Inquisitor - Gameplay advice

[the_shadow]

I've started playing Inquisitor by Cinemax as a priest on Normal difficulty. I've opened up most of the quests around the main town. However, when I go out into the wilderness I get *crushed*. My main character gets destroyed by orc throwing axes, and his main attack (Breath of Death) doesn't do much in the way of damage. My disabling spells (Confusion and Fear) have a very low chance to hit, even though I pumped intelligence. I'm specializing in Heretical and Divine magic. I get kill small numbers of critters and zombies, but I don't earn enough cash to cover the cost of the mana/stamina potions I use.

Does anyone have any tips here on how to get good? Where is the best place on the map to go for a starting character? Is Heretical Magic adequate, or should I have tried a different magic school? Is there a way to recharge the spell symbols the the priest starts the game with?

 

[Gunnar]

Here's a writeup I did on the game after I played, this is for Priest on Hard mode, should help you:

Attributes: Primary attributes are Intelligence and Speed. Intelligence should be taken to whatever is needed to obtain magister level in the school you are using. Speed is important because it enables you to escape enemy attacks. With enough speed you do not need to invest in constitution or defensive skills because you will not be taking hits. Having a high speed also makes the game much more convenient as it reduces the time it takes to wander the town/explore the map.

Act 2 Attribute note: You will hit the maximum 50 speed and need to start investing in constitution. The hit points will be needed to survive some of the ranged magic using monsters that start appearing in act2. You will also need to eventually take Strength to 36 to make full use of Holy Aura.

Act 3 Attribute note: You will eventually be able to max dex and str to 50, but I think the better way to go is use those points on Intelligence to get a bigger mana pool. Some of the spells at Magister level take a lot of mana to cast.

Skills: Focus on 1 school of magic and pump it up as high as possible. Secondary skill is Wisdom, which is essential for casting spells. Other skill points should go into secondary magic schools, though this is only needed for convenience (spells like Levitate). I did not use any forbidden magic schools as I'm trying to play a pure 'good guy'.

Act 2 skills note: Now that offense is taken care of, its time to focus on defense. Take Holy Aura to at least 16, you can finally put 6 into armour and start wearing chain. Choose one school of magic and take it to 11, leaving the others at 6.

Act 3 skills note: I pumped up a few more magic schools to level 16 and started maxing Flagellism for the extra defense. As I maxed out the magic schools, I was able to start discarding my +1 to magic skills items.

Spells: I spammed 1 attack spell (whichever did the most damage at the time), used 1 buff (Bless) to make my spells hit harder. Very rarely I would use Heal, Light, Crucifix to paralyze stronger enemies, fireblade to give the companions a bit of extra punch and I never once had to use Raise Dead - I considered these mere convenience skills and not required to complete the challenges. The only others worth mentioning are the defensive/resist/protection spells which I only used when I was fighting powerful magic user boss type monsters.
*** The spell with the highest damage is Locust Swarm, which suggests Magic of Miracles is the way to go (thanks to gregn30)

Act 2 spells note: Not much will change here, except you might want to start making more use of the defensive buffs to reduce damage from the spellcasting enemies.

Act 3 spells note: This is where you start getting more powerful attack spells. The one Divine spell that can kill undead in 1 shot is especially great since you encounter so many of them. Powerful spells cost a lot of mana, so adjust the potion ratio accordingly.

Equipment/Items: Some shops give better buy/sell prices than others (sometimes after helping with quests, shops will give better prices as well) - find out which is which and maximize your gold when buying and selling loot. Try to get Magister + magic skill items with + to speed attribute (or all attributes if you have the patience and money) from the shops. The other useful one is + stamina regen. When I started out, I had all + stamina regen items, then replaced them with + magic skill w/ speed items when I had the money. I used leather+shortbow since I had no skills in weapons or armour, and that worked just fine for me.

Act 2 equipment note: I dropped the bow and went with weapon+shield so I could get more item bonuses. The damage from the arrows starts to become less noticeable. Wear chainmail after obtaining armour skill and try to get some +AC vs ranged attacks. Try to keep around 12,000gp in your pocket at all times, just in case you see a +to all magic skills / +to all attributes item. Otherwise, spend all money on magic boxes.

