Path of war style feat question & Vanguard's Shield

[thecrimsondawn]

Vanguard Commander's The vanguard commander is lightning fast with his shield for both defense and offense. Whenever the vanguard initiates a melee strike or uses a counter to defend against an attack from an adjacent foe, he may make a shield bash attempt as free action at his full base attack bonus against that creature.

Style feat "You may make an additional attack at your highest attack bonus with a non shield weapon whenever you hit a creature with a shield bash. The additional attack must be made against the creature struck by your shield bash. You may only make up to two additional attacks per round in this way.

Whenever you make a standard attack or a strike that hits only once, you may make an additional attack with your off hand. When you do this, your attacks take TWF penalties as normal

and lastly
The Battle Dragon's Stance shows the disciple how to balance his fighting style and through this centering of being, he may find speed, finesse, and power. While in the Battle Dragon's Stance, the disciple reduces his two-weapon fighting penalties by 2, and gains a +4 bonus to Initiative checks and adds 1d6 + initiation modifier to melee damage while fighting with two weapons.


So I have a few combination questions related to these. I am a dex based Vanguard Commander who is seeking to have kinda an offensive mode and a defensive mode. For my offensive mode I plan to use the above Battle Dragons Stance. In order to get that wonderful damage bonus however, I need to be two weapon fighting, something that you often need a full attack or pounce to get. Obviously Thrashing Dragon style will allow me to do that since it says it in the text, but the area gets a little gray when you look at Vanguards Shield as well as Iron Tortoise Snap. I am going to break this into a couple of easy scenarios and would like to know if there are any rules I may have overlooked related to TWF or something. All of these are assuming I am in both stance and style.

#1
So lets assume I am in the Iron Tortoise style, and I as a standard action, use a strike on my opponent that hits only once. Assuming that hit, I would get a free shield bash on my target. Would this count as TWF for the stance's damage bonus? One is a free action without any TWF penalty that happens as a result of hitting with your weapon, but you are indeed hitting with both your main hand, and shield in a single turn. Further more just for the sake of bringing it up, I would get a free shield bash too from Iron Tortoise Snap, but it would follow the same rules as whatever the answer would be above.

#2
If a strike move allows me a full attack, I should be able to opt to TWF correct? I seem to remember reading that many feats that give called actions dont work with strikes, but things such as power attack and TWF do, but I cant find where I read that. In fact, TWF rules dont even state what type of action it is at all.

I had a 3rd one in my head when I started this, but it seems to have eluded me for now... may come back to edit.

[Sayt]

The TWF rules are a little tangled when you step onto the Path of War. Technically speaking, to get your extra actions from additional weapons or High BaB, you need to spend a Full Round Action (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/combat#TOC-Full-Attack). Path of War's Systems and Use (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/path-of-war/systems-and-use) states that:


you cannot benefit from spells or effects that grant extra attacks when making a strike (such as the haste spell or a speed weapon).

Presumably this isn't including feats such as Iron Tortoise Snap and Improved TWF, or Vanguard's Shield, but it is rather ambiguous, although it might.

#1: Making the shield bash triggered by Vanguard's shield is it's own, non-full attack action action, and so is not Two Weapon Fighting, and so I do not believe you'd qualify for the extra damage from Battle Dragon's Stance. However, you can go Strike/Counter->Vanguard'sBash->Snap, or Strike[Bash]->Vanguard'sBash+Snap. A Strike that is a Shield bash triggers both Iron Tortoise Snap and Vanguard's Shield. I think, anyway. This tangles up in my brain.

#2: Two Weapon Fighting is not a special kind of action, it is merely a built in "Mode" when you execute a Full Attack that grants you the option of making an attack with an offhand weapon when you make a full attack with an associated penalty. Stingy GM's may rule against I/G TWF granting second and third offhand iterative on Full Attack, but Ironclad, you get your first offhand.

Hope I've been helpful!