Armor of the Mind: The Aegis (SRD)
by Novawurmson
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A manipulator of force who augments his physical strength with otherworldly energy...
A holy knight who shields himself with strength of convictions...
A master smith, fortifying himself with the perfect ideals of form and function...
A horrifying monster that twists and distorts its body to adapt to its prey’s weaknesses...
These and many more can be represented in game by the Aegis - a class from Dreamscarred Press’ Psionics Expanded, reprinted with additional content in Ultimate Psionics. For more information about Psionics Expanded in general, click here.
Good - Should be heavily considered for those who can use it
Decent - It’s a good option, but there might be more vital things to pick up first
Average - I mean, it’s not bad, but there is somewhat of an opportunity cost
Bad - A turkey; it’s far below the other choices out there. Skip it.
To Do List:
1. Suggested items
2. Suggested builds/feats/NPC section
3. Path of War - A major errata has been scheduled for after Path of War: Expanded launches. Waiting for the errata before making this section.
4. Akashic Mysteries - Waiting for the full release before continuing
What an Aegis Does
An Aegis is an adaptable front-line fighter who summons his own armor to protect and enhance himself. Crunch-wise, you’re basically an eidolon that can’t be dismissed. An Aegis does not get combat-oriented bonus feats and gains slightly less powerful offensive statistics (compared to, say, a Barbarian’s rage), but it does gain far greater flexibility through its customization points - essentially evolution points, to those familiar with the Summoner. Though weaker in terms of pure damage output without high optimization, the Aegis is a useful and effective member in most parties, especially those lacking a tough melee combatant.
The Aegis’ core power is its adaptability - a Fighter might have to rely on his Swim skill to cross water, but the Aegis can temporarily gain a Swim speed, underwater breathing, or even flying at later levels - all on the fly, as it were. An Aegis is approximately a tier 3 class - having a decent options in many situations, being fairly powerful in situations that appeal directly to how it has been optimized, and mostly lacking encounter-breaking, game-breaking, and world-breaking power. If you’re fine with the power level of Alchemists, Inquisitors, and Psychic Warriors, you should be fine with the Aegis.
The Aegis and Resources
One of the most intriguing parts of the aegis is that it gives you a ton of resources and then doesn’t tell you how you have to use them. To expand on that vague statement a little, let’s take a look at the marksman class: The marksman gains most of the same resources the aegis does, but it mostly tells you exactly how to use them: Ranged attacks. You gain psionic focus, and you gain abilities that let you expend focus to benefit ranged attacks. You gain PP, and you gain powers to spend it on to improve your ranged attacks. You gain feats...which you can use to improve your ranged attacks. It’s very focused class design.
Another kind of class design entirely is the psion. The psion basically gets one pool of resources (PP/powers known), and gets told “You can do anything you want using this one pool of resources.” If the psion wants better defense, he picks up a couple defensive powers. If he wants more offense, he picks up more or better offensive powers. If he wants more utility, he picks up more utility powers.
On the opposite end of the spectrum from both of them is the aegis: You get tons of resources, but there’s no central theme that tells you “burn everything to get this,” and not all of your resources are as apparent as they seem. You’ll see these themes repeated throughout the guide, but I’d like to highlight the resources that the aegis gains to get you thinking about how your aegis build might utilize them.
Vital Statistics
Stats and Suggested Races
For stats, you’re generally optimizing Str, Con, and Int, in that order. Pump Str for damage and Con for survivability; with decent natural DR/- and easily accessible resistances, you’ll have excellent effective health.
You’ll probably aim for a 14 or so in Int - enough to gain some benefit from it (mostly Reconfigure), but not much more. Without excellent rolls or a generous point buy, anything over a 16 is a waste of resources that could have gone to Str or Con.
Cha does nothing for you (an Aberrant Aegis optimizing Intimidate has a weak desire for it; the Frightful Presence customization uses it, but you can’t take that until 11); it’s a dump stat for 90% of Aegii.
Dex is a good stat in general - giving a bonus in many situations (initiative, AC/CMD, etc.), but with Full Plate armor as a class feature, you’re not going to get as much use out of it as you’d think; if you’re planning on using Astral Juggernaut regularly, you’re not going to want more than a 12-13 in Dex.
Wis is always nice for Will saves and Perception checks, but with a good Will save and few class features to take advantage of psionic focus (and, by extension, Psionic Meditation), it’s not vital, though if you’re picking up the Psionic Weapon line of feats or the Retaliate customization, consider a 13 in Wis. A stat weight comparison will generally look like this:
Str>Con>Int>Wis=Dex>Cha
Some niche builds (i.e. anything but a standard bruiser) will want to stray from this slightly. The Aberrant archetype values Dex over Wis because it won’t be wearing more than light armor. Builds using Astral Armor and Astral Skin exclusively will value Dex more. A Two-Weapon Fighting (TWF) build will require Dex to meet prerequisites, but TWF is generally a poor optimization strategy to begin with (if you’re dedicated to a TWF Aegis, check out the Extra Arms line of customizations). For a Soulbolt/Aegis/Metaforge, you’ll obviously be optimizing Dex at the cost of some Str and Con (as the Soulbolt is a ranged archetype for the Soulknife).
With an Aegis, you’re primarily looking for a race that grants at least one of Str, Int, or Con and does not give a penalty to any of these three. Because you’re a frontline fighter, Small size is generally to be avoided. Anything that neither grants a bonus nor a penalty to Str, Int, or Con is decent, but lacking unless it has fantastic racial features. Something that gives a penalty to Str, Int, or Con without giving back something excellent is bad. Niche build considerations apply.
When picking a race, bonuses to melee combat and survivability like Powerful Build and Ferocity are always nice.You can get a swim speed, climb speed and fight through class features, so don’t overvalue these in race selection. Natural attacks that do not use your limbs (such as a Bite) are nice. PP from a psionic race ranged from decent to amazing, but not critical unless you’re planning a very PP-heavy build around something like the Power Stone Repository line of customizations. In that case, a psionic race and putting your Favored Class bonuses into PP is basically required (see the Favored Class Bonuses section below for more information).
Dwarf (+2 Con, +2 Wis, -2 Cha; full movement in armor; bonus to saves against spells)
Elan (floating +2, bonus defenses, bonus PP)
Forgeborn (+2 Str, +2 Int, -4 Cha)
---Two of your core stats, PLUS it’s psionic, plus all the half construct resistances, plus natural AC, plus speed not reduced in armor.
