Can someone explain Inquisitor to me?

[Brian]

Ever since Kingmaker, I have not understood the point/role that the inquisitor class has in these games. It’s kind of like a sorcerer version of a cleric? Or is it an off-tank with a little extra magic? Or maybe it’s some team-tactics “battlefield commander” type? I just don’t get what the class is going for in terms of combat role.

[Drake]

For the history, Paizo tried with hybrid classes to gives alternatives to multiclass, specifically getting away of 10/10 multiclassing, and getting stuff that was close to the ad&d built-in multiclassing.

So they added several hybrid classes where there was a void, mainly :

magus (fighter/wizard)
hunter (ranger/cleric)
inquisitor (rogue/cleric)
bloodrager (barbarian/sorcerer, based on the design of the paladin and ranger, so half caster, instead of hybrid like bards)
slayer (ranger/rogue)
shifter (fighter/druid, with the twist of them having no spells, just animal form)

The inquisitor was designed similarily to the bard (originally rogue/wizard, but in pathfinder it's actually more rogue/witch, and in P2E it's a full occult caster, so the actual spontaneous version of the witch).

[Chan]

I like a good off support damage dealer! They can buff themselves distantly with selfish buffs, but they also have bane and can really demolish with a well made party. They can also get good singular domains that maybe the cleric couldn't get I like nobility a lot personally. They're an off support damage dealer.

[Wren]

This thread was quite old before the recent post, so we're locking it to prevent confusion.