter abilities, too.

Spell Denial: Enchantment and Evocation, always good bets.

Zealous Mind: I feel as if it’s starting to become overkill by the time you get to Zealous Mind, but hey, bonuses are bonuses.

Exorcist’s Rebuttal: Activating the retaliatory hit to WIS is a little finicky and requires several feat prereqs, which is why this feat is rated as flavor only. I like to think that Harry Potter trained this shortly before his trip to the Ministry in Order of the Phoenix.

Tactical Leader

Battle Cry: Higher morale bonuses will quickly outpace it, unfortunately.

Combat Style-Specific

Casting

* Spell Bane: You don’t have many tools that allow you to pretend like you’re a full caster. This is one of them.

Spontaneous Nature’s Ally: Whoa, you can just pick up summoning? And it’s tied to the Animal domain, which is already amazing? (Plant, well, eh.) Fabulous stuff, especially because you’ll be using cure spells primarily with wands, not daily spell slots.

Dispel Synergy: Anything, I repeat anything that lets you lower enemies’ saves is something you should be interested in.

Spell Penetration: As long as you heed the important caveat that Inquisitors will never be great at offensive casting, Spell Penetration can still do good work. Every bit of SR penetration helps.

Steadfast Mind: In general, of course, we should be aiming not to fail defensive castings, but if you do, there’s nothing like getting a chance at keeping your spell slot.

Warrior Priest: It’s like Combat Casting, except you also get an initiative bonus! Definitely nice.

Uncanny Concentration: It’s at least as good as Combat Casting, and depending on your GM’s familiarity with concentration check rules, might be better.

Combat Casting: Losing spells hurts. Warrior Priest is strictly better, however.

Destructive Dispel: Even if the enemy caster passes the Fort save to avoid the stun, they’re still sickened. Not too shabby.

Knowledgeable Spellcaster: It’s a pity that the application is so narrowly confined to one enemy type, because even out of the package you get more SR penetration than Spell Penetration. Definitely worth a look if your campaign focuses on one enemy type—Monster Lore certainly sets you up nicely for it.

Minor Miracle: A 1st-level spell 1/day isn’t strong enough to use one of your normal feats, but it might also weak enough that GMs aren’t scared to give it to you for free.

Crit Fishing

Critical, Improved: Ah, this one’s excellent. Keen as a feat, doubling the threat range of any weapon. Inquisitors of Sarenrae, Cayden Cailean, and Lamashtu will appreciate it particularly.

Butterfly Sting: Desna worshiper only. If you do happen to worship Desna, this can be a great tool. Much of your damage will come from Bane, which isn’t multiplied on a crit—so why not give that crit to someone who can use it better? Obviously works best if you’re wielding a high crit range weapon like a rapier; you’d have to pick up proficiency through racial or feat options, though, because the starknife will always be lackluster for anyone except a Warpriest.

Destroy Identity: Lamashtu worshiper only. Can be particularly devastating against Bards, Sorcerers, Bloodragers—any class that uses CHA as its casting stat, really. The BAB requirement is up there, though, and there’s always the small matter of Lamashtu.

Critical, Blinding (etc.): Late, late access for you. There are some good options on here, but only for the very end of campaigns.

Critical Focus: Unfortunately necessary for getting into Critical feats. Only two certainties in Pathfinder: death and feat taxes.

Disposable Weapon: Not actually as bad as all that if you’ve got someone with mending on the team.

Crossbow

Crossbow Mastery: You’ll need to work up to this eventually if you really want to go with crossbows—the free action reload is too good to pass up.

Rapid Reload: For those using light crossbows and primarily casting, this is as far as you need to go. If you want the bigger guns, progress to Crossbow Mastery.

Abadar’s Divine Crossbow: There are some amazing Divine Fighting Techniques; ADC, unfortunately, isn’t one of them. Steal and Dirty Trick don’t get you much as a ¾ BAB class.

Finesse Fighting

Combat Patrol: If you’re looking at doing a Finesse Reach build (e.g., glaive with Combat Reflexes and a DEX focus) here’s how you turn all those AoOs positively lethal. Combat Patrol increases your threatened area, letting you spread Bane damage around even when it’s not your turn.

Piranha Strike: It’s Power Attack for Finesse fighters. What more needs to be said?

Bladed Brush: Shelyn gets special mention for a Finesse-esque feat that’s A and B the C of D (that’s Above and Beyond the Call of Duty, kids). DEX to hit for glaives is an interesting take, and it provides multiple other benefits that might be of interest, not least of which is the ability to threaten 5 ft. away with a weapon that’s normally reach-only.

Dervish Dance / Fencing Grace / Slashing Grace / Starry Grace: Each of these feats has the same general purpose: to use your DEX modifier for damage rolls, instead of STR. They are all weapon-specific, and usually deity-specific, as well (e.g., Desna for starknives, Sarenrae for scimitars, Iomedae for longswords, etc.).

Spring Attack: Spring Attack is one of those feats like Quick Draw that often doesn’t figure into “optimized” builds, yet still affords you many more degrees of freedom than you’d otherwise have, particularly if you’ve got high Acrobatics to avoid AoOs. If this feat makes it to 2e, I predict it’ll undergo a bit of a renaissance, as fewer enemies will have access to AoOs at all.

Wind / Lightning Stance: These feats make you incredibly difficult to pin down, and concealment chances always scale well, even into later levels.

Combat Reflexes: The higher your DEX, the better it gets. Ideal and necessary for any build taking advantage of Combat Patrol.

Dodge / Mobility: Mobility is no one’s idea of a good time, and Dodge barely does better. They open the path to some better feats, though.

Weapon Finesse: Obviously necessary for this fighting style, but nothing more than a feat tax.

Graceful Athlete: For those who think climbing and swimming should be more about technique, not raw strength.

Intimidate

Enforcer: Hohoho. Jewel of the Intimimancer’s crown, Enforcer gets you some serious duration on the shaken duration, a means of demoralizing as a free action, and all with very affordable entry requirements. All you need are boosts to Intimidate and a means of escalating fear conditions, and you’re a holy terror on the battlefield. Inquisitors of Sarenrae should think about pairing Enforcer with either Sarenrae’s Mercy or the Blade of Mercy Religion trait in order to take full advantage of the nonlethal → demoralize chain. (Thanks, /u/T3h_Prager, for introducing me to that excellent trait!)

Hurtful: Thanks to the swift action, you’re limited to a single Hurtful attack per turn, but each one is another source of Bane, Judgment, and weapon damage. Take it and enjoy.

Signature Skill (Intimidate): The Pathfinder Unchained skill unlock feats are...interesting. Many of them feel less like complete reimaginings of what you can do with the skills so much as reductions to annoying penalties—slight improvements to bookkeeping, in short. Not so with Intimidate. Grab this feat, and you’re suddenly able to escalate fear conditions beyond shaken with good checks, all the way up to cowering in later levels. That’s amazing, because any enemy that’s fleeing in terror isn’t damaging the team.

Disheartening Display: Great in conjunction with the Intimidate Skill Unlock—lets you push enemies ever closer to total, blind panic.

Dreadful Carnage: Kill an enemy, get a free DD. Pretty straightforward, and very useful. Note that it comes in at a high level.

Golden League Tattoos: Ifrit can usually get the ability to take 10 on Intimidate checks, but for the rest of us, there’s Golden League Tattoos. Obviously only works if you’ve got connections to Tian Xia.

Bludgeoner: Why am I including a feat for dealing nonlethal damage? Why, because of the amazing Enforcer feat, of course! Bludgeoner isn’t great on its own, but it extends the utility of Enforcer beyond Improved Unarmed Strike and Sarenrae’s Divine Fighting Technique. All of a sudden, you can use any bludgeoning weapon with Enforcer, and that’s a big deal.

Dazzling Display: Dazzling Display isn’t overwhelmingly good on its own, but it’s the entry point for many other Intimidate-based feats. The addition of the Intimidate Skill Unlock from Pathfinder Unchained makes DD much better, as you’re suddenly able to bump fear severity up to frightened or even panicked/cowering...but more on that later.

Gory Finish: Functionally similar to Dreadful Carnage, except you trade Dreadful Carnage’s later entry for Gory Finish’s single attack action. Because it only allows that single attack, it actually pairs nicely with Vital Strike.

* Intimidating Bane: By itself, it’s not much. If your GM rules that you can keep more severe fear conditions up and running while Bane is active (say, with the Intimidate Skill Unlock) then this becomes incredibly useful.

Intimidating Prowess: It’s not the brightest bulb of the bunch, but every little bonus helps when demoralizing.

Destructive Persuasion: Break shit, scare folks. That’s what the Inquisitor is all about, no?

Position of Strength: Good for frightening hapless peons, not enemies. Fun, though!

Shocking Bellow: It probably won’t earn a spot in most builds, but a free demoralize check at the start of battle ain’t bad.

Sinister Reputation: I love the idea of an Inquisitor’s terrifying reputation preceding them into town. Good enough to merit a regular feat? Meh, probably not.

* Intimidating Gaze: Ohhhh, if only they could have kept this the same as its Sense Motive cousin, Insightful Gaze. As it is, it only gives you the reroll 1/day, which is trash.

Ranged

Circuitous Shot: Boy, does it take a long time to get, but what else do you have at the mid-to-high levels? Circuitous Shot removes the last remaining obstacle to efficient ranged combat: cover.

Hammer the Gap: Extra damage on full attacks helps punch through DR, if nothing else, and multiplies on crits. Ranged Inquisitors shouldn’t have any difficulty pulling off full attacks much of the time.

Improved Precise Shot: It comes in late, but boy, is it worth it.

Manyshot: In spite of the fact that you’re firing two arrows, you only get one dose of Bane damage. Still great!

Rapid Shot: Rapid Shot does what its big brother Manyshot can’t: give you more Bane damage. Haste and Rapid Shot are (to my knowledge, at least) the only ways of cheating BAB progression to get more attacks as a ranged Inquisitor, so enjoy this essential tool in your toolkit.

Bullseye Shot: We all like to pretend that ranged combat is nothing but endless full attacks, but with ¾ BAB, there’s no guarantee that even your first shot will land on heavily armored foes. Bullseye Shot improves your ability to land at least one shot, which sometimes is all you can do. One shot that lands is better than three that don’t.

Empty Quiver Style / Empy Quiver Flexibility / Empty Quiver Flurry: Alternatives to Point-Blank Master and Snap Shot that let you use your ranged weapon as a melee weapon and take AoOs by, I guess stabbing people with arrows? Maybe? Flexibility is the logical jumping-off point in the three-feat line, as it lets you “Rapid Shot” with your melee bow and take any AoOs that might come your way.

Tracer Fire: You’ve got spells on your list to give enemies light sensitivity—now here’s your method of abusing that while simultaneously buffing your team.

Gunslinger: Point-Blank Master for Black Powder Inquisitors. Phenomenal for them, useless for everyone else.

Point-Blank Shot: A prereq for many feats later in the chain, even if you intended to be fighting from afar. Sigh.

Precise Shot: Still a tax, but more universally useful than PBS.

Snap Shot / Improved Snap Shot: A threatened area of 5 ft. won’t do a lot of good, as it’ll only come into play if an enemy attempts to back out of combat with you…and if a melee enemy closes from range, you can bet they’re there to stay. Improved Snap Shot ups your game, however, by allowing you to threaten 10 ft. Now anything without reach needs to step to you, and even combos like ranged Combat Patrols become viable.

Warning Shot: The only advantage this feat has over out-of-the-box demoralization is the added range.

Point-Blank Master: Don’t let the rating fool you: Point-Blank Master is an amazing feat. You need Weapon Specialization to get it, though, and off the top of my head, I can’t think of anything apart from a Zen Archer Monk dip that nets it for you.

Two-Handed

Power Attack: Criminally obvious pick for two-handed builds.

Steadfast Slayer: Toe-to-toe is always the worst place to be with enormous enemies, but at least you can pump out even moar damage with this feat.

Surprise Follow-Through: Sanctified Slayer Cleave build? Maybe.

Furious Focus: Because of your ¾ BAB, Power Attack affects you more strongly than it does for full BAB classes. It’s not a huge benefit, though.

Two-Weapon Fighting

* Double Bane: Ohhh, Double Bane. What am I going to do with you? You burn double the Bane rounds per day of normal Bane, and off-hand attacks are always less likely to hit, potentially rendering the benefit null. My opinion? Even if you’re TWFing, you’re better off putting Bane on your main-hand weapon and leaving it at that. The ability eviscerates monsters efficiently enough not to need another feat tax.

Deity-Specific

Abadar

Divine Dignity: The “Oh Crap” button par excellence, Divine Dignity ensures that you won’t get cremated as you attempt to cast invisibility or some other emergency power when in an enemy’s threatened area.

Perfect Casting: And now you never provoke for casting of any kind. Absolutely amazing.

Abadar’s Crossbow (Divine Fighting Technique): Oh, Abadar, I’d love to love your DFT more, but it doesn’t age gracefully as ¾ BAB and monster CMD scores diverge.

Asmodeus

Asmodeus’ Mandate (Divine Fighting Technique): Sickened is an excellent way to drop enemies’ saves and attacks, and you get the perk just for threatening a crit. The second benefit is good, too: even if the dirty trick can’t be counted on to land consistently, there’s no opportunity cost for trying.

Devilish Pride: Roll twice against charms and compulsions. Predictably good.

Diabolical Negotiator: Listed as black only because you need Skill Focus (Diplomacy) as a prerequisite, Diabolical Negotiator nets you some excellent effects for being less out-and-out murdery as an Evil character.

Verify: Oathkeepers are going to love this feat, too.

Calistria

Calistria’s Poisoned Lash (Divine Fighting Technique): Poison still pretty much sucks, but this feat at least makes delivery considerably easier.

Cayden Cailean

Cayden Cailean’s Blade and Tankard (Divine Fighting Technique): You’re dual-wielding, technically, and can still use the tankard to deal bludgeoning damage if you so choose. The much better idea is using the tankard to perform dirty tricks and administer potions to yourself. Standard disclaimer goes that you shouldn’t expect your maneuvers to land much of the time...but still, what style! What a feat! How can you not love splashing ale in someone’s face to blind them?

Drunken God’s Blessing: Hahahaha! This is why I love CC. What a badass. The bonuses won’t blow anyone away, but it’s still cool to be able to say, “I can read his mind because I got drunk at a gambling den last night.”

Drunken Sing-Along / Read the Room: I think these two feats should be mandatory for any self-respecting Inquisitor of CC. There’s just so much fun to be had here.

Hearty Liver: Take your drink like a true Caydenite! Again, one of those feats that I think any worshipper of CC should get for free. After all, where’s the harm?

Truth in Wine: Get drunk, gain psychic abilities!

Drunken Brawler: No, don’t get me wrong, it’s a good effect, but the bonuses only last until those measly few temp HP are gone, and then you’re just left with a hangover.

Desna

Startoss Style / Comet / Shower: The base style gives you a straight boost to damage, which the starknife desperately needs. Comet gives you two attacks per standard action—definitely worth it—but Shower won’t do much for the ¾ BAB of Inquisitors.

Butterfly Sting: Inquisitors do a good bit of their damage through Bane, which isn’t multiplied on a critical hit. So why not give that critical to someone who can use it more effectively? This feat is especially effective for characters who can pick up access to martial weapons with higher crit ranges, like Grippli and their rapier proficiency, or Half-Elves and the Elven Curve Blade. Sanctified Slayers are even more incentivized to pass off crits, because their sneak attack damage doesn’t multiply.

Guided Star: WIS-to-damage is a nice touch, but in conjunction with Starry Grace and Weapon Finesse still only just manages to bring starknife damage into “acceptable” territory. Limited uses per day further hinder the feat.

Desna’s Shooting Star (Divine Fighting Technique): Oh, Desna. Warpriests are really best for starknife builds, because Sacred Weapon turns the weapon’s damage into something...well, that exists at all. Using CHA for to-hit and damage is a fantastic trick for CHA-based classes, but doesn’t do any better for Inquisitors than DEX or STR would.

Erastil

Erastil’s Blessing: Incredible, incredible feat for archers. Using WIS instead of DEX to hit lets you pump your mental score sky-high right from the start, leading to better casting, skills, and Will saves. Best of all, your initiative doesn’t even take a hit—Cunning Initiative recoups your losses!

Erastil’s Distracting Shot (Divine Fighting Technique): Decent in the early levels, Erastil’s DFT will drop off sharply in value as enemies start hitting more and more reliably. AC is eventually a sucker’s game, and you’ve got to rely on spells, winning initiative, DR, or other factors in order to survive. It’s still a thematic ability—somehow manages to combine archery and taking care of your community in one feat.

Savior’s Arrow: Is your ally taking heavy damage? Shoot the booboo away!

Gorum

Gorum’s Swordsmanship (Divine Fighting Technique): Part of the reason this DFT rates so highly is that greatswords are OP without any help. Being able to use Vital Strike on charges, AoOs, and for the purposes of magehunting pushes their OP status into nigh-godlike territory. (Take note, though: the feat does not explicitly grant you the use of Improved Vital Strike on charges or AoOs, so check with your GM about whether they’ll kindly allow that.

Iomedae

Disciple of the Sword: Simple, straightforward damage boost with longswords. Great if you have the room or are going Heritor Knight.

Iomedae’s Inspiring Sword (Divine Fighting Technique): The first iteration of Iomedae’s DFT is like a reverse Dazzling Display, buffing allies rather than debuffing enemies. It’s a decent ability that suffers somewhat from a short duration. At BAB +10 things get much more interesting—you’re now able to grant that same bonus for a full minute whenever you charge or use a single standard action to attack. Easy peasy. The entire team gets a more or less constant +2 sacred bonus to attack, saves, and skill checks. Only downside there is that sacred bonuses might be more common by the time you acquire the ability.

Iomedaean Sword Oath: It’s not worth a slot in your normal build, but might be worth a flavor feat.

Irori

Draining Strike: Fatigue ain’t bad as a debuff, and any second application of the strike will cause enemies to become exhausted. Limited uses and a Fort save to negate hamper it, though, so it’s mostly fluff.

Joyless Toil: It’s a decent ability, but unarmed strike is simply a bad road for an Inquisitor to walk.

Domain Strike: It’s not strictly an Irori-only feat, but Inquisitors of Irori are the only ones likely to have both a Domain and Improved Unarmed Strike. Too bad he doesn’t have any good debuffs on his domain list.

Irori’s Perfected Fist (Divine Fighting Technique): Iroriiiii. Why do you do this to me? Even for Monks, -2 to attack in exchange for dealing guaranteed average damage is a shitty, shitty trade. With no scaling unarmed damage, it’s even worse for Inquisitors.

Lamashtu

Lamashtu’s Carving (Divine Fighting Technique): High bleed damage is a yup. Staggering opponents with a halfway decent save DC is also a yup, especially at later levels when enemies’ full-round attack actions consist of, like, 12 attacks.

Fearsome Finish: Untyped, stacking bonus to Intimidate for each foe you drop? Where do I sign? Lamashtu really does Intimidate well.

Norgorber

Norgorber’s Silent Shiv (Divine Fighting Technique): The initial benefit is...meh. Moving up one damage die for one hit per round isn’t gamebreaking. Now, Stealth vs. enemy’s CMD in order to treat them as completely unaware of your presence? That’s a godsend for Sanctified Slayers. To cap it all off, no prerequisites except for the ranks in Stealth you were going to take anyway!

Pharasma

Eerie Sense: Undead can run, but they definitely can’t hide when one of Pharasma’s Own is on the scene.

Rovagug

Rovagug’s Thunder (Divine Fighting Technique): The advanced benefit is good for penetrating DR/— in the later stages of a campaign, but the initial benefit won’t see much use in your non-maneuvery hands. I also have to rate this one lower because of how incredibly difficult it would be to play an Inquisitor of Rovagug, even in an evil campaign like Hell’s Vengeance. I mean, remember, Asmodeus was part of the cohort that shut the Rough Beast away!

Sarenrae

Dervish Dance: The scimitar is one of the best Finesse weapons in the Inner Sea pantheon, so enjoy it if you worship Sarenrae. Dervish Dance is your basic DEX-to-damage, and pairs well with her Divine Fighting Technique.

Sarenrae’s Mercy (Divine Fighting Technique): “Wait, but why would I want to deal nonlethal damage?” you ask. First, it’s thematic as fuck for Sarenrae, who always gives even the most hardened of criminals a chance to repent and come over to the light. Second, take a gander at the Enforcer feat. Starting to see the uses? By the time you get to the advanced benefit, you’re essentially casting cure light wounds on yourself every round. Now, granted, hit point damage isn’t the most dangerous thing lurking in the later stages of campaigns: you’ve got save-or-die effects, permanent polymorphs, ability drain, negative levels...still, HP damage almost always comes wrapped up in there somewhere, and you can heal it during combat. On your own. That’s fantastic. If you’re not interested in investing a feat in the DFT, the PFS-legal Religion trait Blade of Mercy can take away your nonlethal penalty while also giving you a nice little bump in damage. Also remember that Inquisitors can sacrifice a 1st-level Domain or Inquisition power to pick up their deity’s Divine Fighting Technique.

Shelyn

Bladed Brush: Weapon Finesse for glaives, plus the ability to modify your attack range to either 5 or 10 ft. Great stuff for Shelynites.

Torag

Torag’s Patient Strikes (Divine Fighting Technique): Using your WIS modifier will probably give you even more AoOs in the long run than DEX will. Add Vital Strike, Combat Patrol, and reach buffs from allies, and you can just crush everything that comes within 25 ft. of you. Another thematic ability that solidifies Torag as the patron god of defensive tactics.

Blessed Hammer: Less useful than for Clerics due to Inquisitors’ general lack of good touch spells. Prevents Sunder or Steal shenanigans with your holy symbol, though.

Urgathoa

Urgathoa’s Hunger (Divine Fighting Technique): When these DFTs are good, they’re really good. Converting damage to temp HP bunches of times per day really sets you up nicely as a tank—you’ll rack up a huge buffer, especially if you manage to score a crit with that x4 modifier. The advanced benefit is crap; the blue rating goes to show you just how good the initial benefit is.

Zon-Kuthon

Cruelty: Easy pick: spiked chain, Power Attack, Cornugon Smash, Cruelty. +2 to hit and damage literally every time you demoralize.

Chain Mastery: Potentially dual-wield spiked chains? Brutal. I like that you still get a bonus when two-handing, too.

Cornugon Shield: Inquisitors will never be the beefiest combatants on the field. Not bad, getting a shield bonus with your primary weapon.

Dance of Chains: DEX-to-damage for the spiked chain. A no-brainer if you’re going the Finesse route. Prereqs are a little steep.

Zon-Kuthon’s Flensing (Divine Fighting Technique): The bad news is that you’ve got to debuff yourself to see any benefits here—but c’mon, it’s Zon-Kuthon, so what were you expecting? The good news is that the immediate, no-save sickened condition opens enemies up to become nauseated. If that happens, it’s game over for them.

Endure Pain: Definitely not worth a feat pick in your normal progression. As a bonus? Well, maybe still not worth it. But damn, can a Kuthite get more thematic than being tortured 10+ times?

Flagellant: Neither [pain] effects nor nonlethal damage are common. I’m not sure how or when you do fall unconscious with this feat, but I’m inclined to say that it’s just below 0 HP.

Cornugon Trip: Unless you’ve got a means of getting that chain back, no, don’t throw your primary weapon.

Teamwork Feats

Allied Spellcaster: Casting builds are possible with Spell Bane and the shaken/sickened conditions to drop enemies’ saves. What the Inquisitor is lacking, however, is a means to reliably pierce SR, which begins to kick in in earnest around 9th level. Should you be going for a casting build, this feat is absolute gold, making it easy to get those SR penetration bonuses just by moving next to an ally. If you’re near another caster with your spell prepared, you get double the bonuses and a boost to CL for other effects like range and duration. It’s a mark of how powerful this feat is that it’s still decent in non-caster builds.

Coordinated Charge: Charge has its limitations, and this feat places one more on by allowing you to move only up to your speed. That said, you’re getting a full-round action for the cost of an immediate action and zipping around the battlefield like a hopped up pinball. Melee characters can’t beat the action economy and free attacks, and Inquisitors with Cavalier allies will learn to adore how synchronized this feat makes them.

Escape Route: Very useful for when you need to get out of a tight spot. There are some cool shenanigans with the Reaper of Secrets archetype (bleh though it is) and the Mind Games class feature you can pull with Escape Route. Basically, if you’ve used your Gaze on an enemy, it can’t target you with AoOs while you’re adjacent; you’re treating it as an ally, and you don’t provoke for moving in squares adjacent to an ally.

Friendly Fire Maneuvers: Cover stinks for ranged characters, and there’s little chance of a respite until you can get Lob Shot, Circuitous Shot, or Improved Precise Shot. Friendly Fire Maneuvers at least fixes cover provided by melee friends, making crowded scrums a lot less difficult to shoot into. Melee Inquisitors will pass, the other benefits not being worth your while.

Improved Outflank: Every melee Inquisitor should get Outflank and Improved Outflank at some point in their career. Period. They’re just too good, especially for Sanctified Slayers who rely on flanking to deal out SA damage.

Improved Spell Sharing: This feat will really only be appealing to Sacred Huntsmasters, but holy cow, what a feat. With your companion sharing wrath, divine favor, etc., you really will be unstoppable.

Living Fortress: Dwarf only, and encapsulates perfectly why Dwarves make the best Magehunters. An additional +2 vs. spells and SLAs, on top of Hardy and Steel Soul? Yeah. You want this.™

Outflank: Flanking is always a tactically sound move; Outflank just incentivizes it to a scary degree. Sanctified Slayers especially will want this feat for its ability to proc sneak attack.

Overwhelm: Even for two Medium characters, this feat still allows you to flank Huge, Gargantuan, and Colossal enemies from anywhere. Anywhere. Imagine Outflank bonuses against most enemies in the later levels. Imagine it, I say!

Scarred Legion: Is there anything better than an untyped bonus to Intimidate and Will saves? Let me answer that rhetorical question for you: no.

Shake It Off: Untyped bonuses to all saves are an absolute must for just about any build. Get it.

Shielded Caster: Awesome feat for just about anyone interested in casting while threatened. You’ll probably want it.

Target of Opportunity: For ranged characters only. Easy extra attacks, with all the Bane damage that entails.

Coordinated Capture: One of a trifecta of feats (Coordinated Distraction, Coordinated Capture, and Crowd Control) that deals with enemies making Acrobatics and Concentration checks to avoid AoOs. Distraction gives you just Concentration, Crowd Control gives you just Acrobatics, and Capture gives you a mix of the two. Quite, quite nice.

Coordinated Distraction: It’s more specialized than Coordinated Capture, but it essentially approaches the defensive casting problem from the other angle, raising the DC rather than lowering the bonus to the Concentration check. At any rate, endorsed for Magehunter builds. Good stuff.

Coordinated Shot: Easy +1 to ranged attacks. Make sure you have Precise Shot so you’re not stacking a -4 penalty to shoot into melee range on top of that +1, though.

Duck and Cover: Now here’s an interesting one. Inquisitors will never be all that great at Reflex saves, and although they’re by far the least serious saves to fail, they still can involve some nasty damage. What if you could take your Rogue friend’s save, though? Falling prone is obviously bad, but you’re never required to take that option, only allowed to. The clause about an AC bonus when adjacent to an ally with a shield is mostly fluff, as shield builds are vanishingly rare in Pathfinder.

Enfilading Fire: Stacks with Coordinated Shot for some truly ridiculous bonuses to hit. If you’re at range, and they’re flanked, they’re toast. (Thanks to /u/T3h_Prager for reminding me that they do stack!)