Human (floating +2, bonus feat, bonus skills)
Half-Giant (+2 Str, +2 Wis, -2 Dex, Powerful Build)
---With a greatsword, you’re getting +3.5 damage on a hit - how many races can give you that?
Half-Elf (floating +2; consider switching Skill Focus for Exotic Weapon Proficiency)
Half-Orc (floating +2; can pick up Ferocity through a feat)
Orc (+4 Str, -2 Int, -2 Wis, -2 Cha, ferocity; some fun feats like Trap Wrecker, Blood
Vengeance, Tenacious Survivor, and Bullying Blow)
Android (+2 Int, +2 Dex, -2 Cha; multiple useful immunities and resistances, amazing fluff)
Duergar (Paizo) (+2 Con, +2 Wis, -4 Cha; full movement in armor; nice SLA’s)
Duergar (Psionic) (+2 Con, +2 Wis, -2 Cha; full movement in armor; bonus PP)
Hobgoblins (+2 Con, +2 Dex)
Lashunta, Male (+2 Str, +2 Int, -2 Wis)
Maenad (floating +2, bonus PP)
Merfolk (+2 Dex, +2 Con, +2 Cha, +2 natural armor)
-Make sure to take Strongtail for 15ft. bonus to base land speed. Once you get the Flight customization, put an extra point in it for a +20 to your fly speed and you’re golden.
Noral (+2 Con, +2 Wis, -2 Dex, bonus PP)
Ophiduan (+2 Dex, +2 Wis, -2 Cha, scaling bite attack, psionic, and natural armor bonus)
Oread (+2 Str, +2 Wis, -2 Cha)
Ratfolk (-2 Str, +2 Dex, +2 Int) - Dex builds only.
Skinwalker (+2 Wis, -2 Int, +2 to 1 physical ability score)
-The penalty to Int hurts, but skinwalkers can gain a ton of natural attacks, which helps aberrant aegis builds especially.
Sylph - (-2 Con, +2 Dex, +2 Int) - Dex builds only.
Tiefling (+2 Int, +2 Dex, -2 Cha) - Oni spawn variant (+2 Str, +2 Wis, -2 Cha) is also good.
Wyrwood (+2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Cha) - Full construct immunities!
Class Features
---Most of the time, you should be using your Astral Suit for armor (which you are automatically proficient with), so take the “light armor” clause with a grain of salt.
---Less than a Psychic Warrior (same as a marksman). You don’t get innate manifesting, but a few class features are powered by PP; it qualifies you for psionic feats
---It’s basically Mending at will. Nice little bit of fluff.
---This is your core class feature; see Astral Suit below for more information.
---This is your second core class feature; see Customization Points below for more.
---Scaling bonus to a Craft skill. Woooo.
---Scaling DR/-, starting at DR 2/- and scaling to DR 8/-; useful
---”Endurance” as a class feature. Woooo. Lets you sleep in your armor, which is nice if the GM likes to attack your party at night.
---Switch around Int mod customization points as a standard action a limited number of times a day.
---Spend PP for temporary customization points. Possibly the primary reason to get PP on an aegis.
---You can take craft magical item feats without being a caster/manifester.
---Minor self healing. Comes too late to really be useful. Level 20 improves it.
---Your suit can’t be dispelled, you can use Cannibalize Suit for a full heal, and your
Reconfigure ability can be used to reset all your customization points. Not bad at all.
Astral Suit
The Aegis’ astral suit comes in three flavors, detailed below. Each of them can be dismissed as a free action - insanely useful if you’re in the equivalent of full plate and fall into a raging river - but have different summoning times. None of them are objectively better all the time, but they do each have a niche. Your success as an Aegis will in part depend on your ability to
Astral Skin - Formed as a swift action; provides no armor bonus, but also doesn’t interfere with anything. Grants Speed (2) and Nimble at level one - a 4 customization point value. Grants Evasion at level 2 (1 point value) and Improved Evasion at level 12 (4 point value) for a total value of 9. Decent for quickly getting access to your customizations and exploring, not as useful in combat, but it does have a niche in that you can use it while wearing armor.
Astral Armor - Formed as a move action; works as masterwork chainmail at level 1, improves to breastplate at level 8. Breastplate is generally considered the best medium armor, so hooray. Gain Brawn and Improved Damage for free at first level, a 4 point value. At second level, you gain Flexible Suit for free with Astral Armor, a 1 point value (for a total of 5 points). However, medium armor and a significant amount of bonus damage is nothing to sneeze at - this will often be your go-to form for dealing damage.
Astral Juggernaut - As it’s formed as a full-round action, you’ll want to shift into this form before combat begins. Works as masterwork half-plate until level 7, when it functions as masterwork full plate. You start with Fortification and Hardy at level 1 (4 point value) and add Stalwart at level 2 (a 1 point value), for a total value of 5. This is usually the best form for soaking damage.
Other forms - The book specifically calls out the GM as able to approve other base astral suit forms. There’s already a no armor option, a medium armor option, and a heavy armor option, so a light armor option would be the logical homebrew creation; see Bonus: Homebrew below.
Customizations
Customizations are where the true versatility of the Aegis comes to bear. They work basically like evolution points for the Summoner. I’ve roughly categorized them into three main categories: Offense, Defense, and Utility. There is also a Special section for the Extra Arms and Harness Power Stone line of customizations (which deserve more explanation) and the archetype-specific customizations (which are not available to the vanilla Aegis).
One good rules of thumb is that a customization point is worth around a feat (a concept coming from the Extra Customization feat grants an additional customization point); if you’re getting something you cannot get through a feat or something worth at least as much as a feat, it’s probably worth your time. If you’re getting something worth less than a feat, there’s probably a better option. However, remember that you can change your customization points, unlike feats - it might be better to pick it up as a customization than to waste a permanent feat slot on it.
The number beside each customization listed below indicates the number of customization points it costs. An “M” in parentheses indicates that it can be taken multiple times; consult the book for exactly how many times and how frequently.
Note that just because a customization is average under normal circumstances doesn’t mean that it’s not incredible at times. Consider the Climb customization: Normally, having a climb speed isn’t that great, but if you need to scale a fortress (and have no access to flight), it might be completely vital to a mission. For situational abilities like this, use reconfiguration and augment suit to get them when you need them immediately, and spend the eight hours reforming your suit when you’ve got the time. Use your “always useful” customizations when you’re walking into unknown territory. I’ll be marking highly situational customizations by color, but also putting an “S” in parentheses to indicate that they are situational and may be much better when the situation demands them.
