Iron Jawed Angel (3.5e Maneuver)

When shit goes down, one may be surprised at how often it pays dividends to stand there and take it like a man.

In the ultimate display of courage, you stare down your opponents and endure the brunt of their attacks with superhuman endurance. When you initiate this maneuver, you make an Appraise check and gain damage reduction X/-, where X is equal to the result of the check. This effect lasts until the beginning of your next turn.

In addition, all death effects (and other effects that would instantly kill you on a failed save) affect you differently while you are under the effects of this counter. Instead of instantly dying on a failed save, you instead take 10 points of damage per caster level, initiator level, or Challenge Rating (whichever is applicable) of the source, which is then reduced normally by your damage reduction.

[Note: This version of the Iron Heart uses Appraise as its key skill instead of Balance.]