Contemplating Auroleva’s Cleric of Freya/Druid multiclassing, I started looking at the option of designing a prestige class that would get rid of this suboptimal combo.
Valkyries of Freya are sworn servants of the goddess that have taken up a more martial cause. They are still dedicated to the household, the mothers, to life and fertility, but their chosen task is the defense of these things against evil. They prefer to fight with longspear, longsword, longbow, shield, and solid armor from their winged mounts.
| Level | BAB | Fort | Ref | Will | Special |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | +1 | +2 | +0 | +0 | special winged mount, death mastery |
| 2nd | +2 | +3 | +0 | +0 | smite 1/day, mounted combat feat |
| 3rd | +3 | +3 | +1 | +1 | smite 2/day, speak with dead 1/day |
| 4th | +4 | +4 | +1 | +1 | smite 3/day, mounted combat feat |
| 5th | +5 | +4 | +1 | +1 | aura of fear at will, raise dead 1/day |
Hit Die d10.
To qualify to become a Valkyrie of Freya, a character must fulfill all the following criteria:
Class Cleric of Freya
Spells Able to cast 3rd level divine spells
Skills Ride 4 ranks
Valkyries of Freya are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, with all types of armor, and with shields.
Special Winged Mount You gain the friendship of an unusually intelligent, strong, and loyal winged steed from the celestial realms. This mount is usually a pegasus, a griffon, or a hippogriff.
Once per day, as a full-round action, you may magically call your mount from the celestial realms in which it resides. This ability is the equivalent of a spell of a level equal to one-third your character level. The mount immediately appears adjacent to you and remains for 2 hours per Valkyrie of Freya level; it may be dismissed at any time as a free action. The mount is the same creature each time it is summoned, though you may release a particular mount from service.
Each time the mount is called, it appears in full health, regardless of any damage it may have taken previously. The mount also appears wearing or carrying any gear it had when it was last dismissed. Calling a mount is a conjuration (calling) effect.
Should your mount die, it immediately disappears, leaving behind any equipment it was carrying. You may not summon another mount for thirty days or until you gain a level, whichever comes first, even if the mount is somehow returned from the dead. During this thirty-day period, you take a -1 penalty on attack and weapon damage rolls.
Empathic Link (Su) You have an empathic link with your mount out to a distance of up to 1 mile. You cannot see through the mount’s eyes, but you can communicate empathically.
Note that even intelligent mounts see the world differently from humans, so misunderstandings are always possible.
Because of this empathic link, you have the same connection to an item or place that your mount does, just as with a master and his familiar.
Improved Evasion (Ex) When subjected to an attack that normally allows a Reflex saving throw for half damage, a mount takes no damage if it makes a successful saving throw and half damage if the saving throw fails.
Share Spells At your option, you may have any spell (but not any spell-like ability) you cast on yourself also affect your mount.
The mount must be within 5 feet at the time of casting to receive the benefit. If the spell or effect has a duration other than instantaneous, it stops affecting the mount if it moves farther than 5 feet away and will not affect the mount again even if it returns to you before the duration expires. Additionally, you may cast a spell with a target of “You” on your mount (as a touch range spell) instead of on yourself. You and your mount can share spells even if the spells normally do not affect creatures of the mount’s type (magical beast).
Share Saving Throws For each of its saving throws, the mount uses its own base save bonus or yours, whichever is higher. The mount applies its own ability modifiers to saves, and it doesn’t share any other bonuses on saves that you might have.
Death Mastery You gain a +4 bonus to your saving throws against death effects.
Mounted Combat Feat You gain a bonus feat from the Mounted Combat tree: Mounted Combat, Mounted Archery, Ride-By Attack, or Spirited Charge.
Smite You gain the smite power, the supernatural ability to make a single melee attack with a +4 bonus on attack rolls and a bonus on damage rolls equal to your twice your Valkyre of Freya level (if you hit). You must declare the smite before making the attack. This ability is usable as often as indicated on the table above. You can declare but one smite for each attack. The smite power does not stack with a paladin’s smite evil, for example.
Speak With Dead The veil separating this world from the afterlife grows thin for you. You are able to use speak with dead once a day as a spell-like ability.
Aura of Fear You can call on the anger of the gods. At will, you gain an aura of fear. It causes each living enemy within 30 feet to become panicked for ten rounds unless it succeeds on a Will save (DC 15 + Cha modifier). If cornered, a panicked creature begins cowering. A potentially affected creature that succeeds on the Will save remains immune to your aura of fear for 24 hours.
Raise Dead You gain mastery of life. You are able to use raise dead once a day as a spell-like ability not requiring a material component. You do not require the diamonds worth 5000 gp to use this ability. The raised creature still looses a level or two points of Constitution as per spell description.
Historical info: Valkyrie (Wikipedia)