How to make an Inquisitor (Paladin-Rogue Multiclass) in DnD 5e - Build Guide 

This is a cool character idea, unfortunately I can guarantee no-one is going to play it like an Assassin's creed type, and also guarantee that you will go insane form all the "No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!"s you hear all game.

"man it sucks that the Paladin cant sneak around" "Well what were you expecting? The Spanish Inquisition?"

Did this build with a dark elf and got an unexpected fun bonus. The fairy fires spell gives advantage on all attacks against the affected creature for up to 1 minute which set off my sneak attack, even if no allies were no near by. It is a concentration spell so war caster may be a good feat and you could pick the spell up other ways but I like the free option from Dark Elf which does not take away from my spell slots I use to smite with. I was also able to use my heritage, the darkness spell with intimidation for some fun RP sessions. Great overall build. I really enjoyed playing this char.

When I did this, I ended up starting rogue, ending up with a Paladin (Oath of the Watchers) 7/ Rogue (inquisitive) 13 split. Gets you a bunch of ASIs so you can pick up feats, a decent amount of damage, skills, and makes it a very well rounded character in the end that thematically just really fits. It's fun. Not the best in damage or anything, but when you're sussing out those criminals and fiends, you're more focused on your mind than your blade.

I prefer the swashbuckler/paladin multiclass. It leans into the Cha and gives you an initiative boost. AT doesn't really help you with its enchantment/illusion restrictions. And I would start in Rogue for the extra skills. Swashbuckler also allows you to use sneak attack when you 1 v.1 someone. And then there is Panche. Charming people can get you info and Intimidating people in combat is pretty inquisitor. You don't need magic. You have a couple of smites per day and sneak attack every round. Medium armor is good enough and flexible enough to grab the medium armor master feat to sneak and get that +3 for your AC. With defensive fighting style and a shield, even scale armor gets you a 20 on your AC. But let's be real, we want half plate. 5+3+2+1 is a nice 21. Once you feel like you have enough sneak attack (+5d6?) You can switch back to paladin or lean into charisma more and go a couple levels in divine soul sorcerer or bard if you want. Full caster Cha classes pair nicely with paladins and still give you that religious feel.

On a similar note, I had a Fighter/Battlemaster+Rogue/Inquisitor that I ran as a Force Recon specialist. He'd get in close and either distract the baddies or just hit the big bad hard while the others rush in. He had enough HP to survive 2 rounds while surrounded and deal a s__t ton of damage. Out of combat, nothing could get past the combination of Expertise in Perception, Investigation, and Insight, plus the Observant feat and the Eye for Detail and Ear for Deception skills, pretty much no one could hide from or lie to him. The only thing that he couldn't see were creatures with the special ability to be completely undetectable until they attack ... and even then, they couldn't surprise him.

I can kinda see this as a npc where they would work with the BBEG or be a red herring character.

A Rogue/Paladin build I had thought of doing is an Inquisitive Rogue and Vengeance Paladin as a sort of Vengeful Hunter type with a personal Oath to punish those in power who misuse their power such as using it to increase their own wealth at the detriment of those less fortunate in their city/town/etc., while using the abilities of the Inquisitive Rogue to spot the weaknesses in their target to take full advantage of. Never really thought of a Level spread between them though, but Rogue would be the starting Class I had in mind.

Booming Blade will only work with a whip if you're attacking adjacent enemies (not using reach) since the spell has a Self 5' range.

Huh. I did paladin rogue but not as an inquisitor. I played him more like Javert from Les Miserable. He was born in a jail and rose through the ranks with the law as his guide and God but would put himself by danger going undercover for example.

Elven Accuracy would probably do more for you than the Piercer feat since you’re crit fishing. It’s an easy pick up since you’re a high elf.

I’m playing this build in a current campaign and agree it’s a lot of fun. I did two levels of Rogue first, then two level of Paladin, then back to Rogue, but essentially the same. I picked up Sentinel feat and I get quite a few sneak attacks on my reaction which is nice and boosts overall damage. It’s a pretty different role for me but I’m really enjoying it.

