Stillheart — Way of the Uncoiling Heart

“Hold with intention. Release with your whole heart.”

Lore Overview

The Uncoiling Heart teaches that restraint has a purpose: to make release a choice. Practitioners learn to recognize the moment when a guarded breath, a held emotion, or a gathered current of Ki is ready to become action. They do not seek endless tension. They seek the clarity to decide what can be carried, what should be released, and when.

These Stillhearts are deliberate strikers who prepare through Patient Defense and Redirection, then turn a single opening into movement and concentrated force. Their tradition gives equal dignity to holding and letting go. Its teachers often serve as mediators, companions through difficult transitions, and witnesses to promises freely concluded.

In Unveiled Play, Arousal is pressure with several possible destinations. A small controlled reduction funds an immediate technique; a deeper release commits more accumulated pressure; Climax offers an opening after its consequences are accepted. Libido supports the recovery of composure, never an obligation to continue.

Using This Tradition. Features arrive at Stillheart levels 3, 6, 11, and 17 and use existing Ki Points, the Martial Arts die, and Proficiency Bonus (PB). Combat features require no armor and no shield. This tradition uses no new core resource; preparation and readied openings are explicitly timed feature benefits.

Modes of Play. Classic Play uses baseline features without Arousal or Libido; an EROSave becomes the named ordinary saving throw, or Wisdom if none is named. Veiled Play applies the listed Arousal gains to the creature’s existing total and resolves Climax at the threshold. A feature never assigns a lower Desire state or replaces accumulated Arousal with a descriptive label. Unveiled Play adds its expressly listed resource choices and tactical effects. Use only your current mode’s paragraph for each feature. An EROSave uses Constitution or Wisdom, chosen for each save, with proficiency only when proficient in the chosen saving throw. See the Mechanics of Desire for the underlying rules.

Desire Resolution. Add each listed Arousal gain to the current total; resolve the applicable Climax Effect when the total reaches 6. Arousal decreases only when a rule expressly reduces it or Climax resets it. Apply the normal per-turn gain limit and the stage effects used by the table’s mode. Resolve the Climax Effect, reduce Libido by 1 if Libido is being tracked, reset Arousal to 0, then resolve after-Climax features. Climax does not automatically heal or grant Exhaustion. Where Libido is tracked, 0 Libido causes Depletion rather than disabling class features; use the normal Depletion rules for further Climax. A Libido expenditure requires enough to pay, but may spend the final point. Controlled reduction of Arousal through a feature is not Climax and grants no Climax Effect.

Limits and Agency. A character can make only one release per turn, regardless of extra actions, Redirection expressions, or simultaneous openings. A release must occur on your turn. Movement follows normal restrictions and cannot pass through solid barriers or occupied spaces without another rule permitting it. No feature dictates feelings, attraction, disclosure, or consent; rites may be symbolic or resolved offscreen.

Way of the Uncoiling Heart Features

The Held Breath

3rd-Level Way of the Uncoiling Heart Feature

Prepared Release. You are prepared if you used Patient Defense on your previous turn or used Deflect since the end of your previous turn. Check this condition when you hit with an unarmed strike on your turn. Once on each of your turns, if prepared, you may spend 1 Ki Point to make that hit a release. It deals additional Force damage equal to one roll of your Martial Arts die. After resolving the hit, you may move up to 10 feet without provoking Opportunity Attacks from the creature you hit. This movement uses your available Speed and follows normal terrain and occupancy rules. Being prepared is a timing condition, not a stored resource.

A release cannot empower the same hit as Stunning Strike or another subclass feature that adds an attack-damage rider. Its additional damage is resolved separately from the hit’s damage and is not doubled by a critical hit. A missed attack spends none of the release’s costs.

Veiled Play. If you have 1–5 Arousal when you hit, you may make a release without being prepared; its 1 Ki cost still applies. Your Arousal does not change. If a preceding effect has already triggered Climax, finish resolving that event before checking your current Arousal.

Unveiled Play. When you hit, you may reduce your Arousal by 1 to make a release without preparation or its 1 Ki cost. This reduction is not Climax and grants no Climax Effect. You cannot spend Arousal at 6 to interrupt Climax. All versions share the once-per-turn release limit.

Understanding the Burden. Gain proficiency in Insight or Medicine; if already proficient in both, choose one artisan’s tool. You may use Wisdom instead of Charisma for a Persuasion check made to help a willing creature express or negotiate its own boundaries. This neither reveals thoughts nor compels agreement.

Ritual of the Open Hand. At the end of a Short or Long Rest, you may guide up to PB willing creatures through 10 minutes of slow forms and freely chosen symbolic release. Choose yourself or one participant: once before its next rest, it may add your Martial Arts die to a Wisdom (Insight) check after rolling but before the outcome is announced. A creature can hold only one benefit from this rite.

