Sanctified Blade
It is with a warcry that could drown out a choir of angels that the sanctified blade strikes down her gods-forsaken enemies, relieving the world of the troubles for which they are responsible. Relinquishing many of the aspects of the traditional holy knight, these blessed warriors instead make use of fighting techniques that make them a force beyond reckoning.
The sanctified blade is an archetype of the holy knight class.
Class Skills: The sanctified blade gains Bluff (Cha), Perception (Wis), and Perform (dance) (Cha) as class skills, and gains 4 + Int modifier skill points per level.
This modifies the holy knight’s class skills and skill points gained.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Sanctified blades are proficient with all simple weapons, martial weapons, and knight swords, and with all armor (light, medium, and heavy) and shields (except tower shields).
This changes the holy knight’s weapon and armor proficiencies.
Limit Break (Su): At 1st level, the sanctified blade receives a Limit Break (Sublime Radiance.)
Sublime Radiance (Su): This Limit Break manifests as a whirling aura of feathers made of white light that twirl through the air. For 1 round + 1 round per four class levels, the sanctified blade gets a number of free attacks of opportunity per round against any evil creature that comes within a radius of 30 ft. of her (she need not actually be able to reach them, the attack is made and does damage as normal as though they were within her reach) equal to her Charisma modifier. As well, if any of her allies within 15 ft. have hostile actions taken towards them by an evil creature, she also gets a free attack of opportunity against the aggressor, regardless of distance. If the aggressor is within 15 ft. of her, she may use a readied swordskill instead as a free action; the swordskill is still expended as normal. Using a swordskill in this manner ends the Limit Break immediately after the attack is resolved. This Limit Break requires only a swift action to activate.
This limit break replaces the Brightest Day limit break.
Swordplay (Su): Though sword saints may claim to be the first to have mastered such abilities, weaponizing the spirit inside themselves and their swords is no longer a jealously-kept secret. A sanctified blade takes part in the utilization of swordskills, learning swordskills and readying them as indicated on the table below:
![[Image: oGzBXIK.png?1]](https://i.imgur.com/oGzBXIK.png?1)
The sword is a material focus for all swordskills, though it doesn’t need to be crafted by the sanctified blade. The sanctified blade can use any swordskill she knows at will, provided she is wielding a sword. As long as she is wielding a sword she forged herself, increase the DCs of all her swordskills by 1.
The three forms of swordskills, in order of their relative power, are basic, advance, and master. A sanctified blade begins with knowledge of two swordskills, which must be of the basic form. As a sanctified blade gains levels, she can learn new swordskills. At 6th level, a sanctified blade can learn advance forms, and at 12th level, she can learn master forms.
A sanctified blade’s swordskills are supernatural abilities; using a swordskill is a standard action that does not provoke an attack of opportunity. If a target makes a successful Reflex save against a swordskill, they only take half damage from the swordskill, and all of the swordskill’s other effects are negated. The save DC for a basic form is 10 + ½ the sanctified blade’s level + her Charisma modifier, the save DC for an advanced form is 12 + ½ the sanctified blade’s level + her Charisma modifier, and the save DC for a master form is 14 + ½ the sanctified blade’s level + her Charisma modifier.
A sanctified blade can ready her starting swordskills, but as she advances in level and learns more swordskills, she must choose which swordskills to ready. She readies her swordskills by uttering holy mantras while practicing her fighting techniques for 10 minutes. Sanctified blades do not need to sleep or rest for any long period of time to ready their swordskills; anytime she spends 10 minutes praying and practicing, she can change her readied swordskills. She may not ready any individual swordskill more than once. She begins an encounter with all readied swordskills unexpended, regardless of how many times she may have already used them since she chose them. When a sanctified blade initiates a swordskill, she expends it for the current encounter, so each of her readied swordskills can be used once per encounter (until they are recovered, see below).
For a sanctified blade to recover swordskills, she must perform one of two types of actions: she must spend a full-round action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity to flourish her weapon and make a declaration of her enforcing the cause of justice, or use lay on hands to heal herself or an ally (she must restore some amount of hit points); using lay on hands in this way only heals with half effectiveness when used on herself. Doing either of these recovers a number of expended swordskills of her choice equal to her Charisma modifier (minimum of 2). Using the second method does not let her recover any swordskill she has used that round. Alternately, she may use a standard action to recover one swordskill she chooses.
