Heroes of Iblydos: A Tale of Gods and Men

Game Master Isora of Solaria

Oh hey Fury! Good to see you again. I promise that my munchkinry with Eglian isn't carrying over here ;P

Well, I finally got most of the crunch updated and the basics of the backstory... Presenting Makonta! And company, Zejia and Eikiat.

It looks like there is some overlap between Gosur and Makonta, though we went different directions -aside from the Sanctified Slayer chassis and three feat choices, almost everything else is different.

Question for Breath of the Gods: Is the 3.5 warbeast template available for animal companions if we can make the Handle Animal checks the whole way through?

Spoilered for Avoiding-Wall-Of-Text-Ness.

@Menophotine: Given your backstory, I would rule that is an acceptable alignment difference. It would make sense that Kelksiomedes would give someone a gift in such a way, since he's all about redeeming people.

Hero-Gods do give Sub-Domains, but I forgot all about those when writing them. Restoration should be fine.

@TurtSnacko: I was just curious because a lot of that seemed to be a straight expy. I didn't know if that was going to just be the general idea or if it was your specific one. I am fine with inspirations used when creating a character, I am just ambivalent to a straight expy.

@Aramyros: The campaign will actually begin within Aelyosos, but it will expand to cover most of Iblydos.

@Daedalus: Broad Study would not allow you to use Spell Combat with Wizard spells.

Changing Sparrow's Flight Fly requirement to 10 should solve the progression issue.

Custom martial traditions would be fine. Just check back with me on it.

@Oyzar: Delaying that is not possible.

Additionally, retraining is not possible in-game. It's one of those things that feels to video-gamey to me and I have seen it abused before to swap from an optimized character build at low levels to something broken at later levels that would not have survived the leveling experience that far with earlier feat choices needed to fit everything into the build. I ban it as a rule of principle now.

Ninja can take Rogue archetypes, at least in my games, so long as the archetypes replace similar things.

Arcane Trickster is fine.

@CampinCarl9127: I like the background for Thaddeus and Jevireth quite a bit.

I am curious as to what Jevireth would think about the rumors about Spalkis somehow surviving his apparent death at the hands of Oumarikos?

@Jereru: I would need a specific example of what you were talking about before I could give a definitive yes or no.

Rednal has the right of it on how gestalting Spherecasting works.

This game is set in Golarion and Golarion gods are allowed. I just listed the Hero-Gods since some people might want them as deities for the local flavor, so to speak.

@Gosor Proudhoof: Interesting changes to your backstory. Are you looking, out-of-character, to have the group visit Karnassos in an official capacity? Just curious as to your thoughts, given that it was once the seat of Minotaur culture in ages past before Baphomet ascended to a demon lord and brought about his former home's downfall.

@River of Sticks: Crafting will be allowed in-game. There will be precious few breaks in-game to sit down for months-long crafting though.

Improved Familiars can take Familiar Archetypes.

Overclocked Magic is not in place.

Regarding nerfed items, that depends on the item itself. What were you specifically asking for?

Warbeast is not allowed, nor are any other templates.

Any idea on what Zeija the Odd's background includes?

@Ktinos Amyntas: Everything looks fine to me so far. Every group has some degree of disparity in power levels. You don't have to be a Zen Archer/Druid that shapeshifts into a roc and uses a composite greatbow in it's talons with Rain of Arrows to level platoons of enemies to fit into my games. And, before you ask, someone I know has managed to do that. It held the greatbow itself with one talon, had the string in the other, and it's bow was enchanted to create +1 arrows when drawn. It was all done through legal rules too.

Oh hey Fury! Good to see you again. I promise that my munchkinry with Eglian isn't carrying over here ;P

...

I honestly have no idea what you are talking about.

Had to think long and hard about this but, in the end came up with an idea I liked. So I came up with

Lady Zal-Azea Qilin-Zra And ex-military intelligence officer now working freelance.
Race Elan: Alignment LE
Classes.
1:Investigator Questioner L8
2:Psion Telepath L8
3:Ninja L8

She is Lawful Evil yes, but she shes herself as a professional, she follows rules, laws, She dose not do evil for the fun of it. To her it's just Business. You want her to, Investigate, spy even kill, You sign a contract, the subject and the subject alone is the target. She works Quietly, silently and with out other damage. She has little respect for those that are sloppy or bring undue attention to themselves.

