Link didn't work for me, but I think I found it by going to the base site and searching for "steam".
I'm confused. Do you want the armor to act like a power-suit, or do you want to ride it like a mount ?
In the first case, reskin a synthesist summoner. You want your guy to be more martial, so replace his spellcasting with something else or limit it to the sorts of spells one would need for magical crafting. Steal liberally from the rules for animated objects and golum creation. Instead of the spell that heals eidolons, use a craft skill to make repairs ala the "Heal" SKILL (not spell)
There is a set of 3rd party products by Supergenius games where they outline their versions of 'archetypes'. They are not like paizo archetypes in that each class has a set of abilities they can trade out for any of them. Specifically of note for this task is the Super Genius Guide to Martial Archetypes.
Step 1 Start with the synthesist summoner bi pedal eidolon as the base stats for your steam power suit. Give in construct traits.
Step 2 trade out the summoners spells (the augmenter package from super genius games martial archetypes) for one of the Martial Archetypes.
Step 3 Change the summon monster SLA to an ability that restores hit points to the steam power suit.
Step 4 Figure out what evolutions are appropriate and which are not and pair down the list.
Step 5 Cut out the teleportation like 'Makers Jump' from the synthesist since this isnt a summoning anymore.
Step 6 Decide if you want to keep things like life link that magically connect you to your eidolon. And either reskin them or remove them.
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Personally, if I were the GM, I'd just convert power armour or something from d20 Future and adjust any mechanics to better fit the flavour. No class or archetype, just equipment.
If the player really wanted something more than I might look at the mecha rules and see how those could be modified, but it would all still be equipment.
I think you would start with a mixture of awesome, and then add in more awesome. Then, you would have steam-powered armor!
You know, I just had a slightly better idea then the synthesist. Use the rules from the super genius class The Dragon Rider as your base for this character/class.
Specifically, look at the rules for Focus. Basically with the dragon rider if you take the more powerful dragons, you have to spend actions to let the dragon take a complete turn. Eventually as you level up this requires less and less action. That I think would be very much in line with a character piloting a steam suit, getting better and better at it as he levels up. You could use the base statistics of the dragons, and retheme them as steam powered armor.
In addition you could again use the martial archetypes to replace the dragon riders spells with something more suitable.
I'm not sure if this would work, but would your DM let you take Craft Construct if you took the Master Craftsman feat? Then, if you have "Ultimate Magic" and can use the golem modifications there, you could make a golem into a suit of armour. Depending on how comfortable your table is with various templates and conversions from 3.0/3.5 D&D, you might be able to find something that does what you're looking for. I've thought about trying something like this with the "runic guardian," if that's what it was called, in the old Monster Manual 2.
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Thanks guys.. To be a little more clear. I want it to be power armor. The concept may have confused things. The concpet is like a cavalier, or knight, but instead of riding on a mount, the power armor takes the place of the mount.
My first thought was to multi-class, Cavalier and summoner... but I kind of wanted the armor to play a bigger role... And I did not want spell casting.
I was going to build something like the eidolon progression but very weakened, and ask the DM if I could replace the mount feature and possibly some other class abilities in exchange...
My previous comment, especially when coupled with this one probably shows that I'm probably not the right person to help with this, but I - again, if I were GM - might be convinced to allow a variant on the Armour Master fighter archetype.
The main trouble I'd have with equipment having an eidolon-like progression is that there just really aren't that many options available for a suit of armour to gain without getting ridiculous. Especially if we want to keep it vaguely reasonable for a technological steam-powered suit.
A Str bonus, defensive bonuses almost identical to what the Armour Master grants, perhaps energy resistance, and maybe an integrated weapon (mechanically identical to a katar, short sword, maybe a klar, or coat pistol) is about it. Sure the list sounds long, but not in comparison to the list of abilities available to eidolons - even just using the book they were introduced in and nothing else.
In short, I don't see any reason to do anything beyond restat d20 Modern power armour like I mentioned above, rename the Armour Master to something like Steam Knight, and allow the character to integrate one built-in weapon to the suit - probably with a Craft check. The biggest reason is that this plus armour enchantments (for energy resistance, mentioned above) allows for the concept and without having to come up with all sorts of unwieldy rules for a potentially unbalanced class (either over- or underpowered).
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Okay, so here's my attempt at stating up a basic suit of steampunk powered armour:
+9 armour bonus, +0 max Dex, -6 check penalty, 40% spell failure, heavy, 100 lbs.
When worn, the armour is trated as only weighing 50 lbs., and armour check penalties are not Climb checks, and reduced to -3 on Acrobatics checks when jumping. Additionally, the armour grants its wearer a +2 (maybe +4, or upgradeable to +4) bonus to Strength. Masterwork suits provide their wearer with a 25% chance to negate critical hits and sneak attack damage (possibly normal suits, but for balance reasons I'd suggest against it - it could be justified in that the critical hit/sneak attack is actually finding a weak spot in the armour and damages its inner workings in a way that causes the wearer to take damage). A suit costs 6000 gp (slightly less than the combined price of full plate, belt of giant strength +2, and the light fortification enchantment which this is roughly equivalent to).
I would probably also so that those who aren't proficient in the armour are completely unable to use it, unlike most suits of armour. I would also need some convincing as to why it shouldn't have its own proficiency feat.
To each their own, but I just don't see the class idea as particularly believable. Not unless you require the player to carry around spare parts and a hefty tool kit just to be able to level up.
You mean like an alchemist?
Hm. You could massively refluff an armored hulk barbarian so that your rage is an effect of your armor running hot, and then the fatigue is you letting it cool down, so you're less effective. A lot of the rage powers do what you want mechanically, so after that it's just a matter of how you want to describe them.
Barbarian with Armored Hulk and Totem Warrior archetypes
Beast Totem: While raging you gain a +1 natural armor bonus that increases by +1 for every four barbarian levels.
Beast Totem, Lesser: Gain two claw attacks while raging (you could do slam attacks too if your GM allows, not a big change)
Dragon Totem Wings: Gain a fly speed while raging. Steam jets that propel you into the air!
Elemental Rage (fire): Your attacks while raging release gouts of steam that burn your attackers!
Energy Resistance/Absorption/Eruption: Your suit can absorb energy, then shoot it at your enemies as an attack!
Fiend Totem, Greater: Enemies adjacent to you take damage and are shaken - you release a gout of steam that burns nearby foes!
Guarded Life: Your armor keeps you alive!
Yeah, this would work really well for what you want mechanically, you'd just have to have a flexible GM who was willing to accept your refluffing of the armored hulk barbarian as a STEAMPUNK JUGGERNAUT!
The World of Warcraft RPG Books had a ruleset for steam armor. (Book: More Might & Magic).
Don't know if you can get them anywhere for free, but they might be, what you're looking for. They try to balance the strength via misfunction mechanics, I doubt it's balanced (in general the WoW RPG rules are not that good) but they might have some neat ideas.
Although unfinished this Base Class might help: The Armiger. It's intended to be a power armor wearing class using Numerian/alien technology, but it might be helpful for your steam-powered armor.
Also check The Machinesmith and the The Cutting Edge Machinesmith - the latter details the creation of a "Mobius suit" which may also be useful..