Dev Blog 009: So… Designing and Balancing Classes Is Hard

For those not following along with development, one of the biggest challenges in Whispers of Erosia is that I’m not just building another 5e setting. From the very beginning, Erosia has been built around a simple idea:

Desire is a game mechanic.

It’s not just lore. It’s not just flavor text. It’s part of how the world functions. That means virtually everything in the game has the potential to interact with the Desire Cycle:

Class features
Spells
Monsters
Magic items
Rituals
Environmental effects
Social encounters
Story events

At the center of that system is Arousal, a six-stage track that represents mounting emotional, spiritual, physical, or mystical pressure. When a character reaches 6 Arousal, they experience a Climax. Climax isn’t a failure state—it’s a resource event. Every class has its own unique Climax effect, creating different incentives and playstyles.

Climax, however, comes at a cost.

Each character has a limited Libido score that determines how many times they can safely reach Climax before exhaustion and overexertion begin to take their toll.

So far, that probably sounds manageable.

Then we add another layer. Every mechanic in the game has to function across three different play styles:

Standard 5e

Ignore the Desire mechanics entirely.
The class still works.

Veiled Play

A lightweight version of the system.
Arousal exists, but tracking is intentionally simple and low-maintenance.

Unveiled Play

The full system.
Arousal, Libido, EROS Saves, Climax management, resource expenditure, and advanced interactions are all active.

Which means that every class feature has to be designed three times.

First, it has to function as a normal 5e feature. Then it needs a Veiled version. Then it needs an Unveiled version.

And all three versions have to feel meaningful, balanced, and true to the class fantasy without making one mode obviously superior to the others. That’s where most of the work happens. Not writing new features. Rewriting them.

Again. And again. And again.

Over the last few days I’ve been revisiting three of the flagship classes—Reveler, Anointed, and Pactsworn—to make sure they don’t just live in Erosia, but actually feel Erosian to play.

The goal isn’t to create “a Bard with sexy flavor text” or “a Warlock with lust mechanics bolted on.” The goal is to build classes whose relationship with Desire is as fundamental to their identity as Rage is to a Barbarian or Sneak Attack is to a Rogue. It’s been a lot of work. It’s probably going to continue being a lot of work. But I think the results are finally starting to feel like the game I’ve been trying to build all along.

I’d love to hear what people think of the current versions:

What’s working? What’s confusing? What’s exciting? And most importantly:

Do these classes feel like something that could only exist in Whispers of Erosia?