Act 3 equipment note: Try to get +to all attributes items on every item. You should only need +4 to magical skills in total to max everything to 20. I would recommend 1 buff to stamina regen as well.

Yellow equipment: some unique items are given to you as quest rewards, and they have a yellow colour. Whenever they are given after a conversation (like the judge ring) you can re-roll their stats by saving and re-doing the conversation. Since they can have more bonuses than any other colour, they have the potential to be the best items in the game.

Seals: do not buy Seals. Use the ones you find to open locked doors and containers.

Magical Boxes: Destroying a magical box and dismissing the genie gets you a chance for a skill or attribute point. I saved and reloaded and used them exclusively for skill points. Spend all of your extra gold on these. They are expensive, so make sure you maximize your return by shopping at a cheap store!

Act 3 Magical Boxes note: Use these for both skill and attribute points. These are such a rich source of points that it cannot be overstated how important it is to make proper use of magical boxes throughout the game.

Potions: Use 1 full inventory tab for potions, 1/3 of each color. The priest will only ever need the blue ones. The red and yellows will keep the companions (meat shields) fueled up and alive. Make sure potions are kept topped up every time you re-enter the town. I have never had a companion die with this setup. In the beginning, you don't need to fill the full inventory tab, and use the gambling to generate enough money to pay for pots if you are low on cash.

Act 3 potion note: I eventually ended up using 2 full inventory tabs for potions, with 1 entire tab dedicated to yellow.

Devilroot Potions: Since these can take you beyond the natural maximum in an attribute, I recommend saving them until you hit 50 in speed, which is the max for the priest. Then drink all speed pots to maximize your speed! The only downside to this is you would have to wait for Act 2 to see any benefits from the Devilroot potions, so its up to you where you want to have an easier time, Act 1 or Act 2. (personally I think Act 1 is easy enough)

Tactics: Have companions take enemy aggro and spam spells from a safe spot. For maximum damage, cast a spell, attack with arrow while spell is cooling down and then cast a spell again. In dire situations, just use your speed to run from enemies while spamming spells back at them while they chase. Sometimes you will get 'rushed' after a dialogue (like Herbertius) - for those situations, again just use your speed to run back until they hit your meat shields, heal up and then smash with spells. If you run out of potions, stop whatever you are doing and return to the town to fill up. Potions are absolutely essential to keep the meat shields alive and spells slinging. I found the mana regen items too slow and the mana regen skill mediocre, much more worth it to just use mana pots than invest in those.

 

[the_shadow]

Thanks for the tips, Gunnar. They probably aren't relevant to the beginning of the game, though, because I've haven't had much of a chance to invest in anything.

Some questions:

Is heretical magic a decent magic school?

How do you deal with ranged attacks in the beginning? Orcs and firebats can kill me in about 5 seconds with ranged attacks (which I can't outrun/dodge), whereas it takes at least 20 seconds for me to kill them

What is the easiest location to start on?

Is it normal for a spell to have a 20% chance of working in the beginning of the game?

 

[Baron Dupek]

You must use bows before you become decent spellcaster. Or go melee but I don't recommend it, it sux and Priest is too fragile.
You can become Disciple (2nd tier) in Melee but Journeyman (3rd tier) in Ranged. Win-win.
Best way is to order your companion to stay in place, lure enemies one by one, shoot them with arrows and when they get closer - let companion do his job and help him.

PS. people recommend to play on Hard for better loot/XP/item stats but it's not worth it. Make combat really bad from decent.

Is it normal for a spell to have a 20% chance of working in the beginning of the game?

yes
Putting skillpoints in school of magic, increasing Wisdom and casting Bless helps.

Is heretical magic a decent magic school?

nah, there are better schools.

How do you deal with ranged attacks in the beginning? Orcs and firebats can kill me in about 5 seconds with ranged attacks (which I can't outrun/dodge), whereas it takes at least 20 seconds for me to kill them

Dodge better (get away further from them) or spam magic seals on them.
It also help to make screen resolution bigger to see ranged enemies. Yes, they are nasty.