Part of me wishes there was an official finesse bludgeoning weapon so you could justify using Crusher with this build. Sure, you can imitate this using Thunderous Smite (if you got a decent Charisma for it anyway), but the idea of at-will forced movement with Booming Blade just sounds a lot more fun. I know you can just do it without any sort of Sneak Attack, but where's the fun in that?

This is a pretty good approach. For a one-shot, I think this is solid. If you were trying to do this in a campaign though, I think there needs to be a few tweaks. Since you can't use Int for spells anyway, dump it and add that back to wisdom, which are more common saves. If you have the option for a first level feat, I would go half-elf for the extra +1 and grab magic initiate to get booming blade and green flame blade. Also, going spell caster after 11th level is a very viable option, because you will pick up more spell slots for smite. Sorcerer would give you meta magic, the shadow sorcerer would be good flavor, and very useful for a rogue. Warlock would get you spell slots that recharge on a short rest, and some pacts that could add more durability. Bard would give you more slots, utility, you could go swords for eventual extra attack.

If you do take another level in Paladin, I'd suggest Oath of Vengeance, because the Hunters Mark spell allows you to track your target for HOURS!

I went 2 paladin/2 rogue/ 6 bladesinger to get some more damage on the board. For 11 I probably would have grabbed assassin for more nova damage.

3.5 had the order of illumination Shadowbane Inquisitor ( paladin/rogue) Shadowbane stalker (cleric/rogue)

I actually made an inquisitor that's more generic by following the vibes and using the background from the Innistrad background. He's a Inquisitive Rogue / Monster Hunter Ranger and I hope to use him for a Curse of Strahd play through

Love it! Thanks for posting this... I had a dwarf inquisitor in a PF1 campaign many years back. When I tried to recreate him for D&D 5E, I had a bit of trouble, especially at low levels. Rogue-Paladin is the way I went too, although I spent my levels a bit differently. I started with Rogue for the extra skill points, chose Spy for background (working for the Church!), and switched to Paladin at 4th level... at 3rd level, I chose Inquisitive subclass for Rogue. At 7th, I went back to Paladin for one level to get Vengeance, since I was the righteous retribution of the Church. And I've only worked him up to 8th level, so still debating where to go from here.

Never had a chance to play d&d but have read about classes, and it reminds me a bit of the Avenger from 4E player handbook 2.

So, I made a hexblade warlock picked up the heavily armed feat for heavy armor proficiency and made myself a pseudo paladin.

I did a similar build, but inverse in level priority (Swashbuckler 3, Conquest 7, expertise in perception and investigation) which used a whip and musket from horseback. I wanted at least 5 in Paladin for the "Find Steed" feature, and the extra attack, to focus on the "A man on a horse is physically and spiritually bigger than one who is not." aspect, and with steady aim on a horse, you're getting advantage every attack while keeping your mobility since your horse is doing the moving. When you're close, you can swap to the crack of a whip, when you're afar, you can bring the loud thunder of your judgement with a musket, which is just flavor, but it really carries the "Fear" inducing side of an inquisitor. There's also the rapier and crossbows when you need to swap to stealth and keep it quiet, covert operations and investigations, since all of it is carried by dex, it works perfectly. While I chose Swashbuckler (To double dip on bonuses from Charisma between the two classes), due to being on horseback most of the time, I found the features to rarely apply (Steady Aim already helps enable sneak attack, and you're often not close enough for it to trigger, using a whip or musket keeps you 5 feet further than it wants you), so all I really got was the initiative bonus, which, is certainly great, but ultimately felt lacking. If I remade the character I'd like to try Mastermind, Proficiency in disguises, forgery, gaming set, and two languages is very flavorful for an inquisitor, and very much assists charisma based checks, making it more useful outside combat, but then in combat, the ability to use help as a bonus action from 30 feet away, is great, using your presence to guide the wrath of your allies to strike true. Of course, you give up your steady aim for your bonus action, but if you're using Mounted Combatant, there's a high chance that you'll still have that advantage. Whip, smite, sneak attack, and then help to make sure your next ally can keep the punishment going, you're the inquisitor, you've marked the target, and now judgement will be dealt.