Question. Can I pick up the Elemental Brethren Kinectist archetype? Whilst on the Sphere's of Power website, it's not a SoP/SoM archetype, but instead was taken from Kineticists of Porphyra III. Its quite a flavourful archetype, and I feel like it could fit my character very well.

Dαedαlus wrote:

Oh hey Fury! Good to see you again. I promise that my munchkinry with Eglian isn't carrying over here ;P

...

I honestly have no idea what you are talking about.

I was the guy who made the vampire lord for a level 15 Tristalt one-shot you were in a little while ago. As I recall, it nearly ended in a TPK.

Okay, thanks GM. I think I’m nearing a complete character (and may even hold off on Sparrow’s Path for the moment), so it should be up soon.

One thing that I’ve just sort of been wondering about, though: both the Feat Tax rules and Spheres of Might try to ‘fix’ certain feats. What happens for the overlap? If I were to take Agile Maneuvers (which replaces Improved Trip, Improved Disarm, and similar), would I get all the corresponding Sphere talents? Or conversely, if I took the ‘Improved Trip’ sphere talent, would I also get the rest of the benefits from Agile Maneuvers?

Also, does the 'no retraining' rule apply to inbuilt class abilities like the Sorcerer's ability to switch out spells known or the Fighter's to trade bonus feats at certain levels?

The rule as written is "Any time you would gain an associated feat, you may instead choose to gain the sphere or talent it is associated with. You must still meet the prerequisites for a talent gained this way, such as possessing the base sphere." You don't gain anything else from the feat in question (aside from counting as having it for prerequisites) if they have different effects.

Ah, right. You know, I read that text so many times, yet still managed to not quite get it. Thanks.

Any idea on what Zeija the Odd's background includes?

I've actually been struggling with this - all the ideas I had were self-contradictory, until I came up with one this morning. So here goes:

@GM
Erm. I also just remembered that while the intent for her was to take the Paizo-published feat Noxious Bite (acid breath pre-requisite, from Pathfinder Chronicles: Dragons Revisited) when she hits 9 HD, it does have a 3.5 tag on it in Archives of Nethys. Is that alright? If not, I will probably either change Zejia's elemental affinity, or change to the Totem Guide archetype, and reflavor the background more towards the shamanistic training Makonta was in.

Regarding nerfed items: I would eventually be interested in a Ring of Inner Fortitude with the original wording, but if the "removing all negatives means positives are negated too" is part of it, that will affect spell selection (enlarge person, other size changes) and possible tactics (rage leading to fatigued, alchemical consumables with penalties). Spirits Gift might be worth picking up under the original 24 hour duration, but with the current min/level restriction you would have to choose the circumstantial bonus at the start of the day and hope you ran into a situation that called for it... Or take the minor combat enhancements for a 1/day +2 armor or +1 attack/damage, which isn't nearly as interesting as being able to breathe underwater when on a ship, be immune to fire near a volcano, etc. Finally,the 1/day crit negation (and luck bonus to AC, but mostly crit negation) of the original Jingasa makes a compelling argument for the head slot. +1 deflection and 1/ever crit negation, less so.

Lastly, I know you replied earlier that there is no re-training; does that mean that any skill ranks put into a skill that later benefits from a headband of intelligence are permanently "lost"?

Sorry for a second question elsewhere... but would I be able to use Legendary Games' Bestial Kineticist with my Animal Companion? In the same vien of above, can I have access to the Kineticist Magic Items?

Specifically, I'm looking at the Kinetic Blademaster Glove, the Crown of Focused Power the Ring of Elemental Strength, the Robe of Elemental Resistance, the Vest of Elemental Defense, the Burn Shard, the Crystal of Elemental Knowledge and the Teardrop Ioun Stone. Not all at once mind you, I don't have enough money to access that much, but having access to some now, and the rest later, would be very much appreciated.

Also, can a Soulknife pick up a Martial Tradition? I know they don't have proficiency with all martial weapons, but to quote Sphere's of Might: 'Some classes who do not gain proficiency with all martial weapons but whose class description implies a strong martial background may trade their starting proficiencies for a martial tradition with GM approval.', and I'm hoping a Soulknife, which focuses on using a blade of psionic power as their weapon, would fit.

I was the guy who made the vampire lord for a level 15 Tristalt one-shot you were in a little while ago. As I recall, it nearly ended in a TPK.