Offense
-Empowered Blast (1, S) - Trade PP for damage on a 1:1d6 ratio when using the Energy Blast customization. With Improved Ranged Attack, you’re doing 1d6+1d6 per five class levels+1d6 per class level - nothing to sneeze at, but not the most efficient build. If you really want to be a blaster that bad, you might just want to roll a Wilder, but this is a great trick to have up your sleeve.
-Energy Blast (2, S) - By itself, this is pretty piddly, but it gets good with Empowered Blast, Improved Ranged Attack, and Improved Energy blast. By itself, it’s only really useful for things like fighting foes you can’t touch (i.e. incorporeal when you don’t have a magic weapon for some reason) or for shutting down regeneration. The more you put into it, the more you’ll get out of it.
-Hardened Strikes (1, S) - Basically Improved Unarmed Strike as a customization. Not for everyday use, but if your DM takes away your weapons via plot, it could be worthwhile in a pinch.
-Improved Energy Blast (3, S) - Lets you hit three targets with Energy Blast under conditions similar to Energy Missile. Holding off further discussion until it’s resolved how it interacts with Empowered Blast.
-Improved Ranged Attack (2, S) - Are you taking Ranged Attack? Take this. It’s that simple. Scales your ranged attack up to 5d8 damage per hit at level 20, which does some goofy things to the Vital Strike line, to say the least.
-Psionic Attacks (1) - Before you get your first +1 weapon, this is actually pretty decent. After you get a +1 weapon, drop it unless you’re using it to piece DR/Magic with your Spiked Carapace customization.
-Psionic Damage (1) - +1 damage for a feat equivalent? Even Weapon Specialization is better than this. The one thing it’s got going for it is that it stacks with nearly everything, so if you absolutely must have every last scrap of damage possible, you might use it.
-Pull (1) - A free Drag-like CMB check. Decent crowd control option at early levels, but as you get higher, CMD skyrockets on monsters pulled out of the Bestiary. Without the ability to take Improved/Greater feats to boost your CMB, this gets nearly useless against large foes at high levels, though it still does have some effect on lower BAB humanoids defined by their class levels.
-Push (1) - As above, but a Bull-Rush-like CMB effect.
-Ranged Attack (1, S) - It’s generally not going to be your primary form of attack, but if you’re caught without a ranged weapon, it’s better than nothing. Note that it received errata that allows it to be used as part of a full attack - that’s nice enough for a ranged aegis, but remember that a melee aegis can use the first couple attacks in his full attack action to bring down a melee-range foe, then dump the rest of his attacks shooting at foes out of his reach. Not a complete game-changer, but hey, it’s free damage.
-Retaliate (1) - Great little customization; one of the few uses the Aegis gets for psionic focus. It doesn’t come until level 8, but it’s still useful then.
-Spiked Carapace (1) - Not bad for a reach build, but since you can pick up Reach as a customization, possible not as necessary.
-Augmented Weapon (2) - Nice little damage boost if you’re using something like a Greatsword that’s getting a 1d6 damage increase from it; great if you’re picking up the Vital Strike chain, as it’s based off of weapon damage dice. You’re generally going to want to switch it out for Increased Size when you hit 9, but until then if you want maximum damage, it’s probably Powerful Build+Increased Damage+Augmented Weapon+Crystallized Weapon for a maximum damage build.
-Brawn (2, M) - Enhancement bonus to Str. If you’ve got an enhancement bonus to Str equal from an item equal to or greater than the amount you can give yourself through customizations, this is worthless. If you don’t, this is perfect for a Str-based melee build. The advancement from this is generally faster than what you would normally get from WBL until mid levels.
-Crystallized Weapon (2) - Definitely take this if you don’t have Harness Power stone or another way to use your PP. In general, this is one of the highest-damage customizations, especially if you pick a psionic race that’s going to be providing you with more PP.
-Improved Damage (2) - It’s more damage. If you want to increase your damage through customization points, here it is.
-Increased Size (2) - Great for crowd-control and Str-based damage builds. Not as good if the Wizard has been casting Enlarge Person on you from level 1, but this can free up actions for them in combat and can’t be dispelled.
-Powerful Build (2) - Become a Half-Giant for 2 customization points. Great for builds that are planning on focusing on crowd control and CMB. The best part is that it stacks with other size increases, including Improved/Increased Size.
-Quickened Attacks (3) - Do you have another way to get a bonus attack each
round (Speed weapon, spellcaster casting haste)? No? Take this (or buy them a wand of haste). Yes? This doesn’t stack. This is a customization that’s worth keeping in mind with your reconfigure ability; if you lose your +1 Big Stick of Speed, use reconfigure to get this to get your extra attack back.
-Ram (2, M, S) - Note heavily that the attack is treated as adamantine vs. objects. If you’ve got enough time, you can head-butt your way through a stone wall or iron door.
-Retaliate, Improved (2) - They attack; they miss. You get to hit them anyway. Comes a bit late, but it’s still worth considering if you’ve got some CP to play with.
-Frightful Presence (3) - Such a cool ability, but it scales of Cha, a dump stat, and is messed up by creatures with more HD than you.
-Reach (3) - Take it as soon as you can afford it. It’s so much better than the Lunge feat, plus it stacks with size increases.
-Increased Size, Improved (4) - You don’t get it until late, but if you’re here, you might as well pick it up.
Defense
-Energy Resistance (1, M, S) - Hard to justify walking around with this all the time, but if you know that you’re going to be facing a specific energy type (i.e. a white dragon’s lair where everything around it has been frozen into statues; a recurring villain who loves the acid arrow spell; a dungeon based in a volcano), this become good to great.
-Evasion (1) - If you’ve got points for it, take it. However, your reflex save isn’t that good to begin with (and you’re probably not optimizing Dex), so you won’t be making your saves too frequently.
-Improved Armor (1) - It’s bonus AC. Nothing great, but nothing bad.
-Stalwart (1) - Excellent. You’ve got good Fort and Will saves - this makes you very hard to take down by targeting your saves.
-Adhesive Feet (2, S) - A bonus to CMD and climb checks is OK...but you can also get flight and Powerful Build. Situationally useful if you need to climb something before you get flight, but then why wouldn’t you just use the Climb customization?
-Energy Resistance, Improved (2, S) - See Energy Resistance.
-Fortification (2, M) - Very nice. Crits kill characters; the bonus against sneak attack is just icing, for the most part.
-Hardy (2, M) - See Brawn; if you don’t have a +X Con item, this is great. Once you do, shuffle around your customization points elsewhere.