Ryan Reynolds?! When did you become a DnD youtuber?!

Load EverQuest 2, select Priest, subclass Inquisitor! Tossed you a sub. Keep making content!

May I submit sorcerer to follow the paladin/rogue levels if you're playing this at high tiers? Draconic ancestry gives you effectively free Mage Armor that can't be dispelled, and 3 levels into sorc allows you to cast Mirror Image as a bonus action which makes you incredibly tanky (or only 2 levels if you took it as one of your Arcane Trickster spells). Another benefit is that as a full caster you'll start to rack up those spell slots for smites. You'll also eventually get Fly (which you can also quicken).

What did you use to make the character in the video?

Fun concept and lots of flavour! If I were to do it, I'd probably just go 3 levels of rogue and the rest Paladin. Maybe crown for spirit guardians. Or I'd skip rogue all together and either take skill expert for sneaky stuff, or go Bard a few levels for that expertise.

I think someone could play a character based on St. Peter very well with this build.

A cool idea I've been cooking up for a gestalt camping is a college of swords bard, battle master fighter mix, where the whole flavor is a fan dancer, its ot perfect yet, but it may be a cool idea for you to try!

Bro, what happened to Ryan Reynold's voice?

I would have gone vengeance paladin assassin rouge. Auto crit smites on a surprised target. Vow of enmity means sneak attack is always on during combat.

How would switching Arcane Trickster out for Swashbuckler change this build? would that possibly help give more damage through more consistent sneak attack?

Most people ignore that finesse does not require you to use dex it give you the option to use dex. "When making an attack with a finesse weapon, you use your choice of your Strength or Dexterity modifier for the attack and damage rolls. You must use the same modifier for both rolls." Sneak attack merely requires a weapon to have the finess property. Not to use dex

Even a rogue build named "Inquisitor" doesnt take the "Inquisitive" subclass. 😬

I'm trying it in my session next week, Can't wait many thanks!

running rogue 3/oathbreaker pally rest on bg3

Can this build work if you replace Paladin with Cleric?

lawful evil

This gives me a few ideas.

He’s also forgetting a huge part of the Arcane Trickster archetype, you only get to pick very few non-illusion/enchantment school spells maybe abseils choice OR find familiar but certainly not both.

How would you do this with a Ranged idea of this? Like using Hand Crossbow/Gun. Since you can't use Divine Smite on Ranged attacks?

Fallen paladin/assassin could it work

I thought this was 40k

Maybe this is a dumb nit pick and i don't want to come across as condescending or anything. But i think you got confused with the arcane trickster's spell limitations. Your cantrips can be any two (plus mage hand) from the wizard spell list. The level spells are the ones restricted to enchantment and illusion, so you wouldn't be able to use Mage Armor, or Find Familiar, etc.

This build 100% wants to be Str-focused with medium armour and max 14 Dex. Start Rogue for the additional skill prof and Int Save prof (no illusion will cloud your eyes), but take no more than 5 levels, the rest Paladin. Half-orc will give you free Intimidation and improves offence and defence. Assassin Rogue gives you free 1st turn crits for your smites. Vengeance offers Hunters Mark, Haste and some bonus movement, as well as advantage on all your attacks via Vow of Enmity. Way better "inquisitor" stylr character in my eyes.

If you are playing an inquistor and you pick anything but inquisitve what are you even doing. Its a wosdom based rogue with the entire theme of an inquistor. An inquistor can technically be any class but i feel you really missed the mark here.

The rapier is not the best weapon for a rogue. It actually is the second best. The best is the double bladed scimitar...

Anyone that plays D&D 5e probably wears tampons.