Aaaaaaaaah.

Pretty sure it did end in a TPK honestly

Gotcha i'll scrap what i have, work on something new if time permits.

@Breath of Gods, given that the Minotaurs in Karnassos are sealed there with a curse, it seemed unlikely that they'd show up at my village and kill everyone. If that would have been in the realm of possibilities I'd probably change it back.

Gosor would jump at the chance to head into Karnassos and kill some sort of monster there if it comes up (e.g. a powerful cultist of Baphomet (or perhaps a Demon, or both) who's using profane power to influence Minotaurs outside of Karnassos to do the sorts of things that were done to his village,) and he's got a personal grudge against Baphomet, but if the story didn't take us there it wouldn't be the end of the world and shouldn't limit what I can do in terms of monster hunting elsewhere in the setting. I'm mostly trying to create a character that has some built in hooks that could be used if desired.

Had to think long and hard about this but, in the end came up with an idea I liked. So I came up with

Lady Zal-Azea Qilin-Zra And ex-military intelligence officer now working freelance.
Race Elan: Alignment LE
Classes.
1:Investigator Questioner L8
2:Psion Telepath L8
3:Ninja L8

Hello again, Lady Zal. Davian sends his regards. Too bad the DM left the Mercenaries of Risal just when it was getting good. We didn't even get to any combat, folks.

Yes Waskally, and I loved Davian, he was a star. Shame I know, it was a real disappointment for us players, as the game looked to be good, and started so well. :(

Well I wanted to use her again and felt this would be a great chance for her. Also she fits so well. :)

Had to think long and hard about this but, in the end came up with an idea I liked. So I came up with

Lady Zal-Azea Qilin-Zra And ex-military intelligence officer now working freelance.
Race Elan: Alignment LE
Classes.
1:Investigator Questioner L8
2:Psion Telepath L8
3:Ninja L8

She is Lawful Evil yes, but she shes herself as a professional, she follows rules, laws, She dose not do evil for the fun of it. To her it's just Business. You want her to, Investigate, spy even kill, You sign a contract, the subject and the subject alone is the target. She works Quietly, silently and with out other damage. She has little respect for those that are sloppy or bring undue attention to themselves.

Wait, is this Tristalt?

@CampinCarl9127: I like the background for Thaddeus and Jevireth quite a bit.

Thanks! It's much shorter than what I usually write for backgrounds, but I realized I didn't know much about the setting or the current plot so I should focus more on who the characters are as opposed to where they've been and what they've done. I can definitely go into more detail if you think I should consider adding more background, but at the moment with my current frame of mind I would likely just add fluff.

I am curious as to what Jevireth would think about the rumors about Spalkis somehow surviving his apparent death at the hands of Oumarikos?

He would be very torn. On the one hand, he wants Spaklis to be wiped from existence, as both an abomination as well as a painful reminder. In addition if Spalkis is dead than that means nobody who was directly involved in that event is still around to confront/remind him about it. However more deeply he would harbor a secret desire to be able to kill the creature that was the avatar of his failure, although if that would be cathartic or ruinous for Jevireth is hard to say.

Wait, is this Tristalt?

A! upppsss

Earlier I had discounted the Bloodrider archetype because I am pretty set on the Half Orc and a Wolf Animal Companion. Since the campaign would start after 7th level (when a wolf advances to Large), could I start with a large Wolf mount as a Medium rider despite the archetype text saying "This companion must be one he is capable of riding and suitable as a mount. A Medium bloodrider can select a camel or a horse. A Small bloodrider can select a pony or wolf, but can also select a boar or riding dog if he is at least 8th level."?

Dropped Ninja.

Ok, so I have a new Character concept I'd like some thoughts on. what I'm thinking is a Librarian in the local library that came across a meteor that contained an aberrant parasite that latches onto him and starts to eat at him and warp his body with something like cancer, multiplying cells and the like. I want it to be Jeckle and hyde like, with the normal passive human male opposing the alien parasite inside him which he can barely control.

I plan to use the synthesis summoner to have the eidolon reskinned as an invasive force, and use the blood rager aberrant bloodline to further the flavor and change to his body that happens over levels. thematically, the Alien is in a half symbiotic/parasitic relationship with its host, eating the user's vitality, but also not enough to kill him, while also offering combat ability. it'll drag him into situations in search of evolution through combat while trying its best to keep him alive. while on the flip side, my character is trying to teach the virus how to function in human society, as the parasite has the mental age of a child growing into an angsty teenager.

