thelivingmonkey's page

thelivingmonkey wrote:

I am a huge fan of the animate dead spell and am surprised more people aren't calling it out.

It has the misfortune of being a 4th level spell on the sorcerer/wizard list, and there are so many amazing 4th level spells that even one of the best spells in the game struggles to rise to the top. It has a better chance of showing up on a cleric list due to being 3rd level for them, but it's still got competition even there.

Yeah I was talking more about clerics. I think it’s undoubtedly the best third level cleric spell, but only if your play style is based around it. It’s like, ok if you just use it once in a while.

I am a huge fan of the animate dead spell and am surprised more people aren't calling it out.
I will admit it isn't for everyone, and it can be a tiresome way to play a character, but the results can be astounding.
Lots of minions that never die (bloody skeletons), acting as tanks and dealing some damage while you do your own thing.
Even if it doesn't rule your whole character it can be used mid-fight to create allies in the place of a summon spell.

Idk maybe I'm all wrong but I put this forth as a great spell!

I gm and don’t play much. My general rule for sleep is 50% random monster that can be adjusted if they take steps. Depending on the type of dungeon it can also change. So my players know it’s a risk to sleep in the open. I kinda assumed this was the norm, kinda prevents the issue of nonsensical dungeon rest I suppose.

I just wanted to have fun

Wait this IS the pf forum right? Thought that wasn’t allowed here...

Advanced Player's Guide

Edit: Ninja'd by LITERALLY four seconds if the forums are to be believed

Just make a bloody skeleton champ, it’s basically the same as a juju zombie just harder to get under your control.

Physically Unfeasible wrote:

Ryze Kuja wrote:

Garion Beckett wrote:

I understand that part but my question is, does the dead creature dictate what I can animate or my caster level? So say I can animate 12HD with 1 casting. But there is a body on the ground that had 5HD worth. Do I just animate the 5HD or my max

In your example, you would raise the creature with 5HD with a single casting, and it would be a 5HD undead.

However, you can augment that creature with different templates if you want as well. Such as the Bloody or Burning templates. You could theoretically turn that 5HD creature into a 10HD undead by adding the bloody or burning template to it.

To clarify here. Because that reads...weird (to me anyway).

1. Raising a 5HD creature
You get a 5 HD Zombie, Skeleton, what have you.

2. Raising blood skeletons, and other higher HD raises
The caster level required must high enough be able to raise something with double the HD of the creature you're raising but:
The HD of the raised creature(s) are still the same.
It counts against your bucket of controlled minions for the same amount. That is, its actual HD.

Okay, if you're a level 6 caster and you have Spell Specialization Animate Dead, you have an effective CL of 8CL, and a bucket of 4 x 8CL = 32HD worth of undead you can have under your control at a given time.

In any single casting of Animate Dead, you can only create an undead with an HD equal to 2 x 8CL = 16HD.

If you come across a 5HD creature and want to animate it, you have several options:

• Raise the creature as a 5HD undead
  
• Raise the creature as a 10HD undead with a bloody template
  
• Raise the creature as a 10HD undead with a burning template (and so on)
  
• Raise the creature as a 15HD undead with burning bloody template (there are mixed interpretations for double double = triple or double double = quadruple, such as FranktheDM's interpretation is quadruple, I personally go double double = triple.

...

This is actually incorrect, immensely so.

Just. Do. It.

I would assume it would just be exactly like any other creature of its species, except it follows the orders of the character.

Dire Giant Ratfolk

Neutral humanoid NPC tending to a cabin w/ protection from demons. Some sort of archeologist/dioblist but for demons (idk what they're called) who rarely leaves the cabin. Protective magic is weaker when two people in cabin, wants PC to leave. Higher level than PC but does not want to kill them. Could be convinced to let PC stay if PC finds new information/artifact from somewhat dangerous location that PC has proper spells to bust into.

ANOTHER NIGHTMARE (or pack) WHO DOESN'T LIKE THOSE WHO BETRAY THEIR KIND.

Battle between random demons, PC can pick a side and turn tide.

Idk if any of these are plausible but I might use the NPC w/ cabin as a plot point in my own campaign :) (already a theme of cabins lol)

Sorry if I wasn't clear. The other responses are more thorough and explain it better. I shouldn't have mentioned attack lol. Good luck, hope all these responses answered your questions.