-Improved Damage Reduction (2, M) - You can actually keep a pretty reasonable amount of DR with this customization - greater than half your HD; it just depends on whether you want to invest the resources in it or not.
-Nimble (2, M) - See Brawn and Hardy. Great if you don’t have an item of it, worthless if you do.
-Power Resistance (2, M, S) - PR/SR bites both ways; if you’ve got allies regularly casting/manifesting friendly spells/powers on you, this is worthless. If you have no caster support, then this is much more useful, but you also don’t have caster support, which is most of the time going to end badly.
-Diehard (3) - Diehard is such a cool concept (to me, at least) but at three customization points, it’s hard to justify it. If you find a spot for it in your build, cool, but there’s probably something better you could have done with those points. Remember that a customization point is about equivalent to a feat...and you’re spending three “feats” to get one feat. On the other hand, if you have the Rapid Augmentation feat, you could pick it up as a swift action if you realize you’re suddenly going to need it.
-Energy Immunity (4, S) - See Energy Resistance.
-Improved Evasion (4) - Evasion only works when you make your save; this gives you benefits even when you don’t. If you’ve got room in your build, this is a great pick-up to negate some damage thrown at you.
-Improved Stalwart (4) - The only thing keeping this from being blue is that you have to expend psionic focus to get the effect. Otherwise, this customization makes you almost impossible to stop using Fort/Will save-based abilities.
Utility
-Darkvision (1, S) - If you have Darkvision from any other source, skip this. If your DM is a stickler about light rules and you’re a human about to try to sneak into a Drow city...consider it, but also consider other places you might pick up Darkvision. Or, you know, a torch. It’s better than nothing in an emergency, however.
-Flexible Suit (1) - It’s pretty “meh,” but remember that it helps with things like Acrobatics and Fly. Your Astral Skin suit form is another option that comes built-in for the class.
-Harness Shard (1, M) - If this doesn’t look that good to you, you might want to look again at the shards. Consider this: You’re a level 10 Aegis with Craft Wondrous Item (which you qualify for, thanks to Master Craftsman as a class feature) and 10 ranks in Use Magical Device. You can make an item that grants you a +10 competence bonus to UMD...for 500g and one PP each time you activate it. Of course, it’s action-heavy as you have to spend a standard action to activate the shard in this way, but you can essentially double the number of ranks you have in any skill for a paltry amount of gold. This ability is obviously worthless if you don’t have access to shards, but makes Craft Wondrous Item a serious build choice for every Aegis.
-Speed (1, M, S) - Eh. You go places faster. The big bonus is that you can still wear heavy armor while doing it, unlike most versions of this class feature.
-Swim (1, S) and Underwater Breath (1, S) - Are you going to be going underwater? Take these. Are you not? Don’t. A good candidate for reconfiguration/augment suit.
-Chameleon (2,M, S) - You can boost your Stealth to some pretty absurd levels with this customization, but that brings up the point of why you would want to under most circumstances. Great situational use with reconfiguration/augment suit. Remember you can walk around in Astral Skin to gain some benefit of your Astral Suit without tanking your Stealth from an armor check penalty.
-Climb (2, S) - See Swim. Shouldn’t be a part of your main build, great to pick up situationally.
-Flight (2, M) - Flight at level 5. Spend more customization points to increase speed and maneuverability. Almost every Aegis should have at least two points in this from level 5 onward.
-Tremorsense (2) - Not bad, but be ready to ditch it once Blindsense and Blindsight come online.
-Unlock Psionics (2) - This is really good, but you need to invest resources in picking up wands, djores, etc. to really make it worth your while.
-Blindsense (3) - Invisible creatures can’t sneak up on you.
-Burrow (3, S) - Eh. How often are you really underground? Not much combat benefit, but there’s some good RP opportunities for sneaking into/out of places.
-Blindsight (4) - It’s a big investment, but also a big payoff. If your DM likes to send creatures with Greater Invisibility at you constantly, this will even the playing field immensely.
-Extra Passenger (4, S) - Turn yourself into a mini-mount. It’s cute and fun, but it’s not something to base a build around; definitely reconfigure/augment suit material.
Special
Extra Arms
The Extra arms line is a little strange: It can be used for utility, defense, or offense, depending on how deep you’re planning to go with it. Extra Arms, Lesser is not a worthwhile build choice, but the other two are - potentially enough to base part of your build around them.
-Extra Arms, Lesser (1) - Retrieve items as a swift action. It’s got uses...very minor uses. Not useful under most circumstances, except having a hand free to reload a ranged weapon. However, if you want to progress up the line, it’s a required prerequisite.
-Extra Arms (2) - The big bonus is being able to hold a shield while using a two-handed weapon. Very nice bonus to AC when used in this way - not a damage option at all. It can be worthwhile to park yourself here in the chain and enjoy the bonus to climb checks and the extra AC from your shield.
-Extra Arms, Greater (3) - Dual-wield two-handed weapons; if you’re going for this, you have to go all the way and base your build around it, picking up the TWF chain of feats. The big problem is that this doesn’t come online until 8th level, leaving you with not much to show for your investment until then. It’s a very niche option.
Harness Power Stone
First, a quick refresher on Power Stones: Power Stones are basically psionic scrolls. This means they’re extremely cheap (25/150/375/700g for level 1/2/3/4 power stones), but they’re generally 1 use items restricted by Spellcraft checks, class power lists, and key ability scores, making them very limited in usefulness to the aegis.
The Power Stone Repository/Harness Power Stone line essentially lets you choose a few powers through power stones and manifest from them as if you had them as powers known. You can take Power Stones from any list, so you have some incredible flexibility over your powers known.
Talk with your GM before taking this customization, as it requires your GM to allow you to purchase or pick up power stones as treasure. If your GM is concerned about power stones “not fitting in” with his campaign world, you might remind them that power stones are functionally just scrolls - if there are scrolls in the world, there should probably be power stones. As a compromise, offer to pay 1.5 times the normal cost of the power stone to acquire a “rare” item, or completing a quest or test of strength to find someone to manufacture/acquire them for you.
Once you know for certain you’ll be able to get power stones in-game, you first pick up the customization Power Stone Repository (1), which, by itself, just lets you attach power stones=class level to your suit and gives you a bonus on UMD checks to activate them. While a +20 to UMD at level 20 when activating power stones for 500g and a customization point is nice, this is mostly just a tax on your way to the good stuff.
With Power Stone Repository in hand, take Harness Power Stone (1, M). This customization lets you choose a single level 1 power stone stored in your suit and spend PP to activate it with a manifester level of 1 without consuming it. You can take it a second time at class level 5 to have two level 1 powers to choose from.