Lastwall Phalanx: Obviously reliant on Evil enemies—lucky for you, most enemies are.

Lookout: Sticking close to the party Rogue or your animal companion can help you take advantage of this feat. Getting a full round’s worth of actions in a surprise round is tasty, tasty.

Paired Opportunists: Especially lethal in DEX/Reach/Combat Patrol builds where AoOs will be happening every time an enemy attempts to do...well, basically anything.

Precise Strike: Easy +1d6 of damage whenever you’re flanking an enemy, which you should be doing whenever possible anyway. No real downsides here.

Shared Remembrance: You have to be an Elf to get it, so meh for Inquisitors, but still, this feat will make you the undisputed King/Queen of Monster Identification. (Oh, what a heavy crown to wear!)

Spirit of the Corps: It would be difficult to track morale bonuses for the entire team in order to know when and how to use this feat, but that doesn’t make it a bad effect, just an advanced one.

Stealth Synergy: Terribly worded feat. I think the community has arrived at a satisfying definition, though. Inquisitors aren’t known to be the stealthiest lot (unless you’re playing with an archetype that gets bonuses) so it’s nice to be able to poach rolls from other PCs.

Trade Initiative: Sometimes, it’s not important for you to go first, especially if the Wizard has a pit, wall, etc. up their sleeve and just needs to get it off quickly in order to save the entire party. It’s okay to help other people sometimes, kiddo.

Broken Wing Gambit: Useful only for Tactical Leaders and Sacred Huntsmasters—your allies need to actually have the feat in order to take advantage of the AoOs. Even then, putting your own hide on the line is still a risky maneuver—a gambit, even. I’d probably think twice before using the ability.

Circling Offense: Also TL/SH only, unfortunately, and it’s a pity, because it’s an excellent feat. Inquisitors running DEX/Reach builds will already have the prerequisite feats, and it’s an ideal way to needle large enemies to death.

Coordinated Defense: It’s not bad, per se, just lackluster. You definitely don’t want to be grappled, swallowed whole, tripped, etc. Will this feat let you avoid those? Eh, maybe. You’re generally better off keeping a spell like freedom of movement in your back pocket, or if you’ve money to burn, a ring of freedom of movement.

Coordinated Reposition: Any feat that gives you free 5-ft. steps must be taken into consideration. Note that you’re trading your swift action in the next round by taking an immediate action off-turn, however, and that without size increases or reach weapons you might not threaten the same enemy as your allies much of the time.

Covering Fire: Decent debuff for Black Powder Inquisitors. Everyone else can skip.

Distracting Charge: A bit finicky on the conditions, but ranged Inquisitors in a party with a charge-happy comrade (Cavaliers, some Paladins, Samurai, etc.) could probably take advantage.

Feint Partner: Sanctified Slayers aren’t great at feinting, but who knows, maybe someone on your team is! If they are, stick close by them, because each of their feints will also deny the enemy’s DEX bonus for you. That means it’s time to meet the mayor of Sneakattacktown.

Hammer Guards the Anvil: Between this feat and Escape Route, you’re gradually becoming able to ignore AoOs for a multitude of actions. Worth considering.

Pack Attack: Potentially useful for Sacred Huntsmasters to gradually move into flanking position with their companions.

Protective Line: Again, for Black Powder Inquisitors. Everyone else, move on.

Punch Through: Quite good for Tactical Leaders, who can share this feat among the team and get everyone through DR. Incompatible with Solo Tactics, sadly.

Swing About: Can actually help with tactical positioning, which is everything in this game.

Tandem Trip: Wolf Domain Inquisitors will love this one—see the Animal-Friend build at the end of the guide for an example of how to use Tandem Trip.

Volley Fire: Gets better the more ranged teammates you have, obvies.

Drinking Buddy: Who cares whether the rest of the team is drunk? It’s 5:00 somewhere, and you get to treat them as if they were! Worship the Accidental God and go enjoy your 1/day free reroll, ya lush.

Horde Charge: Half-orc or orc only, and mentioned only because of its obvious synergy with Coordinated Charge.

Back to Back: Only negates enemies’ flanking bonus, and the circumstances under which you would receive it are finicky. Best to just get out of the flank by taking a 5 ft. step diagonally.

Blades Above and Below: Seems like it could be decent at first, until you see the size restrictions. As you grow in level and enemies tend to get bigger, the bonus will become more and more situational.

Combat Medic: You have stabilize, if you’re truly concerned about making Heal checks in the middle of combat.

Coordinated Maneuvers: I’m going to go on record as saying that perhaps 98% of Inquisitor builds should not attempt to perform combat maneuvers. The entry costs to the Improved feats are prohibitively high without the Dirty Fighting feat, and the return on investment is low. Exceptions are Ravener Hunters who take Battle Mystery’s Maneuver Master Revelation, Inquisitors of the Crime Inquisition, and Wolf Domain Green Faith Marshals/Sacred Huntsmasters.

Crowd Control: If you’re like me, enemies using Acrobatics to avoid AoOs are uncommon, while enemies casting defensively are common. That being the case, Coordinated Capture can do yeoman’s service for both scenarios, rather than focusing on Rogues or others who are going to dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge.

Ferocious Loyalty: Decent enough morale bonus for a common occurrence, but it will be quickly replaced by other morale bonuses from your spell list. Pass.

Improved Duck and Cover: Improved, my ass. I’ve never seen the “improved” version of a feat take such a left turn. No, your Rogue friend doesn’t want to get hit by that fireball instead of you, you asshole.

Improved Precise Strike: Not as good as its little brother, unfortunately. One point of bleed damage won’t be raising any eyebrows.

Pack Flanking: INT 13 and Combat Expertise kinda kill it for this feat, despite the excellent bonus for Sacred Huntsmasters.

Spell Chain: Good benefit; broken with Solo Tactics.

Stick Together: I personally don’t think that being staggered is worth the movement, but your mileage may vary.

Swarm Scatter: Minor buff to AC, and the bonus doesn’t extend to all swarms, just rats.

Wounded Paw Gambit: I like it much more than Broken Wing Gambit, but it’s still broken with Solo Tactics.

“Never stop fighting till the fight is done.”

—Eliot Ness, Inquisitor, U.S. Department of Justice

INQ495: The Inquisitor’s Arsenal

A Few Notes

Regarding bonus progression and “The Big Six”: I’m of the opinion that The Big Six which Pathfinder encounters are balanced around (magic weapon, magic armor, Cloak of Resistance, Ring of Protection, Amulet of Natural Armor, and stat-boosting belt/headband) are crap, the last four especially. That’s a shoulder slot, ring slot, neck slot, belt slot, and head slot, all taken up with boring, mundanely necessary items. Paizo introduced rules for progressing defenses automatically in their Pathfinder Unchained rulebook, however, the tl;dr version of which goes as follows: in exchange for half of PCs’ wealth by level, they get resistance bonuses, stat increases, and bonuses to deflection/natural armor for free as they level up. This allows them to use their five newly vacated slots for all the many Wondrous Items that Pathfinder authors spend time lovingly crafting. I’ve played at tables with and without similar rules, and without a doubt, the ones where players are allowed to wear the cool niche equipment are more fun, at least in my experience. It also looks as if Pathfinder 2e is moving toward this system, so get hip to the new vibes, cat.

Regarding shields: Inquisitors are proficient with shields, which should at the very least make them worth a look. The official Paizo ruling is that it is impossible to cast any spell with somatic components without a hand free, which means no sword-and-board loadouts allowed. Now, many tables like to houserule that light shields count as having a hand free for the purposes of spellcasting, and I'm in agreement with them—shields are already bad enough in Pathfinder without penalizing the players who want to use them. If your GM agrees to play by those rules, I'd actually recommend shields quite highly for Inquisitors: you can get +4 armor and a +3 shield for the same price as +5 armor, and there are some very useful shield enchantments out there. Much of your damage will be coming from Bane and Judgment anyway, so two-handing weapons for the STR bonus isn't as important for you as it is for, say, a Barbarian.

Regarding Wondrous Items: There are a staggering number of mundane and wondrous items in Pathfinder, with more being added in each new supplement. I did actually write a guide reviewing every slotted wondrous item and magical weapon or armor in Pathfinder, so look at that if you feel like you need a bonus in a certain area that you’re not getting elsewhere. If you notice that I’ve missed your favorite wondrous item or mundane piece of equipment that enables some cool tactics, by all means, shoot me a message at the Reddit handle listed in the last section. I’ll update the list as often as I can, and give you credit where credit is due.

Regarding armor proficiencies: I formerly thought that there wasn’t a great case to made for medium armor, given that it seems to provide the worst of both worlds in terms of mobility, ACP, and protection via AC. However, I was since reminded that an Inquisitor wearing a Mithral Breastplate can achieve AC values extraordinarily close to those provided by heavy armor, and with minimal ACPs when wearing the Steelbone Frame. If you’re dead set on having high AC in the early game, picking up Heavy Armor Proficiency is still a decent option, but otherwise we want to keep you in Medium (if you’re going the STR- or WIS-based routes) or Light armor (if you’re going the DEX-based route). We get to keep stalwart, and ultimately there’s little benefit lost in skills, movement speed, or AC.

Armor Enchantments

The Wheat

Gold-Only Enhancement Bonuses

Comfort (CL 5; 5,000 gp): What a nice little package of benefits! Endure elements, sleep in your armor without getting fatigued, and -1 to the ACP. Well worth the enchantment costs once you can afford it.

Determination (CL 10; 30,000 gp): Cue the Mario 1-UP music, because you just got an extra life. This is a wonderful enchantment that will get you back on your feet when needed most. Hope you learned heal, you poor bastard.

Expeditious (CL 5; 4,000 gp): Enhancement bonus. Zero enhancement bonus cost for a 3/day boost to movement speed? Heck yeah, I'll take that. The swift action will compete with lots of good stuff at the beginning of combat, but if you ever need to position better or eke out that last bit of movement on a charge, here's your man.

Malevolent (CL 7; 5,000 gp): Competence bonus. This enchantment is sky blue for anyone using a Demoralize build. After using Shatter Defenses, your opponent is flat-footed against you; that's bad enough for them, but once you start adding your armor's enhancement bonus to hit, your miss chances against demoralized enemies drop to nigh-zero.

Rallying (CL 5; 5,000 gp): Morale bonus. It's twice as good as mass blessings of luck and resolve, a 6th-level spell; it's always active, affects everyone within 30 feet, and doesn't use up any enhancement bonus. That's over-the-moon fantastic. Remember that your Judgments stop working if you ever become frightened or worse—you want to be passing those checks with flying colors.

Restful (CL 5; 4,500 gp): Crafters rejoice! This is an excellent enchantment for those who need to burn the midnight oil, and combined with comfort you can basically live in your armor. Highly recommended quality-of-life enchantment.

Corsair (CL 5; 5,000 gp): Competence bonus. Great for light armor builds that will be avoiding AoOs through Acrobatics.

Creeping (CL 7; 5,000 gp): You can get pretty sneaky between creeping and shadow, as long as you're willing to shell out for it. Useful if you want to sneak effectively in medium or heavy armor.

Glamered (CL 10; 2,700 gp): Cloaked Wolves are going to love this one for its ability to make them appear both unarmed and unarmored. True seeing will eventually become an issue, of course, but you've got some time before that happens. With this costing such a reasonable amount of gold and no enhancement bonus, I say go for it if you think it will aid in your subterfuge.

Hosteling (CL 9; 7,500 gp): Oh, man, Sacred Huntsmasters are going to love this. Speak the word, hide your animal companion as a symbol on your armor; speak the word again, and out they come, ready to attack. Size restrictions might put a damper on things, so ask your GM about how to make the enchantment work for you. Obviously useless for archetypes without animal companions.

Shadow/Improved/Greater (CL 5/10/15; 3.75k/15k/33.75k gp): Competence bonus, +5/+10/+15 to Stealth. Useful for Umbral Stalkers, Sanctified Slayers, and others of the Inquisitor's sneaky-stabby ilk. Inquisitors not sneaking for a living will probably prefer creeping to negate their ACP to Stealth.

Amorphous (CL 8; 4,500 gp): Competence bonus. This enchantment functions as a slightly improved slick, with a utility power 1/day. The restriction on only supple, organic armor materials will probably scupper most Inquisitors' plans of using it, however.

Deceiving (CL 7; 5,000 gp): The Infiltrator archetype is your go-to for detecting as a different alignment. Unless you're trying to infiltrate enemy organizations and expect to run into Divination spells, you won't need it.

Delving (CL 5; 10,000 gp): Getting a burrow speed isn't bad, though being unable to breathe underground or burrow through solid stone dampens the utility a bit. Try out the Stony Step → Oread Burrower → Oread Earth Glide line of feats if you're honestly curious about better brands of burrowing.

Mental Focus (CL 5; 3,000 gp): Enhancement bonus. Any perks to casting defensively are helpful; you'll probably be on the front lines and threatened quite often.

Phase Lurching (CL 13; 9,100 gp): A poor man's ethereal armor. 1/day is probably too little to be worth it, but it's not nothing.

Radiant (CL 6; 7,500 gp): Spells like dancing lights and light are nice because they don't necessarily paint a giant target on your chest that says "KILL ME FIRST." 1/day daylight is cool and all, but you don't want to get your shine on everywhere you go.

Righteous, Unbound, Unrighteous, Vigilant (CL 10; 27,000 gp): Righteous might is a very good spell—definitely one you should be spending a spell known on. Is a 1/day righteous might worth 27,000 gold? I'd say no, but your mileage may vary. The other enchantments on this list are righteous might for chaotic, evil, and lawful PCs, respectively.

Trackless (CL 5; 7,500 gp): Infiltrators will be more interested in this than base Inquisitors. Being restricted to leather or hide armor lowers the utility somewhat, so you'll probably go with shadow instead.

Poison-Resistant (CL 7; 2,250 gp): Resistance bonus. The utility here depends on whether your GM rules that a resistance bonus vs. poison is different from (and therefore stacks with) a resistance bonus to Fort saves. If they can stack, this is green; if not, red. Your Cloak of Resistance (or equivalent automatic bonus) should have you covered.

Variable Enhancement Bonus

Fortification (+1 to +5): These are costly enchantments, but nothing, I repeat nothing, will kill you faster than criticals or save-or-die effects at high levels. Given how easily AC is outstripped by enemies’ bonuses, you need a way to mitigate damage when it inevitably gets to you, rather than hoping it doesn’t. Fortification isn’t the sexiest effect, but it’ll save your life.

+1 Enhancement Bonus

Advancing (Heavy Armor only): Excellent for battlefield mobility. You'll kill things quickly as an Inquisitor, and getting 10 feet of free movement after a kill will often set you up nicely for a full attack.

Bolstering (Medium/Heavy Armor only): Circumstance bonus. Damage an enemy, get a free boost to your saves against that enemy—perfect for mage hunters or anyone looking to be safer on the battlefield.

Assiduous (Shield only): A +1 assiduous buckler will run you about 1,000 gold—immunity to gaze attacks is certainly worth that price to me.

Blinding (Shield only): It's an AoE blind effect, but—and here's the weird part—Reflex negates. I bet you can think of some times when you would have loved to blind that enormous, slow-moving bruiser, but couldn't because his Fort save was through the roof. Wish no more! For a +1 bonus, this is a steal, but talk to your GM about whether you can boost the save DC in return for a higher enhancement bonus; DC 14 won't scale well into higher levels.

Defiant: Best in campaigns that focus on a single enemy type—Wrath of the Righteous, Carrion Crown, etc. DR 2/— isn't huge, but it's cheap and better than nothing!

Clangorous (Shield only): You get to decide the area, eh? Can I deafen everything within a mile? 100 miles? Joking aside, you're not going to want to deafen your teammates unless they have earplugs or something similar. Still, maybe a good low-level tactic, especially against casters.

Impervious: Good against Rust Monsters or if your GM likes to sunder your equipment.

Mirrored: Bonuses to AC against rays and to miss chances against enemies with gaze attacks. It's versatile enough that it at least bumps up to yellow. You could couple it with the assiduous enchantment to get supreme protection from gaze attacks.

Terrain-Striding: Useful for campaigns that tend to take place predominantly in one terrain type. A constant 10-ft. bonus to speed would be worth it on its own; the ACP negation property makes it even better.

Withstanding: Another one that's good for campaigns focusing on a certain enemy type. Great if you're in one, mediocre if you're not.

+2 Enhancement Bonus

Spell Dodging: Dodge bonus. Energy drain, polar ray, disintegrate—some of the nastiest effects out there target your Touch AC, and you want none of them near you. Bonus points for giving you extra AC against summoned creatures. A must for magehunters.

Animated (Shield only): This enchantment solves the main drawback of shields: how do you get your two-handed bonuses? It can't bash or use any offensive actions, but you weren't trying to build for that, were you?

Rampaging (Heavy Armor only): Ignoring difficult terrain on a charge is quite nice—adventure paths and PFS scenarios often include difficult terrain, and many enemy casters will open combat by messing with the ground in between the two sides. And fuck them, you're going over it anyway.

Adamant (Heavy Armor only): 1/day isn't great, and even DR 3/— is eventually going to get outclassed. Probably not worth the +2 bonus, in the end.

Jarring: Dazed is a hefty condition. The things hitting you in melee will probably be able to pass a DC 16 Fort save, especially as levels roll by, but still worth some consideration.

Phantasmal: It's a cool idea, and might find some play with Sanctified Slayers or others who need flanking in order to help them proc sneak attack. The phantasm's AC is abysmal, however, which means the tactic will be over as soon as they take one hit.

+3 Enhancement Bonus

Ghost Touch: Costly—and potentially worth it. Incorporeals can fuck you up pretty badly with ability drain or negative levels; an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Arrow-Collecting: 20% miss chance is good. Issue is, the things that are going to kill you are exactly the things this enchantment doesn't protect you against: spells and large projectiles. Thrown weapons are out, too, so that leaves just arrows and bolts—not exactly a sizable group after a certain point in the bestiary. Likely not worth the enhancement bonus.

Titanic: Enhancement bonus. Strange suite of benefits, some of them pretty nifty (Native Outsiders, for example, will love the clause about being able to use enlarge person). It draws a lot of attention to you, though, and Inquisitors aren't ideally suited to attracting attention. Worth +3 and a worse ACP? I'd lean toward "no."

+4 Enhancement Bonus

Bastion: Mind-affecting effects will wreck you pretty hard. If stalwart, a high Will save, and WIS as a casting stat don't protect you, bastion is always there. It's a high price to pay, though, so not many will use it.

+5 Enhancement Bonus

Dread Wing: +5 bonus, indeed: a fly speed and two natural attacks are worth getting excited about. It'll cost you, though.

The Chaff

Gold-Only Enhancement Bonuses

Adhesive (CL 10; 7,000 gp): Enhancement bonus. You won't be using maneuvers, so that part of the enchantment is worthless. The climb speed is easily replicated by spider climb or similar spells, and at only 10 rounds/day, I can't recommend it.

Buoyant (CL 5; 1,000 gp for light armor; 2,000 gp for medium and heavy): Maybe for Skull & Shackles? ACPs when swimming won't come up in 99% of scenarios.

Burdenless (CL 5; 4,000 gp): Ant haul, a wagon and team, Muleback Cords, a Handy Haversack—if your group uses encumbrance rules, you've got better ways of dealing with excess weight.

Channeling (CL 8; 18,000 gp): You can't channel.

Cushioned (CL 1; 1,000 gp): Not many armors fit the bill, and it's a minor benefit. What were you expecting for 1,000 gold?

Energy Resistance/Improved/Greater (CL 3/7/11; 18k/42k/66k gp): Resist energy is a 2nd-level spell that you'll probably have known. You need the versatility of being able to select which element you're resisting, unless you're playing an element-specific campaign like Reign of Winter or Legacy of Fire.

Harmonizing (CL 7; 15,000 gp): Fun for Bards, not for Batman. Pass.

Jousting (CL 5; 3,750 gp): Competence bonus. Scant few Inquisitors will go for mounted combat.

Locksmith (CL 3; 6,500 gp): Enhancement bonus. You can't do much with this, but for Rogues, Ninjas, or other dedicated trap-finders, this is blue.

Martyring (CL 9; 18,000 gp): A wand of cure light wounds costs 750 gold for 50 charges, or 15 gold/charge. The Martyring enchantment costs 18,000 gold. You do the math.

Putrid (CL 5; 10,000 gp): Your teammates will murder you in your sleep if your armor accidentally sickens them for 5 rounds in combat. Don't purchase this.

Radiant Flight (CL 10; 15,000 gp; Heavy Armor only): Between your poor maneuverability and heavy ACP to Fly, you're going to have a tough time staying aloft. The 10-minute/day duration kills it dead—useless for both combat and travel.

Slick/Improved/Greater (CL 4/10/15 ; 3.75k/15k/33.75k gp): Competence bonus, +5/+10/+15 to Escape Artist. Between the general lack of an ACP-negating enchantment and the Inquisitor's lack of Escape Artist on the class skill list, you're unlikely to be able to boost this skill much. Plus, you have freedom of movement, the ultimate get-out-of-jail-free card. Rogues will love it, though.

Spirit-Bonded (CL 9; 6,000 gp): You're not a Medium.

Spiteful (CL 7; 7,000 gp): You're not a Swashbuckler.

Undead Controlling (CL 13; 49,000 gp): Your GM isn't going to let you have this, and for good reason.

Venom-Eating (CL 5; 15,000 gp): Poison has always been weak, and this enchantment doesn't change that fact.

Wyrmsbreath (CL 5; 5,000 gp; Shield only): Weak effect, finicky to charge. Pass.

Variable Enhancement Bonus

Spell Resistance (+2 to +5): SR is really a mixed bag. On the one hand, yes, SR makes you more difficult to target with spells. On the other hand, it affects spells cast by allies, too, and certainly doesn't guarantee safety against powerful casters with Spell Penetration, Piercing Spell, etc.

+1 Enhancement Bonus

Arrow Catching (Shield only): You'd rather not take that arrow to the knee, thank you. Leave this to the meat shields.

Balanced: Unless your DM is Overrun- or Trip-happy, this won't come up enough to be worth it to you.

Bashing (Shield only): You don't have the feats to do two-weapon shield bashing, so this won't be useful.

Benevolent: You won't be using Aid Another often.

Bitter: Fort save doesn't scale. Pretty useless after early levels.

Calming: Only 10 rounds/day, with a weak effect. Womp womp.

Champion: You don't have Challenge or Smite.

Crusading: You're neither a Warpriest nor a Paladin.

Dastard: Same as champion, but for Evil characters.

Deathless: How often do you come up against channeled negative energy? You can cast death ward to protect against negative levels.

Evolving: You don't get your armor bonus to AC when evolved, which makes it hard to justify. Still, it's a neat little suite of options: swim speed and water breathing, scent, a natural attack, resistance. Better for light armor users.

Folding (Shield only): I'm struggling to come up with a mechanical reason why you'd want to change a shield into a different type of shield. Write me if you've got any insight.

Grinding: A piddling amount of damage. Generally speaking, getting grappled shouldn't be part of your game plan.

Heraldic (Shield only): Use your shield as a holy symbol. Good if your GM likes to steal your holy symbols.

Merging (Shield only): Can't cast spells while merged. Pass.

Ramming (Shield only): Excellent for shield bash builds; you're not likely to have a shield bash build.

Rebounding (Shield only): Splash weapons and thrown weapons aren't terribly common.

Singing (Shield only): How often do you run into enemy bards?

Spell-Storing: Most unfortunately, you don't get many touch spells apart from conditional curse. Ask your GM whether you can use Domain abilities with spell-storing armor; it would be amazing for some domains, like Madness.

Spellrending (Shield only): Another enchantment that requires you to be shield bashing. Pass.

Spellsink: You want it to work so badly, don't you? Unfortunately, casters are going to cackle maliciously at passing a DC 14 Will save even at lower levels, much less in the rocket tag matches of 15th level and up.

Vouchsafing: If you're under the effects of any of the listed conditions, you've got problems that even DR 5/— won't fix. Focus your efforts on avoiding those conditions in the first place, because they're likely a death sentence if they ever affect you for more than a round or two.

Warding: Can't think being the subject of a Judgment, Challenge, or Smite effect happens often at most tables.

+2 Enhancement Bonus

Arrow Deflection: Won't work against spells or extraordinary projectiles, plus you'll have the devil of a time making that DC 20 Reflex save.

Bloodthirsty: Enhancement bonus. The bump to AC is tiny, and even if you took the Rage subdomain (which I wouldn't recommend) +3 AC will eventually be a minor speed bump for enemies.

Frosted: You should be learning freedom of movement as quickly as possible to avoid getting grappled or pinned. That being the case, frosted probably isn't worth the enhancement bonus cost.

Ghost Spike: You shouldn't be grappling things even in ideal conditions, much less ghosts with a -4 penalty to CMB. That's what we in the business call "not ideal."

Mastering: You don't have Weapon Mastery. Arsenal Chaplain Warpriests might be interested in this enchantment, though.

Mind Buttressing: Resistance bonus, which conflicts with your Cloak of Resistance. Can't stack the two.

Poisoning: You don't use poison.

Volcanic: Weak effect for a +2 enchantment. Pass.

Weeping (Shield only): Most campaigns pit you against evil creatures, not good ones. If you are playing an evil campaign, it's a nice little area debuff, potentially worth a look.

+3 Enhancement Bonus

Brawling: Under no circumstances should you be using unarmed strikes.

Invulnerability: Enemies will blow right through DR 5/Magic by the time you can afford this enchantment. Pass.

Sensing: I'd prefer to bring tools that prevent blindness or magical darkness, rather than relying on this enchantment.

Wild: A Druid says yes; an Inquisitor says no.

+4 Enhancement Bonus

+5 Enhancement Bonus

Etherealness: By the time you can afford to drop 25,000 gp on an enchantment, you should have better ways of going ethereal.

Reflecting (Shield only): That's a huge enhancement bonus to be spending on a 1/day reflected spell. I'd sooner shore up my saves and not get hit than pony up this much money.

Unbowed (Heavy Armor only): A +5 enchantment that permanently destroys your armor. *Facepalm.* Why would you not be using determination armor instead?

Weapon Enchantments

The Wheat

Gold-Only Enhancement Bonuses

Dueling (CL 5; 14,000 gp; finesse weapons only): You're in this for the initiative bonus. Between Cunning Initiative, DEX as your attack stat, and the dueling enchantment, Finesse Inquisitors have no excuse for losing initiative. Ever.

Glamered (CL 10; 4,000 gp): What's the difference between glamered and concealed? Anyway, could be a nice little utility enchantment.

Impervious (CL 7; 3,000 gp): You'll pay a small cost, but in return you'll get peace of mind against sunder attempts and Rust Monsters. Seems fair.

Shrinking (CL 5; 1,000 gp): Man, Cloaked Wolves really do get all the best gold-only enchantments, huh? This could be useful if you're attempting to conceal something big (falchion, glaive, elven branched spear) but it leaves me wondering about interactions with Titan Fighters or others who use oversize weapons.

Sneaky (CL 7; 5,000 gp): For Sanctified Slayers, sure, why not? I wish you got it more times per day, but for a gold-only enchantment, I won't complain.

Adaptive (CL 1; 1,000 gp; bows only): Technically, you need to have compound bows re-made at every bonus level. This little enchantment lets them scale up without any fuss. I think it's an annoying rule, so ask your GM whether you really need to get this.

Lesser Concealed/Concealed (CL 5/10; 3k/7.5k gp): Cloaked Wolves want concealed, no questions asked. It's optional for everyone else. Lesser concealed is more restricted; prefer its big sister.

+1 Enhancement Bonus

Cruel: Indispensable for Intimidation/Demoralize builds. Sicken while you demoralize!