You need a lot of potions.
To get them cheaper bring herbalist woman her book from orc shaman in orc camp outside of Iron Mines. Don't rush in, try to lure shaman to you and punish him, don't let him talk to you, shamans spells are DEADLY.
Then you get cheap potions and best place to sell loot.
Later in the game there is Holy Ground spell which work as a Lloyd's Beacon spell from Might&Magic games, cast it outside of herbalist shop and come back with Divine Mercy spell (both are Divine Magic school spells).

Best locations at the start? Cementary (two of them but beware of dungeons, plus - one of them have 3 skeletons on the surface that whack the shit out of you if you're not careful).
In dark dungeons use Light from Inq. School.
Then clean Ashbery and Place of Execution.
Last location should be Dragon Rock and dungeons in other maps (they are p.hard, believe me).
Then you can go with main quest line and clean Iron Mines, lot of loot and potions and money.

Some things in the game are useless
Don't put points in
-Identify (doesn't work and Sixth Sense from Inquisitorial School of magic do this better)
-Perception (Light from Inq. School increase perception)
-Flagelantism (Holy Aura skill is better).

Best school of magic?
Infernal. Can spawn Inferial Hounds on Initiate and Dark Mass on Magister.
Pagan magic is also good, with Rain of Fire, Berserk for companion and Shatter and Regeneration.
Area effect spell are da best, later in the game you will encounter some nasty enemies that you want to remove before they attack. Basically - something to clean the rooms.
-Alchemy (perma potions sounds tempting but you will have enough Devil Roots and cash to make them from herbalist).
-if you ran out of gold go to the tavern and gamble, it helps sometimes

 

[the_shadow]

Some good advice there.

Before I got around to reading it, I played the game a bit more. After limping back to town after exhausting all my mana potion, a paladin just walked up to me and offered to join my party. I'd looked everywhere for any joinable NPCs and found nothing, and out of the blue one just walks up to me. Anyway, the guy's a beast. He can handle most enemies as long as I'm backing him up with Breath of Death + healing potions, although the skeletons at the Graveyard crush him as well.

I'm also purchasing seals. They are pretty good value, considering that they auto-hit.

I'm a little disappointed that my Heretical debuffing spells have a low chance of hitting. Fear and Confusion seem like useful effects.

 

[Baron Dupek]

Beside this Paladin and Dog in the sheriff's dungeon there is one paladin in Act3 (but he's worse than Hugo), Olgaf from Ashbery(?) in Act1 but you need to clean the map and smash his doors and then prove his innocence.
If you're thief then you can recruit soldiers (you receive your noble title back).
As an Inquisitor (who passed his final exam in Act3) you can ask lower tier inquisitors to aid you in your investigations (aka spam spell).
There is no magic companion beside them.
Both soldiers and inquisitors can be recruited without need to dismiss your named party members.

edit
one thing when you play Thief/Priest and have companion - all healing potions for him and stamina, mana potions for you.
For some baffling reason companion's stamina runs out p.fast! I have no idea why, just few swings and he need new potion. 2 out of 10 cases when I need stamina potions there was not a single one in my inventory because these goons chugged them all.
F
F
S

 

[Terpsichore]

From what I recall, the game was about mashing potions like a retard and extremely tedious in highest difficulty.

 

[the_shadow]

I haven't even cleared out the Iron Mines, and I'm already Lvl 17. I've gotten some spells up to Student Level. My thoughts on some of them:

Heretical Magic:

Breath of Death - OK. Good for slowing down melee enemies
Confusion - Meh
Fear - Decent for thinning out crowds
Astral Attack - Great attack spell, resulted in a massive power leap once I unlocked it
Vampirism - Good to switch to if I need quick healing

Infernal Magic:

Intoxication - Reduces Dex and Int. Not very useful
Fire Protection - Good for Shamans
Poisonous Saliva - Useless. Getting poisoned is a slow death for your PC, but isn't of tactical use when done to an enemy.
Insanity - Reduces Int. Not very useful

Inquisitorial:

Sixth Sense - It says it has a penetration of 20%, but it identified all my items on the first casting? Invaluable.
Open Wounds - Haven't had a chance to use, since I got it after Astral attack
Crucifixion - Probably the best disabling spell yet.

