Knight Disciple

You gain 2 additional skill points per level and add Arms Lore to your list of class skills. In addition, you may gain additional class skills based on which martial disciplines you can use.

As a knight disciple, you gain access to one martial tradition of your choice. This gives you access to a number of martial disciplines.

Maneuvers

You begin play with knowledge of 3 martial maneuvers chosen from the martial disciplines offered by your chosen tradition. Once you know a maneuver, you must ready it before you can use it (see Maneuvers Readied below).

You learn additional maneuvers at higher levels, as indicated on Table: The Knight Disciple. You must meet a maneuver’s prerequisites, if any, to learn it.

Upon reaching initiator level 4th, and at every even numbered initiator level thereafter (6th, 8th, 10th, and so on), you can choose to learn a new maneuver in place of one you already know. In effect, you lose the old maneuver in exchange for the new one. You can choose a new maneuver of any level you like, as long as you observe the restriction on the highest-level maneuvers you know; you need not replace the old maneuver with a maneuver of the same level. You can swap only a single maneuver at any given level.

Your initiator level is equal to your class level, and your initiation modifier is Charisma.

Maneuvers Readied

At 1st level, you can ready three of your maneuvers known by meditating for ten minutes. The maneuvers you choose remain readied until you decide to meditate again and change them. You need not rest to ready maneuvers; any time you can meditate, you can change your readied maneuvers. You must always ready your maximum number of maneuvers readied.

You begin each encounter with all your readied maneuvers unexpended and available, regardless of how many times you might have already used them since you chose them. When you initiate a maneuver, you expend it for the current encounter, so each of your readied maneuvers can be used once per encounter, unless you recover it, as described below.

As you advance in level and learn more maneuvers, you are able to ready more but must still choose which maneuvers to ready.

Recovering Maneuvers

In order for you to recover maneuvers, you must project your power as a full-round action, protecting your allies from harm. When you do, you recover a number of expended maneuvers equal to your initiation modifier (minimum 2), and each ally within 30 feet gains a sacred bonus to AC and saving throws equal to your initiation modifier until the start of your next turn.

Alternately, you may utter a short prayer and recover a single maneuver as a standard action.

Stances

You begin your career with knowledge of one stance from any discipline offered by your martial tradition. At 5th, 9th, 13th, and 17th levels, you can select an additional stance to learn.

Unlike maneuvers, stances are not expended, and you do not have to ready them. All the stances you know are available to you at all times, and you can change the stance you are currently maintaining as a swift action. A stance is an extraordinary ability unless otherwise stated in the stance or discipline description.

Unlike with maneuvers, you cannot learn a new stance at higher levels in place of one you already know.

By spending a point of zeal as a standard action, you may place a mark of censure on an enemy, protecting your allies from the harm they cause. This effect lasts until the end of the encounter or that creature dies or otherwise leaves the encounter. While the censure is in effect, allies (other than yourself) gain DR/– against attacks made by that creature equal to your initiator modifier. (For the purposes of stacking damage reduction, this is a bonus from an esoteric effect.)

At 1st level, a knight disciple begins to express her divine power through her initiating and with effects similar to the spells of other paladins. She selects one of the following abilities to learn at 1st level, and gains another ability at 4th level and every three levels thereafter.

• Detect Alignment (Su): You gain the ability to use detect chaos, detect evil, detect good, or detect law as a spell-like ability at-will, with a caster level equal to your class level. You can select this ability up to four times, gaining a different spell-like ability each time.
• Detect Undead (Su): You can use detect undead as a spell-like ability at-will.
• Divine Interception (Su): Once per encounter, you can move up to your speed as an immediate action, provided you end your movement in a square adjacent to another ally.
• Fiendbane (Su): You can expend one point of zeal as a swift action to enchant your weapon with holy light that banishes evil outsiders. The next time you hit with that weapon, if the target is an outsider with the evil and extraplanar subtypes, that creature must succeed at a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 your class level + your initiator modifier) or be banished back to its home plane. You can keep a weapon charged with this ability indefinitely, although you may only have one such weapon charged at any one time. (Alternatively, you may choose to target outsiders with the good, lawful, or chaotic subtype instead of evil. This decision must be made when you select this ability and cannot be changed.)
• Ghost Hunter (Su): Your weapons and armor gain the effects of the ghost touch weapon special ability in addition to their other properties for as long as you wield or wear them.
• Improved Guardian’s Shield (Su): Allies under the effects of your guardian’s shield ability also gain the benefits of a protection from alignment spell for the duration of the shield. You must be at least 4th-level to select this ability.
• Righteous Sanctuary (Su): Once per encounter as an immediate action, you can allow a willing ally to move up to their speed. This movement does not provoke attacks of opportunity, and the ally must end their movement adjacent to you. If the ally would not be able to reach you, they cannot be allowed to move with this ability.
• Truthseeker (Su): You can use discern lies as a spell-like ability with a caster level equal to your initiator level. You can use this ability for a number of rounds per day equal to your class level, although these rounds need not be consecutive. You must be at least 7th-level to select this ability.