Dazzling Radiance: There are some truly amazing enchantments for Demoralize builds, and this is one of them. Most Intimidate-heavy builds will pick up Dazzling Display; dazzling radiance lets you blind while you use that feat. Having an effect even on a successful save makes this worthwhile.

Keen: Winner, winner, chicken dinner. Wielders of falchions, rapiers, and scimitars will gobble this baby up and go looking for enchantments like exhausting to pair it with.

Seeking: Concealment is a real bear to deal with. You'll absolutely take a look at an enchantment that lets you negate it!

Agile: A poor adventurer's Weapon Finesse. You'll still need the Finesse feat to qualify for DEX-to-damage feats, so keep that in mind.

Conductive: I'm sad that you have to expend two uses of your ability in order to pass it through your weapon; however, it does improve your action economy. Certain debuffing domains—Chaos, Charm, Darkness, Madness, and others—will want a conductive reach weapon.

Conserving: Saves Bowquisitors some money, especially if you're using special arrows that you don't want to lose.

Dispelling: Dispel magic will never be a bad choice for you, but you need all the help you can get to pass your Caster Level checks. Dispelling weapons are that help.

Distracting: Spellbreakers will want this one—makes casting defensively that much harder.

Fervent: Good for Inquisitors generally (and excellent for Cloaked Wolves) fervent weapons provide bonuses for situations that you'll likely be in already.

Guardian: Better than its sister enchantment, defending, for its boost to saves instead of AC. You'll still need to surrender the enhancement bonus in order to get the benefit.

Merciful: Finesse Inquisitors can work around the Power Attack + Cornugon Smash tactic by getting a merciful weapon + Enforcer. Even gives a little damage increase, to boot.

Mighty Cleaving: As with culling, this rating assumes you went with a Cleave build.

Patriotic: As with fervent, the patriotic enchantment is easy to pull off in most situations if you're from Canada, the Crown of the World, or somewhere similarly exotic.

Sapping: Sapping + merciful + greater bane makes for a hell of a combo in some builds. (See "The Blade Savant" in the Sample Builds section for more info.) +7d6 nonlethal damage? Yes, please. Who even cares whether you're killing at that point? (Do note, however, that constructs and undead are immune to nonlethal damage.)

Spell Storing: Fear the sun, barbed chains, blistering invective, dimensional anchor, conditional curse, and boneshaker all make for good stored spells.

Summon Bane: Magehunters want this to deal with the meatshields their targets inevitably summon.

Beaming: Free searing light spells several times per day. Best in undead-heavy campaigns.

Compassionate: Take 'em alive! Your compassion can be suppressed as a free action, so you still have the option to commit wanton murder if you want.

Cunning: Confirmation bonuses are usually fairly lackluster, but thanks to Monster Lore you're going to have a lot of ranks in Knowledge skills anyway—might as well get a benefit for that.

Defending: At most, a +5 to AC—a minor nuisance to high-level enemies, but better protection than nothing.

Distance: Nice for ranged Inquisitors to be able to keep their distance if need be.

Fortuitous: Finesse Inquisitors using a reach weapon and Combat Reflexes will see quite a bit of use. Others, not so much.

Ghost Touch: Hedging weapons and spiritual weapon can probably handle the occasional incorporeal; for everything else, there's ghost touch.

Heartseeker: It's a lengthy list of restrictions, but concealment does suck.

Leveraging: Unlike other maneuver-enhancing enchantments, leveraging provides a large enough bonus to consider, especially in the hands of someone like a Wolf Domain trip build.

Limning: Compare with heartseeker to figure out which one is better for you.

Menacing: Poor adventurer's Outflank. Has some uses, especially if your team's tactics are solid.

Mimetic: Your slower iterative progression hinders your ability to stack resistance a bit, but it's otherwise fairly good in elemental-heavy campaigns like Reign of Winter or Legacy of Fire. Adaptable, too.

Plummeting: Flight becomes a definite problem in later levels; plummeting makes you able to address that problem.

Sticky: The Steal maneuver is useful only in select scenarios, but at least through sticky you can do it with reach and as if you had Improved Steal.

Thundering: The Fort save will eventually become irrelevant, but sonic damage is rarely resisted.

Training: Useful on very feat-starved builds.

+2 Enhancement Bonus

Culling: This rating assumes that you're making a Cleave build. Warpriests and Fighters do it better, of course, but there's a lot to be said for greater bane + culling + buff spells. Mmmm. You can plow through hordes of mooks with this enchantment.

Advancing: Combine this with advancing armor, and you're able to move quite easily around the battlefield, even in heavy armor. Helps keep you full-attacking, which is always a perk for Inquisitors.

Designating, Lesser: Morale bonus. An excellent way for ranged Inquisitors to contribute to the damage of the team. Less effective if you've got another source of morale bonuses, such as a team Bard.

Truthful: Again, miss chances suck when your opponents are using them against you.

Anarchic, Axiomatic, Holy, Unholy: All these might as well be addressed as a single unit. In most cases, only holy will be worth the enchantment cost, but that might depend on your campaign. If you need one of these, you'll know it.

Anchoring: You'd probably want this on a secondary thrown weapon, rather than your primary—it can't be used while anchoring. Unclear whether it prevents enemies from using dimension door or similar tactics. Remember also that the first thing enemies will do if they can't move the weapon is try to sunder it. Might lose a few daggers this way.

Defiant: It's the bonus to saves against ongoing effects like poison, disease, and enchantments that you're after here. Everything else is window-dressing.

Dispelling, Greater: You won't get greater dispel magic for a looooong time in your Inquisitor career. A normal dispelling weapon will suffice in most cases.

Glitterwake: Debuff and anti-invisibility/stealth tool, all in one. It's situational enough that I wish it cost +1.

Glorious: A dazzling radiance weapon will accomplish this task much more effectively; not everyone will be picking up Dazzling Display, however.

Legbreaker: A weak-ish effect that is only spared a red rating by its lack of a save.

Phase Locking: Many enemies in later levels can use teleportation or plane shifting to be a right pain in your ass. Why not deny them the satisfaction?

Sharding: This is the better alternative to returning.

Unseen: It's not a gold-only enchantment like sneaky, but it does deny DEX to AC more consistently; worth a look from Sanctified Slayers.

+3 Enhancement Bonus

Spellstealing: Steal your opponent's buffs with a reasonable caster level check. Even better for Inquisitors using keen weapons with naturally high crit ranges, like scimitars or rapiers.

Exhausting: Phenomenal for crit-fishing builds, especially Finesse crit-fishers. An Inquisitor of Cayden Cailean with a keen exhausting rapier can dance through the battlefield dealing out no-save exhaustion. Undead, constructs, oozes, and elementals are immune to fatigue or precision damage, which brings this enchantment down to green.

Gory: Free, stacking bleed damage, with the option for an immediate action demoralize (with a huge bonus) on a critical. Phenomenal in Intimidate builds.

Redeemed: You get everything that holy gets you, plus a sacred bonus to saves and Knowledge (Planes) checks to identify evil outsiders. Saves are great, and the Knowledge bonus synergizes naturally with Monster Lore. Positively lovely for a campaign like Wrath of the Righteous.

Speed: More Bane, more pain—anything that gets you extra attacks is worth having. Hopefully you'll grab divine power, but if not, there's always this.

+4 Enhancement Bonus

Dancing: Because dancing weapons are considered wielded, they can proc Bane and greater bane, or channel Domain abilities when paired with conductive. A dancing conductive longspear would be a force to be reckoned with.

Designating, Greater: Morale bonus. An even better boost to damage! Again, great for teams who don't have a source of big morale bonuses.

Second Chance: Excellent for Bowquisitors. Always nice to reroll misses, especially with your lower BAB.

+5 Enhancement Bonus

Flying: It's not significantly better than dancing, but it is there if you particularly like the playstyle.

The Chaff

Gold-Only Enhancement Bonuses

Dry Load: You're not a Gunslinger.

Exclusionary: You're not a Cleric.

Phantom Ammunition: Not worth the expense unless you're trying to pull off the perfect crime.

Transformative/Greater: Inquisitors are naturally proficient with a very small pool of weapons, rendering this enchantment useless.

+1 Enhancement Bonus

Allying: You can transfer the enhancement bonus to an ally, but it doesn't stack with their enhancement bonus? How does that make any sense?

Ambushing: It's hard to do sniping effectively as anything but a Slayer, Rogue, or Ninja. You certainly can't do it well.

Answering: You're not a Swashbuckler.

Bane: Won't stack with the class ability.

Benevolent (Melee only): You won't have an aid another build.

Bewildering: Save every round, non-scaling DC. It'll work pretty well in early levels, then taper off sharply.

Blood-Hunting: Less useful even than bane, as few enemies will have bloodlines.

Bloodsong: Explicitly for Skalds or those who have a Skald on their team. It's blue if you do (free keen and bonus HP every time you confirm a crit? Heck yeah!) and red if you don't.

Brawling: Inquisitors can't do maneuvers well, thanks to their 3/4 BAB progression. Not worth it.

Breaking: You're not going to fight crystalline enemies or need to break things that often.

Called: Thrown weapon builds aren't terribly common for Inquisitors, and even if you're using thrown weapons, gobbling up your swift action economy doesn't leave you with much room to change Judgments, etc. See whether your GM will let you use a Blinkback Belt as a bandolier or something.

Confounding: You're not a Swashbuckler.

Corrosive: Tiny bonus to damage.

Countering: Disarm and sunder don't come up often enough to be worthwhile.

Courageous: Morale bonus. This was never intended to buff all morale bonuses, just morale bonuses vs. fear effects. That’s not widely useful.

Deadly: You want to deal lethal damage unless there's a very good reason not to.

Debilitating: The penalty imposed on enemies is small enough that even Sanctified Slayers won't see much benefit.

Deceptive: Not many Feint builds for Inquisitors out there—you just don't have much of a reason to feint. Sanctified Slayers will probably prefer flanking tactics, spells, or Intimidate.

Driving: Inquisitors don't really have the BAB to take advantage of this enchantment.

Fate-Stealing: You're not a Swashbuckler or Gunslinger.

Flamboyant: You're not a Swashbuckler.

Flaming: See corrosive.

Frost: See corrosive.

Furious: You're not a Barbarian.

Grayflame: You're not a Cleric.

Grounding: Weak effect.

Growing: 1/day, small damage boost.

Huntsman: A tiny sliver better than flaming/corrosive/frost/shock. A tiny sliver.

Injecting: You don't poison.

Inspired: You're not an Investigator.

Jurist: Bad even as an Inquisitor-specific enchantment. No wonder the Exarch archetype stinks.

Ki Focus: You're not a Monk or Ninja.

Kinslayer: Daddy's little patricide. Why are you trying to kill your family, again?

Lucky: You're not a Gunslinger.

Miserable: Too niche.

Neutralizing: Also too niche.

Ominous: Weak even for Intimidate builds.

Planar: Too situational.

Prehensile: Whip-only? Swashbuckler-only? Nope.

Quenching: See neutralizing.

Reliable: You're not a Gunslinger.

Returning: Even if I were going with a thrown weapon build, I'd still prefer something like a Dagger of Doubling or Blinkback Belt to this enchantment.

Rusting: Most players will rightly point out that that's your own loot you're turning into flakes of rust.

Sacred: It's meant for Warpriests, not you.

Seaborne: Blue in Skull & Shackles. Literally nowhere else.

Shadowshooting: The free ammo definitely isn't worth the trade-off in damage if your opponent disbelieves the illusion (and at a DC of 15 + the enhancement modifier, they will disbelieve quite a bit as levels go up).

Shock: See corrosive.

Skewering: What the math is up with all these Swashbuckler enchantments?

Slithering: Too niche.

Smashing: Don't sunder.

Spell Hurling: You're not a Magus.

Spirit-Hunting: Are you planning on fighting Oracles exclusively? No? Didn't think so.

Thawing: See neutralizing.

Throwing: Build for thrown weapons; don't just throw your melee weapon on a whim.

Valiant: You're not a Cavalier.

Vampiric: Each sentence you read in this description gets progressively worse. A few charges of a wand of cure light wounds will do much better.

+2 Enhancement Bonus

Corrosive Burst: Not worth it even if you're crit-fishing.

Cyclonic: A Silver Nocking Point can probably take care of the majority of cases without eating into your enhancement bonus.

Dazzling: Inquisitors weren't meant to be Gunslingers—even the Black Powder Inquisition can't fix that.

Disruption: The Will save DC is low-ish. A disruption light mace might be worth it in undead-heavy campaigns at low levels, but it's otherwise unremarkable.

Endless Ammunition: Mundane arrows and bolts shouldn't be a strain on your wealth past the first few levels, certainly not enough to spend a +2 on.

Flaming Burst: See corrosive burst.

Furyborn: Bane will have you covered in this department.

Heretical: Why are you killing members of your own faith?

Icy Burst: See corrosive burst.

Igniting: Still weak.

Impact: You won't be bull rushing, in all likelihood.

Invigorating: Morale and enhancement bonuses that will probably conflict with other buff sources.

Ki Intensifying: You're not a Monk or Ninja.

Liberating: A good group will be taking extraordinary measures to ensure that no one ends up charmed or dominated in the first place.

Lifesurge: Sky blue in undead-heavy campaigns, and mediocre everywhere else.

Lucky, Greater: You're not a Gunslinger.

Negating: You’ll only ever lower DR by 5 points, which isn’t great.

Peaceful: Merciful and Enforcer will give you enough duration on shaken without the bonuses from peaceful.

Penetrating: Enchanting ammunition starts to get costly; this isn't worth the money.

Quaking: I love that this enchantment gives you the ability to trip creatures of any size, but that ability is better off in the hands of a Barbarian, Fighter, or Bloodrager who can take greater advantage of a strong CMB score.

Shattering: Too loud, too niche.

Shocking Burst: See corrosive burst.

Silencing: The enemies you want to silence will pass a DC 13 Will save every time. Get used to disappointment.

Sniping (any variety): You're not a Rogue.

Stalking: Although it sounds at first blush like this would be phenomenal for Sanctified Slayers, the sad truth is that you won't have rounds to study an enemy in most combats, especially as a standard action. You're essentially trading a round of action now for 1d6 damage later. Not worth it in the slightest.

Toxic: Please don't try to poison.

Treasonous: Much more limited in scope than patriotic.

Vampiric, Greater: Still a stinker.

+3 Enhancement Bonus

Nullifying: When SR levels are in the 20s, reducing it by 1 per hit isn't going to make an appreciable difference in a combat.

Reliable, Greater: You're not a Gunslinger.

Repositioning: You'll never be good enough at combat maneuvers to do this reliably.

Sonic Boom: You're not a Gunslinger.

Tailwind: Loses much of the utility of gust of wind.

Umbral: One daylight and you're screwed—not to mention all of the non-sight senses that eventually get used against you like blindsight or tremorsense.

+4 Enhancement Bonus

Brilliant Energy: At first blush, this enchantment looks amazing: ignore all armor and shield bonuses? Crazy! Issue is that natural armor, dodge, and dexterity bonuses comprise most of an enemy's AC past 10th level or so. You also can't hit undead or constructs, which further restricts the enchantment's effectiveness.

Nimble Shot: If not provoking with ranged attacks is so important to you, I'd recommend three levels of Zen Archer to pick up Point-Blank Master.

+5 Enhancement Bonus

Heart-Piercing: You can do so much with a +5 enhancement bonus. Why choose a <5% chance of an instant kill on a select subset of enemies?

Interfering: If you really want to be able to do this as an Inquisitor...well, you shouldn't be playing an Inquisitor, you should be playing a Zen Archer.

Spell Siphon: Costs +5 when spellstealing (the same enchantment, basically) costs only +3. Oversight?

Wondrous Items

I need to make a disclaimer here: I can talk to you about Wondrous Items all day long, but ultimately, I already wrote a guide for that: The Armamentarium, a shorthand glossary of every slotted Wondrous Item in the game. You’ll have to read through the introduction to figure out how to do all the tag searching that’s available, but once you’ve got it, I guarantee that you’ll be able to find any items you need to make your Inquisitor a boss.

All Inquisitor Builds

Stole of Justice (18,000 gp; shoulder slot): It's so many bonuses: +5 competence bonus to Sense Motive, zone of truth 5/day, amped up detect [alignment], and a free jurist effect during Judgment. I'd argue that's worth the price.

Exorcist's Aspergillum (8,000 gp; no slot): Free, at-will detect undead and Ectoplasmic Spell for an entire combat 1/day is a great package, relatively cheap and occupying no slot.

Bane Baldric (10,000 gp; chest slot): It was formerly thought that a Bane Baldric allowed you to progress Bane toward greater bane when multiclassing. This interpretation has since been ruled against, which means that the Bane Baldric's only effect is to give you 5 more rounds of Bane per day. Your GM might rule in your favor, of course, in which case the item is practically mandatory for multi-classing Inquisitors; just know that it might not be as good an investment as it once seemed.

Death Mask (16,000 gp; head slot): It's a little pricey, but you're also getting a free (and improved!) version of speak with dead and the ability to impersonate dead people. Archetypes like Infiltrators that like to get deep inside enemy organizations will really want this.

Inquisitor's Bastion Vambraces (4,000 gp; wrist slot): If you're using my proposed Judgment tweaks, this will be very good. Assuming your GM isn't willing to listen some rando on the internet, though, this item won't provide enough of a bonus to CMD or Concentration checks to merit the slot.

Righteous Fist Amulet (4,000 gp; neck slot): It's designed for the Inquisitor, but boy, what a dud. You shouldn't want Improved Unarmed Strike as a normal feat (unless you're picking up a Monk style?) much less IUS on a limited basis.

Torc of Enmity (9,500 gp; neck slot): Most Inquisitors don't have to tools to crit-fish effectively, making this item subpar. If you have managed to get a crit-fishing build going (e.g., an Inquisitor of Cayden Cailean with a keen rapier or Improved Critical at 11th level) it can be a decent way to replenish your Bane rounds over the course of an adventuring day.

Casting Builds

Caster's Tattoo (6k/21k/48k gp; no slot): Dispel magic makes for an excellent lesser tattoo, and freedom of movement would be my top pick for a normal tattoo—you never know when you'll need to escape or break an enchantment while bound or silenced.

Armband of the Golden Serpent (20,000 gp; arm slot): You don't get many touch spells, so leave this to the bad touch Cleric or the Witch.

Intimidate Builds

Mark of the Grinning Skull (2,000 gp; headband slot): Intimidation builds will find a lot to like about this item: demoralize as a move action? Double the penalties applied by the shaken condition? Yes, you want this.

Melee Builds

Juggernaut's Pauldrons (40,000 gp; shoulder slot): At-will size increase, Ferocity, and 3/day deadly juggernaut for the duration of a combat. This is a downright brutal group of abilities for a melee 'Quisitor, although you won’t have the scratch to buy it until the very, very end of a campaign.

Belt of Thunderous Charging (10,000 gp; belt slot): You'll often lead with a charge on the first round of combat; treating your weapon as one size category larger is a nice boost to damage.

Amulet of Quaking Strikes (28,000 gp; neck slot): Bane and greater bane unfortunately don't proc off of your earthquake. Probably best left to those who can muster a bigger hit without supplementation.

Bonebreaker Gauntlets (6,000 gp; glove slot): The penalty imposed on your target is rough, but a DC 14 Will save won't scale well at all—even enemies at 1st level are making that 50% of the time or more.

Ranged Builds

Bracers of Archery/Greater (5k/25k gp; wrist slot): Competence bonus. The Bracers are so good that I've seen them banned at tables before. Bowquisitors in particular are capable of slaughtering enemies with little to no effort, so don't expect GMs to receive your purchase kindly.

Nightbane Quiver (16,000 gp; no slot): The daylight effect makes this quiver an almost-worthy purchase for melee Inquisitors, which should give you an idea of how powerful it is. Add the ability to bypass DR and strike some incorporeal ghoulies and ghosties, and you've got a sleek combo. Very choice.

Efficient Quiver (1,800 gp; no slot): Bowquisitors, go ahead and buy this one. It's cheap and will make your life much easier.

Legacy Arrow (305 gp; no slot): Reusable arrows with great enchantments. Bowquisitors will want to pick up a couple as they level.

Silver Nocking Point (3,150 gp; no slot): Campaigns with lots of wind effects (lookin' at you, Reign of Winter) have had some of my ranged players close to tears before—this cheap item goes a long way toward reducing the penalties of shooting into the wind.

Finesse & Crit Builds

Gloves of Marking (7,200 gp; wrist slot): Turn those crits into bonuses for your team! Works well with your intimidation tactics, too.

Pendant of the Blood Scarab (1,000 gp; neck slot): Simple effect: take 1d6 of damage to automatically confirm a crit 1/day. Cheap and nice for when you absolutely need to kill something or penetrate its DR with Expose Weakness.

INQ621: Archetypal Inquisition

The Wheat

Abolisher (Monster Hunter's Handbook)

What's the niche?

Not into tentacle stuff: an anti-Aberration specialist with some tools for wriggling out of sticky situations.

What you're getting

Sworn to Purity: Alters Domains. Usually I'd call foul on Domain restrictions, but Air (Cloud), Animal (Any), Earth (Caves), Fire (Ash), and Water (Ice) are all good options.
Revealing Gaze: Replaces Stern Gaze. Anything attempting to infiltrate your group, either through disguise or stealth, is going to have a bad time. The ability to grant this power to adjacent allies for free bumps it up ever so slightly into green territory.
Expose Aberration: Replaces detect [alignment] and alters Bane. Losing the ability to detect alignments is a straight downgrade; the loss is compensated for somewhat by the fact that you can hit an enemy, instantly identify whether it's an aberration, and activate Bane as an immediate action. Saves just a bit in the action economy.
Escape Corruption's Grasp: Replaces discern lies. Immediate action freedom of movement for your level in rounds per day is fan-fucking-tastic. You'll never get grappled or paralyzed again with this baby.

Is it worth it?

You go into this archetype expecting it to be overly niche-y like the rest of the Inquisitor archetypes, and then it actually does pretty well for itself! Being able to see stealthy creatures and wriggle out of any grapple is a huge boon...and it's compatible with both Sacred Huntsmaster and Sanctified Slayer. Swoon.

Cloaked Wolf (Ultimate Intrigue)

What's the niche?

Bond, Inquisitor Bond: a solo operator who goes from smiles and diplomacy to sudden death in nothing flat.

What you're getting

Class Skills: We're assuming that you'll need Sleight of Hand if you're playing this kind of Inquisitor, so trading away Intimidate isn't a big loss; Cloaked Wolves like to get close to their targets with honey rather than vinegar, anyway.
Lure Prey: Replaces Stern Gaze. I wouldn't usually be excited about the Disguise bonuses, but again, the Cloaked Wolf is a different animal from the base Inquisitor; getting your level instead of half your level to Sleight of Hand checks when drawing hidden weapons is quite good. To refresh you, it's a DC 20 check to draw a light weapon, with opposed Perception checks from enemies—you'll need all the help you can get.
Always Wary: Alters Cunning Initiative, and replaces Monster Lore. The circumstances in which you get your Cunning Initiative bonus are quite narrow, but when an enemy does try to sucker punch you, they're definitely in for an unpleasant surprise. Losing Monster Lore would stink in most campaigns, but we're assuming you're in a human-centric, intrigue-heavy campaign, remember?
Unleashed Fury: Replaces Solo Tactics and Teamwork feats. Quick Draw lets you draw and attack, and is essential for the Cloaked Wolf's playstyle. Alertness, Catch Off-Guard, Deceitful, Deft Hands, Dodge, Improved Initiative, Improved Unarmed Strike, Improvised Weapon Mastery, Mobility, Spring Attack, Stunning Fist, and Throw Anything are your other bonus feat options, although do remember that you need the prerequisites first. Lookout is a trap unless others on the team are taking it—you traded away Solo Tactics.

Is it worth it?

The motto of the Cloaked Wolf is: "For a certain kind of campaign, this would be awesome." And indeed, intrigue-heavy campaigns with opportunities for negotiation, social combat, betrayal, and subterfuge are where Cloaked Wolves shine. Outside of that type of campaign, the focus of the archetype isn't super clear, as the feat choices would appear to let you specialize in unarmed strikes, improvised weapons, or hidden light weapons, all of which are somewhat sub-optimal unless you're going for flavor. You'll probably want to pick two of your three attack options and let the bonus feats work for you.

Green Faith Marshal (Heroes of the Wild)

What's the niche?

I am the Lorax, I speak for the trees: an Inquisitor who's more in tune with the natural world.

What you’re getting

Power of Nature: Alters Domain and replaces Stern Gaze. Some of the Animal & Terrain Domains are quite powerful, and unlike most domains granted to Inquisitors, you get the bonus spells added to your spell list (though you still have to spend spells known to learn them). Take a look over at the section to see what's worth pursuing.
Wild Lore: Replaces Monster Lore. I'd rather be able to identify monsters than remember facts about trees any day. This is a mechanically weak trade.
Nature's Ally: Replaces discern lies. You won't be using it all the time, but for longer travels through natural areas, this could give you an edge.
Wild Step: Replaces stalwart. Wild Step doesn't allow you to ignore magically altered difficult terrain, but any other kinds of naturally difficult terrain (ice, thick undergrowth, shifting dunes, etc.) should be fair game, RAW. stalwart is probably the superior option mechanically, but Wild Step functions in heavy armor, whereas stalwart does not. Something to think about.

Is it worth it?

There are some powerful combos here, for sure. Wolf Domain lets your flanking bonus scale with WIS, for example, which could be insane in the hands of a Sacred Huntsmaster; Cave Domain grants darkvision and tremorsense; Eagle and Crocodile Domains grant you a familiar, plus hefty Perception bonuses and limited sneak attack dice, respectively. Obviously this archetype will be better in campaigns where you do a lot of wilderness exploration, so ask your DM whether you can still select Animal & Terrain Domains as a base Inquisitor if your setting will be more urban-flavored.

Heretic (Ultimate Magic)

What's the niche?

You are charged with heresy on three counts: a fallen Inquisitor who uses stealth to escape charges of apostasy.

What you’re getting

Escape Judgment: Replaces nothing. Nothing but upgrade for your Judgment, so I can't rank it any lower than yellow. For Sanctified Slayers (who can abuse sneak attack with it) it's green.
Lore of Escape: Replaces Monster Lore. Being better at Bluff and Stealth again helps more Rogue-ish Inquisitors as they sneak attack and feint.
Hide Tracks: Replaces nothing. A free -5 for others to follow your tracks. Again, won't come up often, but as it doesn't replace anything, I can't really mark it down.

Is it worth it?

You're not giving away much, so...sure? With its bonuses to Bluff and Stealth, the Heretic seems designed to fulfill its true potential in tandem with a source of sneak attack dice, as with the Sanctified Slayer archetype or an Unchained Rogue dip (thanks to /u/darkforce547 for the reminder that Green Faith Marshal and Heretic don’t stack). Inquisitors who want to do more straightforward combat won't find much value here.

Living Grimoire (Horror Adventures)

What's the niche?

Half librarian, half pugilist: an Inquisitor who beats people to death with her holy book. That's not a joke.