For a melee weapon, you add your strength modifier to attack and damage rolls. With a two-handed weapon you add 1.5 times your strength modifier (so 14 str adds +2, or +3 on a TH weapon). You can also add damage depending on if the weapon is magic (it would say +1 longsword, which means +1 to attack and damage), certain feats (check what feats these pregenerated characters have), or certain abilities (Ie. a rogue's sneak attack). Read over the entire character sheet. Usually those numbers are explained by things further down on the sheet.

I'm guessing you are new to tabletop RPGs in general. Welcome, don't be afraid to ask any questions on these forums. I wish I had found the forums earlier in my career (started about a year ago w/ beginners box) because I did not understand ANYTHING and I tried just figuring it out myself (eventually worked).

Don't feel stupid about any questions like these, we've all been there (for me just one year ago!). I hope you enjoy yourself and prosper in the hobby. We're glad to have you!

HOW DOES THIS THREAD I SAW CREATED BUT NEVER LOOKED AT HAVE SO MANY POSTS???????

That final exam you forgot to study for...

Let me start off by saying the Holy Vindicator is my second favorite prestige class (and I, following unpopular opinion, like prestige classes in pf, don't hate me), so I may be biased. Second, the general consensus (which I agree with despite my proclivity for them) is that prestige classes are, almost always, worse than just sticking with your regular class. Third, you are giving up at least three levels of spell casting with Holy Vindicator, and at least FIVE with Rage Prophet. It is very likely you will be at least marginally weaker, and at most significantly weaker than if you stayed with oracle all the way.

That said, I would suggest holy vindicator. You only lose 3 levels of spellcasting and it is full BAB, vs Rage prophet which is 3/4. Rage Prophet is generally for already multiclasses oracle/barbarians, and the way I see it it's better for barbarians who dip oracle for some utility casting and for rage cycling w/ lame curse. Holy vindicator has some nice abilities to boost healing (you have life mystery already), crits (you could grab a decent crit weapon for when spells won't do the trick), and tanking (which is always nice). Rage Prophet was designed to lessen the hurt of barb/oracle by boosting a mostly barb character's spellcasting capabilities and some of their other abilities.

In the end, so long as your group isn't uber optimized, do whatever sounds fun to you. Good luck, hope this helped/didn't have any misinformation.

I'll have to add anime dead to my list of spells accidentally cast while using Hard of Hearing Harold's Tome of Misheard Magicks, somewhere after alter shelf but before limited fish.

Were you planing on sharing this tome with the rest of us or just keep it for yourself?

Or am I stupid and it is somewhere out there already?

Or am I taking a joke too seriously because I desperately want it to be true and would kill to have such a tome? And I MEAN kill. Not kidding, really want that Tome.

:(

Seems a little too powerful to me. Basically a barbarian + druid spells if I read correctly

Huh. Does that mean that RAW you can't even take it for DIFFERENT MOVEMENT TYPES???

To clarify this isn't a build my player is using (he took alertness as his feat; not a very optimized group, heck I rolled stats bc it's simpler) or one I will ever use (probably). It's just a theoretical "could this be fun/work" sort of thing. Consensus seems to be that it isn't good, if I'm not mistaken.
Thanks!

Quote from Lightning Bolt: "You release a powerful stroke of electrical energy that deals 1d6 points of electricity damage per caster level (maximum 10d6) to each creature within its area. The bolt begins at your fingertips.

The lightning bolt sets fire to combustibles and damages objects in its path. It can melt metals with a low melting point, such as lead, gold, copper, silver, or bronze. If the damage caused to an interposing barrier shatters or breaks through it, the bolt may continue beyond the barrier if the spell's range permits; otherwise, it stops at the barrier just as any other spell effect does."

Just say "sure I'll take a -8 to hit on this lightning bolt" because that means literally nothing. You don't make an attack roll, so such a penalty does literally nothing. Tell your GM to make his ref save, and move on.

I'm GMing a game soon with new players (this has been a perpetual state for me since I started playing; I don't know any experienced players and our campaigns are always short bc WE KIDS N SKOOL), and one player is playing a cleric. I was helping him look for feats after I helped him choose travel domain, and thought up something interesting (imo) involving spring attack and travel domain. Basically you get a really high speed (domain/items/fleet feat if you want to go overboard) and just run past an enemy, then do cleric things (spells/other offense) from behind them, aiding your team through distraction and "flanking" (not the mechanic).

