Zen Archer...with a unicorn...

[cbaidchris]

So I recently turned to the playground for help in designing my wife's next character that she wanted to ride a unicorn with. I was pointed toward the beloved of valerian class which seems to fit the bill but now she has informed me that she wants to take up archery with this. I suggested zen archer so my question is what would go well with this? Is this PrC still a good choice? should she start with ranger or is cleric into some other prc with a diferrent way of obtaining the unicorn better? because she likes the casting and mostly buffing the party element.

[Frosty]

Be a Cleric. Take Leadership. DMM some Divine Power. Take archery feats. ??? Profit!

[John Longarrow]

Order of the Bow Initiate maybe?

Or if she does Arane (and wants to be an Elf) Arcane Archer?

[Fouredged Sword]

Well, she will have her own casting list from her PRC, so lets not go with a caster.

I think ranger would be a good option. Trade your companion for something (there are several good options, solitary hunter is a good one) and maybe Champion of the Wild to trade the spellcasting you won't get much of for feats.

You get archery feats without a dex requirement from ranger, so you can completely dump dex.

I would think maybe Ranger 5 / Stalker of Kharash 2 / Beloved of Valarian 10 / Stalker of Kharash 3

This seems like a good build. You have to finagle the fluff though.

[nedz]

I second the Ranger concept, but perhaps a Swift hunter ?
Scout 4 / Ranger 4 though it is feat hungry — possibly too much.
Scout 4 gives you a bonus feat, which will help.

[Fouredged Sword]

The center of my above build is that you get favored enemy (evil) and get to add your favored enemy bonus to both to hit and damage. Get a nice +1 holy longbow and everything south of the alignment mid line will be strongly advised to stay out of the line of fire.

[Chronos]

There's got to be a way to fit Melf's Unicorn Arrow in here.

[Icarusthefallen]

There's got to be a way to fit Melf's Unicorn Arrow in here.

Pretty sure that they had that taken care of in the OP's last thread.

[ArcaneGlyph]

Elven Cleric with Elf Domain gets you free point blank shot. Take War domain for a free wepon focus. Get Zen archer for the Wisdom use and go from there?

[Xerlith]

First of first of all: Archers need dexterity for feats. Forget Zen Archery.
The ones this build needs are: Shot on the Run, Mounted Combat, Rapid Shot, Mounted Archery, Point Blank Shot, in the Ranger case Exalted Companion (and maybe Sword of the Arcane Order), in Paladin cases maybe Ranged Smite, in the no-ranger no-paladin case Leadership.

Then, second of first of all: There are much better ways of obtaining a Unicorn cohort/companion/mount than the class in question. Namely Leadership, Exalted Companion feat (rangers), Special Mount paladin class feature (probably the best option here). Also, it really doesn't need high Wisdom. 14 points tops. But we will omit the Beloved PrC completely, since it doesn't help archery, doesn't really give the buff options and at best would be used as a dip anyway. For the Unicorn. Which we can obtain differently.

The builds:
Start off as a CG Mystic Ranger with SotAO, then take the Exalted Companion feat and enjoy the 5th level wizard casting, nice archery and TEH UNICORN.
Also, dip 3 levels of Scout for Swift Hunter.
Something like Mystic Ranger10/Scout3/Mystic Ranger +7

Also:



A paladin of 6th level or higher can use a [...] unicorn [...] as a mount.


So if Prestige and Variant Classes (Unearthed Arcana, also in SRD) are on the table, fun build might be also something with Prestige Paladin in it. Hear me out.

Devoted Performer lets you stack your Paladin and Bard levels for the Smite damage and bardic music per day.

Divine Bard4/Fighter2/Prestige Paladin of Freedom 10/something4 gets you party buffs, mount, smite evil that you may use to empower you archery with (you may want to use the Pathfinder variant of smite for, I don't know, being useful). It's not really powerful, but fun. Also, Battle Blessing feat lets you cast Paladin spells autoquickened. Fighter can be substituted by Ranger for flavor at the cost of combat power. At 3rd Prestige Paladin level you can get the Unicorn.

Finally, you may just go Paladin of Freedom 6/Bard4/Arcane Archer (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/prestige-classes/core-rulebook/arcane-archer)(10 or 8/Bard+2)

Both builds Charisma focused, first one needs some Wisdom to cast Bard spells. Smite gives a bonus to hit and damage.
The first build gets better mount stats, but the second has much more spells and more archery focus. Both builds, though, have better Unicorn stats than the one from the Beloved PrC.
The Turn Undead attempts they get might be useful for powering some Divine or Devotion feats.
If the PF Smite is not allowed, you must burn a feat on Ranged Smite though.

EDIT: If all of the above are a no-go, be a Bard with the Leadership feat, have a Unicorn as a cohort, grab Dragonfire Inspiration, buff your party.
Also, if the Unicorn levels up, have it take Crusader levels for White Raven maneuvers.

EDIT2: Paladin6/Bard14 might be an option too.

[IronFist]

Zen Archer seems to be more trouble than it's worth in this case, if you are set on Beloved of Valarian.
A Paladin-only build (or Prestige Paladin, as others have already mentioned) could benefit from Serenity + Zen Archer + Battle Blessing, though.

[Xerlith]

An insane idea I just had would be combining the Prestige Bard and Divine Bard variant. Cleric4/Fighter1/PrPal3/Prestige Divine Bard12. Bard and Paladin exclusive spells on its list. Fun. And Wisdom-dependent enough to benefit from Zen Archery. Poor choice of archery feats, though. Definitely needs Mounted Archery anyway.