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Cover (alternate Holy Knight ability)
#1
So, a couple of friends of mine have been concerned about Divine Sacrifice encroaching too much on Dark Knight territory, and so I've had a go at thinking up a replacement ability that's still powerful, but also more befitting of a Holy Knight, seeing as Knights and Paladins throughout the history of Final Fantasy have gotten this ability, or something similar.

Cover (Su): At 5th level, a holy knight can ready herself to absorb blows for her comrades and prevent harm. Whenever an ally within a 30 ft. radius of the holy knight is being targeted by a single-target hostile effect that causes some kind of damage (whether to hit points, to ability scores, etcetera), she can occupy the space of her ally as an immediate action, who is moved to an adjacent square, and the holy knight instead is affected. This movement does not provoke attacks of opportunity. A number of times that round equal to her Charisma modifier, the holy knight may intercept any attack made against her now adjacent ally until the beginning of her next turn, then she may roll 2d4+2, and reduce the damage dealt by the effect by that number before applying any weaknesses or resistances; this functions against both physical damage and energy damage, i.e. it would reduce the damage dealt by a blow from a sword just as well as it would from a ball of fire, but does not apply to ability damage, ability drain, or energy drain. This ability also functions against any effects that may otherwise claim to ignore or reduce damage reduction or energy resistance. The holy knight makes any saving throws involved, if applicable. She may use this ability 3 + Charisma modifier times per day.

At 10th level, and every five levels thereafter, the range of this ability increases by 10 feet. At 8th level, and every three levels thereafter, the damage mitigated by this ability increases by 1d4+1. At 12th level, the holy knight may make a Will save (DC equal to the enemy's attack bonus if an attack was made, or the DC of the ability if no attack was made; if the effect normally has no DC, treat spells as though they required a saving throw of the appropriate level, other abilities that have no saving throw are treated as having a DC of 10 + 1/2 the enemy's HD or level + the enemy's Charisma modifier). If successful, the effect is negated entirely.
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#2
I like the ability, i think the damage reduction should be shifted a little along the lines of 2d4+2 to start out gaining 1d4+1 to make the damage reduction a little more consistent which i feel is a little more important at early levels for what this is aiming to do.
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#3
That's fair, I suppose. There are a couple other edits I should have a go at as well, I think, like the number of times per day it can be used, if only for consistency's sake (3 + Cha mod per day, like the Dark Knight and Soul Eater). It also would open up room for Extra Cover as a feat to give more uses of it, and make your Holy Knight even more of a tank than a DPS kind of character.
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#4
About the expending an AOO to make the rolls against attacks, I would assume most people aiming to be a tank style Holy Knight will be using heavy armors with the most likely being full plate of which these will have a pretty low Max Dex Bonus of 1(or in the case of mithral full plate 3 and Celestial Plate Armor 6) and getting the combat reflexes feat, perhaps an alternative to increase the number of attacks they can mitigate? Perhaps base it on half or even full Charisma modifier maybe even make it based on the amount of AC their shield grants to make it more thematic to being a tank. Perhaps Strength or Constitution modifiers could also be considered or even the highest out of Charisma, Strength, and Constitution showing either a strength of body or a strength of faith.
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#5
Hmm... saying it can be used a number of times per round equal to their Charisma modifier would promote the ability being used by all Holy Knights, rather than just Dexterity-based ones, so yeah, that sounds about right to me, I think. Holy Knights already have Charisma to almost everything, and with so many abilities that run off of it, pretty much any Holy Knight is going to be set to make good use of the ability. I'll go for that then.
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#6
Also:

Extra Cover
You have learned how to make better use of your ability to defend others.
Prerequisite: Cover class feature.
Benefit: You may use your cover ability two more times per day.
Special: You can select this feat multiple times. Its effects stack.
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#7
True when you say that it does make sense. Also thinking about the power of it and it not detracting from your total movement in any given round it works out, and I always like having multiple build styles for classes so I have to say nice work.
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#8
It's definitely a quite effective ability. A friend and I went and did some number crunching and testing with a 20th-level Holy Knight and the malebranche Cie'th I'd made (that sucker can break three hundred total damage in a full attack) and she survived every time through the DR alone, not counting her ability to just negate the attack entirely. I'd say it's a very worthwhile thing to build around.
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