Each time you take an improved version of Harness Power Stone, you gain a bonus to your manifester level on the previous versions of it selected. Each version grants higher level powers, and each can be take twice. Aside from Power Stone Repository, you do not need to take lower-level versions to gain higher level versions. The various levels of Harness Power Stone are summarized on the chart below:
Harness Power Stone Level | Power Level | Manifester Level | Manifester Level Total* | Minimum Aegis Level | Minimum Aegis Level to take twice | Customization Point Cost |
Harness Power Stone | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 1 |
Improved | 2 | (+)3 | 4 | 7 | 9 | 2 |
Greater | 3 | (+)5 | 9 | 11 | 13 | 3 |
Superior | 4 | (+)7 | 16 | 16 | 18 | 4 |
*Assuming all previous levels have been taken.
To put it another way:
Harness Power Stone Suggested Power Choices
Remember, your manifester level is based off your customizations, and you have no power list - therefore, it’s basically always best to choose the lowest level each power appears at - for example, hustle is a 3rd level marksman power, but a 2nd level psychic warrior power, so find a power stone with hustle as a 2nd level power.
This list is nowhere near comprehensive. I highly recommend looking through the various Psionic Power Lists, especially the psychic warrior, marksman, gifted blade, and psion/wilder lists for gems I haven’t spotted.
Avoid powers that require saving throws - you won’t have a manifester level or key ability modifier high enough to really make use of them. Buffs are your bread and butter.
1st level
Biofeedback, Bite of the Wolf, Claws of the Beast, Energy Ray, Force Screen, Grip of Iron, Inevitable Strike, Precognition Defensive/Offensive/Tactical, Prescience (Offensive), Thicken Skin, Vigor
2nd level
Animal Affinity, Concealing Amorpha, Deflect, Dissolving Weapon, Knockdown (ranged), Proximity Strike, Sidestep, Hustle, Psionic Lion’s Charge,
3rd level
Concealing Amorpha (Greater), Dimension Slide, Ubiquitous Vision, Physical Acceleration, metamorphosis
4th level
Barrage (ranged), Battle Transformation, Flight, Fold Space, Pierce the Veils, Slip the Bonds, Vanishing Strike, Zealous Fury
Initiator's Soul / Additional Maneuvers / Additional Stance
Though an Aegis could pick up maneuvers through the Martial Training line of feats in Path of War, Path of War: Expanded brings the Aegis an in-class method of obtaining maneuvers. Initiator’s Soul grants the aegis an incredible value and in-combat flexibility - if your campaign uses the initiating system, there’s no reason not to take these - you can customize it to every build.
Thinking back to the “resources” section of this guide, remember that an aegis doesn’t do that much with his swift/immediate action natively - boosts and counters fill that slot quite nicely.
As your GM before taking these customizations. Your GM may already have a hard time dealing with PP, psionic focus, and customizations without learning another subsystem. Don’t feel like you have to have them, either - the aegis can keep up just fine without them.
Assuming you can use it, let’s break down the goodies here:
Initiator’s Soul (2 customization points)
Additional Maneuvers (1 customization point)
Additional Stance
Archetype-specific Customizations
Aberrant (Archetype)
-Disjointed (1, S) - Bonus on Escape Artist checks? With what you can do to grapple with Extra Arms and Tentacles?
-Eyestalks (1, S) - When you have a spare point in your build for a given level, you could do worse than a +2 to Perception. Not worth going out of your way for, though.
-Tearing Sting (1) - +1 damage per round is not really worth it.
-Stinger (1) - Once you've got all the tentacles you can, go for this. More attacks is more damage, plain and simple.
-Tentacle (1, M) - A +6 typeless bonus to grapple and four natural attacks for 4 customization points? This is probably the reason to take the Aberrant archetype.
-Improved Natural Armor (2, M) - Eh, armor is armor. You can do worse.
-Obese (2, S) - Bonus HP and DR for movement. A decent target for reconfigure/augment suit
-Poison (2) - A very small amount of Str damage, but Str damage nonetheless; in general, you’ve got better options.
-Spikes (2) - Not a bad ranged option for the early levels. At least you get your Str bonus on the damage roll.
-Tear Flesh (2) - A fun option to have when the caster tries to use Freedom of Movement to get away, but not really a practical one once 4d6 is no longer scary damage.
-Toxic (3) - It’s a decent use for your swift action, if you happen to have the customization points open.
-Protective Shell (4, S) - Four customization points...to stop your own ability to move?
Trailblazer (Archetype)
-Favored Terrain (2) - The saving grace of this customization is that you can drop it and then reform it with whatever terrain you happen to be in, so this is essentially a permanent +2 bonus on initiative, Knowledge (geography), Perception, Stealth, and Survival as long as you’re sticking in the same terrain all day - remember than all Aegii, even the terrible Trailblazer, can re-choose their customizations with 8 hours of concentration, so if you know you’re going to a forest one day and the elemental plane of fire the next, this is pretty good.
-Woodland Stride (3, S) - Three customization points...not until level 10...just take Flight for pity’s sake.
Archetypes
Aberrant - A straight combat bonus for the Aegis at the cost of flexibility (you’re primarily losing the Power Stone Repository line of customizations). On the other hand, tentacles. The Aberrant Aegis is a terrifying grappler and can stack 5 natural attacks with 5 customization points - doable by level 2 with the Extra Customization Feat. Of course, they’re all secondary natural attacks (-5 on the attack roll, ½ Str to damage), but still impressive. Talk with your DM about Multiattack. Toxic and Poison are both nice for disabling foes - note that both scale with Con, so make sure to pump it even more than you usually would if you plan on using these. Spikes is a nice ranged option for a low-level Aegis. Great dip for a Slenderman build - or really, any monstrous creature. For a pure-combat, kick-in-the-door campaign, the Aberrant is worth several longing glances.
Special: You can still take the Initiator’s Soul line of customizations as an aberrant aegis, and if Path of War material is in play, you probably should. It’s best to stick to disciplines with natural attacks as related weapons.
Ectoplasmic Artisan - Several potentially useful class features here: Ectoplasmic Cocoon is excellent; the mini-Eidolon is a great little meat shield, even if it lacks some of the raw power of the Summoner version. Disable Device, dealing damage that ignores hardness, and ectoplasmic creation are all nice things that change how you can interact with the world around you. The major weakness is that you’re missing out on reconfigure. If you feel you won’t miss that flexibility, this is a very powerful archetype - almost too much for what you’re giving up.