What you’re getting

Holy Book: Replaces Monster Lore. Losing Monster Lore isn't great for most Inquisitor archetypes, because WIS remains their casting stat; for your new INT focus and associated increase in skill ranks, it's no big deal—you basically get Weapon Focus (Grimoire) as a free feat. The only reason this isn’t rated higher is because the Holy Book is treated as a light mace, and you don’t get your 1.5x STR bonus to damage for two-handing light weapons when Power Attacking (/u/rekijan points out that this makes the Holy Book less OP than previously thought).
Spells: Alters spellcasting and replaces Cunning Initiative. You become a prepared spellcaster (!) who uses INT as your casting and domain stat, essentially turning you into a divine wizard. Everybody’s got a different preference as far as prepared/spontaneous goes, so this might be a good or a bad thing, depending. I tend to think of it as a good thing—there are enough decent niche spells on the Inquisitor list that I could foresee wanting some of them at hand.
Sacred Word: Replaces Judgment. You'll lose Bane and greater bane down the line, but that's okay, because Sacred Word takes its place. You get the Warpriest's Sacred Weapon ability (which is awesome, by the way) along with the ability to add bane and other effects to your book. Scaling damage dice help adjust your book’s damage for the loss of two-handed STR bonuses. I'm struggling to find a flaw in this ability.
Blessed Script: Replaces second judgment, third judgment, Bane, and greater bane. There are two components to this ability: first, you can prepare the tattooed spells without your holy book, and second, you can cast them as spell-like abilities 1/day. SLAs can be cast without material, somatic, or verbal components, so when we think about which spells should go into the tattoo slots, we immediately see that these were intended to be "panic button" spells—invisibility, dispel magic, freedom of movement, the like. If you think about which spells you'd want if you were stripped of your grimoire and gear, then gagged and imprisoned, you'll be in the right ballpark.
Word of God: Replaces True Judgment, although it's not actually a replacement. You just swap out WIS for INT in the DC.

Is it worth it?

Absolutely. With the loss of Cunning Initiative, Judgment, and your WIS focus, a Living Grimoire won't play like your garden-variety Inquisitor, but I think it's well worth the trade. An INT focus turns you into even more of a skill monster and compensates for your loss of Monster Lore; meanwhile, prepared spellcasting ensures that you're much more versatile when you need to be. Sacred Word scales your base damage with your level, and also allows you to put bane on your book as a base Inquisitor can. That's nothing but upshot.

Monster Tactician (Monster Summoner's Handbook)

What's the niche?

Another day, another meat shield: an Inquisitor who summons monsters instead of pronouncing judgment.

What you’re getting

Summon Monster: Replaces Judgment. Holy crap, is this good. You'll probably be able to summon about 6/day at the beginning of your adventuring career, and that number will only go up as you bump your WIS score. You're limited somewhat by the number of creatures that you can pick from, but you get your summons for ten times longer than the base spell allows, can summon as a standard action (thanks to /u/strongindependentpc for that PSA), and with a single feat choice (detailed in the Feats section) can greatly broaden your cramped menu of options. Summon Monster is one of those ideal abilities that gives you both increased power and unparalleled versatility: if you know the templates of the creatures you have available, you'll never lack for a tactically perfect battle companion.
Summon Tactics: Replaces discern lies, second judgment, third judgment, Slayer, and True Judgment. Just when you think Summon Monster can't get any better, you get Summon Tactics. The beauty of this is that having multiple summons out at a time can make positioning for Teamwork feats a cinch. Need an adjacent ally? Done. Need a flanking ally? Done. Need an ally to charge? Done.

Is it worth it?

Uhhh, duh-doy. The fact that summons get a bunch of spells and SLAs makes this more powerful than Judgment, even without considering that all those summons are attacking and soaking damage, too.

Oathkeeper (Merchant’s Manifest)

What's the niche?

Swear to me: an Inquisitor who deals with those who break their word.

What you’re getting

Alignment: Must be Lawful, which makes sense. I would think worshipers of Asmodeus (with their focus on contracts and agreements generally) and Abadar (with their focus on mercantilism) would see the most use out of this archetype.
Class Skills: Trade Knowledge (Nature) for Appraise. Blech. That’s not great, but it’s the only real dud in the archetype.
Divine Witness: Replaces Monster Lore. You have here a powerful, one-sided lever in your favor, in that you can break your own agreement with no consequences; should the opposing party in the contract do so, however, they gain a curse that can only be broken through wish or miracle, as well as a brand that allows you to track their precise location for months on end. It makes for such a flavorful roleplaying stinger at the end of any negotiation where you don’t trust the person you’re dealing with, too, and doubly effective if the person doesn’t know it’s a magical contract. “Of course we’d be willing to track down and slay those kobolds for you, but first I’d like us to sign this agreement that we’ll suffer no harm at your hands after completing our task, and that you’ll deliver our promised reward promptly and in full.” BBEGs and their lieutenants will be crippled if they double-cross you!
Oathbreaker’s Scourge: Replaces Track. A great replacement for Track, Oathbreaker’s Scourge lets you hunt down people you know have broken promises or agreements more easily, then kill or capture them with boosted Judgments. Good stuff, but make sure you’re positive about their guilt. Corroborate stories, check up with sources, perhaps even talk to the target beforehand to secure a confession. You don’t want to have to use atonement.

Is it worth it?

The loss of Monster Lore isn’t great, but I’d say the benefit outweighs the cost—Divine Witness is an excellent bargaining tool. Considering how little you give up in this archetype, yeah, go for it, especially if you find yourself wanting to play a punctilious rule-follower.

Preacher (Ultimate Magic)

What's the niche?

Son of a hmm-hmm man: an Inquisitor who doesn't really "do" Teamwork feats.

What you’re getting

Determination: Replaces Solo Tactics. You only start out with the ability 1/day, but the number grows as your Teamwork feats roll by. Aggression is pure gold; when you need to hit, you need to hit. Defense and Warning will make you and your team more survivable, respectively. (Thanks to /u/That_Darn_Skeleton for pointing out that you reroll for Aggression after seeing the result of your d20. Duh-doi. Thanks, mate.)

Is it worth it?

Some people really hate Teamwork feats, even with Solo Tactics, so this is a no-brainer for them; the only issue is that you really don't get many uses per day. Archers used to be Preachers almost by default, but with the advent of the Ranged Tactics Toolbox there are more Teamwork feats to choose from. The choice is up to you!

Ravener Hunter (Blood of the Beast)

What's the niche?

Oracular inquisition: an Inquisitor who's part-Oracle and hates Evil Outsiders.

What you’re getting

Charged by Nature: Replaces Domain. Cool, free Oracle Mysteries without any Curses. See whether your GM will let you use WIS as your casting stat, otherwise you'll be even more multiple-attribute dependent than most Inquisitors (which is already pretty MAD). There are so many good options here that it's tough to address them all, but I'll try:

Ancestor: Spirit Walk is a good utility power, even 1/day. I'm not all that excited about most of the others.
Battle: Maneuver Mastery and Weapon Mastery allow you to get a ridiculous number of feats for free, no prerequisites, as well as full BAB for your chosen maneuver; War Sight will ensure that you never go second in another battle ever again; Skill at Arms gets you free heavy armor proficiency and martial weapon proficiency if your deity's favored weapon is shit.
Flame: Cinder Dance is this archetype's answer to the Travel Domain; Firestorm gives you some decent battlefield control 1/day; Wings of Fire is a nice innate flight ability that covers a gap in your spellcasting.
Heavens: Coat of Many Stars lets you save a bundle on armor, and eventually grants DR 5/Slashing; Lure of the Heavens is another path to flight, albeit on a slower track than Wings of Fire.
Life: Energy Body provides only mediocre healing, but turns you into an Elemental, a type that boasts a host of useful immunities; Lifesense gives you an amazing extravisual sense. Of note, also, Ravener Hunters who pick up the Channel Revelation can qualify for the Holy Vindicator PrC, which is awesome.
Lunar: Form of the Beast lets you be an animal for most of the day, which could give you excellent scouting or combat capabilities; Primal Companion gets you an animal companion, though from a limited list; Prophetic Armor again lets you dump DEX, but more safely than Nature's Whispers.
Nature: Bonded Mount is, of course, amazing; Erosion Touch lets you progress laterally through many obstacles by simply sundering them; Nature's Whispers would let you dump DEX fairly easily, though you might want to take Lightning Reflexes to help your Reflex save; Natural Divination, despite its lengthy casting time, is highly versatile and quite powerful—a good pick at Level 8.
Solar: Astral Caravan is a peerless travel and exploration power; Luminous Form gives you concealment, blinding, and a way to abuse light sensitivity—it's a powerful incentive for enemies not to stay next to you, and could be excellent for an AoO or reach build; Serpent in the Sun gives you a neat little package of immunities if you can get your daily tanning in; Starlight Agility gives you access to some awesome feats that you almost certainly wouldn't have the DEX for normally; Sun Stride could make for an interesting Dimensional Agility build.
Stone: Crystal Sight and Earth Glide give you some decent scouting options, but Stone Stability is probably the only Revelation of much combat use.
Time: Aging Touch would be excellent for taking big bruisers down a peg or causing casters to go limp; Temporal Celerity is the equivalent of War Sight from Battle Mystery, and equally wonderful.
Volcano: Ash Cloud is a phenomenal spell, giving you a 20 square foot killzone that you can see out of but enemies can't see into or safely approach—a great power for archers, especially considering there's no limit on daily uses; Pyroclastic Shove and Magma Form are decent choices for your Level 8 Revelation.
Waves: As with Firestorm, Blizzard gives you some decent battlefield control 1/day; Ice Armor is just as good as Coat of Many Stars; Punitive Transformation can be a good way to take a Big Bad out of a fight before he does too much damage—feel free to wail on him once he's transformed.
Wind: Air Barrier is the best of all the armor Revelations (see Armor of Ice, Coat of Many Stars, Wood Armor) for its ability to deflect arrows, rays, and other ranged attacks; Wind Sight makes scouting laughably easy; Wings of Air is the best of all the flight Revelations (see Lure of the Heavens, Wings of Fire) for its speed and maneuverability upgrades.
Wood: Speak with Wood is bizarre ("You spend 1 minute meditating on and communing with the wood") but asking the couch questions could lead to some interesting answers; Wood Armor again gets you some nice protection, and Wood Bond is an absolute no-brainer for archers.

Holy Magic: Alters spellcasting. Never going to say no to free access to Cleric spells: the angelic aspect line is great, spear of purity is pretty good, and eaglesoul is an obvious pick.
Demon Hunter: Replaces the Teamwork Feat gained at 3. It's a little limiting only being able to use it on Demons, but not too shabby, given how dangerous demons can be.

Is it worth it?

Revelations absolutely spank the pants off of Domains, and two is usually all you need to suck the marrow from a particular Mystery. Mwangi Expanse flavor aside, I have difficulty seeing why anyone would choose not to take this archetype.

Royal Accuser (Inner Sea Intrigue)

What's the niche?

I accuse you, Pikachu: an Inquisitor who forgoes some teamwork feats in order to be more effective against specific enemies.

What you’re getting

Class Skills: Alters class skills. Knowledge (Local) for Knowledge (Nature). We'll call it a fair trade, although it seems a little weird that they didn't add Knowledge (Dungeoneering) to include aberrations.
Meticulous Inspection: Replaces Stern Gaze. Between your WIS focus and this ability, you just became the best Perception jockey in the entire game, bar none. By 20th level you could have 20 ranks + 3 class skill + 10 Meticulous Inspection + 6 WIS modifier = +39 Perception...and that's not even counting items or spell bonuses. What even is your life.
Detect Monsters and Secrets: Replaces detect [alignment]. I'd rather know whether something is Evil than know specifically what it is...that's what Monster Lore is for. Nevertheless, this isn't a bad package of at-will spells.
Favored Enemy: Replaces Solo Tactics and the Teamwork feats gained at 3, 9, and 15. Favored Enemy is an extremely powerful ability, but as with the Ranger, you're limited by which enemies you're fighting. One cool trick that Samsaran Inquisitors can pull is to use the Mystic Past Life alternative racial trait to pick up instant enemy from the Ranger spell list. Bingo bango bam, you can now treat any enemy as Favored. (Thanks to /u/GFFO for that one!)
Informed Hunch: Replaces the Teamwork feat gained at 6. I love it! It's flavorful and useful for just about any campaign. It even helps GMs, who can use it to give you nudges in the direction of their plot hooks.
Greater Detect Magic: Replaces the Teamwork feat gained at 12. Well, this is pretty great. Greater detect magic is a wonderful upgrade to your base cantrip, allowing you to identify specific spells cast and their casters for weeks after the original casting.
Final Sway: Replaces the Teamwork feat gained at 18. If you make it this far, Final Sway is a good "capstone" replacement for a Teamwork feat. Do some odd jobs for an organization, gain the ability to make significant requests 1/day. Again, most campaigns could find a use for that.

Is it worth it?

I absolutely love this archetype. It's flavorful without being cheesy, mechanically solid without breaking the power curve, and different without losing the original thrust of the class. It will obviously be better in campaigns with lots of undead or aberrations, and better for Inquisitor players who don't like having to deal with Teamwork feats.

Sacred Huntsmaster (Advanced Class Guide)

What's the niche?

Dances with wolves: an Inquisitor with an animal companion that shares your Teamwork feats.

What you’re getting

Animal Companion: Replaces Judgment 1/day. Holy shit, does this archetype start off with a bang: free animal companion that scales with your level. That right there is worth the price of admission. Hunter or Druid guides will help you select your animal companion; some make better tanks, strikers, etc., and which you choose will depend on your party composition and the role your buddy expects to play in combat. Of note, you receive the Hunter version of Animal Companion, meaning that you can teach your companion the excellent tricks from the Skirmisher Ranger archetype. (Thanks to /u/rekijan for that tip!) Bolster Companion, Rattling Strike, Sic ‘Em, Skill Sage, Surprise Shift, and Vengeance Strike will likely be good picks.
Hunter Tactics: Replaces Solo Tactics. Hunter Tactics singlehandedly solves the two essential problems with Teamwork feats: first, how do you convince your teammates to get the same feats you do; and second, how do you convince them to change their tactics to activate those feats? With this ability, your companion gets all your feats—and you control their tactics. So if you want to flank, flank, and if you want to fight side by side, fight side by side! Hunter Tactics gives you the latitude to play around.
Animal Focus: Replaces all later iterations of Judgment. Woo woooooo, the blue train keeps on rolling! Animal Focus is a great class feature, and you get it as the Hunter, which means that your animal companion gets a constant focus, and you qualify for feats like Extended Animal Focus and Planar Focus. You can really do some cool stuff with this ability. My thoughts on the foci are detailed below:

Air: Requires the Planar Focus feat. You won't need it much of the time, but you'll be glad to have it when your Broom of Flying gets destroyed in mid-air or that Hill Giant bull rushes you off a cliff. Ask your DM whether you can choose between feather fall and levitate when you activate this focus—they serve different purposes, and RAW levitate replaces feather fall at later levels.
Bat: Obviously better for humans and fairly useless for races with innate Darkvision. If your DM rules that it can be used to improve upon existing innate Darkvision, it becomes blue. The blindsense is ultimately mediocre, unfortunately.
Bear: Enhancement bonus. A good focus that loses steam quickly, thanks to the incompatibility of its bonus type with physical stat belts. Also watch out for what happens to those extra HP when you switch foci—wouldn't want you to drop dead because you stopped cosplaying as the grizzly from The Revenant.
Bull: Enhancement bonus. Same basic pros and cons as Bear Focus.
Chaotic: Requires the Planar Focus feat and a Chaotic alignment. Negating all critical and precision damage might have been worth glancing at. Negating it only a quarter of the time? +1 Fortification armor can do that. Pass.
Cold: Requires the Planar Focus feat. It's a small amount of damage, sure, but you don't have to get hit for it to work, only attacked, and it doesn't allow for any kind of save for half.
Earth: Requires the Planar Focus feat. Novel movement type plus a bump to natural armor? Yeah, why not? Versatility is the name of the game.
Evil: Requires the Planar Focus feat and an Evil alignment. Profane bonus. The boost to AC is small; saves are more interesting. Still, profane bonuses are hard to come by, so...meh? Might be worth throwing out if you're fighting Good Outsiders.
Falcon: Competence bonus. Can always find a use for more Perception, but it won't stack with heightened awareness, bloodhound, or perceive cues.
Fire: This is really what flaming weapons should have been—scaling damage boosts. By the time you get Bane at 5th level, Fire Focus will give you +1d6, and by the time you get greater bane at 12th level, that will have increased to +3d6. And Bane and Fire Aspect stack. You heard that right. Resistances will obviously bedevil you from time to time, but overall this is a fantastic damage boost for melee ‘Quisitors.
Frog: Competence bonus. You won't be using these skills much, but hey, the option's nice to have.
Good: Requires the Planar Focus feat and a Good alignment. Sacred bonus. See Evil Aspect.
Lawful: Requires the Planar Focus feat and a Lawful alignment. Just shrug off that baleful polymorph like it ain't no thang. Maybe talk to your GM about whether you could shift to this focus as an immediate action if you use Spellcraft to identify a transmutation spell as it’s being cast.
Monkey: Competence bonus. Another circumstantial one.
Mouse: Ooh, now this is interesting. Evasion and improved evasion make you a regular tank against certain types of spells and enemies (lookin’ at you, Dragons) so don't be afraid to abuse this.
Owl: Competence bonus. This is a decent focus for a stealthy animal companion, but for you, the shadow armor enchantment will provide a better bonus as a constant effect. If you’re looking for stealth, consider Shadow Focus for its untyped bonus.
Shadow: Requires the Planar Focus feat. Untyped bonus. Ah, much better. That bonus will stack with everything, and pairs wonderfully with the Stealth Synergy teamwork feat if your companion is also using the aspect.
Snake: Untyped bonus. Excellent when paired with a reach weapon or a crowded battlefield.
Stag: Enhancement bonus. Doesn't stack with Boots of Striding and Springing, expeditious retreat, or any other enhancement bonus to movement speed. If you don't have those, by all means, bound away.
Tiger: Enhancement bonus. Oddly enough, Tiger is likely to be your physical stat Aspect of choice: it improves your touch AC, shores up your weak Reflex save, gives you more AoOs with Combat Reflexes, and likely won't be covered by your Belt slot for a considerable portion of your career. Look into ways to improve the maximum DEX bonus of your armor, e.g. through mithral.
Water: Requires the Planar Focus feat. Beats the pants off of Frog Aspect by giving you a swim speed and the ability to breathe water. You won't be doing it all day, of course, but if you're like me you hate leaving tools out of the toolbox.
Wolf: Useful as an early-game replacement for see invisibility, Wolf Focus quickly gets outclassed by bloodhound—the range on this ability is just way too short.

Improved Empathic Link: Replaces second judgment. Being able to see through the eyes of your animal companion is a great deal, especially if you’re not great at sneaking. Be careful not to send companions too far ahead, though—you don’t want them rolling for initiative alone.
Raise Animal Companion: Replaces third judgment. Do try not to let Fido die, alright? At least if you do, you've got this. The negative level is, thankfully, temporary.
Second Animal Focus: Replaces Slayer. You get this very late in the game, but more Animal Foci never, ever hurt. It enables some interesting combos: Tiger + Mouse turns you into a Reflex save god; Tiger + Snake, into an AoO whirlwind; Owl + Shadow, into a professional sneaker; Fire + Cold, into a punishing melee damage machine; Stag + Earth or Water, into a dauntless pursuer; Bat + Wolf, into an extrasensory specialist. Play around with it, see what you like.
Greater Empathic Link: Replaces True Judgment. Usual caveat about 99% of campaigns never reaching this point applies. I'd still prefer True Judgment, if given the choice; that said, telepathy ain't half bad.

Is it worth it?

Sweet Christmas, yes. Animal companions expand your tactical options enormously, not to mention contributing to your overall action economy. The fact that you then get shared Teamwork feats and free Animal Focus on top of that—all without sacrificing Bane—is ludicrously powerful, plain and simple. Definitely a top-tier 'Quisitor archetype.

Sanctified Slayer (Advanced Class Guide)

What's the niche?

...but what I do isn’t very nice: an Inquisitor who's got more than a little Slayer influence.

What you’re getting

Studied Target: Replaces Judgment 1/day. Ah, studied target: the ability that rendered the entire Ranger Class obsolete. In exchange for a move action (later a swift action) you get untyped bonuses to hit, damage, and a wide array of skills against your studied enemy. The question of whether Sanctified Slayers get to add their studied target bonuses to the save DCs of spells is a subject of fierce debate, and to my knowledge has never been ruled on in a Paizo FAQ. Sanctified Slayer says you get studied target as a Slayer of the same level, which then kicks you over to the studied target text on the Slayer’s page. It reads: “The DCs of Slayer class abilities against that opponent increase by 1.” There are two schools of thought about what that sentence means:

Pro: Spells are an Inquisitor class ability; hence, spells benefit from studied target.
Con: Ah, but here’s the thing: Sanctified Slayer doesn’t make any exception for applying those increases in save DCs to Inquisitor abilities. It gives you the Slayer’s version of studied target, which states that only Slayer class abilities get boosted. Slayers have no spells; hence, spells don’t benefit from studied target. In the time since I first wrote this guide, I’ve come to favor this interpretation. It’s truer to RAW, and it eases the absolutely busted power curve that the archetype has if you give it boosted spell save DCs. I mean, come on, do you really need studied target, sneak attack, Slayer talents, and humongous boosts to all your spell save DCs? Haven’t you been given enough?

Sneak Attack: Replaces all later iterations of judgment. You get the same SA progression as the Slayer (albeit delayed a level) that stacks with Bane and greater bane. In some ways, you're better equipped to make use of SA dice than either the Rogue or the Slayer: you have a greater incentive to flank already due to Teamwork feats, you can use spells like invisibility and darkness, and your Intimidation tactics like Shatter Defenses synergize well. Anyone interested in the finer points of SA should check out One Thousand Years of Death's guide to the Unchained Rogue, as it is ridiculously comprehensive.
Talented Slayer: Replaces second judgment, third judgment, Slayer, and True Judgment. There's not a wide variety of Paizo Slayer Talents to pick from. Blood Reader could give you some weird meta-information if you noticed that that one random peasant has hundreds of HP; Trapfinding lets you play as a Rogue, especially when paired with the Trap Spotter Rogue talent; Bleeding Attack (also on the Rogue list) further supplements your damage output and pairs incredibly well with the Flensing Strike feat.

Is it worth it?

Absolutely! As mentioned, studied target is a great ability, easily on par with Judgment and practically de rigeur for caster Inquisitors. Add to it Bane, sneak attack, and possibly some bleed effects, and you're capable of truly sick-nasty levels of damage.

Sin Eater (Ultimate Magic)

What's the niche?

Eat some sloth, get some perks. Sin Eaters heal when consuming the sins of dead enemies, which is just cool.

What you’re getting

Eat Sin: Replaces Domain. Never heal after battle ever again! Just spend a minute or two chowing down on envy and wrath for the equivalent of cure critical wounds on every enemy you murdered. Seriously good ability.
Speak With Dead: Replaces the Teamwork feat gained at 6. Speak with dead can be a useful ability; this power's utility is limited slightly by the fact that you need to be the one to make the corpse. That also means you'll almost always be interrogating unfriendly corpses, who get a Will save to be belligerent and deceitful toward you.
Burden of Sin: Replaces Exploit Weakness. Beats me why you'd want to take someone else's disease or poison when you could just cure it. Your Fort and Will saves are great, though, so you’ll have better tools for handling it than many other classes.

Is it worth it?

Eat Sin is the pinnacle of momentum abilities: hoover up sin with a few full-round actions, make any necessary inquiries of your corpses, and off you go again, forewarned and forearmed. Hard to beat that if your Domain choices are crap (Gozreh, anyone?).

Spellbreaker (Ultimate Combat)

What's the niche?

Spellbreakers are anti-magic specialists, focusing on defensive abilities and increasing the difficulty of concentration checks for enemy mages’ defensive casting.

What you’re getting

Strong-Willed: Replaces Monster Lore. We've spoken before about how dangerous charm and compulsion effects can be; this ability guards against those, but also against other mind-affecting spells. Quite strong.
Defense Against Magic: Replaces all Teamwork feats. Great ability that really amps up your "Screw you" attitude toward casters. Necromancy and Evocation should probably be your first picks for schools due to their ability to straight-up murder you. Enchantment and Illusion come in a bare second; although mind-affecting spells are by far the most dangerous on any spell list, you also get to roll twice on every save with that descriptor—thanks to Strong-Willed, you're safer than most. Conjuration spells can be deadly, but usually have no save or target AC. The Divination and Transmutation schools are more annoying and inconvenient than anything else, putting them in fifth and sixth place. Abjuration comes in dead last for the simple reason that there are nearly no enemy-targeted spells on the list.
Foil Casting: Replaces Solo Tactics. The main draw here is that it stacks with the Disruptive feat and a distracting weapon for a potential -8 penalty to defensive casting. It's starting to get reeeeeeal hard for casters to make those Concentration checks, especially if they were foolish enough not to pick up Combat Casting.

As a math example, we'll use your worst-case-scenario enemy as a spellbreaker: an arcane caster who does nothing but specialize in casting, say, a Level 10 Wizard. He had 20 INT at the beginning of the game, then dumped his 4th- and 8th-level attribute increases into INT. His +4 INT headband gives him some extra leeway, for a total of 26 INT.
1st-Level Spell: DC 15 + 2(1st-Level) = 17 to successfully cast defensively. Caster Level 10 + 8 INT Modifier = +18 bonus to Concentration check. Check succeeds on any roll, even a Nat 1. 2nd-Level spells also succeed on a 1. Add 10% to the failure chance each spell level thereafter, to a maximum of 30% for a 5th-Level spell.
Now that same Wizard faces an Inquisitor with Disruptive, Foil Casting, and a distracting weapon. At this point, it's getting less and less likely that even this highly specialized enemy will be able to avoid losing the spell and its action.
1st-Level Spell: DC 15 + 2(1st-Level) = 17 to successfully cast defensively. Caster Level 10 + 8 INT Modifier - 4 Disruptive - 2 Foil Casting - 2 distracting = +10 bonus to Concentration check. Check succeeds on a roll of 7 or higher, for a 30% failure chance. Add 10% to the failure chance each spell level, to a maximum of 70% for a 5th-Level spell.
The probabilities speak for themselves: against most characters, a Wizard can cast 1st- and 2nd-level spells defensively without worrying about a thing; against your Inquisitor, though, even the simplest spell has a 30% chance of failing, and by the time we get up to their highest available spell level, they're fumbling 70% of the time. As I said, this is also your worst-case scenario—against enemies that invested less in their casting stat, are lower level than you, or dipped a non-casting class, you're doing even better.

Impervious: Replaces True Judgment. Impervious makes a strong case for Evocation or Enchantment as your first Defense Against Magic school, as they have the highest proportion of wreck-your-life-and-the-lives-of-everyone-you-hold-dear spells. Then again, who gets to Level 20?

Is it worth it?

Royal Accuser and Spellbreaker are both very, very tempting options for players who don't much like Teamwork feats or having to finagle with Solo Tactics. Accuser gives you lots of versatility and some increased offensive oomph against certain enemies, while Spellbreaker is all about defense, defense, defense. If you see yourself going up against a lot of casters, there's almost no downside.

Sworn of the Eldest (Wilderness Origins)

What's the niche?

Servitors of the Eldest, who are the watchful deities of the Fey and the First World.

What you’re getting

Whimsical Worship: What the Scaled Fist archetype did for the Monk, Sworn of the Eldest does for the Inquisitor. Now you’re a fully CHA-based caster! This will mean weaker Will saves and lower Perception checks, but it also opens the way for Eldritch Heritage, better face skills, and more. A different Inquisitor, but not necessarily better or worse.
Deity: You’ve got to worship one of the Eldest, and can’t select an Inquisition. About as expected.
Disarming Discernment: A strictly inferior trade, but it does let you become quite, quite good at telling when people are lying to you.
Feytongue: I like Feytongue just a bit better than Stern Gaze. Not trying to cheat on you or anything, honey, but Intimidate isn’t as universally useful as Diplomacy.
Feywatcher: If your campaign takes place in the First World, this will obviously be amazing, but for everyone else, Fey and plant-based magics come up maybe three to five times in a campaign.
Magic of the Eldest: You get your Domain spells for free! Yaaaay. Whether this ability beats out Teamwork feats is obviously a question of which Domain you selected, but there are some strong ones out there.

