Stalker of Kharash: Monking it up as a Ranger?

[Rausdower]

I was looking at the Stalker cause my friend got me interested in the class again from his character concept. The class gains the smite ability but here's the kicker: You can only perform it as an unarmed attack.

My question is why? This is a prestige class for same class that's geared to be two weapon fighting and archery. Why would I ever want to use an implement that would be detrimental in combat no matter how strong the smite is? Would it be too much if the smiting was on a weapon or even on an arrow shot?

[Flickerdart]

There are two ways you could go about this:

1) There are a bunch of alternate combat styles for Ranger. Grab one that's unarmed-friendly (or Wildshape Ranger).
2) Take Snap Kick, and add a smite kick to your TWF routine.

Edit: Oh and I guess Ranger/Monk/PsyWar/Slayer builds could find some use in that?

[Kantolin]

Holy cow, I love SoK and have never noticed that the attack was on only unarmed. O_o

You can get a smite pretty easily from an array of sources, so having the SoK's work through a weapon is clearly not overpowered - especially one you don't get until after level 10.

[Coidzor]

Well, one small bone to throw is the Ascetic Hunter feat, but,well, PrCing out of Ranger doesn't really work too well with that.

And one could TWF with a two handed weapon and one's unarmed strike.

[Rausdower]

All good points on how to managed smite but I was hoping to make a bow-centered/diving casting ranger. I'll talk to my DM when the time comes to change the unarmed restricting for my friend and I. He's pretty reasonable.

On a related note: Is there any weapon enchantments to strengthen a smite attack that can be placed on a bow?