So, you see yourself as your eidlolon's meal instead of as it's meal ticket?

Okay.... For the most part done with Ethana. Still have general work to do overall (going to add a bit more to her personality, refine backstory, choose skills and a last feat, etc.) but the core is essentially finished. I'm surprised a bit at how she turned out (I based her off of this picture primarily), but her role is undeniably support/striker, with some toolbox utility (though she's more of a self-buffer) from her wizard side.

If all goes well, I could be dealing out upwards of 7 +20 1d8+12 attacks per round if I get off all my AoOs (which I can make happen in a 55'x55' square/donut), and I can make it so that attacks made against allies provoke. Or, I could use an AoO to give myself +4 AC against an attack, redirecting it to another foe if it misses. And that's before buffing. But essentially, to get full use out of her, I need to play really, really tactically.

Very nice! I also really like your style for laying everything out... I may have to emulate that. It's very clear.

Very nice! I also really like your style for laying everything out... I may have to emulate that. It's very clear.

Go for it! Most of it’s for my sake and sanity... this was one of the most complicated and intricate builds I’ve done in... quite a while. And most of the work and fiddle bits was on the *Fighter* side, of all things. I can already tell I’ll be swift-action starved, though....

GM Panic here, and here is Lady Zal, All dressed up and ready to go.

GM if you wish to PM me about her being LE, happy to talk about how I hope to play her such. I have done it before and its worked out well Game play wise.

@hustonj

Yeah, but also a meal the Eidolon doesn't want to run out, it takes bits and peices of my health to sustain itself.

It's a Eidolon in every way except name, the aberrant blood line lets it actually start changing my body as i level up. It'll be like, the more levels i gain, the more it genetically starts to change me. Like at 4th level, my joints turn to a stretchy flesh like substance that lets me get reach by stretching my hands out, its really nice how well these two classes work for my concept.

The other idea I mentioned is also a summoner (synthesist). Is that a problem? I know some GMs view that class as problematic. For wings/flight, I assume they'll only work a minute per level until we get to 10th level?

The Hidden Blade pow archetype I mentioned earlier normally uses intelligence as it's initiating modifier. But for a ninja using charisma would make a lot more sense. Would it be ok to use charisma instead?

@Turt:
The best Jackyl/Hyde char I ever had on a table, was a Ragechemyst-Master Chemist.
You actually get the alternate character build in the master chemist class.
You could fluff your 'alien' to trigger the mutagen at will (and against yours) and taking control (= the mutagen personality).

@Sword whale

Hmmm, sounds interesting, I will definitely check that out, only chose synthesis summoner because it allowed me to make the disparity between the two entities very pronounced and obvious as one is a normal human, amd the other is a space cancer that rapidly mutates his cells to change his appearance. I'll have to check how good that archetype you mentioned would be.

@oyzar when he was mentioning the boost he gave to the animal companion, he mentioned that the Eidolon was powerful enough with out them, so I assume that ment he allows them, they just don't get any super cool stuff past what they normally get.

Synthesist is technically worse than the normal Summoner. Sure, it gives one character with great numbers, but that's not as good as having two characters with decent numbers - action economy is the most valuable resource in the game, after all. This is especially true in games with gestalt as an option, where you could pick something entirely different to do with the character's actions while the Eidolon cheerfully rips faces off. XD

Incidentally, Spheres of Power has the Symbiat, which has your mind infested with a psychic aberration. Several abilities directly reflect this state (including rolling twice on will saves), and it wouldn't be very hard to play two entities there.

I think the thing about it only being one character with great numbers is the main draw, besides the fact that at like 16th level or so, where the normal summoner get's to turn into the eidolon and have good physical stats along with mental, the synth does the same thing, except the eidolon will ALSO have amazing mental stats to go with it. So instead of having two characters with decent numbers, you have two characters with amazing numbers.

However at lower levels the stats don't matter as much i guess, cause that is a 16th level ability that doesn't appear very often in games.

also, checked it out and while the Symbiat sounds really cool, i don't think i have a good enough grasp on Sphere's of Power to pull it off. It also seem's like the Symbiat doesn't warp the body of the user at all which is the main aspect of the space cancer i'm was going for. i want my character to start questioning how much of his original body even exists anymore at later level's, when his body becomes completely unnatural.