Trailblazer - Major trap. Lose Reconfigure and Augment suit - two of your absolute best class features - for the weak parts of being a Ranger? Lose Use Magic Device for Survival? Not a fair trade at all for a 1-20 Aegis. It does have one saving grace: Rapid Adjustment comes at level 1, so for a one-level dip in Aegis, it’s a minor net gain. For anything else, flee this archetype.
Crystal Warrior (UP/PsiA) - Yes, it gives up a few customization points, but the benefits of this archetype are generally worth what it gives up. Psicrystal Affinity+Psicrystal Containment for free is pretty great, energy blast for 1 less customization point is OK, a few free daily uses of battlesense is great, but the real benefit comes from your psicrystal being an auto-turret spewing off little lasers while you continue to get the rest of your actions.
Racial-Specific Archetypes (Ultimate Psionics/Psionics Augmented)
Annihilator (blue) - I have to admit, the iconic aegis is one of the first things that attracted me to the class, so I love the idea of playing a blue aegis. Unfortunately, this archetype solves the issue of playing a small-sized race by dropping augment suit - one of the aegis’ most powerful class features. If you are already 100% committed to playing a Strength-base blue aegis, this isn’t really that bad - it just might be better to play a Medium-sized class to begin with. Playable? Certainly. Optimal? Not really.
War Hulk (half-giant) - The bad news: It gives up Augment Suit. The good news: You can throw boulders that deal 8d8+Str mod damage at level 16 before further size increases. To give a little perspective, that’s approximately equivalent to 10d6+Str mod damage. This is a fun archetype that mostly gives up flexibility for raw defensive stats like free Toughness and more DR, plus a random great ranged attack at level 12+. Aegis+half giant is already a great combo - War Hulk is mostly a matter of taste.
Suggested Feats
Special Note: The Aegis, being fairly feat-independent, is an excellent candidate for Variant Multiclassing (VMC), which I wrote a guide for here. VMC trades 5 of your level up feats for the class features of a specified class. I would recommend considering Magus, Wizard, and Paladin; Rogue and Barbarian are decent, but a bit more boring.
Student of the Astral Suit - Ultimate Psionics brought us this extremely powerful new tool for the Aegis. It increases your effective aegis level for the purpose of customizations (the absolutely most important thing for the aegis) by 4, up to your hit dice. That’s basically 4 free levels of multiclassing (or turning a 3-4 level dip into Aegis into 7-8 effective aegis levels of customizations). If you’re a multiclass aegis, this is insane to the point of being potentially overpowered.
Rapid Augmentation - I wrote this feat, so sorry if I over- (or under-) value it. The main problem with augment suit is its action economy. Aegii aren’t as reliant on their swift actions, so this can be a great pickup if you’ve got a decent PP pool.
Toughened Suit - Pay a PP to gain temp HP=Aegis level whenever you summon your suit. Helps with day-to-day survivability, but really shines with Quick Suit/Raging Hulk/Dual Summon (Metaforge)/astral skin to increase round to round survivability.
Quick Suit - Lets you summon your suit as a free action 1/round. Just OK by itself, but potentially very useful for shenanigans like sneaking up on a foe, then suddenly being in juggernaut next to them. Best when combined with Toughened Suit.
Improved Initiative/Ready Response - Improved Initiative is never a bad feat. Going first=Winning. Ready Response just takes it to another level, especially because the Aegis doesn’t innately need psionic focus for anything.
Extra Customization - Think very carefully before taking this one. What are you going to get out of it? Is it worth more or less than a feat?
Extra Reconfiguration - Reconfigure is a great class feature, but you’re probably not going to be needing it too many times per day more than you get baseline.
Power Attack - Are you doing a melee damage build? TAKE THIS FEAT. There is no excuse for not taking this feat if you are using a weapon two-handed and trying to deal a lot of damage.
Furious Focus - It’s not bad, but its usefulness falls off once you start getting iteratives.
Vital Strike/Improved Vital Strike/Greater Vital Strike/Devastating Strike - The main use of the Vital Strike chain is that you can move and still hit hard. However, you have tricks like Harness Power stone plus a power stone of hustle. If you really like the feat chain, remember to take every size-increasing customization.
Craft Wondrous Item/Craft Magic Arms and Armor/Craft Crystalline Focus - You get Master Craftsman and bonuses to your Craft checks for free. These are probably the best of the item creation feats, if you want to be your party’s crafter.
Toughness/Open Minded - +1 hit point per level and plus 1 skill point per level. They’re there if you want ‘em
Psionic Meditation - None of your Aegis class features require expending psionic focus. A few customizations do, as do a few feats like Psionic Weapon. Better for Crystal Warriors, but in general, the Aegis is probably the psionic class that benefits least from this feat.
Combat Expertise/Improved Trip/Felling Smash/Psionic Trip/Greater Trip - Tripping is one of the few ways to “tank” in Pathfinder, turning yourself into more of a disrupter than a damage dealer. You’re probably going to have the Intelligence to pick it up.
Lunge - Always a fun little feat, but you have ways of getting reach through customizations.
Improved Critical - It’s there as a damage-increasing option. Just a boring feat, in my opinion.
Two-Weapon Fighting/Improved Two-Weapon Fighting/Greater Two-Weapon Fighting - Leaving these unrated. TWF is almost always an unoptimized choice (especially because you don’t have the bonus feats to sink into it), but if you’re going for a TWF build, you need these.
Weapon Focus/Dazzling Display/Shatter Defenses - Weapon Focus is fine for an accuracy boost - remember, damage is accuracy, but you don’t have the Charisma focus to really commit to an Intimidate build.
Combat Reflexes/Stand Still - You may not have the Dexterity to justify Combat Reflexes, but if you have it, you can get reach from your customizations. Stand Still is annoying because it’s a CMB check (and not, say, a Trip or a Grapple check), so you can’t take any additional feats to boost it. It’ll fall off hard at high levels.
Cleave - Aaalmost useful before level 6 if your DM likes to swarm you with enemies.
Improved Drag/Greater Drag - Another battle control option. In general, drag is strictly superior to bull rush because you don’t need to put yourself out of position to use it.
Improved Unarmed Strike/Improved Grapple/Greater Grapple - Yet another battlefield control option. Especially good with Aberrant, as you’ll be getting big bonuses to grapple from tentacles. Ask your DM if you can substitute Hardened Strikes for Improved Unarmed Strike, as it basically accomplishes the same thing.
Psionic Weapon/Greater Psionic Weapon - You don’t need psionic focus for much, so this can add a nice little touch of damage to your build.
