An Inquisitor and Inquisitor Lord can both take some of the Imperium's most elite humans as permanent members of their personal retinues. While they might vary from an Astropath to convey messages to a warrior to backup the Inquisitor in combat, they are all capable of fighting in combat in one way or another and serve a position on the battlefield. Known as henchmen, these members consist of familiars, priests, acolytes, veterans and servitors, sages, and mystics.
An Inquisitor can be equipped to fulfill really any roll, as you see some elements to support shooting, close-combat, and survival. However, in my opinion, an Inquisitor with a retinue is pretty expensive and should only fit one roll: shooting. Inquisitors have access to warriors that may be equipped with multi-meltas, plasma cannons, or heavy bolters. This combined with the Sages +1 to Ballstic Skill with one and one reroll per turn in addition to this with two can allow an Inquisitor to almost always strike his or her mark. First, there is the option to take either the Lord or the normal, elite, version. Personally, the extra wounds you get on the Inquisitor are not really worth anything, as I will go into detail. Unless you REALLY need those extra Elite slots, take the Inquisitor with 2 Wounds.

Next up is the equipment on the Inquisitor himself. You shouldn't worry about his overall survivability (don't worry, soon) and just focus on shooting output. First, you should always consider what I mentioned when going over the Inquisitor/Wargear. The classic Psychic Hood and Emperor's Tarot should be thought about (though put the Hood on your Grey Knight HQ, if you have one), but I would ignore the Null Rod (soon!).And now a shooting weapon. The three options you have is Scourging, Psycannon, or a combi-weapon. Personally, I would go for the Psycannon, as per things stated in the psychic article with scourging and the combi-weapon has too short of a range, especially considering you will be stationary for the most part. After buying your wargear, you should pick up a transport. You can either get this directly or through allies which is more recommended if you are already getting allies. You might ask "why get a transport if you aren't moving?" Well, purely survivability. A Chimera is perfect for this. You have armor to protect you, move you far when you move at all, and fire weapons of its own. For the Chimera, I recommend the multi-laser and a heavy bolter. The Heavy flamer won't do much as you won't be close to the opponent usually.

Next we move onto the retinue itself. Your best options are the two or three Gun-Servitors and two Sages, as said. Most people will take Mystics in addition or in lieu Sages, as they offer a "bubble" of Deep Striking defenses which will keep your shooting elements safe from anything that will try to pounce on your Chimera or the rest of your nearby army. So the basic rundown comes to this:

• Ordo Malleus Inquisitor w/ Psycannon - 50 pts.
• Gun-servitors w/ Multi-melta - 35 pts a piece
• Sages - 10 pts. each
• Mystics - 6 pts. each
• Chimera - 80 pts with a 5 pt optional Heavy Bolter (55 pts with IG Codex with both weapons)

As this gets quite expensive, you may wish to opt out of the transport. If you do, you could take some Acolytes to put extra wounds on instead or equip Artificer armor on the Inquisitor to beef him up a bit. For a nice unit, I recommend taking two of each of the above henchmen, and an Imperial Guard Rhino if you can get those allies in (see my previous article on that). It should end up being 237 points, a bit expensive indeed. Dropping the psycannon is a good way to drop points, as it also allows you to get rid of the Sages as they don't serve much of a function anymore. But don't forget the Tarot if you would like it.

I hope you enjoyed this quick post on Inquisitors and found it helpful. Next time I'll try to get some army lists up... eventually. Until then...