...unless i missing something with sphere's of power, in which case i'm an idiot.

also, maybe i'll do the untouchable rager bloodrager archetype, to show how even magic itself see's it as a unnatural force in the world and has trouble affecting the cancer if not outright not working.

As a general rule in Spheres, negative effects tend to fall under Drawbacks, rather than being present in a class. To represent a body being twisted by outside magic, you might take the Draining Casting and Painful Casting drawbacks, and maybe Magical Signs just for the spooky factor. The more you draw on the space cancer, the more it consumes your body...

those would be on the same website the Symbiat is right?

Yup. Specifically, here on this page.

Spheres does not normally have drawbacks or components for casting. However, you can optionally add them to a character (and get more spell points or magic talents for doing so) to better customize and reflect the style you want to have. ^^ The system is nothing if not flexible.

Another thing, sorry: can I pick Ability Focus: Channel Energy? Yes, I'm planning on stacking it with Improved Channel, I understand this might not be of your taste.

GM, any other thoughts on the pegasus as a paladin mount, or was that more of a "we can figure that out once the game starts" idea? I am leaning towards a Spheres Paladin combined with a Fey Adept(Unseelie).

Also, for the purpose of Dimensional Agility, would you consider having the Warp sphere with the Distant Teleport and Group Teleport talents qualifies as being able to cast Dimension Door? Unless the Warp sphere is good enough?

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Distant Teleport: When you spend a spell point to increase the range of your teleport, the range increases to Long instead of Medium.

Group Teleport: You may spend a spell point to teleport multiple creatures, up to 1 additional target per 2 caster levels (minimum: 1). You may choose whether or not to include yourself in the group to be teleported. Each creature must be touching you or someone else in the affected group to be teleported, unless you possess the Ranged Teleport talent. If you possess the Unwilling Teleport talent, you only need to spend one spell point no matter how many unwilling targets are affected. If one unwilling target makes their saving throw, other creatures are still affected as normal.

Like her sister, her power yet lingers in her divine weapon, a sword made of solidified water that is reputed to be carried by a mysterious wanderer.

Is this from the book, or something that you threw in?

Oh this is great
I have a few ideas, I’m just gonna research spheres a bit to see if it would help one of the three concepts I have considered

Okay, I think I'm basically done now. I've added gear, assigned skills (at least for now- may change), took my last feat (went with getting a Familiar via Extra Arcana- moved my Arcane Bond to being an item), bought gear, added sections on personality, appearance, and in-world explanations for her abilities.

Also reshuffled my Talents a bit to get Sparrow's Path- that in turn opens up a spell slot where I don't need to prepare Fly and is generally useful.

Lastly, I created a full google doc (linked to in bio) that has the full text of basically all my abilities. Because there are a lot, and it's nice to have them all in one place (that said, it's not the most organized, but it's something.)

EDIT: And while I'm at it, I made a spreadsheet for all the applicants. Is it obvious I'm procrastinating a paper?

EDIT: And while I'm at it, I made a spreadsheet for all the applicants. Is it obvious I'm procrastinating a paper?

I love how my role is "DRAGON". Fantastic.

Nice work! I hope you don't mind I made my role a little more detailed :3

Dαedαlus wrote:

EDIT: And while I'm at it, I made a spreadsheet for all the applicants. Is it obvious I'm procrastinating a paper?

I love how my role is "DRAGON". Fantastic.

Nice work! I hope you don't mind I made my role a little more detailed :3

Not at all! I tried to get everyone that's submitted a character, but I know I probably missed at least one, missed details from another, and the role column is just where I put my little jokes and do my best to summarize an entire character in a sentence or less, after looking over them for maybe a minute or two. Needless to say, it's probably best if everyone looked over what I have down for them just to make sure it's accurate/input their submissions as they're completed.

`

It's really interesting looking over what's been submitted so far. We're incredibly martial-heavy, with almost everyone having a full-BAB class as half their gestalt, only two going for a full caster (other than Spherecasters). But at the same time, there's only a single submission with no casting ability at all (Shifter (paizo)//Barbarian). There's also a heavy emphasis on front-line heavy hitters, with three paladins in the pool already.