Raging Hulk - DR from Barbarian and Aegis stacks, both classes count for customization/rage power prereqs, and you can activate your suit whenever you enter a rage. If you’re going Barb/Aegis, there’s no reason not to take this. If you can rage cycle, Toughened Suit gives you incredible survivability.
Psionic Body - Psionic Body grants you 2 HP per psionic feat you have - equal to Toughness if you dump all your level up feats into psionic feats - it only really shines if your class grants you bonus psionic feats, like the Psion or Psychic Warrior. The Crystal Warrior can take advantage of it because it gets 2 free psionic feats (3 with Wild Talent from a psionic race).
Deep Focus - Psicrystal Containment without the psicrystal. Unfortunately, you don’t want Deep Body unless you’re a Crystal Warrior, in which case you’re getting Psicrystal Containment for free. Sort of a Catch-22 for the aegis. If an archetype ever comes out that grants the aegis a bunch of psionic bonus feats, a reason to use psionic focus, and no psicrystal, this could become interesting
Barroom Brawler - I’m kind of in love with this feat - don’t know what to do with your feat? Just pick it in the moment! Of course, you’re giving up a lot of raw power for that flexibility. With this and Rapid Augmentation, you can instantly add a lot of tricks to your combat style.
Favored Class Bonuses
I’d like to repeat what I said earlier regarding favored class bonuses: If you’re planning on getting a lot of use out of your PP, pick a psionic race and put your favored class bonuses into PP. Why?
Think of it like this: Getting 1 HP per level is approximately equivalent to one feat (Toughness); getting 1 skill point a level is approximately equivalent to one feat (Open Minded); getting one PP per level is approximately equal to 5 feats (taking Psionic Talent 5 times: 2+3+4+5+6 = 20 PP).
Is it unbalanced? Not really - most alternate uses for favored class bonuses are more efficient than a feat (i.e. 1 extra round of rage per day is equal to ⅙ of an Extra Rage feat; over the course of 20 levels, that’s 3.333 feats); it’s just the most optimal way to build some extra PP onto your character.
Blue - Add 1 to the hit points restored using astral repair; if you’re playing a Blue Aegis, take the PP.
Dromite - Add +1/4 to the dromite’s armor bonus from his astral suit; it’s 5 AC at level 20, but you’re also playing a dromite in a class that usually doesn’t want to be small. If you must be a Dromite Aegis, this isn’t bad, but question what you’ll lose by giving up the PP.
Duergar - Increase the astral suit’s damage reduction by +1/4; 8 (base) + 4 (customizations) + 5 (Favored Class) = 17 DR/- at level 20. Intruiging, at the very least.
Half-Giant - Add +1 to the aegis’s CMD when resisting a bull rush or grapple; bull rush and grapple are not that serious of effects when you’re full BAB with good Str. Get PP instead.
Ophiduan - Add +1/4 to the maximum dexterity bonus of the aegis’s astral suit; interesting, could fit a TWF build, but make sure you don’t need the PP first.
Gnome - Gain +1/2 to Damage Reduction / cold iron; a very flavorful bonus, but it becomes less useful if you get to a point where almost all enemies are coming at you with +3 weapons, but still a solid choice. Too bad Gnome Aegis has little synergy.
Half-Elf/Human - Add +1/4 to the aegis’s customization points; that’s 5 extra customization points at level 20, or about +20% of what you’d normally have. A very nice pickup.
Build Options
As a full BAB class, any full BAB class is a decent dip option for you. Be careful with all dips, as they delay your customization progression unless you take Student of the Astral Suit. If you’re planning on playing 1-20, I suggest playing straight Aegis at least to level 4 for Augment Suit (with Aegis 12 for 3 point customizations at your fingertips). Dips are very attractive for increasing your combat potential, especially with Student of the Astral Suit, but weigh the benefits and losses: Would you rather be Aegis 4/ Class 1 with some class features and Student of the Astral Suit or Aegis 5 a possibly more important feat?
A side note for DMs: The Aegis is actually a nice 1-2 level dip for NPC manifesters; free armor (usually including a stat boost), free proficiency with that armor, and a nice chunk of health, and some customizations to throw some flexibility into the build. Throwing some defensive abilities on a Psion can make it more difficult for the party to kill without increasing the chances of a TPK.
-Aegis 20 or Aegis 16+Student of the Astral Suit - This is a perfectly viable build; gets you access to your customizations ASAP
-Soulknife - By itself, Soulknife is a decent dip for the Aegis, but it really shines when you go into the Metaforge prestige class; see below for details.
-Fighter - Aegii are feat-starved at low levels; Fighter can help you get off the ground faster with a few bonus feats. Fighter 1, 2, 4, and 5 are all good cut-off points. Fighter 5 nets the ability to move unhindered in medium armor.
-Barbarian, Ranger, Paladin - These classes all share something in common: If you want to be an Aegis, they’re mediocre dips for you - nothing incredible, nothing really harmful. If you want to play Barbarian, Ranger, or Paladin, then Aegis is a fantastic dip for you. For example, Paladin 2 doesn’t do much for the Aegis; you’re not optimizing Cha, Smite scales off Paladin level, and your swift-action self-heal is going to be dinky. Now compare Aegis 1 for the Paladin: Summonable armor, stat boosts, a PP pool, Evasion, Stalwart, and a customization to be named later.
-Cavalier 4/Aegis x - Probably the simplest way to build a mounted Aegis. Go with the Horse Master feat. Cavalier is generally a weaker class than Aegis, so I would recommend a build with the least amount of investment possible in Cavalier. You want your mount as soon as possible so that you can actually do a mounted build, so I recommend something like this from level 1: Cavalier 1/Aegis 1/Cavalier 3/Aegis X.
Path of War/Initiation (Unfinished)
Path of War (srd) (and its successor, Path of War: Expanded) is Dreamscarred Press’ Pathfinder update/redesign/reimagining of the 3.5 book Tome of Battle. Like its predecessor, the initiation system is a huge boon to melee and ranged class, granting a massive increase in round-to-round and build-to-build variety.
There are a few ways the Aegis can gain access to maneuvers:
For right now, I’m going to focus primarily on the Martial Training line of feats and the disciplines that were released in the first book (rather than those in Expanded).
Equipment
There is one primary item you want to buy as an Aegis: The Astral Spaulders. They give you a +1/+2/+3 enhancement bonus to your astral suit, and an equal number of bonus customization points. Even for 50,400g, three customizations points is pretty huge.