Not very thought out, just wanted to hear thoughts from the community (idk if it sounds good or interesting or fun or just a hassle)

Thanks for reading!

Well it's your story and campaign so if that's what you want so be it. As your campaign you could even have a cutscene where a typical, bestiary kobold one shots a gold dragon with a sling!

After some thought and some checking, and assumption that you have an open-minded DM, I would say ride checks to stay in saddle in slippery conditions, but it's DC 5 anyway so basically useless (though the DC could go up in such a case depending on DM and the specific situation anyways)

You could slip and fall in a normal condition (such as tripping over yourself) but it is less likely than in a non-slippery circumstance (and not very heroic, probably the reason we don't need to make "don't trip checks" any time we walk).

So basically everything I've said is either useless, up to DM fiat, or will never come up in actual play. Nice, sorry.

Reflex save? That's all I've got lol

"Humans born in chilly climes treat cold climates as one category less severe. They gain a +2 racial bonus on Fortitude saving throws against the effects of cold climates, on any check or saving throw to avoid slipping and falling, and to CMD against trip combat maneuvers. This bonus applies on Acrobatics and Climb checks made in slippery conditions. This racial trait replaces skilled."

I believe this is what you're referring to. It seems to me "on any check" is followed by "to avoid slipping and falling" whereas "Acrobatics and Climb" are just "made in slippery conditions.

So if you need to make a climb check in a slippery condition but it isn't to avoid falling, it still gains the bonus.

Just to let you know skeleton champions are evil. I'm sure your GM would hand wave that if you want but that's what it says in the template

You could be either a very shy person entirely involved in your studies, barely looking up to answer the parties questions and who doesn't say a word as you fight your foes, or something like a stuck up snob who thinks anyone who is less than you in any field (knowledge or battle prowess or faith or anything) is somehow a total dolt.

Just some ideas, for sure more/better ways to do this.

Woah there buddy. First time playing a "dice game" and you want to use a 3rd party class with an obscure race? You might want to rethink your idea and do something more simple.

Then again I don't know anything about any 3pps, so this class could be simple for all I know.

I really hate to be the guy starting a war about something as petty as one clause in a spell, but I think that it's pretty set in stone that desecrate doesn't let you control more HD.

"Furthermore, anyone who casts animate dead within this area may create as many as double the normal amount of undead (that is, 4 HD per caster level rather than 2 HD per caster level)."

The only thing about animate dead that was 2 HD per caster level was how much you could make at once, otherwise it would have said "and control 8 HD per caster level rather than 4 HD per caster level".

Totally possible I've missed something, and I've never heard anyone else discussing this (though I am relatively new so I wouldn't put such ignorance past me).

Thanks again Doug, I love all the guides you have written!

Quick note about the Animate Dead section. I'm a big fan of this spell, and I can't help but think your write up is a little... lacking?

First, bloody skeletons are always better. You talk about protecting investment in consumables, why not protect investment in onyx by having undying minions?

Second, desecrate does not increase the number of HD you can CONTROL, just how much you can ANIMATE at one time. So while the hp boost is nice and it lets you have bigger minions, it doesn't let you have more minions. I assume overclock would be similar, but honestly it varies from gm to gm.

Third, having lots of little minions is not only bad from a mechanics perspective, but also bogs the game down a lot. No one wants to see you roll 30 attacks, none of which hit.

Other than that, great guide. I appreciate what you've done and all the work you've put into it.

I second what Omnius said and further it: using the "life drain" sort of spell can be a nice secondary function, but the necromancy school is so juicy in terms of debuffs and the like.

However, I urge you not to limit yourself. Having one very expensive onyx around makes it so when your party kills some big strong thing, you CAN turn it into a bloody skeleton. One minion won't bog anything down and probably will come in handy. Such a potent subpart of necromancy, that is strong enough to be the focus of an entire character, should not just be left to the wayside.

I understand not wanting to do it, I really do, and maybe I'm a little biased in that minionmancy is my favorite type of caster (I know, I'm scum :)) but I think it's a good idea to just have it as an option, even if you never use it. At higher levels a few hundred gold is worth a potential undying minion.

Sorry if this isn't what you wanted to hear, and you should still do what you want.

Wow I'm stupid. I looked up the passage in the core rulebook just to see if there was any difference and somehow DIDN'T read the second paragraph about repeating crossbows. wtf is wrong with me lol.