Is it worth it?

As a Gathlain-only archetype, you probably won’t see Sworn of the Eldest in play very often, and yet there’s something appealing about it. Gathlain make ideal ranged Inquisitors, and the innate +2 CHA and small size are excellent incentives to boost your casting power, too. I’ve always been a fan of Fey-based archetypes, and Sworn of the Eldest is no exception. Plus, the Eldest are really cool! Magdh for the win.

Tactical Leader (Ultimate Intrigue)

What's the niche?

Like Cavaliers, Tactical Leaders get to grant Teamwork feats to allies, rather than the pseudo-Teamwork feats granted by Solo Tactics. You get fewer feats, but they tend to become more powerful than they were before.

What you’re getting

Leader's Words: Replaces Stern Gaze. You're giving up Intimidate and Sense Motive for Diplomacy. Not a great trade, especially since SM and Intimidate both have in-combat uses, too.
Tactician: Replaces Solo Tactics and Teamwork feats. The issue with Solo Tactics is that your effectiveness can't stack with anyone else's. Tactician changes all that—if you want everyone to have Outflank, they all have Outflank; if you want everyone to have Coordinated Charge, they all have Coordinated Charge. The more teammates, cohorts, companions, summons, or familiars you have, the more effective this is.
Battle Acumen: Replaces Exploit Weakness. Imagine giving the benefits of your Piercing, Justice, and Destruction Judgments to a Zen Archer, or a Barbarian, even for a turn! That BBEG just turned into a fine red mist. I wish you got more uses per day, but this is definitely an extraordinary ability.

Is it worth it?

You're sacrificing a little of your personal effectiveness, but in return you get to turn your team into a buzzsaw. If you wanted to use Diplomacy more anyway, there's really no downside to choosing this archetype.

Umbral Stalker (Ultimate Intrigue)

What's the niche?

Umbral Stalkers are one of several options for sneaky, assassin-esque Inquisitors, and focus on sudden strikes from the shadows. You lose much of your edge in out-and-out combat, so set up your ambushes with care.

What you’re getting

Class Skills: Alters Diplomacy class skill. It'll be hard to use Acrobatics effectively in medium armor; maybe if you're playing a finesse 'Quisitor?
Dark Descent: Alters Domain. Unless you're playing as an Inquisitor of Zon-Kuthon, the Darkness domain isn't available to any of the Big 20. Free Blind Fight and Eyes of Darkness are good abilities, although I would prefer Touch of Darkness over the Night subdomain power.
Stalking Judgment: Replaces Justice Judgment. In return for less accuracy when visible, you have higher accuracy when unnoticed. You'll probably need Hide in Plain Sight, Hellcat Stealth, or a similar ability to leverage this Judgment. Bumps up to green for those dipping Shadowdancer.
Swift and Silent: Replaces Stern Gaze. If you're playing an Umbral Stalker, you need Acrobatics and Stealth, so yay, you got a bonus!
Deadly Efficiency: Replaces Exploit Weakness. Exploit Weakness isn't a gamebreakingly good ability, only a middle of the road ability; that said, this rewards you for attacking enemies from stealth, which you'll be doing anyway if you're playing this archetype.

Is it worth it?

It’s a very different animal than nearly any other type of Inquisitor, but yeah, I think so. The best corollary I can think of for how this archetype would play is like a Stalker Vigilante: you appear, hit them, then disappear into the shadows again. Gestalt builds with either a Vigilante or an UC Rogue would be excellent, as they give you access to more stealth abilities and a source of sneak attack dice that the Umbral Stalker is lacking.

Urban Infiltrator (Magic Tactics Toolbox)

What's the niche?

Urban Infiltrators are specialists at blending into crowds, disappearing in urban environments, and insinuating themselves into organizations through magical and mundane disguises.

What you’re getting

Class Skills: Alters class skills. Knowledge (Nobility) and Knowledge (History) are useless in combat, but excellent during infiltrations; Knowledge (Local) identifies humanoids, and Disable Device is certainly an interesting addition for those who want to play as a rogue-lite.
Gifted Detective: Replaces Monster Lore. Since you're giving up your edge in the Knowledge skills, you might as well get something in return for it. Disguise might not be worth much, but Bluff is good. Depending on how often you find yourself needing information (and how closely your DM hews to those rules for Diplomacy) the other parts might be useful, as well.
A Thousand Faces: Replaces stalwart. This is what you came to this archetype for: unlimited alter self. You can get natural attacks, a swim speed, darkvision, scent, as well as unparalleled infiltration abilities. Only Vigilantes do it better.

Is it worth it?

If your team already has knowledges and monster identification covered, e.g. with an Investigator or Bard, there's not much of a reason not to take this archetype. A Thousand Faces is simply too powerful, especially with some cheap items like Sleeves of Many Garments. You can become just about anyone, given a few seconds of respite.

Witch Hunter (Ultimate Combat)

What's the niche?

Like the Spellbreaker, the Witch Hunter is a peerless magehunter. The archetype leverages the Spellcraft skill especially well, so be thinking about ways to find those bonuses.

What you’re getting

Spell Sage: Replaces Monster Lore. Spellcraft can do a variety of cool things, but its best use is identifying spells as they're cast, which doesn't cost an action. That might not be mechanically powerful for most 'Quisitors, but Witch Hunters get...
Knowledgeable Defense: Replaces discern lies, detect alignment, and True Judgment. Heck. Yeah. A nice defensive bonus against any spell that the Inquisitor is able to identify, whether that spell targets AC, Fortitude, Reflex, or Will. Perfect for the up-and-coming mage hunter.
Spell Scent: Replaces Track. For my money, much, much better than the ability that it replaces. Following footprints will eventually become a thing of the past, but being able to cast locate creature upon studying a spell or magical object will always be useful.
Witch's Bane Judgment: Replaces Exploit Weakness. This one's a great one, too, essentially punishing arcane casters for casting within a certain radius of you. You'll definitely want it out whenever there are enemy wizards on the field.

Is it worth it?

I love it! It's unfortunately incompatible with Spellbreaker, but either of these two archetypes is good for caster-slayers. Note that Witch Hunter is more offensively-focused, while Spellbreaker is more defensively-focused. Also note that even though the Witch Hunter specifically calls out being an anti-arcane caster archetype, none of their abilities except Witch's Bane are exclusively arcane-affecting.

The Chaff

Cold Iron Warden (Demon Hunter's Handbook)

What's the niche?

Cold Iron Wardens specialize in anti-Evil or Chaotic outsider tactics—creatures like Demons, Devils, or Fey will have a hard time against them. Many of the benefits that they get aren’t actually that beneficial, though, or beneficial only in very select scenarios.

What you’re getting

Track Teleportation: Replaces Track and the Teamwork feats gained at 12 and 18. Don't you just hate it when that caster gives you the slip? Now you can point your finger toward her and give your team an ETA on when you'll intercept. The ability gets better with age, but I still think it's too niche for most situations.
Abyssal Scourge: Replaces the Teamwork feats gained at 6 and 15. Channeling isn't the greatest of options for you, and the effects again depend on a fairly uncommon event—i.e., an Evil Outsider attempting to teleport or summon. No doubt that forcing concentration checks could make enemies' lives tough, though, and this lil’ guy can help you qualify for the Holy Vindicator PrC, if that’s your jam. There are better entry archetypes, though, like Ravener Hunter with the Life Mystery.
Favored Judgment: Replaces the Teamwork feats gained at 3 and 9. Against your favored enemy Outsiders, there's no denying your Judgments will be stronger, but unless you're literally invading Hell, you can't count on the bonus operating all the time.
Bane: Alters Bane. Stronger against Outsiders, weaker against everything else. Sensing a theme here?
Translate Telepathy: Replaces discern lies. Listening to telepathic transmissions is cool, flavor-wise, but is it really all that mechanically useful? At least it's not limited to Outsiders.

Is it worth it?

In the vast majority of circumstances, probably not. Teamwork feats can be powerful and universally useful; the abilities that you get in return for them are too situational. If your GM has told you that you'll only be fighting Evil Outsiders or are running an AP like Wrath of the Righteous, sure, pick it up.

Exarch (Advanced Race Guide)

What's the niche?

This Dwarf-only archetype is a strangely mixed bag, heavily tied into the jurist and menacing weapon qualities. Unfortunately, you lose your Bane and most of your Judgments without any real mechanical gain.

What you’re getting

Spells: Alters spellcasting. You can't cast any spells with the [chaotic] descriptor. That's not a huge loss, but I have to ding it for taking away options without giving you anything in return.
Inflexible Will: Replaces Monster Lore. Confusion will mess you up, and we obviously don't want that; however, this bonus doesn't scale throughout the levels like Monster Lore does, and the bonus is much, much more situational.
Fearsome Jurist: Replaces Bane. No. No no no no no. You don't trade away Bane, and certainly not for powers this mediocre. Jurist won't get you anything that you need during combat; menacing gives a +2 to hit when flanking, but Bane can give you that all the time. The improved crit range is the only upside—and it's not enough.
Aura of Repetition: Replaces second judgment. The domain power itself is of questionable worth; when you're giving up your second Judgment in order to use it, that crosses the line into "bad" territory.
Double Jeopardy: Replaces greater bane. You're still not getting anything useful by combining jurist and menacing. Greater Bane is the better ability by a country mile.
Aura of Reversion: Replaces third judgment. Lots of enemies have transmutation or polymorph abilities at their beck and call by this level, and Aura of Reversion will penalize them heavily for trying to use those abilities. Is it worth trading a third Judgment? I'd argue not. Fort negates, anyway, so you probably won't land it.

Is it worth it?

You're losing Bane, greater bane, and all later iterations of Judgment for some very mediocre abilities. Skip it and consider Spellbreaker or Witch Hunter for your Dwarf. You'll be glad you did.

Exorcist (Ultimate Magic)

What's the niche?

Exorcists, no surprise, have some good tools for putting an end to possession. Then again, how often do you run into that?

What you’re getting

Verdict of Exorcism: Replaces second judgment. How often does someone on your team get possessed? And would you really want to end your Judgment early to expel the possessing entity? You're giving up your second Judgment to do this, remember.
Verdict of Exile: Replaces third judgment. You can force the possessing entity to return to its home plane if it fails its Will save. Again, how often is this happening to you?
Closed Mind: Replaces Slayer. Immune to compulsion is amazing, but you get it far too late to be of much use.
Verdict of Anathema: Replaces True Judgment. For that one-in-a-million scenario where five enemies within ten feet of each other are all possessed! /s

Is it worth it?

Jeez. No. Any archetype giving up your Judgments for one extraordinarily rare circumstance is bad, bad, bad. Just skip it already.

Expulsionist (Haunted Heroes Handbook)

What's the niche?

Anti-haunt, anti-incorporeal. Expulsionists keep it simple.

What you’re getting

Expel Spirit: Replaces Domain. CHA is likely to be one of your dump stats, which is too bad, because I quite like getting a little extra versatility through channeling. Even imperfect as it is, it’s still considerably better than many of the turds on the domain list. As with so many Inquisitor archetypes, better in undead-heavy campaigns.
Expulsionist Lore: Replaces Monster Lore. From a versatility standpoint, not a good trade. Ghosts and haunts simply aren’t common enough in most campaigns to warrant a power dedicated specifically to identifying them. You’ve certainly got the whole package if that’s your campaign, though!
Spirit Sleuth: Replaces discern lies. Love the flavor on this ability—feels like some sort of psychic sensitivity that lets you figure out how to put the uneasy dead to rest. Again, though, probably not universally useful.

Is it worth it?

You’ll know whether it is based on the AP or homebrew world your GM has constructed. If it’s Strange Aeons, Ravenloft, etc., give it a look-see.

Faith Hunter (Ultimate Intrigue)

What's the niche?

Faith Hunters claim to be better at combat against creatures of one specific alignment that opposes yours along the law/chaos or good/evil axes. You only get one alignment of the nine, however, so it’s a limited, limited range.

What you’re getting

Sworn Enemy: Replaces Domain and the Justice and Destruction Judgments. Okay: so you only get 1/day until 10th level? And your Smite doesn’t scale in damage? And it has to be one alignment (Chaotic Evil, say) instead of an alignment spectrum? And it replaces key Inquisitor abilities? What a crock of horse shit.
Enemy Revealed: Replaces Detect Alignment. Remember how Detect Alignment is extraordinarily versatile, and can be used at-will? What if we took away that versatility and only let you use it a few times per day?
Hateful Bane: Alters Bane. Great, so now Bane doesn’t function unless your enemy matches your Sworn Enemy alignment. Another steaming pile.

Is it worth it?

*Soft retching sounds in the background*

Hexenhammer (Horror Adventures)

What's the niche?

Hexenhammers purportedly draw inspiration from the Witch class, but the implementation is done...poorly.

What you’re getting

Withering Gaze: Replaces Stern Gaze and Monster Lore. Where to start? Shaken is actually better than Evil Eye, especially if you have a way to heighten it to frightened or panicked; the ability specifies that you need to demoralize as a standard action, which means no Dazzling Display, Cornugon Smash, Enforcer, etc.; and you're trading much of your demoralize potential away with Stern Gaze. Hard to tell what Paizo was thinking with this ability.
Pride and Penance: Alters Domain. So let me get this straight: anytime you use one half of your archetype abilities, you lose access to the other half? Bullshit.
Cunning Mind: Replaces Cunning Initiative. Doesn't scale with WIS, provides a niche bonus, and will be suppressed for a combat or the entire day if you use a Hex or Witch spell. Again, what was Paizo thinking?
Hexcrafter: Replaces Teamwork feats. Limited hex list, slower progression, no access to Grand Hexes, and of course the shitty Pride and Penance mechanic. Worst of all, though, is the 1/day rider on all of these. What is the point of a hex that you can't use all day? Unlimited-use hexes are the only feature keeping the Witch class viable!
Dark Trade: Replaces Solo Tactics. No. NO. You should be able to use hexes as many times as you want without trading away Cunning Mind or your domain powers for the entire day, not to mention a use of Judgment.
Witchcraft: Alters spellcasting. Whoop de doo, a few Witch spells. Hard to get excited about this when the rest of the archetype is certifiably terrible.

Is it worth it?

What an absolute turd of an archetype. It's too bad, because the whole "consorting with dark powers to combat even darker powers" trope never gets old. Take a look at Flaming Crab Games’ Witchknight archetype for a Witch/Inquisitor hybrid done right.

Iconoclast (Ultimate Combat)

What's the niche?

Iconoclasts get really good at sundering or otherwise inactivating magical items. And I get it, they can occasionally be bad news, but even in situations where that’s true, the Iconoclast can’t do anything particularly beter than base Inquisitors.

What you’re getting

Shake Effects: Replaces Monster Lore. Untyped bonus. Some magical items can be very powerful, but it probably won't come up enough to be useful, and the bonus doesn't scale in any way.
Detect Magic: Replaces detect [alignment]. "I'll take a single cantrip instead of those four 1st-level spells, please"...said no one, ever. Seriously, this is a bad trade. Every Inquisitor can and should be choosing detect magic as a cantrip at 1st level, no questions asked. The Royal Accuser archetype at least has the good grace to give you at-will greater detect magic.
Dispelling Attack: Replaces discern lies. You have dispel magic on your spell list. You should use that instead of this ability, which requires a successful attack to even get to the caster level check.
Negating Critical: Replaces Exploit Weakness. I think I'd rather suppress regeneration and pierce DR instead of suppressing a minor magical item. The ability makes a big deal of how it stacks with critical feats, but you won't have the BAB to acquire those until very, very late in your career.
Destroy Artifact: Replaces True Judgment. Maybe your experience differs from mine, but how often do you find yourself needing to destroy a minor artifact? Besides which, you only get one chance to destroy it! Hard pass.

Is it worth it?

No. You're not giving up your strongest abilities to get any of these, but they're either redundant or entirely too niche to be worth trading away even your flavor powers.

Immolator (Advanced Race Guide)

What's the niche?

Ifrits can take the Immolator archetype, which is all about cleansing heathens with a refiner’s fire. That race has bubkes going for it in terms of stats for Inquisitors, though, which limits the archetype’s usefulness. Over-reliance on fire damage doesn’t help.

What you’re getting

Servant of the Flame: Alters Domain. Your deity has to have the Fire domain in their portfolio, which for the Big 20 means Asmodeus or Sarenrae. Fortunately, both Asmodeus and Sarenrae have better domains available, as Fire kind of sucks (with the exception of the Ash subdomain).
Immolation Judgment: Replaces Smiting Judgment. Unfortunately, the fact that Immolators deal exclusively in fire damage means that they need some way to deal with fire-resistant enemies; the Immolation Judgment, therefore, isn't so much an upgrade as the cost of doing business. Equally unfortunately, this means that Immolation will have to be up for many fights in place of Judgments like Justice or Destruction that could boost your damage output.
Burnt Offering: Replaces Bane and greater bane. Bane and greater bane are the cornerstones of your damage capabilities, and replacing them with flaming or flaming burst weapons doesn't come close to cutting it. A strict downgrade from the base Inquisitor.
Judgment by Fire: Alters True Judgment. The usual save-or-die that Inquisitors get at Level 20, except fire-immune enemies aren't affected and anyone killed by it does a small AoE as they burst into flames. I'd sooner be able to hit anyone with this attack, not just enemies who can be damaged by fire. Anyway, 99% of campaigns won't ever see this capstone.

Is it worth it?

Definitely not. Ifrit stat distributions are crap for Inquisitors, and the synergy between Wildfire Heart / Cunning Initiative and Stern Gaze / Fiery Glare doesn't go far enough toward making up for it. This archetype is good in concept, but the loss of Bane and greater bane without a suitable replacement just pushes it into terrible territory.

Infiltrator (Ultimate Magic)

What's the niche?

Infiltrators give you some tools for pulling the wool over even other Inquisitors’ eyes, which is intriguing if you’re going to be, well, infiltrating. It’s not bad, just limiting—the Heretic, Royal Accuser, and Urban Infiltrator give you better abilities for what you give up.

What you’re getting

Misdirection: Replaces Stern Gaze. True, other Inquisitors will always be good at seeing through your disguises, and true, this would help prevent that from happening. In general, though, you won't be infiltrating enemy strongholds enough to make this worthwhile.
Guileful Lore: Replaces Monster Lore. You're losing a bunch of skill ranks in your Knowledges for Bluff and Diplomacy boosts. It's not the worst trade in the world, but I say there are easier ways of bumping your social skills.
Forbidden Lore: Replaces Track. There aren’t many spell specifically keyed to alignment, so Forbidden Lore doesn’t buy you much, barring someone saying "Cast this necromancy spell or we'll know you're a snitch."
Necessary Lies: Replaces discern lies. I'd rather be the interrogator than the interrogated, but then you wouldn't be playing an Infiltrator.

Is it worth it?

Unless you regularly go into deep cover among enemy organizations with their own Inquisitors, the base Inquisitor is probably stronger.

Keeper of the Current (Blood of the Sea)

What's the niche?

A real missed opportunity for the “Oceanquisitor” pun, but so be it. Keepers of the Current are the token aquatic version of the Inquisitor class.

What you’re getting

Underwater Hunter: Replaces Track. For a certain type of campaign, necessary. For most campaigns, useless.
Marine Magic: Alters spellcasting. Snowball, aqueous orb, ride the waves, geyser, and holy ice are all good candidates for you.
Rudderless Attack: Replaces discern lies. A free slowing effect just for attacking people with Bane, which you'll be doing anyway.

Is it worth it?

Much like the Cloaked Wolf, the Keeper of the Current might be okay in seafaring campaigns like Skull and Shackles or The Ruins of Azlant. You're not giving up much, all things considered, but you're also not getting much in return apart from some slight versatility in spellcasting and a free rider on Bane. One of my favorite character concepts is a Royal Accuser/Keeper of the Current Inquisitor whose mission it is to hunt down Aboleth influence in humanity’s governments. Cool stuff.

Kinslayer (Advanced Race Guide)

What's the niche?

This Dhampir-only archetype hunts down other Dhampirs, disgusted with the circumstances of their own creation. Cool, cool concept, and Slayer’s Brand is a flavorful power that keeps growing as you grow.

What you’re getting

Slayer's Brand: Replaces Destruction Judgment. The base ability obviously sucks, but we can't really consider it in isolation, because the main feature of Slayer's Brand is...
Greater Brand: Replaces Teamwork feats. Yeah, here's where Slayer's Brand actually gets good. As levels go by and you can pass up more Teamwork feats for Brand upgrades, the ability gets better and better: make it a ranged touch attack, make it affect anything Evil, make it affect two targets at once, make it hit harder, make it impose penalties on the enemy. It takes a long time to get rolling, but there's also no limit on how many times per day you can use it, and no limit on how many times it can affect one target. Hell, after a certain point you could be making ranged touch attacks against Undead and Evil enemies all day. Probably even better if your GM would allow you to take upgrades in place of regular feats.
Undead Sense: Replaces detect [alignment]. For a campaign like Carrion Crown, this is brilliant. The bonus to identifying vampires is cool and thematic, too. Of limited use in campaigns that focus on other enemy types.

Is it worth it?

Dhampirs have awful stat distributions for Inquisitors, but their resistance to energy drain and negative levels makes them an intriguing choice for undead-heavy campaigns. As with so many Inquisitor archetypes, you won't experience universal benefits as a Kinslayer, but the archetype does excel against certain enemies.

Reaper of Secrets (Dirty Tactics Toolbox)

What's the niche?

Ah, old Father Skinsaw: Norgorber has always been one of my favorite evil gods, and this archetype is explicitly one of his. The lynchpin of the archetype is Mind-Game Tactics, which is unconventional and tricky to leverage. See what you make of it.

What you’re getting

Bound by Secrecy: Norgorber will obviously be a no-go in most campaigns, but if you're playing an evil campaign or are okay being a true neutral assassin, this won't be a big deal.
Deceitful Lore: Replaces Monster Lore. The bonus to Disguise likely won't see much use, especially with so many disguise spells on your list; having a godly Bluff skill might be of more use, but (as in life) it's hard to keep a bunch of lies going and people do tend to find out. Maybe for a feinting build when combined with Sanctified Slayer?
Soul-Piercing Gaze: Replaces Stern Gaze. It’s an Insight bonus, rather than a Morale bonus, and you need a swift action to activate. Probably pretty even-stevens with Stern Gaze, in the end, though you do lose much of your combat effectiveness.
Mind-Game Tactics: Replaces Solo Tactics. Incredible flavor to this ability, but mechanically it’ll slow you down. Only one enemy can be affected by Mind-Game Tactics (whereas every ally can provide the benefits of Solo Tactics) and you’re burning swift actions to change the focus of your Soul-Piercing Gaze. It would be okay with Teamwork feats that focus on adjacent allies, because moving into an enemy’s threatened area would give you benefits instead of drawbacks, but that upside is outweighed by the fact that you can’t control the tactics of your enemies. (/u/large_kobold points out that Mind-Game Tactics makes it possible to use Betrayal feats on enemies. This might raise the ability slightly up from red, but it’s still a looong way to yellow.)

Is it worth it?

Other archetypes do subterfuge better, unfortunately. I like Mind-Game Tactics conceptually, but I think you’d need it to affect all enemies in order to bump it into “useful” range. Scaling the number of targets affected by Soul-Piercing Gaze would be another necessary buff.

Relic Hunter (Occult Adventures)

What's the niche?

Relic Hunters are Occultist/Inquisitor hybrids, which means free implement schools and Focus powers.

What you’re getting

Spellcasting: Alters spellcasting. For those of you unfamiliar with Occultists, they’re psychic magic users whose power comes from magical objects called implements; the type of object used as an implement depends on the school of magic with which they're invested. Occultists can only learn spells that belong to one of their implement schools, so Relic Hunters need to think carefully about which roles they intend to play in the group and then choose their implement schools accordingly. This feature forces the Inquisitor, already something of a specialist caster, into an even more niche spellcasting role. Your Focus powers help compensate somewhat for this drop in versatility, but I still can’t account it a positive change.
Relics and Deific Focus: Replaces Judgment, second judgment, third judgment, Domain, Bane, and greater bane. So now you're an Occultist: you get a pool of Mental Focus (rebranded here as Deific Focus) that let you use Focus powers depending on your implement schools. There's waaay too much content for me to review individually here, but CTP has an excellent guide to the Occultist out there that will give you the run-down. Divination and Conjuration (at least according to CTP) are strong places to start at 1st level.

Is it worth it?

Q: If you take away Judgment, Domain, and Bane, are you still an Inquisitor? A: Maybe? There's no doubt that the Occultist's resonant and focus powers can be extremely potent: the Divination resonant power, Third Eye, for example, can grant you constant see invisibility for the entire day. Reading that, you think, Wow! Incredible! The Relic Hunter gets half the number of focus powers that an Occultist does, however, and even though your relic schools progress slightly faster than the Occultist's implement schools do, you're still going to be locked out of a significant portion of your spells for a significant portion of your adventuring career. You’re ultimately sacrificing all your damage-dealing potential for fewer Occultist tricks than an Occultist has. My feeling is that you should play an Occultist if you want to, but you shouldn’t look here for an effective mix of the two classes.

Secret Seeker (Ultimate Intrigue)

What's the niche?

Secret Seekers get some elements of psychic espionage, but sacrificing Bane and greater bane already makes them suspect.

What you’re getting

Occult Lore: Replaces Monster Lore. Prognostication is slightly more useful than Read Aura, but neither is earth-shatteringly good. I'd prefer Monster Lore in most circumstances.
Detect Mind: Replaces Bane and greater bane. In isolation, getting these spells at will isn't bad. It's far from good, but not bad. When we ask Detect Mind to fill the giant-sized shoes of Bane and greater bane, though, we can see just how far short it falls.
Seek Mind: Replaces Exploit Weakness. I can't think of a time when I'd need to find somebody with a specific fear of snakes, or a specific desire to find the Ark of the Covenant. More useful just to see what thoughts, desires, or anxieties are bubbling near the surface and roll with them.

Is it worth it?

Sorry, no. When you give up Bane, you'd better have something damn good to replace it, and Secret Seeker simply doesn't. I do think a Secret Seeker would make an interesting NPC class, e.g., a villain who always knows what you fear and feel.

Suit Seeker (The Harrow Handbook)

What's the niche?

Suit Seekers are Inquisitors who rely on a harrow deck to provide random bonuses in accordance with fate's flow.

What you’re getting

Alignment: Suit Seekers need to be some brand of Neutral.
Class Skills: The skills you lose aren't big deals, but picking up Use Magical Device is a big, big deal. So many things you can do with wands in Pathfinder.
Domain: All of the listed domains, subdomains, and inquisitions are kind of shitty, with the exception of Luck.
Improvised Array: Alters Judgment, second judgment, and third judgment. It's way, way too random for combat, and being immune to a single ability's damage or getting +4 to an ability score isn't mechanically fantastic.
Eye of the Harrow: Replaces detect [alignment]. A minor, minor buff that's decided entirely randomly. Nah.
Unravel Array: Replaces True Judgment. It's not even a save-or-die, like True Judgment, and you've got to destroy part of your deck to do it.

Is it worth it?

No. Drawing harrow cards is too random, and the benefits you get from drawing are too mechanically weak.

Traceless Operative (Ultimate Intrigue)

What's the niche?

You...hide bodies better? Okay.