As you level, consider whether or not you’re going to buy armor. Buy armor? On an Aegis? It’s more likely than you think. See, you can’t just pay money to increase the enhancement bonus to AC on your astral stuit (besides astral spaulders), so if you’ve got the cash (or your party happens to stumble across a +5 heavy fortification mithral full plate), you might be able to up your AC by buying armor and using astral skin (which does not negate any armor you’re wearing, like the other two).
Aegii using the Harness Power Stone line of customizations are obviously going to want power stones - see above for details. Similarly, you’ll want to buy shards if you’re going to take the Harness Shard customization.
It’s worth noting the Quick Runner’s Shirt for a little extra mobility.
Torc of Power Preservation is nice for power-heavy aegii.
Don’t forget the boring necessities: Amulet of Natural Armor, Cloak of Resistance, Ring of Protection, +X weapon, enhancement bonus to stats, etc.
Bonus: The Metaforge
The Metaforge is a prestige class that combines the Soulknife and the Aegis in a character that can seamlessly summon their own weapons and armor. On an optimization level, the Metaforge loses some combat potential from the Soulknife and some flexibility from the Aegis, but ultimately still performs well. The fluff is absolutely fabulous, and the crunch is reasonable enough that every Aegis should carefully consider the Metaforge.
Of special importance is that every published Soulknife and Aegis archetype qualifies for the Metaforge. Be a Deadly Fist Metaforge and play an unarmed master with a field of protective energy. The Powered Armor trope (warning: TV Tropes link) can beautifully come to life in the Soulbolt Metaforge: Megaman, Samus Aran, Master Chief, Starcraft Marines (and their predecessors, in the armored suits of Starship Troopers), the armored suit in District 9, most of the Mecha genre of anime, Iron Man (Or, my original do-not-steal character, Tark Stony - see NPCs below).
The prerequisites are minimal: Essentially, you need Soulkife 3 and Aegis 3, plus three ranks in any Craft skill. As far as a build goes, I recommend starting Soulknife 1/Aegis 1, then mixing Aegis and Soulknife levels until you hit three in both. If you want combat potential, then go Soulknife 1/Aegis 1/Soulknife +2 for fast access to your first blade skill and Enhanced Mind Blade. If you want defense and flexibility, Soulknife 1/Aegis 3 will get you Reconfigure Suit, DR 2/-, and customization points 4 and 5 faster.
Vital Statistics/Class features (Metaforge)
“Metaforge Crystallized Mind Blade
Change the last line in the first paragraph to read: ‘In addition as a swift action, the weapon can be charged with 1 power point, increasing its enhancement bonus by 1 for one round.’ All subsequent increases also only last for one round.”
A note on life after Metaforge: As you need to be at least 3rd level to enter Metaforge, and it’s a ten level class, you’re going to have 4 levels to play with until 20. Three levels of Aegis will get you an effective Aegis level of 16 for customization purposes - a break point for several very good abilities. Two/four more levels of Soulknife will get you +1/+2 to your mind blade enhancement, but you can at most be Soulknife 7/Aegis 3/Metaforge 10 with all ten levels of Metaforge, denying you quite a few blade skills that require Soulknife 8; if there’s a blade skill you really want, consider skipping a level of Metaforge to grab it, i.e. Soulknife 8 / Aegis 3 / Metaforge 9. Taking more levels of Aegis will grant you more uses of reconfiguration, augment suit, more DR / -, Master Craftsman, and some PP; it comes down to whether you want more combat prowess or more versatility. Of course, you can always taking something else entirely like Telekinetic Weapon Master or War Mind. The choices are endless*!
Bonus: NPCs
The Survivor (Elan Aegis 16; CR 16, 25 PB)
Lt. Colonel Kilas, 122nd Brigade (Human Aegis; melee)
Tark Stony (Duergar Soulbolt 2/ Aegis 1/ Soulbolt 1/ Aegis 2/ Metaforge 2; ranged)
”Take away that astral suit and what are you?”
”A genius billionaire duergar misanthropist.”
-Generated using a 25 point buy, maximum hit points first level, half afterwards.
-Feats: Wild Talent x2 (bonus), Point Blank Shot (Bonus), Precise Shot, Deadly Aim, Rapid Shot, Vital Strike
-Customization Points: Fortification, hardy, stalwart (free), flight (3), powerful build (2), crystallize weapon (2), improved armor (1). ,
-Combat options:
---Charge weapon with Crystallize Mind Blade (swift action, 1 PP).
---Charge weapon with Crystallize Weapon (free action, 2 PP).
---Activate Psychic Strike for an additional 1d8 damage (free action, see Soulknife class feature).
---Full attack if you can sit still, blast with Vital Strike to attack on the run.
The Infiltrator (Elan Aegis/Rogue/Assassin)
The Operator (Half-Elf Aberrant Aegis/ Witch; support)
”Patients continuing to report coughing, insomnia, paranoia, memory loss, anxiety, depression, hallucinations, fever, ritualized recording of routine events, blackouts, and changes in location, among other symptoms. I have sequestered those affected, but they insist that this “Operator” can still find them and torment them despite being locked behind steel doors. I must admit that their persistent screams and bizarre stories have unnerved me somewhat, but I believe that these foolish ravings will soon be put to”
- Last words recorded in Dr. Elbram Ornet’s journal regarding an outbreak of
hallucinations that occurred nearly 40 years ago. Dr. Ornet was found dead in one
of the cells of his facility, his patients missing, the room covered in circles with
crosses struck through them.
---Scar Hex
Bonus: Homebrew
Astral Hauberk - When formed into an astral hauberk, an astral suit resembles masterwork studded leather and is treated as such for all mechanical purposes. Should the aegis be wearing armor when forming his astral suit in this fashion, the astral suit encloses the armor and the aegis gains the benefits of only his astral suit and not that from his armor, even if his armor would confer better benefits. Forming an astral suit into this form takes a move action. The aegis gains the following free customizations: Crystallized Weapon and Nimble At 2nd level, the aegis gains the Lesser Extra Arms Customization as a free customization when the astral suit is in astral hauberk form. At 5th level, the astral suit resembles and is treated as a mithral shirt for all mechanical purposes.
-A short discussion about the relative balance of this bit of homebrew.
Train the Mind, Train the Blade
Your dedication to your astral suit improves your skill with your mindblade.
Prerequisite: Blade skill class feature, crystallized mind blade +1
Benefit: Your Metaforge levels stack with your soulknife levels to determine the blade skills you qualify for.
-A short discussion about the relative balance of this bit of homebrew.
*Choices may not actually be endless.
