Our beloved Pretenders!

[thejeff]

Poison is probably better. More appropriate for a hunter. And decay is fairly useless for an SC.
I'm not sure about the Vine shield. It may be a little to much to have him keep entanglement when you replace the Shield?

The earth is nice for Man, both as a bless and to give access to hammers. They still desperately need access to Astral and/or Death, though. 50 path cost makes it reasonable to add magic.