The Inquisitor: A Roguish Archetype by Michael7123
When someone mentions the word "inquisition", you probably get a notion of Catholic priests in Spain conducting widespread religious persecution. In the context of fantasy settings, inquisitors are typically agents of a church with less than stellar scruples who ensure said church's protection from threats- be they internal in the form of burgeoning heretics or external in the form of hostile cults, witches, demons, or what have you.
Putting aside the specifics of the historical legacy and cultural image of the inquisition for the moment, the idea of a skill monkey esq character that can also call upon divine power is practically an ideal character concept for me. I've always been creatively drawn to divine magic wielding characters, because I like the idea of having a character who's tightly bound to certain expectations and is in the service of a higher power, and I also enjoy playing skill monkey types of characters who are also able to sleuth around and rely on their wits to get them out of trouble.
Anyone who's remotely familiar with the Inquisitor class for pathfinder would be right to assume it's up their among my favorite. While not as powerful a spell caster as a cleric, it's an incredibly versatile class that lets you dish out high quantities of damage while remaining exceedingly useful outside of conflict. There are few situations where an inquisitor will be outright useless, and you have plenty of interesting plot hooks and character develop opportunities all but written into the class itself.
Alas, no clear cut inquisitor character option exists in the 5th edition of dungeons and dragons. Sure, you can play a religiously zealous paladin with morally questionably methods with the oath of vengeance. Your cleric can have a penchant for cruelty and / or religious intolerance. The ranger can hunt down creatures your holy texts say are abominations, and you can play your assassin rogue as an agent of a faith or some sort of cult who hunts down enemies of your deity. But none of them fit the niche of "skill monkey with divine spell casting" just quite right, in my opinion. That's not saying they're bad character options- they just don't happen to fill the particular roll I'm trying to fill.
That's lead to my inspiration to make my own archetype, loosely styled off the arcane trickster archetype. If you're just looking for mechanical descriptions, feel free to read the link at the bottom of the page, but I'm going to elaborate on my choices here in a way that wouldn't make sense in a rules document.
Spell casting
You get the same spell casting progression as an arcane trickster, but you're limited to Cleric spells of the abjuration, enchantment, and divination schools. The ability to cast spells is, as one might expect, a large drawback. A significant limitation is placed on you in the fact that taking healing spells of any sort is not allowed. The reason for this is fairly straightforward- you aren't meant to be a merciful healer, and you share more in common with "bandit #12" than the friendly neighborhood priest who heals peasants. Your magic isn't necessarily dark, but it's not supposed to be quite as welcoming as that of a cleric. Beyond that, I don't want a party with both a cleric and an inquisitor in the same party to feel like they're competing for the same roll. The rogue plays like a normal rouge that can also concentrate on a cleric spell in combat, which frees up the cleric to use his concentration on one of the many other spells he can access.
You also can't take revivify, for much the same reasons about approachability. Besides, by the time you can take revivify, your party should have much more available means at their disposal to bring the dead back to life, so it's hardly any great loss.
Ideally, at least on a mechanical level, the inquisitor and cleric should compliment each-other. If they clash, it will be due to in character reasons over chosen methods of enacting the will of their respective deities, and that's the sort of spice that makes for interesting role playing sessions.
Forbidden Lore
This is a ribbon- for those of you not in the know about D&D 5e homebrew terminology, it refers to a feature that will be of situational use but that also allows the person making the homebrew to give the class or subclass in question lots of flavor.
In this case the flavor is fairly straightforward, as it ties into what you would normally expect a rogue to do: be a skill monkey. Gaining proficiency in Intelligence (Religion) checks makes plenty of sense for a divine operative such as you would expect of this class. The additional abilities you can choose from help establish the sort of inquisitor you want to be.
If you want to play your character more like a monster hunter, you would select Bane of the Unholy, which grants the bonuses of favored enemy, but with a situational boost to Insight checks instead of a situational boost to Survival checks. You're more familiar with ecclesiastic intrigue than hunting through the wilds, after all. Alternatively, if you want to play the classic witch hunter esq character, go for Hexenhammer and gain proficiency in Arcana checks. After all, to fight the users of arcane magic, one must know their secrets.
Defender of the Faith
Another ribbon ability, which is standard practice for rogue archetype abilities of 9th level. Once per short rest, you can use your reaction to grant a creature within 60 feet (or yourself) advantage on a save against an effect that can make a creature frightened or charmed. If the goal of the inquisitor is to fight against unbelief, it's only fair that they can offer some assistance to creatures about to fall prey to the dark magics of heretics and heathens.
Fun historical fact, the title "Defender of the Faith" was awarded to King Henry the Eighth of England by the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church after he wrote (likely with the assistant of his adviser and friend Sir Thomas More) Assertio Septem Sacramentorum (In Defense of the Seven Sacraments) which was written as a condemnation of the Protestant Reformation then gaining traction in Europe. For those of you scratching your heads and thinking that something seems wrong, yes, this is the same Henry the Eight who created the Church of England, broke with the Roman Catholic Church, and executed Thomas More because he refused to acknowledge that what the King did was legitimate. The monarchs of England still use the title "Defender of the Faith" to this day.
History can be funny like that.