-----

I've read that it's worth only pumping one or two schools of magic, but there seems to be a problem with diminishing returns. One skill point buys you one skill level up to 5 points, then you need 2 skill points to buy a level up until 10, then 3 points after that. Also, to get Magister spells you only need to get a skill to Level 16. Is it worth pumping a skill past 16, or should I move on to training in another skill?

 

[Gunnar]

Also, to get Magister spells you only need to get a skill to Level 16. Is it worth pumping a skill past 16, or should I move on to training in another skill?

Once you hit 16, move on to another skill. The important thing is not to spread the skills too thin, too early - pick an offense skill, take it to 16, then take a defensive skill and take it to 16. You can use equipment to get you there even earlier. After that, you can experiment a little more without sacrificing combat effectiveness.

 

[gunman]

Play a paladin spamming AoE seals for mobs and the seal that cause slow for bosses. Melee only weak monsters. Paladin is sturdier (you can never get killed with proper skills and equipment) and with the seals you can kill things fast enough to make the grind bearable. Just run around the map to aggro as many enemies as possible, and when you are surrounded use the round attack seal until everyone is dead. Then level up.

 

[the_shadow]

Finally finished Act 1.

Overall I'm rather impressed by the game so far. The main plot thread is pretty compelling, and I like the way seemingly unrelated incidents are all part of a greater storyline.

Seals are pretty much a *must* to beat some of the boss battles, though. I needed to bust out a chain lightning seal for the final boss battle, and a firewall one for a bunch of orc shamans and golems.

Speaking of orc shamans, enemy magic users in this game shred through my NPCs and PC is 5 seconds flat. The defensive spells which add to magic/elemental resistance don't appear to do much. Is this normal?

A lot of the stat decreasing spells don't appear to do much against enemies (eg. Intoxication, Curse, Confusion), even boss creatures, despite the fact that they stack. Fear/paralyze spells seem to be a far better option, as long as you can penetrate their magic resistance. Does anyone find Curse/Confusion/Intoxication useful?

Finally, the Miracle School of spells is pretty damn good (as mentioned by another poster). It has the strongest Initiate attack spell, and the strongest Student DoT spell. Insight is great for boosting spell penetration and perception (but has a long cooldown, so you need to be careful not to cast right before a fight), and Levitate, which is essential to not die from lava/acid pits.

 

[Anomander Rake]

Just a heads-up: didn't have time to read the other posts...

Investing into the Identification skill is a waste of points because it is broken and doesn't work correctly (and it won't be fixed, sadly). On the other hand, a single point invested into the Inquisitorial Magic is all you need for the Sixth Sense spell to identify all items there are in the game

 

[Iznaliu]

Crucifixion - Probably the best disabling spell yet.

Ask one Yeshua ben Yosef about his experience with it.

 

[Baron Dupek]

Wait, Insight increase spell penetration??
Did not known that. That would save me from troubles some times...

 

[Jinn]

I played around with the opening section of this game for the first time today, and it seems really interesting. Yes, the combat seems pretty bad, but decently entertaining with ranged weapons from what I could tell (I started with a thief). I like the large selections of skills to choose from and how those and the main attributes seem to play a particularly significant role in progressing through game - as in you can't just start spreading your points out all over the place. The atmosphere and setting seem really nice and the writing does it's job well enough.

Since this seems like the thread to find knowledgeable people in regards to this game, I just wanted to ask: would this game be fun with a conversational thief build that focuses on heretical magic if I find the combat in the beginning passable? Is it really as horrible as a lot of people make it out to be?

 

[thesheeep]

I find it fascinating that there are people not stopping to play at some point during the mines to preserve their sanity.
I think I gave up after running back to town and back for like the fifth time or so. That was a time waste on a whole new level.

Then again, there are people playing asian MMOs, so I guess some are born digging the grind.