At 1st level, you learn to surround your allies in a field of protective energy. Whenever you initiate a strike, you can expend a point of zeal as a swift action to apply a guardian’s shield to one ally (other than yourself) within 60 feet. This shield lasts for a number of rounds equal to your initiator modifier.

A guardian’s shield grants the affected ally a number of temporary hit points equal to twice your initiator level. These temporary hit points do not stack with other temporary hit points and vanish when the shield’s duration expires.

This ability counts as the lay on hands class feature for the purposes of the Extra Healing Potency feat, adding to your initiator level rather than your class level.

Your guardian’s shield becomes potent enough to protect allies from debilitating effects. At 3rd level, and every three levels thereafter, you can select one mercy effect from the list below. Each mercy adds an effect to your guardian’s shield ability. You apply the effects of each one of these abilities you know to your guardian’s shield, and the benefits stack.

Whenever an ally under the effects of her guardian’s shield would gain a condition you have selected, that condition is negated and the duration of the guardian’s shield affecting them is reduced by one round. The shield can prevent effects from being applied but have no effects

This ability can remove a condition caused by a curse, disease, or poison without curing the affliction. Such conditions return after 1 hour unless the the affliction that causes the condition is actually removed.

Merciful Shield (3rd-Level Paladin)

• Fatigued: The shield prevents exhaustion levels from increasing.
• Shaken: The shield prevents fear levels from increasing.
• Sickened: The cannot be sickened.

Merciful Shield (6th-Level Paladin)

• Dazed: The target cannot be dazed.
• Diseased: When affected by a disease, your shield makes a check to prevent the disease (1d20 + your paladin level vs the DC of the disease). If successful, the disease is prevented. The duration of the shield is reduced whether or not the check succeeds.
• Staggered: The target cannot be staggered, unless the target is at exactly 0 hit points.

Merciful Shield (9th-Level Paladin)

• Cursed: When affected by a curse, your shield makes a check to prevent the curse (1d20 + your paladin level vs the DC of the curse). If successful, the curse is prevented. The duration of the shield is reduced whether or not the check succeeds.
• Nauseated: The target cannot be nauseated. You must have the Sickened mercy before selecting this mercy.
• Poisoned: When affected by a poison, your shield makes a check to prevent the poison (1d20 + your paladin level vs the DC of the poison). If successful, the poison is prevented. The duration of the shield is reduced whether or not the check succeeds.

Merciful Shield (12th-Level Paladin)

• Blinded: The target cannot be blinded.
• Deafened: The target cannot be deafened.
• Paralyzed: The target cannot ber paralyzed.
• Stunned: The target cannot be stunned.

At 5th level, your healing techniques become more potent. Any martial technique you initiate that heals hit point damage (to yourself or others) heals an additional 50% points of damage (rounded down).

At 13th level, your protective nature allows you to use your counters for the benefit of your allies instead of just yourself. Whenever you initiate a counter, you can choose to have that counter affect an ally within 10 feet instead of yourself. When determining if the counter can be initiated (for example, if the counter is initiated in response to an attack), you treat that ally as if they were yourself. The counter still uses your modifiers to determine its success or failure, and you still make any rolls or checks for the counter.

At 20th level, you becomes a paragon of divine martial justice. Your damage reduction from Aura of the Zealous increases to 20.

Whenever a creature under the effect of your censure deals damage to one of your allies (not including yourself), that creature takes 1/2 the damage it dealt. This damage is the same type as the damage that was dealt to your ally.

In addition, you gain zeal points each day based on your total paladin level rather than only half.