What you’re getting

Conceal Evidence: Replaces Stern Gaze and Monster Lore. How often do you need to conceal a crime scene? Bleh.
Trackless: Replaces Track. Again, you'll need to conceal your own tracks even less often than you'll need to follow others' tracks.
Uncanny Dodge: Replaces Bane. This is so not worth it, it's not even funny. Uncanny Dodge and its big brother are okay, I'll grant you, but Bane is your primary damage dealer. You need Bane.
Improved Uncanny Dodge: Replaces greater bane. As the prior ability.

Is it worth it?

No, no, definitely not. Giving up Bane, Stern Gaze, and Monster Lore for essentially nothing in return is unacceptably bad. Stay away.

Vampire Hunter (Inner Sea Magic)

What's the niche?

Better against vampires and undead. No surprises there.

What you’re getting

Smiting Judgment: Alters Smiting Judgment. Fairly even trade, aligned weapon for silver weapon. You'll need it if you're going to fight a lot of vampires.
Purity Judgment: Alters Purity Judgment. Again, losing poison and curse resistance in favor of disease and energy drain is probably even-stevens.
Silversmith: Replaces detect alignment. Why can't you just buy these items? I know crafting silver weapons, blanches, etc. would save you a bit of wealth by level, but this still seems too restrictive.
Bane: Alters Bane. Your Bane doesn't function against anything but undead, which kind of obliterates the point of having a flexible bane weapon to begin with.
Sun Strike: 1d6 extra damage and the equivalent of a light spell. Snoooooze.

Is it worth it?

Pure and simple, no. Kinslayer and Royal Accuser both fill the anti-undead niche better than Vampire Hunter.

Vigilant Defender (Ultimate Intrigue)

What's the niche?

Similar to the Tactical Leader, the Vigilant Defender is a more team-oriented archetype. Unfortunately, it doesn’t perform quite as well as the Tactical Leader.

What you’re getting

Shared Judgments: Alters Judgment. The wording's a bit funny on this one, but I'm going to assume that what Paizo means is, "At any point during a combat in which you have used your Judgment ability, you may expend a swift action to grant the benefits of your active Judgments to your teammates." It's a nice little tool to let the team go nova right at the end of a combat, but for longer hauls you're probably better off with the lend judgment/greater suite of spells.
Protect the Faithful: Replaces Stern Gaze. Perception is probably the only universally useful skill granted by this ability; Stealth won't help the fighter clanking around in full plate, Bluff can get you into trouble if you fail, and Disguise is far too situational. On balance, I think I'd rather have Stern Gaze.
Bolster the Wounded: Replaces Exploit Weakness. Taking the edge off a crit is okay, but I still think Inquisitors are better suited to liquefying the enemies that went after their teammates, rather than soaking the damage themselves.
True Vengeance: Replaces True Judgment. We've been over this: having abilities that rely on you or your teammates dying in order to function is a bad gamble.

Is it worth it?

Eh, I can't get too excited about it. The best ability is Shared Judgments, and even that is just a nice little perk at the end of combat, probably nothing game-breakingly powerful.

INQ705: Dips, VMC, Prestige, Gestalt
(Special Topics in Inquisition)

Dips

Full-BAB martial classes will likely be most interested in dipping into Inquisitor, but a two-level dip is about all they’ll need to get the most they reasonably can out of the class. Monster Lore, Cunning Initiative, and Domain abilities are all keyed off of stats rather than class level, making them ideal features to give to a WIS-heavy martial class like Brawler, Monk, or even Ranger. Those without any innate casting of their own will appreciate the few orisons and 1st-level spells young Inquisitors get, as well as the suite of alignment detection tools that kick in at 2nd level.

As far as dipping from Inquisitor into other classes goes, the reasons why you might choose to do so are numerous, and the methods of doing so are even more numerous than that. Your dip choices will be guided by your build goals, so I can offer you only a few pieces of universal advice. First, casters get disadvantaged by multiclassing more severely than martial classes do, so do what you need to in another class and then get out. The Bane Baldric item can help you progress your Bane rounds back to normal levels, and the Magical Knack trait (tacky though it is) grants you a +2 trait bonus to caster level, ensuring that your SR penetration, etc. don’t fall too terribly behind. Second, look for features that are either granted without any caveats at all or that scale with attributes, not class level. Dips are meant to snag you feats and low-hanging class abilities, so go for the stuff that will give you the most for your sacrifice of Inquisitor levels.

A short list of common dips:

Fighter X: You’re here for feats, BAB, and weapon/armor proficiencies. Get as many as you need and get out.
Unchained Rogue 3: You’re here for DEX-to-damage, primarily, but the free Weapon Finesse and sneak attack dice don’t hurt.
Gunslinger 5: Less a dip than a lifestyle, Gunslinger 5 gives you DEX-to-damage with firearms. Taking a five-level “break” is obviously not going to do your casting or Inquisitor class features any favors, but if you’re into the flavor of a Mysterious Stranger-type of character, it might be worth consideration.
Rake Rogue 1: Anytime you would deal sneak attack damage, you get to make a free Intimidate check. It’s not ideal, but it might get the job done if you really have no other build space to get scary with.
Inspired Blade Swashbuckler 1: The one-level wonder! You’re here for Weapon Finesse and Weapon Focus (Rapier). As with so many random dipping byblows, a Deed or two is nice but not the main reason you’re here.
Daring Champion Cavalier 1: Again, free Weapon Finesse. Tactician doesn’t hurt to have, either!

Variant Multiclassing

Variant Multiclassing (or VMC, for short—Pathfinder players love their acronyms) was introduced in Pathfinder Unchained, and provided a means to gain levels in two classes concurrently rather than in two classes sequentially. Unfortunately, the price that VMC exacts in exchange for your secondary class’ features is your feat selection at 3rd, 7th, 11th, 15th, and 19th levels. For some classes that get multiple bonus feats (usually full-martial classes like Fighter, Brawler, Monk, Ranger, etc.) this is an excellent trade, as a feat or two lost won’t break the bank in the grand scheme of things. Inquisitors are different creatures, however, with zero bonus combat feats. DEX-to-damage? Impossible until at least 9th level. Basic Power Attack? Impossible until 5th level. Forced to bet the odds on an attempt to walk across the Pacific Ocean rather or an attempt to build a workable ranged Inquisitor VMC, I’d bet the former outcome every time. Given how weak the VMC abilities are overall and how much of your combat effectiveness you have to sacrifice in order to VMC, there’s no real choice here. Wish I could recommend it, but if you want a non-gimped character, don’t VMC.

Prestige Classes

I have to say, I’m a sucker for Prestige Classes. They get a lot of flack from the community at large, understandably so: when your character’s effectiveness in-game is largely determined by class level, taking a 10-level detour out of your starting class to pick up a flavorful yet mechanically weak set of abilities just doesn’t make sense. And yet, PrCs are great petri dishes for classes based on specialized organizations, regions, or religions; they’re proving grounds for creative mechanics and unlikely melanges of classes. Perhaps most importantly, PrCs give us a means of pumping the brakes on our own power curve as PCs. Why would we want to do that? To spare your GM the massive headaches that can come from trying to balance encounters against a party full of PCs who are min-maxed to the gills, for one, or maybe just because characters with flaws are often more interesting than characters without them. Whatever the reason you go Prestige, you’ll want to try to strike a balance between meeting the entry requirements, getting something out of the class, and not giving up too much from Inquisitor. We’ve got a couple of different tacks to try as we accomplish those goals.

Streamlining entry requirements. Skills are usually easy to come by as an Inquisitor; our list is good and we get plenty of ranks per level. Feats, proficiencies, and either BAB or spellcasting are a bit harder, and might delay your entry. Special requirements such as the Gray Gardener’s public trial and execution will have to be undertaken with your GM’s permission anyway, so there’s not much lost there. At any rate, we’ll favor PrCs that we can get into using mostly skills and one or two feats.
Maximizing your gains. We want PrCs that shore up the Inquisitor’s mechanical weaknesses. A good Reflex save is nice, full BAB is nice, bonus feats are nice, bonus proficiencies are nice, and of course any fun class features are also nice. You know the drill by now on what Inquisitors are good at and what they struggle with.
Minimizing your losses. We want PrCs that force us to give up as little as possible from the base Inquisitor. Some PrCs allow you to advance your Inquisitor levels to some degree, whether greater (Evangelist, e.g.) or lesser (Chernasardo Warden, e.g.). A greater number will advance your spellcasting, but not your class features. Many PrCs will not advance anything from your base class, leaving you in anguish, wallowing in freakish misery forever. The Magical Knack trait will help with CL, and the Favored Prestige Class/Prestigious Spellcaster feats can ease some of the pain of spellcasting, although let’s be honest, who wants to burn two feats for one level of casting?

Aspis Agent (Paths of Prestige)

What's the niche?

Professional treasure hunters who are great in a dungeon crawl—and great at concealing their true intentions. Infiltrators and other intrigue specialists will find plenty to like here.

Where and how do we enter?

Skill requirements on top of skill requirements! Holy cow. Rogues or Slayers would probably have an easier time with this, but we might be able to get away with it. Proficiencies and spells are harder; the Royal Accuser can get detect secret doors, but barring a feat, only Inquisitors of Calistria get whip proficiency. Not daunted yet? Okay. On we go.

How far do we go?

Aspis Agent 2 gives you the most bang for your buck with one Agency Secret, the ability to mask your alignment, and some trapfinding abilities. If you’re savoring the flavor, Aspis Agent 6 is probably your next best exit point, netting you a little sneak attack damage, some more Agency Secrets, and the ability to shift your alignment as an immediate action.

What you're getting

Trapfinding / Trap Sense: It might be useful if you don’t have a dedicated Disable Device specialist on hand. Given that traps typically target your weak Reflex save, too, you might benefit from the boost to saves. Overall, though, a mediocre gain.
Agency Secrets: Bonus feats are the big draw here, although Conceal Thoughts is highly useful for Infiltrators and other sneaky snakes. Note that you need to qualify for feats normally.
Mask Alignment: Suuuper useful if you’re trying to act as a rogue agent in an enemy organization. Disguises are no good if a simple divination spell can ping you as obviously not belonging there.

Is it worth it?

Bonus feats and alignment obfuscation powers are all well and good, but man, those entry requirements are steep. All your skill points will go into qualifying for the PrC, and there’s no scaling of class features or spellcasting. Unless you really, really want to be a divine Indiana Jones, leave this PrC to Rogues and Slayers.

Brewkeeper (Path of the Righteous)

What's the niche?

Worshipers of the Accidental God who combine draught brewing with metamagic-laden casting.

Where and how do we enter?

No particular requirements, just an already-useful feat and a measly number of skill ranks in Craft (Alchemy). You’ll qualify by 6th level.

How far do we go?

Brewkeeper 5 gets you Brew Specialization and the ability to apply two metamagic effects to your draughts, but Brewkeeper 6 unlocks Maximize Spell and the ability to apply two Harmful Homebrews.

What you're getting

Distilled Spells: You get to turn all those self-buff spells into potions that can be consumed as move actions, instead of cast as standard actions. Depending on your GM’s interpretation of the Urgathoa/Accelerated Drinker trait combo, you might even be able to drink those buffs as swift actions, which is incredible. Furthermore, you can pass out buffs to allies ahead of time so that they don’t waste your action economy (which should be spent murdering things) on casting.
Faithful Drinker: Sacred is an uncommon bonus type, so you could get some decent mileage here. Pity neither the buff duration nor the bonus to saves scale.
Helpful Homebrew: Extend Spell is a fabulous metamagic feat for Inquisitors, who primarily focus on self-buffing, but those level increases hurt. Now you’ve got a special reserve of points dedicated to metamagic, and you don’t even have to spend a feat! Empower and Maximize are great for blasters; you might want to save those metamagic feats for healing. Silent, Tenacious, and Fleeting are all of lesser value.
Harmful Homebrew: Theoretically very good, but that Fort save DC will never, ever get very high. Used on softer targets like casters, Harmful Homebrew can still be useful, and hey, at least you get free sickened even on a successful save.
Potion Master: Remember that you can brew your own potions if you took this PrC, so scaling them with your caster level instead of the potion’s is really nothing but benefit. And you get to add a Helpful Homebrew!
Brew Specialization: Even one combo will burn most of your Brew Points for the day, but it can make for a hell of a bang.

Is it worth it?

If you want to up your buffing game, yes. Your spells per day won’t suffer much, but you’re trading many of the Inquisitor’s offensively oriented class features for the mostly Brewkeeper’s defensively oriented class features, giving you versatility and tankiness, but slightly less power. It’s quintessential Cayden Cailean flavor, too, if you’re into the RP as much as I am.

Chernasardo Warden (PF #116: Fangs of War)

What's the niche?

Ranger- or Slayer-like savants of wooded combat who hit and run with a variety of guerilla tactics.

Where and how do we enter?

Skill ranks and alignment are easily done; BAB, on the other hand, will force you to wait until 8th level before entering. The caveat of killing a creature with a CR 5 levels higher than yours is...difficult. At best. Your GM will need to be on board with your PrC choice, and maybe work with you to tailor the encounter; without serious surprise damage, traps, or high-level buffs, you’re not winning that fight.

How far do we go?

Honestly? Chernasardo Warden 10. Aligned Class ensures that you only lose out on 5 levels of Inquisitor features in exchange for 10 levels of Warden; the bonus feats, tactics, and SLAs are incredible; and the save bonuses from Unchained Heart just keep getting better.

What you're getting

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: You pick up martial weapons. Nice get, although it comes late enough that you won’t be able to build your previous 7 Inquisitor levels around access to them.
Aligned Class: Every other level, you get all the benefits of an Inquisitor level! Incredible, and Evangelist is the only other PrC that I know of that does it. You’ll really, really appreciate this feature.
Forest Magic: These SLAs will rock your socks off, and you just keep getting more and more of them. My picks would be longstrider (1), fog cloud or spider climb (3), plant growth or spectral scout (5), nondetection or sylvan hideaway (7), and freedom of movement (9).
Unchained Heart: Untyped bonuses to Will saves vs. compulsions and [mind-affecting] spells—i.e., the most dangerous saves to fail. And the bonuses scale. Yep, yep, yep.
Bonus Feats: And this class gets bonus feats? Hahaha, gross. Yes, you always want those. There’s something here for everyone, although the list leans slightly toward favoring ranged combat.
Guerilla Tactics: Sneak attack, Exploit Weakness, and Preemptive Shot are universally useful. Good news is, you don’t have to pick! Just switch between tactics as a swift action, and enjoy the upgrade to two tactics at 9th level.
Phantom Strike: The cowering DC is likely to be low, unfortunately. Might be better off just taking the precision damage.

Is it worth it?

Wow. Wow wow wow. Even though Chernasardo Warden was clearly meant to be a Slayer or Ranger offshoot, you just pick up so much from this class without any huge sacrifices. Especially flavorful for, say, an Inquisitor of Erastil. The only reason I can think of that no one talks about this PrC is because it’s buried in an Ironfang Invasion book, not a Core book.

Dawnflower Anchorite (Path of the Righteous)

What's the niche?

Worshipers of Sarenrae that buff and blast using the power of the sun.

Where and how do we enter?

Skill ranks, easy. 2nd-level spells, also easy. You’ll be set up for your first Dawnflower Anchorite level at 6th.

How far do we go?

Dawnflower Anchorite 5 makes sense to pick up the move action Solar Invocation (+2) and two Credences. Apart from that, it’s really hard to argue with Dawnflower Anchorite 10: your casting won’t suffer much, and the Focused Class Feature Credence will ensure that your animal companion or Bane rounds progress as normal.

What you're getting

Solar Invocation: Competence bonuses are fairly easy to come by, but this is still a significant buff to hit, damage, and spell save DCs (!) that scales with level. The base ability is really only a chassis for cool Credences, so get ready. Obviously ticks up in usefulness as the action economy moves from standard actions to move actions and (if you stick it out until 10th level) swift actions.
Credence: Credences take Solar Invocation from a situationally okay power to a non-stop awesome power. Divine Light should be your first stop in order to make your Invocation universally useful, but after that, it’s open season. Focused Class Feature (Bane) will be a likely stop, as will Solar Defense—taken twice, you can really start protecting your team effectively. Dervish Dance and Sunlight Summons will find a home with melee and Monster Tactician Inquisitors, respectively, and Extra Invocations never hurts. Solar Weapons, Sun Blade, and Sun’s Mercy are generally not worthwhile.
Bask in Radiance: Ahhh, here come the team buffs. Casters will love the save DC buffs, and martials will love the buffs to hit and damage. You love both.
Sunbeam: Reflex saves tend to be the lowest as you move up in levels, so you might actually stand a chance of permanently blinding a good number of enemies. And sunbeam is patently OP vs. Undead, Oozes, etc.
Dawnflower Invocation: 10 free rounds of Solar Invocation (with a bonus) once per day is nice, but probably overkill at this point. The swift action Invocation is the real reason we came to 10th level.

Is it worth it?

Dawnflower Anchorite is pretty awesome. In terms of what you’re trading, it’s akin to swapping Judgment (your main progressing class feature as an Inquisitor) for the Bard’s Inspire Competence and some assorted other goodies. If you’re looking for an Inquisitor that can protect teammates much more effectively, this would be an excellent place to start.

Divine Scion (Inner Sea Magic)

What's the niche?

Specialists in certain aspects of the deities’ domains.

Where and how do we enter?

Skill ranks and two annoyingly mundane but useful feats. Not too steep, as these things are reckoned, and the typical 6th level entry.

How far do we go?

Divine Scion 3 is the best pick, grabbing you a Domain Specialization without losing out too much in the class features department.

What you're getting

Opposition Alignment: +1 CL to overcome SR is useful, but not too useful. Remember, Inquisitors aren’t usually trying to affect other creatures with spells.
Domain Specialization: You won’t get any of the healing benefits owing to your lack of domain spells. That’s a bummer, but it does free you to choose any of your deity’s domains, rather than the one you selected at 1st level. Choice is nice!

Is it worth it?

Three levels of Inquisitor features for some minor, yet permanent, buffs. You could make worse trades.

Evangelist (Inner Sea Gods)

What's the niche?

Powerful representatives of the gods that advance in a previous class at almost the same rate as their PrC.

Where and how do we enter?

Deific Obedience is 100% necessary to the class, so it’s not a loss. Skill ranks are easy to pick up, making it possible to enter at 6th level. Note that SLAs do not count for entry into Evangelist, so sorry, Aasimar with daylight.

How far do we go?

Once you get past that first level, Evangelist is nothing but gravy. Go Evangelist 10 unless you’re super concerned about your Will save or something—you’ll get all your other class features anyway.

What you're getting

Skilled: Sure, why not add even more skills to the already skilled Inquisitor? Acrobatics, Knowledge (Local), Sleight of Hand, and Use Magic Device are all fine picks.
Aligned Class: The class-defining feature of Evangelist, you essentially lose only one level of Inquisitor class features and spells in return for 10 levels of Evangelist. Fabulous.
Protective Grace: Cool, more AC.
Divine Boons: Evangelists get access to Deific Obedience boons much faster than normal, which is nothing but good news for you. Walter still has the best Guide to Deific Obediences for those thinking about this path.
Gift of Tongues: Similar to Skilled and Protective Grace, I sure won’t say no, it being essentially free.
Multitude of Talents: Largely superfluous, given that Inquisitors and Evangelists get so many skill ranks.
Spiritual Form: Telepathy, an untyped bonus to one attribute, and a fly speed for minutes/level? This PrC is just gross.

Is it worth it?

There’s essentially no reason not to take Evangelist if you’re going to take Deific Obedience. Faster access to boons can give you summons, SLAs, and bonuses unobtainable anywhere else, and the other benefits are minor yet undeniably free.

Gray Gardener (Paths of Prestige)

What's the niche?

Agents of the Revolutionary Council of Galt that share many of the same class features as Inquisitors.

Where and how do we enter?

Combat Reflexes seems like an unusual requirement, but the rest of the PrC’s prereqs are easily fulfilled.

How far do we go?

Gray Gardener 8 picks up many of your bonus feats, but Gray Gardener 9 gives you yet another SA die and the last upgrade to greater bane. You’ll have to decide whether to enter the PrC from Sanctified Slayer or base Inquisitor. I’d probably recommend SS.

What you're getting

Anonymity: Sure, why not? Inquisitors aren’t typically great at Bluff and Disguise without help from an Inquisition, so this helps you out quite a bit.
Sneak Attack: Your SA stacks with the Sanctified Slayer archetype’s SA, so hey, free damage!
Harsh Judgment: The Gray Gardener’s Judgment explicitly stacks with the Inquisitor’s, so this PrC is a good way of picking the feature back up if your archetype traded it away or if you want it to progress at the normal rate. As with the Inquisitor, GGs eventually get the ability to maintain two Judgments.
Stern Gaze: Sensing a pattern yet? Good way to progress more class features.
Bane: The GG’s Bane doesn’t stack explicitly with the Inquisitor’s, but as a GM I’d probably just allow my players to track it with HD, instead of class level. The GG’s version of Bane tracks nicely into Improved and greater bane later on, smoothing out the 2d6 → 3d6 → 4d6 progression.
Dramatic Interrogation: Tie someone up, get hefty Diplomacy bonuses against them and their friends. Finally, a new class feature!
Execution Feats: Bonus feats are awesome, and being excused from prereqs only sweetens the deal. Gang Up, Vital Strike, and Sidestep are the best on this list (if you have the means to deal nonlethal damage consistently, you should already have Enforcer) with the later feats being mostly fluff unless you’re a Sanctified Slayer going for Dastardly Finish/Merciless Butchery. More about that feat chain in the Feats section.
Sinister Bane: Relatively minor bonus at this level, but Inquisitors do love to flank. And look at that, you’ve got Gang Up for extra fun!
Slaying Judgment: An extra pop of damage once per day. Doesn’t hurt to try.

Is it worth it?

Part of the appeal of Gray Gardener is that it scales your main class features, Judgment/sneak attack and Bane, while also giving you access to features that archetypes might have traded away. The other appealing parts are the feat selection and skill buffs. There aren’t many Galt-related adventures yet, but the GG is still an excellent choice if you’re looking to trade away Teamwork feats and some spellcasting for even more combat brutality.

Hinterlander (Path of the Righteous)

What's the niche?

A bow-wielding scion of Erastil who defends farmlands and other sparsely populated corners of the world.

Where and how do we enter?

Endurance is highly mediocre, but can be acquired for free with the Shaman’s Apprentice half-orc racial trait. The other requirements are a cakewalk.

How far do we go?

Hinterlander 3/5 gets you most/all the feats you can siphon from the class; Hinterlander 7 nets you Imbue Arrow to facilitate a Bad Touch playstyle from afar; Hinterlander 8 grabs a last Favored Enemy.

What you're getting

Favored Enemy: In exchange for your slower progression, you get unique abilities based on the enemy type. Which type you pick will likely be campaign-specific; there aren’t really any trap options here, apart from perhaps Magical Beasts.
Master Archer: Improved Precise Shot or Point-Blank Master at 3rd level? Pinpoint Targeting at 5th level? Haha, that’s insane, especially for Inquisitors, who are so BAB-restricted. Ranged combat is feat-intensive, so these bonus feats are most welcome.
Fast Movement: Doesn’t even count as an enhancement bonus, so it stacks with other effects like expeditious retreat or longstrider.
Favored Terrain: A little specific, but the bonuses (especially to initiative) are okay.
Hinterland Stride: Could be useful in some wilderness areas.
Chosen Kin: Would it have broken the bank to give them the full bonus? Ech. Okay.
Defended Hearth: You start to be able to defend wider and wider swaths of land with Defended Hearth. I’m thinking campaigns like Ironfang Invasion or Giantslayer might like this ability.
Imbue Arrow: How’d you like to be able to use silence, blistering invective, barbed chains, or deeper darkness as an arrow attack? Do it, friend.

Is it worth it?

The effectiveness of the Hinterlander PrC is understandably dependent on the availability of hinterland terrain. That said, there are some powerful, powerful feats included under the Master Archer heading, making a 3- or 5-level dip appealing for ranged Inquisitors.

Holy Vindicator (Advanced Player’s Guide)

What's the niche?

A full-martial holy warrior who uses Channeling to protect themselves and smite enemies.

A special Nota Bene

Holy Vindicator is a bit of a weird PrC that was definitely designed for Clerics and Paladins. Inquisitors, who don’t naturally get Channels, appear at first glance to be ineligible—until you remember the Expulsionist archetype. Remember, the one that’s overly pigeonholed into fighting ghosts and haunts? Well, Holy Vindicator gives you a whole slew of better options for burning those Channels, including Channel Smite and Vindicator’s Shield. Take a look below. You’ll love it. (Thanks to /u/kuzcoburra for pointing out this excellent PrC choice!)

Where and how do we enter?

Expulsionists will get Alignment Channel, 1st-level spells, and Channel Energy as features at 1st level, and 5 ranks in Knowledge (Religion) shouldn’t be a stretch at all. After that, it’s simply a matter of waiting for BAB to catch up until we can enter at 8th level.

How far do we go?

If you’re not grabbed by the PrC as a whole, Holy Vindicator 1 nets you Vindicator’s Shield, an easy buff to AC that squishy Inquisitors should be interested in; because it scales with Channel dice rather than class level, it’s by far the easiest dip. For those who savor the flavor, Holy Vindicator 5 gets you Channel Smite and Bloodfire for some offensive oomph, while Holy Vindicator 6 lets you activate your Stigmata as a move action. At Holy Vindicator 8, all your self-targeted heals are Maximized, and at Holy Vindicator 10 you get swift action Stigmata and the ability to cast bestow curse on anyone you crit or anyone who crits you. Yeah, HV starts nice and gets nasty fast.

What you're getting

Proficiencies: Free martial weapon and heavy armor proficiency! It’s perfect for the tankier playstyle of a HV.
Vindicator’s Shield: At the very least, it’s a Sacred bonus to AC that scales with your Channels, which will improve at every odd level. I wish we had some clarification about a few of the caveats, though: for instance, the text doesn’t specifically state that you expend a use of Channel Energy when using the ability, although that might be implied; likewise, the text doesn’t make me 100% clear on whether you need to be carrying or wielding the shield in order to activate the ability. It’s not a Shield bonus, so I’d be inclined to rule that you could be carrying the shield on your back or something. At any rate, it’s hefty protection, at least until you get hit.
Stigmata: In return for unstaunchable bleed damage, you get a bonus equal to half your HV level to AC, saves, to-hit, damage, or CL checks. The power here can’t be overstated: Stigmata (AC) + Vindicator’s Shield will turn you into an untouchable tank; to-hit and damage let you murder things very efficiently; and CL checks can be used to supplement SR penetration rolls. You’ll also enjoy this ability for the immunity to other sources of bleed damage it confers.
Faith Healing: This Warpriest-esque ability is what allows you to keep rolling despite taking all that bleed damage. Self-healing will always be either Empowered or Maximized without increasing spell level or casting time, which, ya know, is amazing. The ability appears not to apply to wands, as it specifically calls out spells that the HV casts.
Divine Wrath: Doom isn’t a good spell for this level, so you likely won’t use this ability much, if at all.
Bloodfire: The damage from your Channel Smite is starting to stack up pretty fast, no? HVs who channel negative energy actually have the advantage here, as their Smite can be used on any living creature, whereas HVs who channel positive energy are restricted to Undead.
Versatile Channel: Minor benefit, but not nothing.
Divine Judgment: Death knell is much better—cast it as an immediate action on a mook you knock below 0 HP, and you’ll be set up nicely for the rest of the fight.
Bloodrain: You can now attempt to sicken and bleed all enemies within your Channel radius. Will the save DC ever be high enough to make it? Probably not at this level, but you’re bound to catch a few bad saves. Bloodfire gets the slightly higher rating because the action economy of Channel Smite is better and you still get weapon damage even if the enemy passes their save.
Divine Retribution: Bestow curse is a fitting capstone to the class, and you’ll have far more 3rd-level spells to sacrifice than your Paladin brethren. Even if an attack incapacitates or kills you, you can still flip the magical bird as you go down in a bath of divine energy and blood. Cool stuff.

