Today, as I return from an impromptu hiatus, we’ll be looking at a handful of powers for Ipki, our goblin Inquisitor of Deum Radiant. My poll results say that you would like to give her Wrath powers, which…actually fits quite well with Deum Radiant, so thanks for making this easy!
Power Objectives
The Inquisitor class makes Ipki really good at locking down Anathema (abhorrent creatures like demons and undead) using recoverable conditions, and allows her to also declare a single enemy temporarily Anathema. To play to these strengths, we should give her a combination of powers causing recoverable conditions and affecting Anathema.
Recoverable powers mostly break down into three broad categories:
- Making an enemy less dangerous.
- Making an enemy easier to harm.
- Causing repeated damage.
Ipki has enough power choices that she can cover all of these bases, and have a power that just deals bonus damage to Anathema.
Powers
Divine Wrath powers have a lot of similarities to Arcane powers: they involve calling down the wrath of the gods, in the form of destructive energies. Wrath powers invoke searing fire, deafening thunder, blinding light, and bolts of retributive lightning. Most Wrath powers are long-ranged, which suits Inquisitors like Ipki just fine: they’re fragile enough that they don’t want to be anywhere near close combat.
Burning Bolt is likely to be Ipki’s mainstay attack: it’s usable as a normal attack, deals solid base damage, and is one of a very few lesser powers that cause a recoverable effect. It makes for an excellent opener against an Anathema, or a creature Ipki has denounced, since her Conviction feature makes it incredibly hard for these creatures to shake off the repeated damage. Ipki can then follow up with other powers while the Anathema burns, reapplying Burning Bolt as necessary.
Holy Blast gives Ipki an area attack, and while it doesn’t do a whole lot of base damage, it does deal additional damage to Anathema: it can be used to make a solid attack against a single Anathema or an enemy Ipki has Denounced while also dealing some scratch damage to other enemies around it; or, if Ipki and her party have run up against a whole bunch of Anathema, it can be a effective crowd-clearer.
Blinding Bolt is a nasty control power by itself, because it inflicts one of the nastiest of Aetrimonde’s standard conditions. (Blinded: a creature that is blinded is flatfooted, cannot see, cannot take opportune actions or reactions, and becomes helpless if it is also deafened. All creatures have total concealment from a blinded creature.) It also synergizes incredibly well with Conviction: blinding an enemy drastically handicaps it, and if it is Anathema or Denounced, Ipki can expect to keep it blinded for several turns with a single greater power use.
Peal of Thunder is a powerful area attack with the added benefit of staggering creatures in the center of the blast: like Blinding Bolt, this synergizes with Inquisitor class features, although staggering an enemy (Staggered: a creature that is staggered is flatfooted and cannot take actions when it is not its turn) is not nearly as potent an effect as blinding them. This is useful to help allies attack a single high-value target, while also helping to clear out the chaff from around them.
Abilities
As can be seen from these powers, Ipki will want high Charisma, followed by high Wisdom. She may also want some Strength: Divine melee powers (which I haven’t gotten into here) make use of Strength and Wisdom, so if Ipki wants to later pick up an option to be able to handle a little bit of melee, that Strength will come in handy.
Ipki has Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma as favored abilities from her heritage. It is a no-brainer to pay 6 points for +3 Charisma, and boost it to +4; she will also pay 3 points each to get +2 Wisdom and Strength.
As an aside, high Charisma is actually a bit less necessary for Ipki than it would be for the other sample characters seen so far: as a goblin, Ipki is Undersized, and because of that small size she gains an effective +1 bonus to attack rolls vs. AC and Poise against a lot of creatures. (She gains a +1 bonus against regular Medium-sized creatures, and doesn’t suffer a -1 penalty against Small creatures as most PCs would.) This wouldn’t entirely make up for having only +3 Charisma, but if we were short on ability points (like if Ipki didn’t have Charisma as a favored ability) I might have gone for it.
For her remaining scores, we have some options: I envision Ipki as more sneaky than she is brawny, so I’m going to lean into that and boost her Dexterity rather than her Constitution. I’d also like her to have decent Grace and Cunning, but with only 1 ability point of 13 remaining, that will mean having negative Constitution or Intelligence. Inquisitors are fragile enough I don’t feel great about negative Constitution, so I’m going to drop Intelligence, and have Ipki be clever but not smart: if I were playing her, I’d have her come up with good ideas in the moment, but have issues planning ahead.
Ipki’s finished abilities will be:
| +2 STR | +1 DEX | +1 CUN | +2 WIS |
| +0 CON | +1 GRA | -1 INT | +4 CHA |
Up next, we’ll be picking out Ipki’s skills, perk, and feat. Stay tuned!
Aetrimonde 
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