Brand the Unfaithful
Now we start getting back to more mechanically sound features, as per normal for most level 13 rogue abilities. It requires a bit of set up- landing a sneak attack on a monster who is being affected by one of your spells- but once you pull it off it can be quite effective. Canceling a creature's ability to hide or become invisible can be a massive drawback, depending on the type of monster. Converting your sneak attack to radiant or necrotic damage lets the bulk of your damage each turn bypass just about any resistance the monster in question has. And if the monster runs away, it's going to stick out like a sore thumb to just about everyone.
Of course, nothing's stopping you from just taking a normal branding iron and branding prisoners the old fashioned way, if you want your character to imitate the darkest aspects of the inquisition. But they don't have quite the same effect as this.
Final Judgement
Level 17 rogue archetype features are meant to be massive boosts to your power. If a target is under the effect of one of your spells, you have advantage on attacks against them. As advantage on attacks gives you sneak attack, the use of this becomes clear fairly quickly.
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Best Practices:
The spell Bane is your friend. It targets a save that lots of monsters won't have, effects multiple targets, and stacks with many other debuffs. It'll honestly be useful for most of your career and should be a staple spell you cast. Once you get to higher levels, it's likely going to be a spell you cast to use Brand the Unfaithful and Final Judgement.
You're never going to be able to outdo what the cleric does in terms of pure spellcasting: you're a rogue first and foremost, after all. Focus on filling in the gaps that your party's cleric or other divine spellcaster leaves open. If your party doesn't have a paladin, pick up detect evil and good to help hunt down creatures your party will oppose. Select cantrips the rest of the party doesn't use. Zone of Truth won't be a typical cleric pick for day to day adventuring in many parties, but interrogating people for heresy is half of your job so it makes sense for you to have it as a spell known to separate truth from falsehood. Think of how spells can be used in unique and out of the box ways. Be like the gods, and draw straight lines with the crooked instruments you are given.
Protection from Evil and Good, with it's ability to give a charmed, frightened, or possessed creature a new save, is basically an exorcism on demand, and is a much better pick than lots of people give it credit for. It's thematically appropriate and a good pick overall.
You can play as a skirmisher or a ranged character with this archetype, and honestly there are probably pros and cons to each option. I haven't had the opportunity to play test it yet, so I'm unsure which path is strictly the most optimal.
As for feats, don't be afraid to dabble in a bit of magic. Ritual caster can be thematically appropriate and especially useful if you don't have member of the party with access to the spell list you get ritual caster for. Magic Initiate can let you pick up a few more cleric spells, or some Druid spells if you feel so inclined. If you want to show that you've been dabbling in some forbidden lore a bit more than normal, pick up some warlock spells.
The rogue lends itself to multi classing normally, and the inquisitor is no exception. Add some paladin levels if you want to gain a fighting style and dish out even more damage in melee, add some ranger levels to give your character a wilderness focus and some more ranged abilities. A one level dip in cleric or druid can expand your spell casting options a great deal and give you some other nifty abilities, but I'd stay away from it if you have a druid or cleric in your party already.
Talk with your DM about how closely the inquisitor has to toe the line of the faith. There's no explicit feature about loosing your spells if you break a code of conduct, but an inquisitor of "Generic Neutral Good Sun deity #4" shouldn't just be able to run around murdering everyone who looks at him the wrong way- probably anyways. Your DM might decide that you're bound to less rules than most members of your faith, that you have to uphold more or less the same standards as any other member of your religion, or even that you have
Character Concepts:
And, just for fun, if you're interested in introducing an inquisitor into your game as an NPC or like the class mechanically but are struggling to come up with a character on your own, here are a few concepts for you to use.
- Malatoth is a tiefling who works as a prominent adviser to a local (or not so local) tyrant. He helps enforce the local ordinances that forbid or limit the worship of several good aligned deities who's clergy have preached rebellion and sedition in the past. He's known to be immensely cruel, presiding over executions of victims his inquisition apprehends, but also fair. All accused are given fair trials, where the truth or guilt of their belief is correctly ascertained. Pity for those who are, in the end, found guilty, and sent to the stake.
- Rethil is a half elf servant of the goddess of the dead, and is currently trying to hunt down a missing corpse stolen from the crypts below the deity. She's looking for reliable and sound help in attempting to track the body through the black markets of the city.
- Minthil is a halfling in service to a god of justice and purity, who acts as a watchmen against more formal members of his faith. He's in the service of the high priest of the faith, and is currently attempting to ascertain a possible connection between a bishop and a demon cult, which if true would indicate a serious threat of corruption that exists within the church.
- Bisgarn is a human working for a dark cult that operates in the depths of the city. They've promised him pleasure beyond this world, and so he loyally serves as a puppet in a complicated web of religious intrigue he does not understand, and has no wish to. He is fanatically loyal to his handler, who is a senior member of the cult.
- Bjornhelm is a dwarven inquisitor of the god of metal and craftsmenship, who's personal mission is to hunt down fey creatures who plauge dwarven settlements. Three days ago, unexpectedly, he left the front gates of town, headed into the forest, and hasn't been heard or seen since. The mayor of the town has offered a bounty for information on the missing inquisitor, and is looking for mercenaries who can mount an expedition to retrieve him from whatever mess he might have gotten himself entangled into.
Posted again for your convenience: the archetype this is all about.
The Inquisitor: A Roguish Archetype
I hope you all enjoyed this! See you in at least a week where I'll talk about some historical matter that, as of now, is yet to be decided.
