Pact of the Forbidden Want

The strongest bargain begins with the price you refuse.

The Open Offer

1st-Level Subclass Feature

When you invoke a Petition that targets a creature, you may enhance it without an additional action. Select one target of that Petition within 60 feet that you can see. If unwilling, it makes a Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, or if willing, move it up to 10 feet horizontally to an unoccupied space you can see; this cannot move it into damaging terrain or an unsupported fall. You may enhance a Petition this way PB times per long rest, once per turn.

Temptation’s Term

1st-Level Subclass Feature

When using The Open Offer, you may accept this Term: until the start of your next turn, you cannot take reactions. If you accept, the movement becomes 15 feet and ignores difficult terrain. This is a Term for Temptation’s Price; declining it leaves the normal 10-foot effect available.

Veiled Play. Accepting the Term also lets you voluntarily gain 1 Arousal.

Unveiled Play. Instead of gaining that Arousal, you may spend 1 Libido when accepting the Term to give an unwilling target disadvantage on The Open Offer’s Wisdom save. The expenditure does not alter the Petition’s own saving throws. Accepting the Term and paying this additional price use Temptation’s Price’s existing triggers and limits; neither restores a subclass use.

Ritual and Social Identity — The Unpaid Price

1st-Level Subclass Feature

During a short or long rest, spend 10 minutes naming one concrete desire and one boundary your patron must honor. You and one willing participant gain advantage on your next Charisma check to negotiate a stated exchange before your next long rest. Each creature can receive this benefit once per long rest.

Unveiled Play. if you began the rite with at least 1 Arousal, you may reduce it by 1 and spend 1 Libido to grant the participant advantage on one EROSave before its next long rest. This does not restore Favor or bypass payment. The rite’s offer and refusal can be spoken, written, or symbolized.

Veiled Play. You may gain 1 Arousal during this rite to grant its other participant advantage on its next EROSave before its next long rest. Each creature can receive this benefit once per long rest; resolve any resulting Climax immediately.

Negotiated Pressure

3rd-Level Subclass Feature

When you use The Open Offer, you may replace its movement with this effect: on a failed Wisdom save, the target cannot take reactions until the start of your next turn. A willing target instead gains temporary hit points equal to PB + your Charisma modifier (minimum 1). Accepting Temptation’s Term lets you apply both movement and this replacement effect using the same saving throw.

Veiled Play. When you accept Temptation’s Term for this feature, you may gain 1 Arousal to increase your speed by 10 feet until the end of this turn. This replaces, rather than adds to, the Term’s normal voluntary Arousal gain.

Unveiled Play. You may instead reduce your Arousal by 1 to gain this speed increase; you must have at least 1 Arousal to do so. This replaces the Veiled Arousal gain and does not accept a second Term.

Fulfillment’s Counteroffer

6th-Level Subclass Feature

As a reaction when you take damage, reduce it by 1d8 + your Charisma modifier (minimum 1), then move up to 10 feet without provoking opportunity attacks. You can use this reaction PB times per long rest.

Veiled Play. After the damage-reducing reaction, you may gain 1 Arousal to gain advantage on your next EROSave before the end of your next turn. After your own Climax activates Fulfillment, you may instead expend an available use of this feature without a reaction to move yourself or one willing creature you can see within 30 feet up to half that creature’s speed without opportunity attacks. This replaces that use’s damage reduction and grants no additional Petition.

Unveiled Play. After your own Climax and Fulfillment resolve, you may spend 1 Libido and expend an available use of this feature, without an action, to grant yourself and one willing creature you can see within 30 feet temporary hit points equal to PB + your Charisma modifier (minimum 1). This replaces that use’s damage reduction; it grants no movement or additional Petition.

Nothing Left Unnegotiated

14th-Level Subclass Feature

Once per long rest, as a bonus action, manifest your patron’s negotiating chamber for 1 minute, ending early if you are incapacitated. At the start of each of your turns during it, choose one creature you can see within 60 feet. It must succeed on a Wisdom save or be unable to take reactions until the start of your next turn. While manifested, once on each of your turns when you invoke a Petition, you may move up to 10 feet without provoking opportunity attacks.

Veiled Play. Once on each of your turns during the chamber’s manifestation, accepting a Term lets you gain 1 Arousal to gain PB temporary hit points. If that Term already grants voluntary Arousal, use that gain rather than adding another. Once during the manifestation, your own Fulfillment restores one expended use of The Open Offer after Climax resolves.

Unveiled Play. Once during the chamber’s manifestation, after your own Climax and Fulfillment resolve, you may spend 1 Libido to apply The Open Offer to one target of Fulfillment’s Petition without expending an Open Offer use. Apply Negotiated Pressure’s movement and reaction denial together without accepting Temptation’s Term. Make the normal Wisdom save; this grants no extra Petition.

Combat Identity

Controller and opportunistic striker, shaping an encounter through explicit bargains.

Desire Identity

Desire becomes the urgency of an offer: personal pressure, a chosen price, and the timing of Fulfillment.

Class Integration

Using This Patron Pact.

You gain these features at Pactsworn levels 1st, 3rd, 6th, 14th. This subclass works through Patron Pact, Terms, Favor, Petitions, and Fulfillment; your Pact Boon is a separate 3rd-level choice. Use the costs, triggers, limits, and recovery stated in the individual features and parent class.

Choose this subclass through the Pactsworn’s 1st-level Patron Pact. It grants Patron features at levels 1, 3, 6, and 14. Your 3rd-level Pact Boon (Blade, Chain, Tome, or Veil) is a separate choice; any boon can accompany this pact. Your patron may be any suitable supernatural power: this pact describes the bargain, not a new deity.

Ritual and Social Use

Use negotiation rites to state desires and limits clearly; a refused bargain remains a meaningful choice. The Ritual and Social Identity — The Unpaid Price feature gives the applicable observance and its complete benefits; this guidance adds no additional ritual reward.

Example of Play

Your turn often begins with a Petition, followed by the decision to retain your reaction or accept the Term for stronger positioning. Ask what your character wants and what price they refuse. A sealed archive offering a shortcut, or a patron who wants a cherished rival spared, makes a useful adventure hook. Neither requires intimate participation.

Additional Rules

Rules and Modes.

PB means proficiency bonus. Your pact save DC is 8 + PB + your Charisma modifier. Favor, Petitions, Terms, Temptation’s Price, and Fulfillment retain their base-class rules and limits. These features add no new resource pool. Temporary hit points never stack. A subclass use is expended even if its Term refunds Favor through Temptation’s Price; a refund never restores a use.

Resolution and Safeguards.

Follow the current Mechanics of Desire and Pactsworn rules. At 6 Arousal, resolve the applicable Climax Effect, reduce Libido by 1 where tracked, reset Arousal to 0, and then resolve Pactsworn Fulfillment and any applicable subclass rider. In Unveiled Play, lose 1 Libido as instructed by the core rules; at 0 Libido you are Depleted, not unable to use class features. You cannot spend Libido you do not have. These subclasses impose no automatic healing or Exhaustion on Climax; use only the applicable effect and the core Depletion rules. Arousal gains obey the core limit of 3 per turn. A feature cannot reduce Arousal below 0. Subclass riders neither duplicate Fulfillment nor replace its Favor, Petitions, or later improvements. Nearby Climax events use the base class’s rules and grant no additional subclass effect unless expressly stated. All effects preserve player agency and may be narrated abstractly.