Sorry for the misinformation, hopefully next time I'll know how to read MORE than 10 words at a time.

I still stand by my homerule that you couldn't reload a regular crossbow in a really tight space but could pull a lever. Of course that doesn't help at all unless you have a likeminded GM and crawl through chimneys a lot....

The one difference is that you cannot load a heavy crossbow with one hand. So if you want to TWF with heavy crossbows, you can only do one attack with each.

If you use repeating crossbows, you get more attacks through the (implied) ability to reload with one hand (not explicitly stated, but it is explicitly stated you cannot with regular and it's assumed you can pull the lever with one hand)

That's the only real difference, though I would probably rule that you cannot reload a crossbow in a tight space (ie crawling through ventilation system) so that's another potential advantage.

TBH, both of those are pretty irrelevant, and what y'all have said still stands.

If you help him build the sorcerer than the sorcerer is by far easier.

Well as long as we're talking about necromancy... cough cough... the Theurge is good for that because it gets two pools of undead for animate dead.

An orc raped a human woman in a raid on a village. The village survived and soon you were born in a human village, and they accepted you more than most humans would. To them, a child is a child and it must be taken care of. You lived a good life, not quite in the lap of luxury but you were treated fairly. Your mother loved you, and you started growing smart, you were a curious young lad who saw truth and knowledge where others saw nothing.

But one day, the orcs came back. They heard of a child who looked like them in the village, and decided to punish the humans for taking one of their own captive. They burned the place to the ground and took you with them. Soon, however, they realized your skin wasn't as dark as theirs, and that you were not pure.

They treated you worse than they treat each other. When you weren't cleaning goo out of the chieftains toenails, you were being beaten by the others. However, you were still a keen observer and learned what you could.

The warriors went on a raid one day when you were 9. When they came back, they dropped a pile of books outside your hole. They didn't notice, and took the rest of the books to a roaring fire and threw them in.

Most of them were fairy tales which infuriated you. How could all these character have such great lives while you were stuck with these jerks! But one book caught your eye. It was a recipe book of sorts, only you didn't understand it.

When you were 13, you were properly initiated to the tribe. Even though they treated you like scum and hated you, they recognized your intelligence. By this time you had started to figure out some things in the book and were able to make acid flasks and alchemist fire. But some of the pages were more difficult to decipher.

By age 15, you had the freedom to come and go as you pleased. Something about the orcs made you stay despite despising them. You had more important things to worry about than residency anyways. Sometimes by yourself and sometimes with an escort of other young orcs, you went out hunting at night. Only you weren't hunting animals.

You had discovered enough about the book to know how to make some rudimentary poisons. The tips of all your weapons shone sickly yellow, and even your grazing hits did substantial damage. You were only discovering more as time went on, threatening young mage apprentices or alchemist apprentices you found until they would unveil their knowledge to you.

When you were 16, you were a full fledged alchemist. The fire that burned inside you for all those years, the same one that burnt down your village, the same one that urged you to hunt others was finally yours to harness. The bombs you could make, and potions you could brew proved useful.

Useful enough to finally do to those bastards what they did to you.

After disposing of your gracious hosts, anger lived on in you. You set up a lab where you make poisons and continue hunting people, for the thrill of new knowledge and the power you have learned to exert over them.

To justify working in a party, it makes it easy to hunt people or something I don't know. That was probably really bad and not what you are looking for, but hopefully it helps or gives you other ideas. Good luck!

I have a Sacred Huntmaster with a deinonychus (velociraptor). I went Magic (Divine) subdomain for the first level power to buff the entire team as a swift action when I cast a buff spell on myself.

Because Inquisitors never have a use for swift actions anyways....

So that I, who usually looks at the advice forum more than any other, could find out about this interesting system that I'm never gonna use. I mean, that's pretty much the only reason I'm even on these forums. For advice I'll never use and occasionally, very rarely, advice I actually will.

I literally have no idea anything about starfinder, I was wondering what this bulk system is after reading these posts (I'm assuming it's an alternative way to track encumbrance), could someone explain what it is because atm in games I DM I just ignore weight unless it gets unreasonable, if there were a better system I might use it.