Veiled Play. The chosen creature may use the rite’s single die on an EROSave instead of Insight. Unveiled Play. Spend 1 Libido when the rite ends to let the chosen creature use the single die after one later Climax instead: it regains hit points equal to that roll. This is an explicit healing benefit of this rite, not an automatic effect of Climax. It replaces the Insight use and does not change the Climax Effect, Libido loss, Arousal reset, or Depletion. The rite changes no ritual requirements and grants no automatic successes.

Choose the Depth

6th-Level Way of the Uncoiling Heart Feature

When you are prepared and make a release, you may spend 2 Ki Points instead of 1 to deal two Martial Arts dice of additional Force damage instead of one. You choose the depth of the release after the unarmed strike hits. Its movement and once-per-turn limit are unchanged.

Veiled Play. If you have 1–5 Arousal when you hit, you may also make Choose the Depth’s deeper release without preparation at its normal 2 Ki cost. This does not lower or reset your accumulated Arousal.

Unveiled Play. Instead of spending Ki, you may reduce your Arousal by 3 to make a deeper release without preparation. It deals three Martial Arts dice of additional Force damage instead of the baseline two. This replaces rather than stacks with The Held Breath’s 1-Arousal option. You must have at least 3 Arousal before paying.

When you make either Arousal-funded release, you may also spend 1 Libido to gain temporary hit points equal to your Wisdom modifier + PB (minimum 1) after resolving the hit. They last until the start of your next turn and do not stack with other temporary hit points. This represents composure regained through chosen release; it does not remove Exhaustion or refund Libido.

Clarity After Release

11th-Level Way of the Uncoiling Heart Feature

At the start of your turn, if you used Patient Defense on your previous turn, you may declare a clear opening, requiring no action. Once before that turn ends, your first release costs no Ki and requires no preparation. Its additional damage is two Martial Arts dice. You can declare this opening PB times per Long Rest. An opening grants no extra attack and does not increase the once-per-turn release limit.

Veiled Play and Unveiled Play. Immediately after resolving your own Climax while conscious, you may ready a clear opening for 1 minute. On one of your turns during that minute, expend it without an action to gain the opening’s benefit until that turn ends. This is one use per Short or Long Rest, shared across modes and independent of the baseline PB uses. You can hold only one such opening; simultaneous openings do not stack.

A clear opening uses the Ki-funded version of release for its damage; it does not grant the three-die Unveiled release or its optional Libido benefit for free. You may instead ignore the opening and pay for an Unveiled release normally. Resolve the complete Climax event before readying an opening. Becoming Depleted does not prevent readying or using it.

The Heart Uncoils

17th-Level Way of the Uncoiling Heart Feature

Once per Long Rest, when you make a release while prepared or using a clear opening, you may expend 3 Ki Points in place of its normal Ki cost to fully uncoil. The release deals five Martial Arts dice of additional Force damage instead of its normal additional damage. Its movement increases to 20 feet, using your Speed and provoking no Opportunity Attacks from any creature. This remains one release and one hit; it adds no attack, saving throw, or control condition.

A clear opening waives only the ordinary release cost, not this 3 Ki expenditure. The Heart Uncoils cannot receive Choose the Depth’s Unveiled damage or temporary hit points, and its additional damage is not doubled by a critical hit.

Unveiled Play. As an alternative use of this once-per-Long-Rest feature, if prepared, at Arousal 3–5, and with at least 1 Libido, you may use a Bonus Action and expend 3 Ki Points to voluntarily bring your Arousal to 6. This specific gain ignores the normal per-turn Arousal-gain limit. Resolve the applicable Climax Effect, reduce Libido by 1, and reset Arousal to 0, then ready the feature’s full release for 1 minute. This does not consume Clarity After Release’s Climax-triggered use. If this expends your last Libido, you become Depleted but retain the readied release.

Once on one of your turns during that minute, expend this readied full release without an action when you hit with an unarmed strike. It grants the five-die release and 20-foot movement described above without further Ki, preparation, or Arousal expenditure. The readiness then ends; it cannot stack with another opening or release. Unused readiness expires without refund. Apply any healing, Exhaustion, or other consequences only if the applicable Climax Effect or Depletion rule actually calls for them.

At the Table. Patient Defense prepares a later release. In Veiled Play, existing Arousal permits a release without that setup but remains on your track. In Unveiled Play, choose between explicitly reducing Arousal by 1 for a modest opening, reducing it by 3 for a deeper commitment, or retaining pressure for a later Climax. At 17th level, a chosen Climax costs the listed Bonus Action and Ki plus its normal Libido loss; Exhaustion is not automatic. Depletion and the applicable Climax Effect still matter.