Is it worth it?

If you’re looking for a grim, bloody, Paladin-lite martial character who can dish out some serious damage, bleed effects, and debuffs, look no further. The back half of the class is a little weaker than the front half, but still not bad. Getting rewarded with death knell and bestow curse is a fun incentive to stick with it.

Master Spy (Advanced Player’s Guide)

What's the niche?

An infiltrator par excellence who supplements mundane Disguise checks with alignment-altering magic.

Where and how do we enter?

The feat taxes are unfortunate, but skills are always easy for Inquisitors.

How far do we go?

Master Spy 2 gives you the basic ability to conceal your alignment, an excellent ability for undercover Inquisitors or the Infiltrator archetype; Master Spy 5 sees the advent of constant nondetection and the Rogue’s Slippery Mind class feature; Master Spy 9 and its constant mind blank are basically an “I win” button against [mind-affecting] and divination magic, but 9 levels is a looong time to follow Master Spy.

What you're getting

Art of Deception: Inquisitors are pretty deceptive already, and the Master Spy ratchets that up to 11. Untyped bonuses, too, which are hard to come by.
Master of Disguise: Mostly fluff. Anybody remember that terrible movie with Dana Carvey?
Glib Lie: CL checks will beat this version of glibness rather early in your career, but always useful if they roll low.
Mask Alignment: Going deeper undercover will probably provoke more layers of scrutiny, but many cursory checks just involve a detect alignment spell and nothing else. This is perfect for sneaky snake Inquisitors.
Nonmagical Aura: Also mostly fluff.
Superficial Knowledge: Also also mostly fluff.
Concealed Thoughts: Now this is interesting. Feeding your more nosy enemies a line of BS about your thoughts is a great way to gain the upper hand.
Quick Change: The Disguise stuff in this PrC is unfortunately worse than what the Vigilante gets.
Elude Detection: Bingo! Constant nondetection should keep your thoughts as private as you want them to be.
Slippery Mind: You’ll rarely be affected by compulsions for more than a round with Slippery Mind. It’s a good get.

Is it worth it?

It’s a much, much narrower PrC than many of its colleagues on this list, but that’s reflected in the rating. If you truly want to delve into the “Inquisitor as an inscrutable agent working undercover behind enemy lines” aspects of the class, this right here is your PrC. Even a 2-level dip gets you a not-insignificant number of features, without impacting progression too terribly.

Noble Scion (Paths of Prestige)

What's the niche?

Members of the aristocracy who get servants, privilege, and a whole lot of money.

Where and how do we enter?

The skill prereqs (outside of Knowledge: Nobility) are likely ranks you would have been assigning anyway, so that’s no skin off your back. Half-elves can get a Skill Focus feat for free, and there are plenty of good skills on your list. The Noble Scion feat is your other option; Scion of Peace and Scion of Lore are likely the most inquisitorial options, but Heroes of the High Court introduced some others that are worth considering, most notably using your DEX or CON score in place of CHA for determining the effects of the Leadership feat. Because CHA is a bit of a dump stat for Inquisitors, you’ll definitely want to mull that choice. Entry is possible at 6th level.

How far do we go?

A simple dip for Noble Scion 2 gets you an improved version of Leadership, which without any bonuses is already the best feat in the game. Noble Scion 4 gives you a weekly allowance of gold that you can spend on any number of things (one interesting option, because “spellcasting services” are explicitly allowed, is to save for a few weeks and then get casters to hit you with permanent buffs like enchantment sight or see invisibility). Upper levels of Noble Scion grant bonus feats, an NPC dedicated to running your estate and generating wealth for you, and, at Noble Scion 10, the ability to reroll any of your face skills.

What you're getting

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: I won’t say no to martial weapons and heavy armor! Inquisitors can jump into this PrC faster than most, so you’re essentially getting two feats for free.
Affluent: Woo! Free money. 10 full levels of Noble Scion will net you a little over 41,000 gp from Affluent alone, which accounts for roughly ⅙ of the wealth by level you’d have if you started at 6th level and went straight through to 15th. That is a considerable amount of money, and prudent investment via downtime mechanics (you are nobility, after all) will only make that number grow.
Greater Leadership: Make that three feats. Leadership needs no introduction to most PF players, but for the uninitiated: Leadership is the strongest feat in the game because it essentially allows you to attract your own army of NPCs. You get a Cohort who’s close in level to you and can take class levels, and at later levels start to attract hordes of weaker Followers who perform grunt work, Aid Another on skill checks, churn out goods for you using Cooperative Crafting, etc. GMs are predisposed not to like the feat because it’s a tremendous amount of bookkeeping and busts the already-somewhat-broken power curve of the game unless it’s done very carefully. If you want to prevent it from being banned in your game, you need to plan well ahead of time with your GM about steps that you’re going to take in order not to destroy the game that they so lovingly crafted. Be a mensch, wouldya?
Aristocratic Erudition: Diplomacy and Knowledge (Local) are pretty universally good, and Knowledge (Nobility) will be necessary if you’re hobnobbing with the upper crust—which you will be. Decent.
Prestigious Influence: The text of the ability flavors Prestigious Influence largely as fluff—eat fancy meals, hire erotic acrobats, spread a mean rumor, hire some more erotic acrobats—but the resources at your disposal every week are astounding in comparison to the costs of most goods and services, and can be leveraged more or less constantly. Hire a guild of thieves to break into your rival’s house and steal everything that isn’t nailed down; hire a lawyer to deal with the inevitable legal fallout; hire a companion to soothe away the stresses of appearing in court; hire a doctor to treat the ensuing venereal disease. The world’s your oyster!
Regional Expertise: Feats! Feats feats featsfeats! There are a lot of skill feats on these lists, which, hey, I’m not knocking. Improved Initiative and any of the Weapon Focus feats are universally useful.
Dilettante Studies: Dilettante Studies in no way compensates for your lost spellcasting or Inquisitor abilities. That said, it’s better than nothing. Scholar and Warrior will be most people’s picks.
Servitor: By the time you reach this level, your Servitor can and possibly should be overseeing your vast business empire. Play the game of houses on a grand scale, become a manufacturing tycoon, scout out exotic investments in other lands—Noble Scion is all about doing ridiculous things on a ridiculous scale with ridiculous amounts of money, and Servitor gives you the ability to delegate that job.
Peerless Patrician: Inquisitors love all these skills, but it’s still a mite lackluster as a capstone.

Is it worth it?

Let’s be clear: if you go whole hog on Noble Scion, you won’t be identifiable as an Inquisitor. Noble Scion is kind of its own identity. Losing out on casting progression makes the PrC ultimately more useful for characters like Rogues or Fighters, but it’s still an interesting choice for Inquisitors, who might see (and revile) the excesses and corruption of the aristocracy all too clearly. Your cohort can shore up pretty much any weaknesses, depending on what class levels you give them (lost your casting? Why not Wizard levels?) and your followers can super boost you by dint of Aid Another actions alone. Do it! Surrender to your noble birthright!

Shadowdancer (Core Rulebook)

What's the niche?

Rogue-likes who manipulate the power of shadow to summon, blast, and play hard-to-get.

Where and how do we enter?

Entry at 6th level is possible, but three feats in five levels is a squeeze unless you’re a Human. Because Shadowdancers are DEX-based almost by force, you’ll need Weapon Finesse in there somewhere. Play as a Human, use the Solar Mystery from Ravener Hunter to pick up the Starlight Agility Revelation (and Dodge!), or else discuss feat tax relief programs with your GM. Shadowdancer isn’t an OP class even with a little help.

How far do we go?

Shadowdancer 1 will be all Sanctified Slayers need—Hide in Plain Sight is what every character with sneak attack dice wants, and Rogues have to wait a bunch more levels to get it. Shadowdancer 3 is about as deep as we’d ever want to go, picking up a host of nice defensive abilities at 2nd level and a Rogue Talent (I recommend Bleeding Attack, the better to eventually foray into Flensing Strike) and STR-draining Shadow companion at 3rd level.

What you're getting

Hide in Plain Sight: The creme-de-la-creme of Stealth abilities, right at first level. HiPS is most beneficial for Sanctified Slayers, who have sneak attack dice but not necessarily a way to proc them all the time. Between improved flanking via Teamwork feats like Outflank and spells like invisibility, Inquisitors have many more tools for getting SA off than their Rogue colleagues; even so, HiPS all but guarantees at least one SA per round.
Evasion: Although Inquisitors’ Reflex saves might not ever be great, PCs dipping Shadowdancer are almost certainly lightly armored finesse fighters, meaning a higher DEX stat to take advantage of evasion. It’s a solid ability that will allow you to shrug off any number of fireballs and breath weapons as long as the dice are with you.
Darkvision: Humans will love their new ability, and even classes with innate darkvision enjoy expanding the range.
Uncanny Dodge: The more you rely on DEX for AC, the worse it is to be caught flat-footed. Uncanny Dodge helps you not get caught flat-footed.
Rogue Talent: Armor Piercer, Bleeding Attack (to better pick up Flensing Strike), Offensive Defense, and Slow Reactions are some of the best sneak attack talents. Among the non-SA talents, Combat Trick, Dampen Presence, Eldritch Conduit, Favored Terrain, Ninja Trick, Shades of Gray, The Whole Time, Umbral Gear, and Without A Trace are particular gems.
Summon Shadow: Ain’t no party like a Shadowdancer party, ‘cause a Shadowdancer party features Strength damage. That’s right, your shadow pal deals 1d6 STR damage as a melee touch attack! Your BAB (which his is based on) isn’t great, but your saves are a damn sight nicer than a Rogue’s, and with full Will progression, he’ll be able to stand up to magical attacks better. In fact, that’s the only thing he’ll have to worry about, because Shadows have Undead immunities and are incorporeal! Check out the incorporeal rules and you’ll see why Peter Pan makes such a good scout and battle partner. Always have him scoot into the wall or floor if you think there’s even a decent chance that he’ll be killed—under no circumstances do you want to take that permanent negative level.

Is it worth it?

Full disclosure: I’m a sucker for Shadowdancer. I don’t think spellcasters can justify more than 3 levels in the PrC, but I love taking Rogues all the way through! Anyway, Finesse-based Sanctified Slayers looking to rack up some unusual offenses and defenses are coming to the right place here. Open combat with a strike from the shadows, then immediately start flanking with the incorporeal creature that just popped out of the floor. I’m still trying to cook up an Aasimar build that combines the Solar Mystery from Ravener Hunter with Shadowdancer—conflicting light and dark, that old tale.

Umbral Court Agent (Paths of Prestige)

What's the niche?

Sneaky-snake Kuthites who teleport in shadows and damage foes with umbral chains.

Where and how do we enter?

8th level will have to be what we settle for—having Deceitful in there kind of stinks, but at least most Inquisitors can benefit from a bonus to Bluff.

How far do we go?

Unlike Shadowdancer, where each level loses you more and more spells, Umbral Court Agent at least buys you back some casting ability. Honestly, I’d go a full Umbral Court Agent 10, as Touch of Darkness just keeps getting nastier and nastier the more you level in this PrC.

What you're getting

Blessings of Darkness: If you’re in this PrC, you already worship Zon-Kuthon and (hopefully) took the Darkness Domain. Blessings of Darkness just lets those levels stack, which is nice for unlocking your second domain ability.
Tenebrous Magic: Free +1 to spell save DCs and CL while in dim light or lower. Why not? You’re still not reliably able to shut down enemies’ saves, but it never hurts.
Umbral Courtier: Lots of untyped skill bonuses. Yummy wummy.
Darkvision: As with Shadowdancer, darkvision is integral to this playstyle. Try to enter as a race with innate darkvision so you get nothing but benefit.
Shadow Chains: Here’s where UCA starts to go off the rails! Entangled is a great condition, limiting mobility, decreasing AC, dropping to-hit and DEX-based skill checks, and forcing concentration checks for casters—this on top of the 20% miss chance that Touch of Darkness already grants. Plus 10-ft. Reach! ToD gets even more powerful at 6th and 10th levels, so stick around.
Shadow Jump: Poof! You’re over here. Poof! You’re over there. Shadow Jump makes traversing a crowded battlefield very easy, but you should talk to your GM about whether the ability qualifies you for the Dimensional Agility feat chain.
Unnerving Gaze: This ability is part of the two-part Wombo Combo with Touch of Darkness that debuffs enemies through the floor. At very high levels, the staggered condition will be hell for other casters.
Grasping Darkness: Some key advantages that Grasping Darkness has over typical grappling: 1) 15-ft. reach, 2) uses WIS instead of STR in the CMB calculation, 3) doesn’t provoke an AoO, 4) untyped bonus to the check in dim light, essentially equalizing the grapple with full-BAB classes, and perhaps most importantly, 5) does not confer the grappled condition to the caster. This means that you take no penalty to DEX or to hit, can make AoOs as usual, can move...the benefits are pretty massive here. Dirty Fighting → Improved Grapple → Greater Grapple wouldn’t be a bad feat line to get into in your later levels.
Crushing Umbra: Now you’re dealing 5d6 every turn you grapple someone and can prevent casters from casting anything with a verbal component. Watch out for Silent Spell + freedom of movement, though—your Touch of Darkness isn’t an insta-win button.

Is it worth it?

Umbral Court Agent won’t be as OP at high levels as I’ve made it sound here; the class is somewhat reliant on favorable lighting conditions (which enemy casters can change with daylight or the ability to see in supernatural darkness) and grappling (against enemies with sky-high CMD scores). I think it would be considerably better as a class if it were attainable by 6th level, allowing you to reach the meat of the PrC before literally every foe is a high-level caster. That said, I friggin’ adore the flavor, having always like the cut of Zon-Kuthon’s jib, and you’ve got some nice synergies between Unnerving Gaze and Touch of Darkness that should help soften enemies considerably for your teammates.

Gestalt Builds

Gestalt character creation is a process that essentially combines all the class features and casting capabilities of two classes, and is typically done when PCs need to be extra powerful, as when an adventure path designed for a four-person party is only being run by two PCs. Complete rules can be found here. It’s not terribly difficult to pick a gestalt class, because anything you choose isn’t a trade-off so much as an addition. That said, there are choices that maximize what the Inquisitor already has, so in this section we’ll detail general precepts for what you should be looking out for in a gestalt pairing.

First and foremost, we’re looking for a partner class that benefits from a high WIS score. The point buy rules at your table may vary, but many GMs will not budge on 20-point buy, which means that you have to find a class that makes the most of the stats that you’ll already be boosting: STR or DEX, CON, WIS, and (to a much lesser extent) CHA.
Second, our partner class should patch the Inquisitor’s weaknesses. A d8 hit die is one such weakness; weak Reflex saves, ¾ BAB, ¾ casting, and the absence of bonus combat feats might be other areas to consider shoring up.
Third and lastly, we should try to capitalize on the Inquisitor’s strengths. Inquisitors are burst damage specialists who already have an enormous number of incentives to flank—should we go for an Unchained Rogue gestalt for sneak attack? Inquisitors have excellent Intimidate potential—should we go for a Menacing Combat Style Ranger, who can grant us free combat feats in that arena? Inquisitors get a whole bunch of Teamwork feats for free—perhaps Cavalier, to grant all of them to our teammates? Once you’ve isolated what you believe to be the Inquisitor’s areas of strength, you can start to pick classes that amplify what (your) god gave you.

Although Barbarians don’t make for effective Inquisitor gestalts due to their restrictions on casting while raging, Bloodragers are another story entirely. With full BAB progression, a variety of self-buff spells and bloodline powers, and moar smash than you can shake a greatsword at, Bloodragers take the Inquisitor’s wrecking-ball-burst-damage propensities and ratchet them all up to 11. The class nets you some much-needed combat feats, too—always a plus. Speaking of extra combat feats, well, there’s always Fighter. Armor Training is a boon for the squishier Inquisitor chassis, and you’ll definitely appreciate Advanced Weapon Training. Even Bravery finds its niche on the Inquisitor, whose Judgments all shut down if they’re ever subjected to a fear effect. Best of all, however, are those tasty, tasty feats, some of which are Fighter-only. Go TWF and be a Bane Blender, become a god of knowledge checks as a Lore Warden, or roleplay as Christian Bale from Equilibrium with a Black Powder Inquisition/Trench Fighter combo. With the Fighter’s feats, the world’s your oyster. If you’re looking to be a little more adaptive and a little less reactive, the Brawler is worth taking a look at. Brawler’s Flurry gets Bane stacked onto each hit, and there’s no denying that Martial Flexibility rules the school if you’ve got enough familiarity with the system and its many feat trees to take full advantage. I wish your spell list were better for touch debuffs, because being a close range Domain Strike debuffer with access to Style feats and genuinely good combat maneuvers sounds amazing. Monk can do some of what Brawlers can, of course, but where the Brawler can fill other niches, the Monk feels a bit more straitjacketed unless you’re going for a specific archetype. With the advent of the Martial Arts Handbook and its new handwrap weapons, both the Brawler and the Monk are more viable as DEX-based classes. Just slap the agile enchantment on there and go to town.

Other full-BAB classes tend to fulfill more specific purposes: Cavaliers make for bad-ass mounted gestalt Inquisitors, unsurprisingly, and the Cavalier’s Tactician ability combined with the Inquisitor’s metric tonne of Teamwork feats can melt even brutally difficult encounters in a hurry. Melting enemies is also par for the Gunslinger’s course; the Inquisitor’s natural out-of-combat utility compensates for the Gunslinger’s utter lack of the same, making it a strange but wonderful pairing. As always, Ranger can be an excellent choice in games where terrain and enemy types are more or less consistent, but Slayer is the safer bet, effortlessly boosting combat punch in nearly all scenarios. And if you really want to go off the rails? Hell, gestalt with a Kineticist to pick up either way more utility (think Aether, Air, etc.) or non-stop blasts (Earth) for when you get tired of going toe to toe with enemies. Absurdly high CON scores help Kineticists immensely, so think about races like Dwarf that conveniently boost both CON and WIS.

If you don’t feel like BAB is your primary concern, you can always look at other ¾ BAB classes. Hunter again amps your Teamwork feat game up to 11, gives you a fully scaling animal companion and Animal Focus, and puts the Ranger and Druid spell lists in your hands. Druids are incredibly powerful, but you might need to choose between casting efficacy and combat efficacy. At any rate, highly thematic for Erastil, Gozreh, and other nature deities. Shaman can fill a similar role, giving you full casting, hexes, and a variety of powerful Spirit portfolios to play with; those seeking more traditional Domain-oriented options and equally powerful casting/channelling should apply inside with the Cleric. I know that the Unchained Rogue and Vigilante are cousin classes at best, and that Vigilante has much to offer on its own, but I’ll mention them in the same breath here to say that they both add immense combat and out-of-combat utility to the Inquisitor, especially in intrigue campaigns like War for the Crown or Curse of the Crimson Throne. Will you be better at hitting things? No. But man, will those hits hurt. Self-buffs, Judgment, Bane, sneak attack, Debilitating Injury...ludicrous. Last but not least, I’ll mention that the Warpriest is for those who truly want to knock down legions of bodies with the power of their faith. Say goodbye to your swift actions. Permanently.

INQ750: Build Sampling

I’ll preface this section with my standard disclaimer that Pathfinder is an incredibly complex game, and that no one who hasn’t spent a great majority of their time since 2009 at a table playing can hope to understand how all the interlocking feats, traits, spells, and items interact. These builds are intended to be moderately optimized, with an emphasis on adherence to their deity’s or archetype’s theme; I don’t claim to be a powergamer, especially in a game where failure and loss often tell a better story than an unbroken record of victory does. If you’ve got builds that are thematic, moderately optimized, and fun as hell to play, send them my way! I may put them in, and as usual, I’ll always credit you if I do.

The Animal-Friend

LN Human Green Faith Marshal/Sacred Huntsmaster Inquisitor 15

Deity: Torag, Domain: Wolf

STR: 16 DEX: 13 CON: 14 INT: 8 WIS: 14 (+2) CHA: 9

Primary Weapon: Warhammer

Racial Traits: N/A

Traits: Dirty Fighter (Combat), Defensive Strategist (Religion)

Favored Class Bonuses: HP 1 - 3, Extra Spells Known 4 - 20

Abilities

1: Animal Companion (SH), Power of Nature (GFM), Wild Lore (GFM), Skilled

2: Track, Detect Alignment, Cunning Initiative

3: Hunter Tactics (SH)

4: Animal Focus (SH)

5: Bane, Nature’s Ally (GFM)

8: Improved Empathic Link (SH), Pack Tactics (Wolf Domain)

10:

11: Wild Step (GFM)

12: Greater Bane

13:

14: Exploit Weakness

15:

Feats

1: Improved Trip (Wolf Domain bonus), Torag’s Patient Strikes (Human bonus), Heavy Armor Proficiency

3: Power Attack, Paired Opportunists (Teamwork)

5: Dirty Fighting

6: Tandem Trip (Teamwork)

7: Weapon Focus (Warhammer)

9: Felling Smash, Precise Strike (Teamwork)

10:

11: Vital Strike

12: Swarm Strike (Teamwork)

13: Improved Critical (Warhammer)

14: Torag’s Patient Strikes (Advanced Unlock)

15: Improved Vital Strike, Overwhelm (Teamwork)

Strategy

Even though our Animal-Friend is a human rather than one of Torag’s offspring, the Dwarves, frequent trips from her hometown of Oppara into the dwarven communities of Maheto and the World’s Edge Mountains have gradually brought Torag’s love of tradition, lineage, and sturdy foundations into her heart. As Torag is the god of defensive strategy, this build attempts to construct an impassable wall of AoOs, trip maneuvers, and flanked attacks wherever enemies appear to be breaking through the line. We have trip bonuses from Improved Trip, Dirty Fighting, Tandem Trip, Felling Smash, and the advanced unlock of Torag’s Patient Strikes, which grants a free action trip attempt on successful crit confirmation. Functionally unlimited AoOs from the base Divine Fighting Technique hit their stride with Paired Opportunists and the advanced DFT ability to apply Vital Strike to AoOs. Finally, our flanking is incredible. Pack Tactics grants our WIS bonus to hit when flanking conventionally (a huge boost that far outstrips even Outflank) or we can designate squares to “flank” from if conventional flanking is difficult; Swarm Strike adds yet more accuracy, while Precise Strike is a good bit of damage.

The template for most combats will be to move ourselves and our companion into flanking position with the biggest baddie we can find, trusting heavy armor and hedging weapons to provide some defensive cover in early levels while we go to work. Clay skin, deadly juggernaut, and the magic circle spells will be our go-to defenses in later levels. Even using just 1st-level spells, expeditious retreat is fantastic at moving us into position, while wrath, bless, and divine favor ensure the fight won’t last long. In situations where melee combat is impossible, we’re best off buffing the team using wands or spells or taking potshots with a crossbow. Some no-save spells (the litany line especially) can even give us some decent offensive casting. If you don’t need Improved Critical, I’d suggest you pick up the Spontaneous Nature’s Ally feat for easy battlefield summoning or the Planar Focus feat for more versatile foci for you and your companion.

The Ascetic

LG Oread Zen Archer Monk 3 + Ravener Hunter Inquisitor 12

Deity: Erastil, Mystery: Stone

STR: 12 (+2) DEX: 13 CON: 14 INT: 8 WIS: 17 (+2) CHA: 9 (-2)

Primary Weapon: Composite Longbow

Racial Traits: Crystalline Form, Granite Skin

Traits: Deadeye Bowman (Religion), Storm Hunter (Regional)

Favored Class Bonuses: Skill Point 1 - 20

Abilities

1: Flurry of Blows (ZA)

2: Evasion

3: Fast Movement +10 ft., Zen Archery (ZA)

4(1): Judgment 1/day, Stern Gaze, Monster Lore, Charged by Nature (RH), Holy Magic (RH), Stone Stability (Stone Mystery)

5(2): Track, Detect Alignment, Cunning Initiative

6(3):

7(4): Judgment 2/day

8(5): Discern Lies, Bane

9(6): Solo Tactics

10(7): Judgment 3/day

11(8): Second judgment, Earth Glide (Stone Mystery)

12(9):

13(10): Judgment 4/day

14(11): Stalwart

15(12): Greater Bane

Feats

1: Point-Blank Shot, Improved Unarmed Strike (Monk Bonus), Perfect Strike (Zen Archer Bonus), Precise Shot (Zen Archer Bonus)

2: Weapon Focus: Composite Longbow (Zen Archer Bonus), Rapid Shot (Zen Archer Bonus)

3: Deadly Aim, Point-Blank Master (Zen Archer Bonus)

5: Tracer Fire

6: Demon Hunter (Ravener Hunter Bonus)

7: Ranged Trip

8: Improved Trip (Stone Mystery Bonus)

9: Manyshot, Tandem Trip (Teamwork)

10:

11: Clustered Shots

12: Target of Opportunity (Teamwork)

13: Snap Shot, Greater Trip (Stone Mystery Bonus)

14:

15: Improved Snap Shot, Shake It Off (Teamwork)

Strategy

My home state is Wisconsin, so you’ll have to forgive the cheese. Zen Archer has had a reputation as being brokenly, stupidly overpowered since Day 1, and the Inquisitor can do some brokenly, stupidly overpowered things with it, mainly by getting a bunch of very necessary feat taxes dumped into the build within the first few levels. Thematically, I like the idea of a rustic Oread living in harmony with the land, connecting with small communities around him yet always living one step removed. At 4th level, the local settlement is terrorized by a swarm of Vrock, and he’s forced to take on the mantle of an Inquisitor, striking the Abyss-spawn from the sky with divine magics and volleys of arrows. As he ventures out into the world, older and wiser, he takes with him revelations from his Oread ancestry, manifested as the Stone Mystery.

The Ascetic build doesn’t have a lot of tricks up its sleeves, but it doesn’t necessarily need them. You get “all” the necessary early-level ranged feats by 3rd level, including the excellent Point-Blank Master, which allows you to stand in the middle of a crowd and fire off arrow after arrow like Robin Hood crossed with a Howitzer. This isn’t to say that the shift into Inquisitor is painless, however. Our flurry starts to fall behind quickly, for example, leaving us to rely on Rapid Shot and Manyshot more than a full Zen Archer would. Likewise, the AC bonus from WIS stops cutting it more and more of the time as we progress, so we switch to medium armor immediately after getting our proficiency from Inquisitor; the movement speed is nice, but armor ultimately gives us better AC in the absence of the Monk’s scaling bonuses. One last fly in the ointment: our Oread combines two ¾ BAB classes that together delay entry into some of the +6 and +11 BAB feats. If your GM is cool with you taking Zen Archer as an Unchained Monk archetype, that wraps that problem up with a neat little bow. If not, well, this build is probably stretching their patience as it is. We do add in some small utility with Ranged Trip, although the feat is really only there to 1) take up space while we wait for +6 BAB, and 2) capitalize on Stone Stability’s free Improved/Greater Trip feats. Ace Trip is unfortunately not open to anyone but Fighters thanks to the Weapon Training prereq. Womp womp. As you move into Inquisitor, do be sure to grab the Bane Baldric, as it will replenish your Bane rounds to normal single-class Inquisitor levels. You’ll want those.