It's a 15 point-buy, I put 14 in str, dex, and wis, a 12 in con, and 10 in int and cha. In a solo campaign I don't think there's room for dumpstats. My social interactions will mostly be limited to intimidate which I should be passing usually, and I don't want a penalty to my currently ok knowledges. I really want to go half-orc, but switching deadly aim and rapid shot is probably a good idea, gonna do that. I think I'll go point-blank shot at level one, buy a longbow and just buy a cheap 2-handed simple weapon until I can afford a falchion. I don't want to change to human and my feats will go something like follows:

1 - Point-Blank Shot
3 - Power Attack, Precise strike
5 - Boon Companion
6 - Outflank
7 - Rapid Shot
9 - Deadly Aim, Paired Opprotunity

As said I'll be using a velociraptor, don't think there's anything I want to change.

I've already decided on vanilla inquisitor, there is no reason to try to convince me otherwise. If you show me an archetype that lets me do 1000 damage 100% of the time at level one, I still won't take it.

That said, thanks for offering options. I must admit that the two archetypes you suggested are tempting, but I still want to go vanilla.

Good point about Power Attack, somehow forgot about the +1 BAB thing (probably because in my head I thought "I can emulate full BAB with judgement"). I think I'm going to take either toughness at level one or point-blank-shot, then push everything back one (so I won't get Deadly Aim until level 5. I don't need vital strike, I won't get it (I'll replace it with rapid shot). Thanks everyone for the advice.

Well, I think you've convinced me to go with a velociraptor w/ animal domain. I still want to go with the switch-hitter path, probably with minimal investment in archery as it will only be used to start combat. I'll take Power Attack level 1, Deadly Aim and Precise Strike level 3, Boon Companion (I don't even gain the companion until level four, no reason to take it at an earlier level) at level 5, Outflank at level 6, Toughness at 7, and Vital Strike and Paired Opportunists (for times when I cannot flank) at 9. I don't think we will be going past level ten as I said, but if we do I'll think of something at that point.

Thanks for all the advice, don't think I have room for intimidate feats or imp init. The only thing is maybe replacing toughness w/ imp. init, or maybe vital strike but I think I like my feat progression as it is.

One thing to keep in mind is that judgement/bane/spells will help improve both combat styles as well, so some of the missing feats won't matter as much. I like the idea of using the velociraptor as a flank buddy. Thanks for the advice!

I think it could be worth it if you plan to bind often and have a single location that you will often be binding in. The thing that makes it less juicy is the fact that only one other spell effect can be applied (you mentioned dimensional anchor, the best one imo but something like bane could help you coerce outsiders by making them more prone to fear effects; maybe that's too much though). So, in my humble opinion, it is entirely determined by your character whether this is worthwhile or not.

Hi again, some of you may have seen/helped me decide between a solo cleric or a solo inquisitor. As the title says, I'll be going with inquisitor, thanks all.

Soon I will be making the character, and one trouble seems to be feats. I'm thinking of playing half orc for the falchion proficiency, bonus to intimidate (a decent debuff I already get a bonus to; I don't expect to use it often but I'm sure it can be situationally useful and part of the reason I decided on inquisitor was the plethora of skills), and because it fits the character I want RP wise.

I was thinking of going for a switch-hitter build, using the falchion primarily and a longbow before closing (don't want to let that juicy proficiency go to waste), but longbows take a lot of feats. It is kind of tempting to go human for the bonus feat, but I really like the other bonuses of the half orc.

I've pretty much decided to take vital strike, as it will mean less investment in ranged combat, and I don't have to use it for melee combat. Anyways, I was planning to move around a lot (travel domain) so moving/shooting in a round sounds pretty good to me. I believe this to be the best course for my character to take, but I still seem to have a feat problem.

I want to invest in good ranged combat, taking things like deadly aim and point-blank shot, but I also want more of a focus on melee combat. I'm not sure what my feat progression should look like, but tbh I'm not super worried (I know class abilities like judgement and bane will offset a total reliance on feats for effective combat).

I don't think this campaign will go much farther than 10th level, though I'm not entirely sure. Any advice about feats/if i should switch to human will be greatly appreciated, but do note I do NOT want to focus exclusively on ranged combat, a stealthy snipe-fest between me and the DM does not sound fun even if that is how I want to open most combat anyway.

Thanks for reading this far, and thanks for any advice!

EDIT: forgot to mention, I don't want any archetypes so vanilla inquisitor is very much preferred w/ travel domain.

