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Crane Riposte can be used with any weapon as long as you have the free hand to activate Crane Wing.
I think by RAW you could have the following scenario work:
"Zen Archer attacks while fighting defensively, releases bow with one hand as free action holding it in the other
Zen Archer is attacked and activates Crane Wing
Zen Archer moves free hand to Bow as free action between Crane Wing and Crane Riposte
Zen Archer draws arrow as free action
Zen Archer uses Crane Riposte and Reflexive Shot to make AoO"
The only problem with this is it opens up the exact same scenario for TWF with their greatswords and falchions to do the exact same thing, which is a bit much.
Yeah, changing handedness is a free action. At the end of your turn yo simply say you are holding your bow in one hand. At the start of your next turn you say you resume holding it with both hands.
You'll essentially be giving up your attack of opportunities with the bow (in the case of Snap Shot), but that's really the only loss (and it's minor since you have improved unarmed strike anyways).
Why wouldn't Crane Riposte work? You have Improved Unarmed Strike, do you not?
Nicos, I don't understand your statement about Clustered Shot.
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I meant that you couldn't use Crane Riposte to make an attack with your bow.
It's kind of one of those shady rules areas. I would allow the ammunition draw with a bow, because it's a free action as part of another triggered action.
The problem with the bow is you open up a lot of things that shouldn't work with all of this holding your two hander in one hand and regripping it as a free action. The normal issue is that if you aren't wielding the weapon (i.e. both hands on your bow), you don't threaten, and don't provoke opportunity attacks. However since a Zen archer has Improved Unarmed Strike he would still be threatening with his Unarmed Strikes... I suppose once the Opportunity Attack has been provoked you can resolve it with whatever weapon is available, as long as you're threatening at the time the attack is triggered.
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I meant that you couldn't use Crane Riposte to make an attack with your bow.
It's kind of one of those shady rules areas. I would allow the ammunition draw with a bow, because it's a free action as part of another triggered action.
The problem with the bow is you open up a lot of things that shouldn't work with all of this holding your two hander in one hand and regripping it as a free action. The normal issue is that if you aren't wielding the weapon (i.e. both hands on your bow), you don't threaten, and don't provoke opportunity attacks. However since a Zen archer has Improved Unarmed Strike he would still be threatening with his Unarmed Strikes... I suppose once the Opportunity Attack has been provoked you can resolve it with whatever weapon is available, as long as you're threatening at the time the attack is triggered.What about reflexive shot
At 9th level, a zen archer can make attacks of opportunity with arrows from his bow. The monk still threatens squares he could reach with unarmed strikes, and can still only make one attack of opportunity per round (unless he has Combat Reflexes).I'm not sure if this means you use the arrow as the weapon or if that allows him to use a bow shot where he would normally use an attack of opportunity with his fists.
Without reflexive shot, I think you could only make the unarmed attack. Which is why the TWF wouldn't be able to do it as there isn't a feat that allows you to attack specifically like that on an attack of opportunity.
I don't think the bowshot would make sense though. I usually operate on the "would it work in real life" principle. The crane wing would be some sort of deflecting martial art and then the riposte is following through with that action to make a counter attack. i could possibly see it if deflecting the attack left the person unbalanced and so there were a few seconds where a highly trained archer could make a shot at point blank range. It is doubtful however.
I'm not 100% on this one myself and was considering many of the same questions. The title of the ability "Reflexive Shot" makes it sound like you're shooting someone with the bow, but the description of the ability makes it seem more like you're stabbing them with the arrow? Perhaps it assumes that you've already got an arrow drawn with your bow?
Both the feat and the class ability say you can make a ranged attack of opportunity. Clearly it is an exception to the standard rule of not being able to take a free action on someone else's turn.
What's the big deal?
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I don't know that allowing crane wing to be used with a bow is a good idea, as it is a weapon that requires two hands.
It's not strictly against the RAW, but it would follow the same logic that is being presented in this thread, you could simply take one hand off a greatsword/glaive and then put that hand back on afterwards.
So I'd say you're probably going against the intent of the feat.
That said the problem doesn't really rear it's head till you attempt to make attacks of opportunity off of your Crane Riposte with that two handed weapon, bow or otherwise. Where in which you've pretty much defeated the only real limitation that had been present with that feat in the first place.
What's the big deal?
The big deal is your archer is immune to being charged with no real drawn backs.
Swapping hands as has been described in this thread is full supported by Pathfinder's game developers.
It is intent as well as the RAW.
You generally cannot take free actions out of turn, and taking a hand off is a free action. So I would say that if you wish to keep a hand free between turns for Crane Wing, you cannot operate your bow to deliver AoOs with it (via Reflexive Shot) during that time.
Otherwise, it works just fine. You can even fight defensively with ranged attacks, which is something I didn't notice until half a year ago, despite the rule being the same since 3E.