The Blade Savant

NG Human Ravener Hunter/Sanctified Slayer 15

Deity: Sarenrae, Mystery: Battle

STR: 10 DEX: 16 (+2) CON: 14 INT: 8 WIS: 15 CHA: 10

Primary Weapon: Scimitar

Racial Traits: N/A

Traits: Careful Combatant (Combat), Flame of the Dawnflower (Religion)

Favored Class Bonuses: HP 1 - 3, Additional Spells Known 4 - 20

Abilities

1: Stern Gaze, Monster Lore, studied target +1 (SS), Charged By Nature (RH), Holy Magic (RH), Weapon Mastery (Battle Mystery)

2: Track, Detect Alignment, Cunning Initiative

3: Demon Hunter (RH)

4: Sneak attack +1d6

5: Discern Lies, Bane, studied target +2 (SS)

6: Solo Tactics

7: Sneak attack +2d6

8: Slayer Talent (Ranger Combat Style: Menacing), War Sight (Battle Mystery)

10: Sneak attack +3d6, studied target +3 (SS)

11: Stalwart

12: Greater Bane

13: Sneak attack + 4d6

14: Exploit Weakness

15: Studied target +4 (SS)

Feats

1: Weapon Finesse, Divine Fighting Technique (Sarenrae’s Mercy, Human Bonus), Weapon Focus: Scimitar (Battle Mystery Bonus)

3: Dervish Dance, Demon Hunter (RH Bonus)

5: Enforcer

6: Precise Strike (Teamwork)

7: Signature Skill: Intimidate

8: Shatter Defenses (Menacing Ranger Combat Style Bonus; the Ranger text specifically states that we can select feats on the list without meeting their prerequisites, which is why we can pick this up without Dazzling Display), Improved Critical: Scimitar (Battle Mystery Bonus)

9: Great Fortitude, Outflank (Teamwork)

10: Divine Fighting Technique Advanced Unlock

11: Dazzling Display

12: Greater Weapon Focus: Scimitar (Battle Mystery Bonus), Shake It Off (Teamwork)

13: Focused Target

14:

15: Improved Monster Lore, Duck and Cover (Teamwork)

Strategy

As part of the Cult of the Dawnflower, the Blade Savant learned the way of the scimitar at a young age, raised within the Mwangi Expanse during the Cult’s long period of exile and disfavor in Osirion. Although she recognizes that mercy is the ultimate gift of the Dawnflower, she also knows that only by rendering enemies helpless as swiftly as possible can they be prevented from harming others. To that end the Blade Savant build focuses heavily on nonlethal damage, with intimidation skills helping end combats before they begin or leaving enemies unable to muster effective defenses. Thankfully, the many bonus feats from both Sanctified Slayer and the Ravener Hunter’s Battle Mystery allow us to achieve levels of martial prowess normally unattainable by other Inquisitors.

Our initial levels are typical of Finesse builds: Finesse at 1st level, and DEX-to-damage by 3rd. Our Divine Fighting Technique, Sarenrae’s Mercy, doesn’t come into its own until 5th level, when Enforcer allows our nonlethal scimitar damage to demoralize on every hit. From that point on, the Intimidation train rolls through all obstacles. Signature Skill: Intimidate nets us the ability to escalate fear conditions quickly, and Shatter Defenses, which follows at 8th level, enables nonlethal sneak attack against every shaken enemy. The Battle Mystery also ups our crit range at 8th level to a whopping 15-20/x2. With a brief detour to pick up the prerequisite Great Fortitude, we suddenly have the ability at 10th level to heal ourselves for 2d6 damage, once per round—enormous for staying power in more protracted fights. Dazzling Display tops off our build with some crowd control, but we’re basically complete by 10th level. Per scimitar hit at 13th level, we’re dealing 1d6 (weapon damage) + 2d6 (merciful sapping scimitar) + 1d6 (Precise Strike) + 4d6 (greater bane) + 4d6 (sneak attack), healing 2d6 damage, and demoralizing as a free action; our crit range is 15-20/x2, we have Weapon Focus/Greater Weapon Focus/studied target bonuses, and best of all, we’re rolling three times for initiative on a DEX- and WIS-based class with Cunning Initiative. Even against enemies with immunity to nonlethal damage, our build isn’t hamstrung too much—we take away the 2d6 merciful sapping bonus, 2d6 damage healed, and Enforcer demoralizations, but otherwise we’re clean. Savant indeed.

The Brute

CN Half-Orc Ravener Hunter Inquisitor 15

Deity: Gorum, Mystery: Battle

STR: 15 (+2) DEX: 12 CON: 14 INT: 8 WIS: 14 CHA: 13

Primary Weapon: Greatsword

Racial Traits: Sacred Tattoo

Traits: Steel Skin (Combat), Memorable (Social)

Favored Class Bonuses: +½ Intimidate & Knowledges 1 - 20

Abilities

1: Stern Gaze, Monster Lore, Judgment 1/day, Charged By Nature (RH), Holy Magic (RH), Weapon Mastery (Battle Mystery)

2: Track, Detect Alignment, Cunning Initiative

3: Demon Hunter (RH)

4: Judgment 2/day

5: Discern Lies, Bane

6: Solo Tactics

7: Judgment 3/day

8: Second judgment, Maneuver Mastery: Overrun (Battle Mystery)

10: Judgment 4/day

11: Stalwart

12: Greater Bane

13: Judgment 5/day

14: Exploit Weakness

15:

Feats

1: Heavy Armor Proficiency, Weapon Focus: Greatsword (Battle Mystery Bonus)

3: Power Attack, Demon Hunter (RH Bonus)

5: Dazzling Display

6: Pack Intimidation (Teamwork)

7: Cornugon Smash

8: Improved Critical: Greatsword (Battle Mystery Bonus), Improved Overrun (Battle Mystery Bonus)

9: Signature Skill: Intimidate, Scarred Legion (Teamwork)

10:

11: Hurtful, Greater Overrun (Battle Mystery Bonus)

12: Greater Weapon Focus: Greatsword (Battle Mystery Bonus), Outflank (Teamwork)

13: Furious Focus

14:

15: Dreadful Carnage, Coordinated Charge (Teamwork)

Strategy

As much as I hate to reuse archetypes in these builds, the Battle Mystery is simply too on point for The Brute—perhaps even closer to Gorum’s flavor than the War Domain—and there’s no doubt that Inquisitors are in desperate need of the bonus feats that Battle provides in spades. Our halfie was raised in the Hold of Belkzen, like so many of his full-blooded Orc kin, but the life of a bastard is not easy there: half-orcs must prove themselves either more vicious or more cunning than full orcs, and where possible, they should prove themselves to be both. When it became clear to him that the orc tribes of Belkzen had no higher goal than infighting and clan warfare, he took a contract with the infamous Children of Steel mercenary company, which allowed him to exercise his considerable talents for violence and terror. The more he slaughters in the open field, the more ferocious Gorum’s smile grows.

As I mentioned in the two-handed combat style section, decent armor and Power Attack are all that STR Inquisitors really need to smash face. Because half-orcs also have considerable advantages in intimidation builds, however, we’ve also capitalized on our in-born abilities in that arena. Taking into account our initial bonuses (Racial +2, Trait +2, Stern Gaze +½, FCB +½, Rank +1, Class Skill +3, CHA +1) we begin play with +10 to Intimidate—not at all shabby. 5th through 7th levels prove crucial stages for our Intimidation skill, giving us DD at 5th, Pack Intimidation (an easy untyped +6 to Intimidate) at 6th, and free action single-target demoralization with Cornugon Smash at 7th. Scarred Legion gives another +2, and pairs nicely with Hurtful, which gives swift action attacks for more Bane damage. Signature Skill: Intimidate represents another jump in effectiveness, as we begin moving enemies straight into frightened or panicked. Furious Focus is decent enough at 13th, but mostly sets us up for Dreadful Carnage at 15th. Every kill is another Dazzling Display, and the Memorable trait helps us keep those fear conditions running throughout an encounter.

Of course, the Battle Mystery needs no help in keeping us combat-effective. Weapon Focus, Greater Weapon Focus, and particularly Improved Critical are excellent adjuncts to the greatsword, which is an OP weapon without any help at all. We can and should be placing enchantments like cruel, dazzling radiance, exhausting, and gory on our greatsword to ensure maximum demoralization debuffing. At 8th level we also become decent Overrun specialists, using class level for our BAB and grabbing Improved Overrun for free. With Greater Overrun at 11th and especially Coordinated Charge at 15th level, enemies will be taking AoOs if they’re ever knocked prone by our combat maneuver, which we like just fine. War Sight can be subbed for Maneuver Mastery if you don’t like that playstyle. Overall, the Brute does scary damage, area debuffing via demoralization tactics, and self-buffing (strictly self, due to our low WIS score) to hopefully increase size and CMB for Overruns.

The Magehunter

LG Dwarf Spellbreaker Inquisitor 15

Deity: Torag, Inquisition: Spellkiller

STR: 16 DEX: 12 CON: 13 (+2) INT: 10 WIS: 14 (+2) CHA: 10 (-2)

Primary Weapon: Warhammer

Racial Traits: Spell Smasher

Traits: Sound of Mind (Regional), Defensive Strategist (Religion)

Favored Class Bonuses: HP 1 - 20

Abilities

1: Judgment 1/day, Stern Gaze, Strong-Willed (SB)

2: Track, Detect Alignment, Cunning Initiative

3: Defense Against Magic: Enchantment +1 (SB), Foil Casting (SB)

4: Judgment 2/day

5: Discern Lies, Bane

7: Judgment 3/day, Defense Against Magic: Necromancy +1, Enchantment +2 (SB)

8: Second Judgment

10: Judgment 4/day

11: Stalwart, Defense Against Magic: Evocation +1, Necromancy +2, Enchantment +3 (SB)

12: Greater Bane

13: Judgment 5/day

14: Exploit Weakness

15: Defense Against Magic: Conjuration +1, Evocation +2, Necromancy +3, Enchantment +4 (SB)

Feats

1: Heavy Armor Proficiency, Disruptive (Spellkiller Inquisition Bonus)

3: Power Attack

5: Step Up

7: Following Step

9: Iron Will

10:

11: Spellbreaker (if allowed by GM), Spell Drinker (if not)

12:

13: Teleport Tactician (if allowed by GM), Unimpeachable Honor (if not)

14:

15: Step Up and Strike

Strategy

The strength of the Magehunter build is determined in some part by how lenient your GM is willing to be about counting Spellbreaker Inquisitor levels as Fighter levels for the purposes of qualifying specifically for anti-magic feats. At my table I would allow an Inquisitor to take Spellbreaker and Teleport Tactician if magehunting were their sole focus, but your dynamic might vary. There are some who say I’m soft. Assuming we’re lacking Spellbreaker, that crucial alchemical element in an anti-caster build, all we’re empowered to do is stay within threatening range, follow where they step, and keep hammering them while tanking their defensive casting. Certainly the Magehunter’s defensive abilities will always be greater than any Fighter’s: we’ve got Hardy for an initial +2 to Will, rerolls on [mind-affecting] spells, Sound of Mind, Iron Will later on, stalwart shutting down spells with partial saves, and Defense Against Magic’s scaling bonuses vs. some of the most dangerous magic schools in the game. Despite getting rerolls on the aforementioned [mind-affecting] spells, I’d still recommend you pick Enchantment as your first school; getting mind-controlled will dismantle your team, especially because you’ll be getting bonuses to your saves vs. their spells to cure or pacify you! Litany of sloth will be your absolute best friend in this build, denying casters any chance to avoid AoOs for casting.

The Mastermind

LE Devil-Spawn Tiefling Royal Accuser/Urban Infiltrator Inquisitor 4 + Evangelist 10 + Inquisitor 1

Deity: Norgorber, Inquisition: Secrets

STR: 8 DEX: 15 (+2) CON: 14 INT: 10 WIS: 16 (+2) CHA: 10 (-2)

Primary Weapon: Shortsword

Racial Traits: Pass for Human, Beguiling Liar, Soul Seer

Traits: Cunning Liar (Regional), Ambitious (Social)

Favored Class Bonuses: +½ Intimidate & Knowledges 1 - 20

Abilities

1: Judgment 1/day, Gifted Detective (UI), Meticulous Inspection (RA), Detect Secrets (Secrets Inquisition)

2: Cunning Initiative, Track, Detect Monsters and Secrets (RA)

3: Favored Enemy: Undead +2 (RA)

4: Judgment 2/day

5(1): Skilled: Acrobatics and UMD (Evangelist)

6(2): Discern Lies, Bane, Protective Grace +1 (Evangelist)

7(3): Informed Hunch (RA), Boon 1: Secrets and Lies (Evangelist)

8(4): Judgment 3/day, Gift of Tongues (Evangelist)

9(5): Second Judgment, Closed Book (Secrets Inquisition), Multitude of Talents (Evangelist)

10(6): Favored Enemy: Undead +4 (RA), Favored Enemy: Aberration +2 (RA), Boon 2: Noxious Bomb (Evangelist)

11(7): Judgment 4/day, Protective Grace +2 (Evangelist)

12(8): A Thousand Faces (UI), Gift of Tongues (Evangelist)

13(9): Greater Bane, Greater Detect Magic (RA), Boon 3: Secret Self (Evangelist)

14(10): Judgment 5/day, Spiritual Form (Evangelist)

15: Exploit Weakness

Feats

1: Weapon Finesse

3: Divine Fighting Technique: Norgorber’s Silent Shiv

5: Deific Obedience

7: Deceptive

9: Conceal Spell

10:

11: Cunning Killer

12:

13: Divine Deception

14:

15: Improved Conceal Spell

Strategy

A Lawful Evil Tiefling must worship Asmodeus, right? That’s exactly what she’d like you to think. Growing up as the child of a minor noble, the tangled intrigues of Ustalav always seemed to come naturally to the Mastermind. She just...knew things, things that she never should have been able to know. It was only later that her powers were revealed to be a divine gift from the Reaper of Reputation. She set about extending her influence throughout the nobility of her nation, hoarding secrets and finding leverage wherever necessary. Mechanically, her immense power in an intrigue-heavy game stems from several sources. First, she has an insane Bluff score (Cunning Liar lets us use WIS for a +4 at 1st level, Racial Trait +4, Gifted Detective +4, Deific Obedience +3, and later constant nondetection) with Disguise and Diplomacy bonuses to back up our web of deception. A Thousand Faces at 12th level gives us at-will alter self. Second, she gets a slew of detection and illicit knowledge-gathering spells, including constant deathwatch (Soul Seer racial trait); at-will detect undead, detect aberration, detect secret doors (Royal Accuser); and detect thoughts, detect desires, and detect anxieties as often as you can devote the spell slot. Lastly, Meticulous Inspection, Informed Hunch, and a good favored class bonus will ensure that she can make lateral leaps of logic to discern seemingly unknowable details about her targets.

From a combat perspective, our Mastermind has a bit of a slow build. Strong WIS scores to start and the bevy of Divination spells lends itself to a casting focus, so we grab Conceal Spell/Improved at later levels in order to hide our unsanctioned detections better; Divine Deception patches any holes in our spell coverage with scrolls and wands. Cunning Killer leverages good Knowledges from our FCB, and with any luck we’ll be able to utilize those Favored Enemy bonuses at some point. Norgorber’s boons are surprisingly strong, too, including more Divination SLAs that we’ll always find a use for, poison (it’s meh overall, but at least you improve the action economy and no longer poison yourself), and best of all get a minutes/day version of greater invisibility, which is already incredibly strong at rounds/level. If you’ve ever wanted to play a Faceless Man, this is your build.

The Vigilante

CN Grippli Inspired Blade Swashbuckler 1 + Umbral Stalker/Sanctified Slayer 14

(Add Heretic, if allowed)

Deity: Calistria, Domain: Darkness, Subdomain: Night

STR: 10 (-2) DEX: 16 (+2) CON: 14 INT: 10 WIS: 15 (+2) CHA: 8

Primary Weapon: Rapier

Racial Traits: Princely

Traits: Criminal (Sleight of Hand, Social), Bandit (Stealth, Regional)

Favored Class Bonuses: HP 1 - 20

Abilities

1: Panache, Deeds, Inspired Finesse (IB)

2(1): Monster Lore, studied target +1 (SS), Dark Descent (US), Swift and Silent (US), Night Hunter (Night Subdomain)

3(2): Track, Detect Alignment, Cunning Initiative

4(3): Solo Tactics

5(4): Sneak attack +1d6

6(5): Discern Lies, Bane, studied target +2 (SS)

7(6):

8(7): Sneak attack +2d6

9(8): Slayer Talent (Rogue Talent: Bleeding Attack), Eyes of Darkness (Darkness Domain)

10(9):

11(10): Sneak attack +3d6, studied target +3

12(11): Stalwart

13(12): Greater Bane

14(13): Sneak attack +4d6

15(14): Exploit Weakness, Deadly Efficiency (US)

Feats

1: Fencing Grace, Weapon Focus: Rapier (IB Bonus), Weapon Finesse (IB Bonus)

2: Blind-Fight (Darkness Domain Bonus)

3: Skill Focus: Stealth

4: Precise Strike (Teamwork)

5: Accomplished Sneak Attacker

7: Dampen Presence, Outflank (Teamwork)

9: Flensing Strike

10: Escape Route (Teamwork)

11: Hellcat Stealth

12:

13: Big Game Hunter, Wall of Flesh (Teamwork)

14:

15: Extended Bane

Strategy

Dark creatures stalk the Grippli of the Sodden Lands, yet while some of the frogfolk fear to tread in the swamps and marshes after dark, the Vigilante relishes the night. Darkness hides friends as well as foes; anyone who ventures into this Grippli’s home with ill intent will soon find out just how much vengeance hurts. The purpose of this build is to deny enemies any opportunity to see the Vigilante coming, and he gets off to a strong start: between his various bonuses (DEX +4, Size +4, Class Skill +3, Trait +1, Swift and Silent +1, Skill Focus: Stealth +3, Ranks +3) he arrives at 3rd level with a tidy +19; if he’s allowed to take Heretic on top of this package (there are some minor shenanigans with Judgment) he’ll be getting our WIS modifier to Stealth, as well, for a potential +22. Dampen Presence and Hellcat Stealth (lacking HiPS really stinks, although this build can easily dip Shadowdancer to fix that) will continue to assure his stealth supremacy throughout most of the game.

As for offense, the Vigilante focuses on being as elusive as possible, blinding big bads with magical darkness (darkness that he can see through quite fine, naturally, thanks to Eyes of Darkness at 9th level) before stinging in with studied target, sneak attack, and Bane. 8th and 9th level give a means of contributing to the team’s effectiveness by permanently carving away natural armor. He’s incredibly difficult to pin down, using Escape Route and an excellent Acrobatics score to weave through crowded battlefields and reach priority targets easily. His natural Climb speed lends a vertical element to stealth and ambush. On offense he’s somewhat reliant on sneak attack, Bane, and bleed damage, Finesse builds and Small rapiers not being known for their huge damage modifiers, but with his ability to entrap, ensnare, and evade enemies, you might not find yourself missing the huge numbers that a build like The Brute can achieve.

The Witch

CE Half-Orc Monster Tactician 15

Deity: Lamashtu, Domain: Madness

STR: 10 DEX: 15 CON: 14 INT: 10 WIS: 16 (+2) CHA: 8

Primary Weapon: Crossbow

Racial Traits: Sacred Tattoo

Traits: Bloody-Minded (Combat), Mother's Rage (Religion)

Favored Class Bonuses: HP 1 - 20

Abilities

1: Stern Gaze, Monster Lore, Summon Monster I (MT), Vision of Madness (Madness Domain)

2: Track, Detect Alignment, Cunning Initiative

3: Solo Tactics, Summon Monster II (MT)

5: Bane, Summon Tactics, Summon Monster III (MT)

7: Summon Monster IV (MT)

8: Aura of Madness (Madness Domain)

9: Summon Monster V (MT)

10:

11: Stalwart, Summon Monster VI (MT)

12: Greater Bane

13: Summon Monster VII (MT)

14: Exploit Weakness

15: Summon Monster VIII (MT)

Feats

1: Summon Evil Monster

3: Improved Initiative, Shake It Off (Teamwork)

5: Spell Focus: Conjuration

6: Outflank (Teamwork)

7: Augment Summoning

9: Evolved Summon Monster, Shielded Caster (Teamwork)

10:

11: Superior Summoning

12: Allied Spellcaster (Teamwork)

13: Versatile Summon Monster

14:

15: Warrior Priest, Stealth Synergy (Teamwork)

Strategy

Although she doesn’t look it, Lamashtu is actually a fertility goddess, a point of theology that this Inquisitor has not forgotten. There are many who would wantonly slay the Mother of Monsters’ children, so the Witch takes it as her personal goal to vomit more out into the world as often as possible. The build itself is fairly simple: fill the field with powerful summons, then take potshots with the crossbow or provide backup buffing through spells. Our first pick, Summon Evil Monster, is important for two reasons: first, it vastly improves the summoning options we have available; and second, it allows us to summon evil creatures as a standard action. That’s right. With our already-excellent DEX and WIS scores, plus Improved Initiative at 3rd level, we should consistently be going first, either summoning with our standard action in the surprise round or else ASAP in the first round of combat. Properly placed, our summons can take AoOs as enemies attempt to close with the party, or even provide soft cover in order to let allies safely escape enemies with reach. In later levels, our summons will stick around long enough to support the party with an excellent variety of SLAs. The home stretch simply boosts the power curve, with Augment, Evolved, Superior, and Versatile buffing our summons exponentially. Teamwork feats stay low-maintenance: all summons get Outflank, and the rest are for shoring up our casting and defenses on the back line. Stealth Synergy at very late levels lets us sneak with our stealthier summons.

The Wizard-Shield

NG Peri-Blooded Aasimar Living Grimoire/Tactical Leader 15

Deity: Shelyn, Domain: Luck, Subdomain: Imagination

STR: 15 DEX: 14 CON: 12 INT: 16 (+2) WIS: 10 CHA: 7 (+2)

Primary Weapon: Holy Book

Racial Traits: Deathless Spirit, Scion of Humanity

Traits: Student of Philosophy (Diplomacy) (Social), Pragmatic Activator (Magic)

Favored Class Bonuses: HP 1 - 20

Abilities

1: Holy Book (LG), Sacred Word (LG), Leader’s Words (TL), Bit of Luck (Luck Domain)

2: Track, Detect Alignment

3: Tactician (TL)

5: Discern Lies, Blessed Script (2nd Level, LG: litany of duty, silence)

6: Haze of Daydreams (Imagination Subdomain)

8: Blessed Script (3rd Level, LG: magic circle vs. evil, dispel magic, shield of darkness)

10:

11: Stalwart

12: Blessed Script (4th Level, LG: enchantment foil, freedom of movement, thaumaturgic circle)

13:

14: Battle Acumen (TL)

15:

Feats

1: Improved Initiative

3: Warrior Priest, Shielded Caster (Teamwork)

5: Divine Deception

7: Power Attack

9: Steadfast Mind, Allied Caster (Teamwork)

10:

11: Divine Interference

12:

13: Combat Casting

14:

15: Uncanny Concentration

Strategy

Ever the devotee of Shelyn, our Wizard-Shield Inquisitor illuminates her own copy of Melodies of Inner Beauty, lavishing attention on the descriptions of innocence and virtue contained therein. She knows that there is more beauty in one saved life than in a thousand lost lives, even the lives of foes, and so she focuses absolutely on the defense of the full casters who comprise the back line of any adventuring group. Because caster level checks and spell save DCs will never be her mechanical forte (Forte? Goddess of Music? Get it?) she instead opts to expand her spell options and ensure that she never, ever fails to cast in moments of dire hazard to life and limb. Right from 1st level, Bit of Luck sets her up to help her Wizard and Sorcerer buddies by letting them roll twice on ranged spell attacks, caster level checks to beat SR, saves against devastating Fortitude effects, and other things that shut casters down quickly. Her Tactician ability lets her select Shielded Caster at 3rd level to prevent the back line from faltering should they get charged, and select Allied Caster at 9th level for when offense is the name of the game—just in time for SR to become prevalent, too. In later levels, she can use Divine Interference to tear down powerful, one-off hits from enemies who rampage into the rearguard.

While the Wizard-Shield is bolstering her allies, she’s also shoring up her ability to hold the back line all on her own. Warrior Priest, Combat Casting, Uncanny Concentration, and Steadfast Mind together make it nearly impossible for her to lose a spell when casting defensively, and Divine Deception paired with the Pragmatic Activator trait make her a pocket-Cleric or pocket-Paladin, always ready with a scroll or wand—even Druid spell completion items aren’t out of the realm of possibility. Haze of Daydreams shields her from approaching hostiles, pending a Will save. Should anyone get swallowed or grappled, she naturally has freedom of movement on tap in her 4th-level Blessed Script SLA slot—equally naturally, she flavors her tattoos as an expression of inner creativity. Lastly, there’s our Wizard-Shield’s offense, which we haven’t even touched on! Power Attack with a not-inconsiderable 16 STR hits pretty hard, especially once her self-illuminated Melodies gets bane and other fun Warpriest goodies stacked onto it. Decent DEX/CON and medium armor make her more than capable of soaking stray hits. She dwells with beauty, beauty that must die...

INQ900: Graduation and Back Matter

And so our journey concludes, bold Inquisitors. I hope you’ve found the guide as enjoyable to read as it was to write. If you’d like to send words of encouragement or constructive criticism, feel free to shout out at me on Reddit—my handle is /u/Allerseelen. I plan to update this guide regularly until 1e material stops publication, after which I’ll be linking to a second guide for the 2e Inquisitor. My designs there will be homebrewed initially, but switch over to Paizo-official content once they inevitably bring the Inquisitor back. Still to accomplish for this guide are more wondrous item recommendations for Inquisitors, compatibility between archetypes for those selecting two or more, and the completion of the Dips, VMC, Prestige, and Gestalt section, which is a considerable undertaking. Anyone who has suggestions will always be credited.

As always, thanks goes out to the incredible Pathfinder community, without whose guides and formatting tips I would have been hopelessly lost; and Paizo itself, which has created a truly wonderful game that makes for some truly times. Here’s to many more years in Pathfinder 2nd Edition, and may your hats always be inquisitorial!

All my best,

Allerseelen

Other Guides and Content

As Allerseelen (Community Use Policy)

As All Souls Gaming (Commercial License)

Table of Contents

Legal

INQ101: Welcome to the Inquisition

INQ102: Survey of Divine Classes

The Inquisitor vs. The Cleric

The Inquisitor vs. The Paladin

The Inquisitor vs. The Warpriest

Conclusions

INQ109: Inquisitorial Development

The Chassis

Class Features

INQ165: Intro to Combat Styles

The Devastator (Two-Handed)

Suggested Feat Path

Final Thoughts

The Marksman (Ranged)

Suggested Feat Path

Final Thoughts

The Dervish (Two-Weapon Fighting)

Suggested Feat Path

Final Thoughts

The Duelist (Finesse Fighting)

Suggested Feat Path

Final Thoughts

The Mage (Spellcasting)

A Selection of Feats

Final Thoughts

INQ265: Advanced Combat Styles

The Anatomist (Vital Strike)

Suggested Feat Path

Final Thoughts

The Phalanxer (Reach)

Suggested Feat Path

Final Thoughts

The Rager (Cleave)

Suggested Feat Path

Final Thoughts

The Specter (Intimidation)

Suggested Feat Path

The Nonlethal Intimidator

The Lethal Intimidator

The Mass Intimidator

Final Thoughts

INQ301: Race and Inquisition

Core Races

Dwarf

Other Features

Final Thoughts

Elf

Other Features

Final Thoughts

Gnome

Other Features

Final Thoughts

Half-Elf

Other Features

Final Thoughts

Halfling

Other Features

Final Thoughts

Half-Orc

Other Features

Final Thoughts

Human

Other Features

Final Thoughts

Selected Other Races

Aasimar

Other Features

Final Thoughts

Grippli

Other Features

Final Thoughts

Oread

Other Features

Final Thoughts

Tengu