Oath of the Open Heart

Let my courage make room for your truth.

Lore Overview

An open heart is a gate with a guardian, not a gate without a lock. These Oathsworn invite companions to stand beside them without pretending to be invulnerable. Their strength rests in chosen trust: a fear spoken in confidence, a hand offered without expectation, a promise that retreat and refusal will be honored.

You are a support defender who creates a small circle of willing companions. Arousal becomes a burden that can be shared in measured amounts. Libido represents the stamina spent sustaining another person without taking their choices away. Vindication becomes an opportunity for the circle to regain its footing.

Oath of the Open Heart Features

Circle of Trust

3rd-Level Oath of the Open Heart Feature

During a 10-minute rite, choose up to PB willing creatures you can touch, excluding yourself. They remain your companions until your next long rest. You can replace one companion with another willing creature within 30 feet as a bonus action. When a companion within 30 feet fails a saving throw, you can use your reaction to add 1d4 to its result, potentially turning failure into success. Use this reaction PB times per long rest; only one such die can affect a given saving throw.

Veiled Play. this includes EROS Saves.

Channel Divinity: Stand Beside Me

3rd-Level Oath of the Open Heart Feature

As a Magic action, choose yourself and up to PB willing companions within 30 feet. Each gains temporary hit points equal to your Oathsworn level + your oath modifier and may immediately move up to 10 feet without provoking opportunity attacks, using no action.

Veiled Play. one chosen companion may also transfer 1 Arousal to you: it lowers its Arousal by 1 and you increase yours by 1. Resolve any resulting Vindication immediately. This transfer requires both creatures to agree and cannot reduce Arousal below 0.

Channel Divinity: A Place to Speak

3rd-Level Oath of the Open Heart Feature

As a Magic action, create a 10-foot aura centered on you for 1 minute, ending early if you are incapacitated. Willing creatures in the aura have advantage on saving throws against being charmed. A willing creature starting its turn in the aura can move 5 feet without provoking opportunity attacks during that turn, in addition to its normal movement.

Veiled Play. creatures benefiting from the aura also have advantage on EROS Saves. The aura does not compel honesty, disclosure, affection, or remaining nearby.

Mercy Warrant: You Need Not Carry It Alone

3rd-Level Oath of the Open Heart Feature

When your Lay on Hands restores hit points to a companion, you can issue this Warrant through your unexpended Seal of Mercy as part of the same Magic action. Another willing companion within 30 feet gains temporary hit points equal to your PB + your oath modifier.

Veiled Play. the healed companion may reduce its Arousal by 1; you then gain the normal 1 Arousal from the Warrant. Only the Lay on Hands target receives the Arousal reduction. The Warrant grants temporary hit points rather than restoring hit points itself.

Shared Breath

7th-Level Oath of the Open Heart Feature

When your Circle of Trust reaction turns a failed saving throw into a success, the companion may also move up to 5 feet without provoking opportunity attacks, using no action.

Unveiled Play. when you use that reaction for a companion’s EROS Save, you may spend 1 Libido to allow it to reduce its Arousal by 1 after the save resolves, regardless of whether the revised save succeeds. This expenditure does not restore Libido and can occur only once per round.

No One Stands Alone

15th-Level Oath of the Open Heart Feature

The die for your Circle of Trust reaction becomes a d6. Once per long rest as a bonus action, choose a companion within 30 feet and restore hit points to it equal to 2d8 + your oath modifier; this spends no Lay on Hands points.

Veiled Play. you may instead trigger this same healing without an action immediately after you or a companion within 30 feet experiences Climax, choosing that creature or another companion within range. Both triggers share the single use, and the Climax’s normal consequences still occur. You cannot use the no-action trigger while incapacitated.

Sanctuary of Unhidden Hearts

20th-Level Oath of the Open Heart Feature

As a bonus action once per long rest, awaken the circle for 1 minute. While you are conscious, you and your companions within 30 feet have resistance to psychic damage. Once on each of your turns, you may use your Circle of Trust reaction benefit on a companion’s failed saving throw without a reaction or expenditure of a use; this can occur only during your turn and cannot combine with the normal reaction on the same save. When the manifestation begins, each companion within 30 feet may move up to half its speed without provoking opportunity attacks, using no action.

Veiled Play. the first time you or a companion experiences Climax within 30 feet during the manifestation, you may prevent that event’s one level of Exhaustion. Only one creature benefits; other consequences still apply.

Tenets of the Open Heart

Ask before carrying another’s burden. Keep entrusted confidences. Honor a withdrawn invitation. Offer care without making affection a debt. Vulnerability may be expressed through silence, ritual, practical help, or words; revealing trauma and performing intimacy are never prerequisites for features.

Rules for This Sacred Oath

Choose this Oathsworn subclass at 3rd level; its features advance at 7th, 15th, and 20th level. PB means proficiency bonus; oath modifier means your Charisma modifier (minimum 1). Any saving throw called for by this subclass uses your Oathsworn spell save DC. Channel Divinity options spend your existing class uses, with the class’s normal recovery; they do not create a separate pool.

Veiled, Quickstart, and Advanced Play

Use the baseline effects in any game. With Desire tracking off, ignore all Arousal, Libido, EROS, and Vindication clauses, including Arousal gained from subclass Warrants. Quickstart adds the EROS and Arousal clauses but omits all optional Libido expenditures. Advanced Play adds those expenditures. The attached canonical Mechanics of Desire governs these additions: an EROS Save uses the creature’s choice of Constitution or Wisdom; 6 Arousal immediately triggers Climax, resetting Arousal to 0, restoring 1d6 hit points, adding one level of Exhaustion, and costing 1 Libido. Vindication is the Oathsworn’s name for their own Climax, not a second event. No feature below delays that event or changes those consequences unless it explicitly says so.

Authority, Agency, and Limits

A subclass Warrant is learned in addition to the class’s normal Warrants known, but requires the named Sacred Seal; it neither grants that Seal nor increases the number of Seals you possess. Choose the relevant Seal through your normal class choices to use it. Issuing it expends that Seal and adds 1 Arousal after resolution when Desire tracking is enabled. The class’s applicable Seal improvements still apply. Other subclass features are not Warrants and do not expend Seals or add the Burden of Authority. Temporary hit points never stack. A willing creature can decline a benefit or end a bond without an action; willingness never establishes romantic or sexual consent. At 0 Libido, optional Advanced benefits are unavailable until a long rest, but baseline and Quickstart features continue functioning.

Ritual and Social Identity

The circle’s 10-minute rite can be a shared meal, the exchange of oath cords, a quiet vigil, or a conversation whose details remain private. Participation alone establishes the mechanical bond; no performance or Persuasion check is required. Companions decide what their bond means. In negotiations you defend the space in which a choice can be made, rather than making that choice for someone.

At the Table

A companion fails an EROS Save by 2. Your reaction adds 1d4; a roll of 2 or higher makes the save succeed. In Advanced Play you may spend 1 Libido to lower that companion’s existing Arousal by 1 after the save. Stand Beside Me offers a different decision: transfer one point to yourself while repositioning the circle, accepting your own release risk. Neither option forces emotional disclosure.