Looking for variant-Centaur Character Building Help

[wingnut2292]

Hi everyone. I saw an interested game ad on Mythweavers and one of the selectable races is centaur. I've always wanted to play a centaur, and this version dosen't seem to have any ECL or Racial Hit Dice.

Here's a copy of the race write ip in the game notes.

Centaur
+4 Strength, +2 Wisdom, -2 Dexterity
Large Creature: Centaur are Large and take a –1 size penalty to AC, take a –4 size penalty on Stealth checks, and gain a +1 size bonus on combat maneuver checks and to combat maneuver defense.
Carrying Capacity: As quadrapeds, Centaur triple their carrying capacity and load values based on their Strength score.
Wise Council: Whenever a Centaur uses the aid another action, they double the bonus they provide.
Weapon Familiarity: Centaurs are always proficient with scimitars, short swords, and whips.
Born Teachers: Centaurs gain a +2 bonus to Diplomacy and Sense Motive checks, and one of these is always a class skill for the Centaur.
Both Man and Beast: Centaurs are always considered to be mounted for the purposes of feats, abilities, and other effects, and ignore Mounted Combat, Ride-by Attack, and Mounted Archery as prerequisites for further feats (but do not gain their effects unless they take them).

The game character want's us to base our characters off of myths so I have two variants/concepts for my centaur: The classic wild one of classic Greek myth, And a magically talented character drawing off of unicorn and myths about the Great White Hart.

What I need help with is sorting and choosing class options, and what optimizations I should look for.

For the classic "wild one" Centaur:
>> Barbarian + Invulnerable Rager. Simply a classic; Archetypical. Focuses on DR, AoO and being a tank.
>> Brawler - Weapon Proficiency: mule kick! Focuses on power combat maneuvers like Trample/Overrun, Bull Rush, Reposition, and Drag. Really gums up the works.

For the White Hart concept:
>> Paladin. Unicorns cousins of the Great White Hart myth.
>> Inquisitor. Not many Wis-casting classes. Lots of Cha casting classes, esp with Occult Adventure)
>> Cleric - Cleric modeled off of the Stoics and Sceptics of ancient Greeks A sort of cosmopolitan devout of reason. (Any way for me to gain the Bard's Bardic performance I can help allies/hurt immense via Perform (Sermon or Perform (Public Speaking))

[Grod_The_Giant]

First off, note that Pathfinder uses "Race Points" to balance a race's power instead of LA or RHD. Check with your DM to make sure the race isn't too many points above what other people are playing.

Secondly... you've pretty much figured out what it'll be good at, I think-- melee combat with full plate and a bit of wisdom-based casting to back it up. I'll add Druid, Hunter, and Warpriest to your list of possibilities for that reason. If you want to play up the Aid bit, a three-level dip in Investigator (or anything that gives you an Investigator Talent) lets you use Aid Another as a move action, though it's still not a great use of your time.

Once you know what you want, we can help, but I think you have to make the ultimate decision first.

[wingnut2292]

For my "wild one build" I'd like to do the Invulnerable Rager Barb. I thought that the Brawler gained Wis to AC, but on looking things over i was wrong. I still want my horseshoes to be magical weapons for my mule kicks though.

For my "enlightened student build" I'd to do a Zen Archer Monk, possibly with the Qinggong Monk or an archetype involving the Occult chakras.

[Hrugner]

That is substantially more powerful than the pathfinder player centaur race template that can be found here.
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/advancedRaceGuide/raceBuilder/exampleRaces.html#other-race-examples

giving free automounted and not reducing weapon size by one are both going to be a huge boost to a melee player, enough so that I wouldn't let this go if everyone was starting at level 1.