This replaces smite evil, spellcasting, and holy sword techs.
Bonus Feats: At 1st, 6th, 10th, 14th, and 18th level, a sanctified blade may select any combat feat for which she qualifies as a bonus feat. Alternatively, at the aforementioned levels, she may take Extra Lay On Hands as a bonus feat. She treats her sanctified blade level - 3 as her effective fighter level when meeting prerequisites for feats.
This replaces nimbus of light.
Stamina Pool (Ex): At 1st level, a sanctified blade gains a reservoir of stamina that she can draw upon to fuel her talents that she gains below. This stamina pool has a number of points equal to 5 x her Constitution modifier and this pool increases by 5 + her Constitution modifier per level. The pool refreshes once per day when the sanctified blade rests for a full 8 hours. Sustained modes take up a static amount of stamina points from the sanctified blade’s current and maximum stamina pool and most sustained modes stack. If she already has a stamina pool from another class, she only increases her pool by 5 + her Constitution modifier per level instead.
By spending 5 stamina points, the sanctified blade can do one of the following:
This replaces shared defense.
Sanctified Blade Talents (Su): As a sanctified blade gains experience, she learns a number of talents that aid her and her allies. Starting at 1st level, a sanctified blade gains one sanctified blade talent from any talent tree. She gains an additional sanctified blade talent for every 2 levels of sanctified blade attained after 1st level. A sanctified blade cannot select an individual talent more than once. These are considered sword saint talents when determining the prerequisites and effects of the Extra Sword Saint Talent feat, following all rules thusly.
This replaces all blessings, holy shield, shining light, and aura of justice.
Holy Vanquishing Blade (Su): At 20th level, a sanctified blade has reached the peak of her fighting capability. She gains a master form swordskill called Holy Vanquishing Blade; this does not count towards her total swordskills known. She deals damage equal to a melee attack with the focus sword + twice her Charisma modifier + 8d6 holy damage to a single creature within 20 feet, and any evil-aligned creatures targeted are paralyzed for 1d4 rounds, ignoring any immunities to paralyzation.
This replaces holy champion.
It is with a warcry that could drown out a choir of angels that the sanctified blade strikes down her gods-forsaken enemies, relieving the world of the troubles for which they are responsible. Relinquishing many of the aspects of the traditional holy knight, these blessed warriors instead make use of fighting techniques that make them a force beyond reckoning.
The sanctified blade is an archetype of the holy knight class.
Class Skills: The sanctified blade gains Bluff (Cha), Perception (Wis), and Perform (dance) (Cha) as class skills, and gains 4 + Int modifier skill points per level.
This modifies the holy knight’s class skills and skill points gained.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Sanctified blades are proficient with all simple weapons, martial weapons, and knight swords, and with all armor (light, medium, and heavy) and shields (except tower shields).
This changes the holy knight’s weapon and armor proficiencies.
Limit Break (Su): At 1st level, the sanctified blade receives a Limit Break (Sublime Radiance.)
Sublime Radiance (Su): This Limit Break manifests as a whirling aura of feathers made of white light that twirl through the air. For 1 round + 1 round per four class levels, the sanctified blade gets a number of free attacks of opportunity per round against any evil creature that comes within a radius of 30 ft. of her (she need not actually be able to reach them, the attack is made and does damage as normal as though they were within her reach) equal to her Charisma modifier. As well, if any of her allies within 15 ft. have hostile actions taken towards them by an evil creature, she also gets a free attack of opportunity against the aggressor, regardless of distance. If the aggressor is within 15 ft. of her, she may use a readied swordskill instead as a free action; the swordskill is still expended as normal. Using a swordskill in this manner ends the Limit Break immediately after the attack is resolved. This Limit Break requires only a swift action to activate.
This limit break replaces the Brightest Day limit break.
Swordplay (Su): Though sword saints may claim to be the first to have mastered such abilities, weaponizing the spirit inside themselves and their swords is no longer a jealously-kept secret. A sanctified blade takes part in the utilization of swordskills, learning swordskills and readying them as indicated on the table below:
The sword is a material focus for all swordskills, though it doesn’t need to be crafted by the sanctified blade. The sanctified blade can use any swordskill she knows at will, provided she is wielding a sword. As long as she is wielding a sword she forged herself, increase the DCs of all her swordskills by 1.