I'm starting at 1 (I think) which is why I knew going necromancer would be tough. I think I've been thoroughly convinced to go Inquisitor. What book is Sacred Huntsmaster in, I've never heard of it and the DM only allows core APG and a few other things. If I show him something he'll probably be ok with it. Thanks for the advice, made the decision a lot easier.

EDIT: I found Sacred Huntsmaster, don't think I'm going to go for it. I think judgement is worth more than a full animal companion, and I think I'm going to go travel domain anyways.

I think the title says it very clearly; I am soon to be in a solo campaign and I cannot decide between a cleric or an inquisitor.

I have a backstory in mind for either one, so RP is not anything I'm worried about. I know both will be mechanically sound enough for me to not die, and I have the idea in my head that the inquisitor will be slightly better at low levels, with the cleric catching up and surpassing at higher levels.

For the cleric, I would go necromancy of the undead raising kind. I've wanted to play a character like this for a while, and it would be good in a solo campaign where there's no other players to stand between me and the bad guys. I'm thinking about Protection and Travel for domains, not set in stone yet.

For the inquisitor, I would go half-orc to use a falchion, using judgements, bane, and spells to keep me in the fight. Probably either Travel or Animal for domain. The animal companion would be a godsend (literally) and the ability to move faster/teleport later sounds pretty good too.

Right now I'm leaning towards inquisitor, but I still really want to try out a necromancer cleric at some point. I'm looking for some advice telling me which I should go for, or if it doesn't matter which YOU would rather go for.

Thanks for reading all that, and thanks in advance for any helpful replies.

\ Significant other is pregnant but you really wanted to game and you're pretty sure she isn't going to go into labor for at least a few hours but just in case...) (Side note, have had all of these happen to me at least once... )

I really want to hear the story there

If a player is problematic, ask if they actually are having fun playing. If they say no, tell them they don't have to play. You can still hang out with them and play other games, just PF isn't the game for them

I they say yes, politely ask them to stop getting distracted. It is detracting from your experience, and they will have much more fun if they aren't distracted.

It's not about tanking the best possible way, it's about using a shield and another weapon somewhat effectively, while using those ranger archetypes.

I know there are better builds out there, I just wanted to do this. I wasn't asking for a whole feat progression (though it is useful, thanks) or any sort of argument about the merits/legality of fighting with shields. I didn't know whether the archetypes would mix well together and with the idea of shield fighting thrown in the mix, whether it would work well at all. It seems like skirmisher might not be worth it, the main reason I was gonna use it was so horizon walker didn't make my spells useless as most tricks are still useful if only a limited number of times per day. If going straight ranger (which I probably will) I'll just use guide and TWC using my shield as my second weapon (can take other shield feats normally).

Thanks everyone!

I really love horizon walker (probably my favorite prc) but was unsure as to if it would be appropriate in such a mix (you seem to think not... I'm inclined to agree). The reason I want to use weapon and shield is primarily so I can be tanky (which you guessed) and the thought had occurred to use two shields. I don't think I want to do that, however, so I can focus on different types of damage to bypass DR at low levels (probably a dagger) and because it will be expensive to invest in two shields at higher level (thinking of using a heavy shield as my primary "weapon" so most of my money goes there, TWF with dagger/whatever I have at higher levels for extra attacks).

The group I'm playing with are all new, and I'm likely going to be making them characters too, and I have a feeling none of them will be keen on the idea of choosing to take hits, hence the tank falls on me. I, however, love the Ranger too much to play something like a barbarian, if I'm going to play a martial, It'll be a ranger. I was thinking of generating 6 characters and letting them choose, with me picking a character based on their choices. This was just another idea of another character I might play.

Sorry for the tangent, back to the main idea.

I wanted horizon walker due to it being my favorite prc and it fits thematically with my very rough idea of the character (a wanderer familiar with many places) but that can easily be changed. The campaign will probably end before level ten, all the other kids I'm playing with are going off to college next year (I'm not... whoops kinda gave up my age a bit, haha) and I doubt it will somehow continue after that.

Perhaps using TWC would be worth it, your suggested feat progression makes sense to me, however I would not be able to get shield master or greater shield focus as combat style feats, and wouldn't it make sense to get double slice there as to avoid the required dex altogether?

If I do this, I'll probably go human for the extra feat. This opens up level two to get double slice already. Then the progression could continue replacing level 7 with something else.

Thanks for the advice.