It's just interesting what the build rules lend themselves towards. High point-buy helps martials way more than casters, as Martials need a good mix of stats to stay powerful, whereas Casters can just pump a single stat sky-high and be fine. Then, with the feat taxes and absurd number of level-up feats, that too helps more niche builds that require a lot of feats to implement. That's further aided by the third-party materials that also work to make Martials relevant. It's basically the result of a decade of people trying to make Fighters good, all stacked on top of each other and creating some really impressive results.

Yyyyyyup. XD In my case, Nerita doesn't have a full-BAB class, but she does get a bunch of attacks and some extra stat bonuses if she gets big, so it more-or-less evens out on that front. It's not obvious at first glance, but she's a solid front-liner. XD And the same thing powering her offense can let her get almost anywhere else she wants to go. Add on a little utility, and poof! Keeps up in combat without being useless outside of it. After all, not every challenge a hero faces involves fighting...

Indeed, the rules do help make martial classes more interesting. Not to mention that a high-point-buy gestalt full-caster so often ends up feeling... pretty much the same as a moderate-point-buy single-class full-caster. XD

(Also thanks for putting that spreadsheet together, I'd been thinking of going back and doing that myself because I was curious. Lots of stiff competition here...)

Menophotine's in a similar boat there. Not full-BAB classes, but her two main classes took more martially-focused archetypes so it starts to catch up through abilities and debuffs (that consequently help the rest of the party more too). Where it really hurts her is hit points. But she has a ton of utility outside of combat too. I wanted to assemble a versatile toolbox, and gestalt made that really easy to do.

It's a good spreadsheet, thanks for putting it together!

Aside from the rules making martial classes easy, the archetypal Greek heroes were primarily martial characters, so I think it makes sense that a lot of people are gravitating towards that. Even if you look at Lord of the Rings, an attempt at bringing that deep mythology to England, even the "Wizard" and the "Rogues" show off quite a bit of martial prowess throughout the story.

I never like playing a full-caster myself except a druid, and that's because of their ability to transform into an animal and go to town in combat!

But yeah, a lot of good materials here, and my character is going to be quite martial happy as well! If everything I want is accepted tho... I'm really gonna push what this game lets me do.

I think I've finally settled on what I'll play (though I'm still a bit conflicted)... Summoner (Synthesist) 8 // Wizard 3 / Unchained Monk (Scaled Fist) 1 / Stalker (Vigilante, from PoW) 1 / Arcane Trickster 3.

That's just mechanics though, flavor-wise she has chosen to carry on the soul of her departed Pegasus companion, transforming into something peasus-centaur once melded.

I want to take a Martial Tradition from Spheres of Might. Is it ok to pick Milita Training but to replace the Beastmastery sphere with Gladiator Sphere? Ideally I would replace pheasant training with either a glatiator talent or a scout talent, but that's probably too much to ask (since the guidlines state that you should have at least 2 equipment talents for a custom tradition).

I'm also wondering if I'm allowed to pick a Path of War martial tradition. I would go with Lords of the Wheel if that's allowed.

Are we using fractional bab/saves?

I actually found a really fun combination of abilities. Between having full sorcerer progression and taking a particular dragonrider feat, my dragon can essentially cast my spells through him, which is a really cool way to manifest the dragon and rider being dependent on each other.

It's made even more cool by the fact I picked up the dragon breath spell, which is going to be awesome coming out of an actual dragon.

EDIT: And while I'm at it, I made a spreadsheet for all the applicants. Is it obvious I'm procrastinating a paper?

I think of Aleks mostly as a sort of pseudo-rogue, even though he's a gestalt of two martials. His Stealth, in particular, is the highest I've ever built (impressive since I wasn't initially trying to optimize it). +41 after all items and psionic powers are taken into account. Good Disable Device too, though I don't have a Rogue's specialized trap features. Also, he has the See In Darkness ability (though attendant Light Blindness, which I hope to mitigate at least partially with my Control Light power).

I actually just took Craft (Alchemy) to take advantage of the Aegis's Craftsman and Master Craftsman class features. I needed a Craft skill and Alchemy seemed like it might come in handy.

Craftsman:

Beginning at 2nd level, an aegis gains a +1 bonus to any one Craft skill of his choice. At 6th level and every four levels thereafter, this bonus increases by 1.

Master Craftsman:
At 5th level, an aegis gains the Master Craftsman feat as a bonus feat. He must still meet the prerequisites of the feat in order to gain its benefits. (5 ranks in a Craft skill are the prereq).