The three forms of swordskills, in order of their relative power, are basic, advance, and master. A sanctified blade begins with knowledge of two swordskills, which must be of the basic form. As a sanctified blade gains levels, she can learn new swordskills. At 6th level, a sanctified blade can learn advance forms, and at 12th level, she can learn master forms.
A sanctified blade’s swordskills are supernatural abilities; using a swordskill is a standard action that does not provoke an attack of opportunity. If a target makes a successful Reflex save against a swordskill, they only take half damage from the swordskill, and all of the swordskill’s other effects are negated. The save DC for a basic form is 10 + ½ the sanctified blade’s level + her Charisma modifier, the save DC for an advanced form is 12 + ½ the sanctified blade’s level + her Charisma modifier, and the save DC for a master form is 14 + ½ the sanctified blade’s level + her Charisma modifier.
A sanctified blade can ready her starting swordskills, but as she advances in level and learns more swordskills, she must choose which swordskills to ready. She readies her swordskills by uttering holy mantras while practicing her fighting techniques for 10 minutes. Sanctified blades do not need to sleep or rest for any long period of time to ready their swordskills; anytime she spends 10 minutes praying and practicing, she can change her readied swordskills. She may not ready any individual swordskill more than once. She begins an encounter with all readied swordskills unexpended, regardless of how many times she may have already used them since she chose them. When a sanctified blade initiates a swordskill, she expends it for the current encounter, so each of her readied swordskills can be used once per encounter (until they are recovered, see below).
For a sanctified blade to recover swordskills, she must perform one of two types of actions: she must spend a full-round action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity to flourish her weapon and make a declaration of her enforcing the cause of justice, or use lay on hands to heal herself or an ally (she must restore some amount of hit points); using lay on hands in this way only heals with half effectiveness when used on herself. Doing either of these recovers a number of expended swordskills of her choice equal to her Charisma modifier (minimum of 2). Using the second method does not let her recover any swordskill she has used that round. Alternately, she may use a standard action to recover one swordskill she chooses.
This replaces smite evil, spellcasting, and holy sword techs.
Bonus Feats: At 1st, 6th, 10th, 14th, and 18th level, a sanctified blade may select any combat feat for which she qualifies as a bonus feat. Alternatively, at the aforementioned levels, she may take Extra Lay On Hands as a bonus feat. She treats her sanctified blade level - 3 as her effective fighter level when meeting prerequisites for feats.
This replaces nimbus of light.
Stamina Pool (Ex): At 1st level, a sanctified blade gains a reservoir of stamina that she can draw upon to fuel her talents that she gains below. This stamina pool has a number of points equal to 5 x her Constitution modifier and this pool increases by 5 + her Constitution modifier per level. The pool refreshes once per day when the sanctified blade rests for a full 8 hours. Sustained modes take up a static amount of stamina points from the sanctified blade’s current and maximum stamina pool and most sustained modes stack. If she already has a stamina pool from another class, she only increases her pool by 5 + her Constitution modifier per level instead.
By spending 5 stamina points, the sanctified blade can do one of the following:
- Increase her speed by 10 feet for 1 round
- Delay and suppress her fatigue or exhaustion for 1 round
- Increase one saving throw by +1 for 1 round
This replaces shared defense.
Sanctified Blade Talents (Su): As a sanctified blade gains experience, she learns a number of talents that aid her and her allies. Starting at 1st level, a sanctified blade gains one sanctified blade talent from any talent tree. She gains an additional sanctified blade talent for every 2 levels of sanctified blade attained after 1st level. A sanctified blade cannot select an individual talent more than once. These are considered sword saint talents when determining the prerequisites and effects of the Extra Sword Saint Talent feat, following all rules thusly.
This replaces all blessings, holy shield, shining light, and aura of justice.
Holy Vanquishing Blade (Su): At 20th level, a sanctified blade has reached the peak of her fighting capability. She gains a master form swordskill called Holy Vanquishing Blade; this does not count towards her total swordskills known. She deals damage equal to a melee attack with the focus sword + twice her Charisma modifier + 8d6 holy damage to a single creature within 20 feet, and any evil-aligned creatures targeted are paralyzed for 1d4 rounds, ignoring any immunities to paralyzation.
This replaces holy champion.