PF1e Erarosa - the Halfling Gestalt Inquisitor/Ranger needs Min/Maxing

[DreamQuestin]

Greetings and good morrow folks!

My long time tabletop game group is retiring our current Level 16 Gestalt/Mythic characters to start a new group.  My last character was definitely not Min/Max and the rest of the group was, so this time I really want to do "better".

We play Pathfinder 1e, any source that isn't completely broken is allowed.  Some of the campaign is converted from D&D, so that is option as well.  The DM is a great guy and if you can come up with a reasonable reason your character knows or can do something, he is ok with it.  That being said we do not do the "dipping into" other classes that I see a lot of board folks doing.

So our stat array is: 18 18 16 14 14 12.  There are three other party members, so far one is a Kitsune Paladin/Oracle and one is a Catfolk Psychic/Slayer.  Third player hasn't decided yet.

I am planning a Gestalt Inquisitor/Ranger, though I would consider alternatives, we are starting at level 3 and going to be playing modified Age of Worms.  I am kind of mentally seeing her as a Halfling female Geralt of Rivia, routing out undead and evil in Golarion.  Thinking she is a follower of Sarenrae.

I was thinking
Str:  18  -2 for halfling leave it at 16
Dex: 16  +2 for halfling has it at 18
Con: 14
Int:  18
Wis: 14 
Cha: 12 +2 for halfling has it at 14

Let's start there and see what Min/Maxing suggestions there are from this point before I start going into traits/skills and feats.

Thank you so very much for any thoughts and suggestions,
Deb

[Skyrock]

You are going to be a mediocre divine spellcaster, especially next to an Oracle. The party lacks versatility in divine spellcasting as both of you are spontaneous - you will have to coordinate with the Oracle's spell selection so that you don't unnecessarily duplicate situational spells known.

Keeping both Str and Dex near the maximum is an odd choice. What fighting style are planning to go into primarily? It might be better to focus on one of the stats.

Ranger has a great chassis with mediocre class features. Thankfully, it has a lot of ACFs.
Of special note, Urban Companion is a great replacement for the weak Ranger Animal Companion, as HP directly scale with your own at the full rate, not half rate.

[DreamQuestin]

You are going to be a mediocre divine spellcaster, especially next to an Oracle. The party lacks versatility in divine spellcasting as both of you are spontaneous - you will have to coordinate with the Oracle's spell selection so that you don't unnecessarily duplicate situational spells known.

That is the plan.  Hoping the other player picks up the slack some, maybe fighter/cleric or something. 

Keeping both Str and Dex near the maximum is an odd choice. What fighting style are planning to go into primarily? It might be better to focus on one of the stats.

Str/Dex and Wis are the "required" abilities for both classes.  I chose a slightly lower Wis because only get lvl 6 spells.  What would you recommend for the abilities locations?
I was thinking typical ranger bow, but I do want to be able to use the Scimitar, not sure how much focus to put on it.

Ranger has a great chassis with mediocre class features. Thankfully, it has a lot of ACFs.
Of special note, Urban Companion is a great replacement for the weak Ranger Animal Companion, as HP directly scale with your own at the full rate, not half rate.

I will certainly look for that, I have not seen it as yet.

Thank you for sharing your wisdom

[Skyrock]

Str/Dex and Wis are the "required" abilities for both classes.  I chose a slightly lower Wis because only get lvl 6 spells.  What would you recommend for the abilities locations?
I was thinking typical ranger bow, but I do want to be able to use the Scimitar, not sure how much focus to put on it.

D&D 3.5 and PF1 both greatly favour PCs who are really good at one combat style (and have a sub-par back-up plan only for when their favoured style isn't viable) over masters of none who are mediocre at two or more combat styles.

If you want to focus on archery, Dex is the most important stat. Some Strength is nice for compound bows with their Strength bonus, but this isn't the main source of damage. The Deadly Aim feat is much more crucial, especially if you can maintan full BAB progression - it is the Power Attack for archers, and more than dwarves the potential strength bonus.

For your melee side-arm, get Weapon Finesse, or even better a Feycraft weapon as it only costs some gold rather than a rare feat. That way you can ignore Strength and rely solely on Dex for hitting. There are also feats that allow you to shoot in melee without triggering AoOs.
There is no need to heavily invest either feats or ability score points for what is just an afterthought for when you can't use your preferred combat style.

[Power]

This sort of thread is what the Min/Max It! subforum is originally for, but what the heck.

If your goal is to root out evil like that, you would probably be better off playing a Hunting Paladin with the Oath of Vengeance (and perhaps also Oath against Fiends) + Dawnflower Dervish Bard Halfling. I would make the stat array 12str-18dex-16con-14int-14wis-18cha=10str-20dex-16con-14int-14wis-20cha, and then I would probably build the character as an archer while using the scimitar as a backup weapon since you have free Dervish Dance which makes you use dex for attack and damage anyway. The usual archery feats tend to be Point-Blank Shot + Precise Shot + Deadly Aim + Rapid Shot + Manyshot + Clustered Shots. Given Smite Evil, you can likely delay Clustered Shots for last. You should probably equip a Dervish Sikke + Bracers of the Avenging Knight + Celestial Armor + Mnemonic Vestment. It is also an option to replace Versatile Performance with the Focused Study ACF for a lot of Perform (Dance) rounds if you prefer.

Anyway, a character like this would be a very competent martial, an able party face, a solid healer, and also have a large variety of tricks up its sleeves that also has monster saving throws and high hitpoints. Your weakest attack would be melee with a scimitar, but that will still give you dex to damage along with Inspire Courage and likely Smite Evil and whatever self-buffs you cast. Early on, probably you would want to use your scimitar as your primary weapon as you have not yet empowered your archery to do a lot of attacks and damage. Bear in mind that this character is also a fully capable spellcaster in addition to being a full martial. The main pity is that you do not have access to the human's favored class bonus for Bards (which makes an enormous difference in spellcasting) but you may as well ask your GM if you can select that favored class bonus anyway since otherwise the game just over-rewards selecting Human race or a race that also counts as human for all spellcasters.