Circle of Withering Desire

Lore Overview

Withering Desire tends the season after abundance: the field that must lie fallow, the exhausted giver who must be allowed to stop, and the grief that deserves acknowledgment before anyone promises renewal. Its magic draws spent resonance back into the soil. Rest is a necessary part of the Living Circle, not a failure to flourish.

Talyss’ Circle of the Petal preserves related teachings through its Hollowward Seat, concerned with decline and dignified endings, and Rootward Seat, concerned with memory beneath change. These are offices of an existing religious order, not ranks automatically granted by this subclass. A Withering Keeper may learn from that tradition while following another faith.

In Aeloryn Petalveil’s Returning Garden, the Orchard of Refusals remembers what cannot return rather than erasing it. Mother Hestra of the Hollowward Bed asks whether renewal is being used to avoid grief. These offer mentors, places of study, and difficult questions for a Keeper who must distinguish healing from the endless repetition of harm.

A battlefield controller and recovery specialist. Its desire identity is composting pressure: carefully reducing Arousal, spending Libido to deepen the exchange, and making the aftermath of Rebirth protect new life. It does not harvest consent or treat suffering as an unlimited resource.

A Verdant Keeper Circle for Second Bloom Edition. Features arrive at Verdant Keeper levels 2, 6, 10, and 14. PB means proficiency bonus. Your Circle save DC equals 8 + PB + your Wisdom modifier. References to Wisdom modifiers have a minimum value of 1.

You oversee endings with dignity: closing damaged gardens, helping communities grieve, and making room for rest. You can offer care without demanding disclosure. Declining an optional rite has no mechanical penalty.

Circle of Withering Desire Features

Standard: Use each feature’s ordinary rules. Veiled: Add its Veiled rules if your table tracks Arousal. Unveiled: Add its Unveiled rules if your table uses Libido. Optional effects never replace an ordinary feature unless expressly stated. You cannot spend more Libido than you possess; at 0 Libido you cannot benefit from Advanced effects until a long rest, even if another effect later restores Libido.

Rebirth and recovery: Rebirth is this class’s name for Climax, not a separate event. At 6 Arousal, resolve the canonical event: reset Arousal to 0, regain 1d6 hit points, gain one level of exhaustion, and lose 1 Libido, to a minimum of 0. Circle effects occur after that resolution unless expressly stated otherwise. They do not remove its costs. Ordinary exhaustion rules govern recovery; these Circles introduce no separate Spent condition.

Seeds: A Seed is the living focus of these rites. Carrying or planting an ordinary seed is narrative expression, not an additional currency. These features grant no undefined Seed enhancements or additional Seed supply. Their listed Libido costs are their complete Advanced costs. Use the base class’s separate Seed rules only where those rules are fully defined.

Agency: Arousal and Rebirth may represent mystical resonance, seasonal instinct, or emotional release. No feature establishes attraction, sexual consent, fertility, or a reproductive obligation. Willing creatures may decline optional effects. Arousal is never a substitute for a listed control condition.

As an action, awaken a 10-foot-radius bed of roots and leaf mold centered on a point on the ground you can see within 60 feet. It lasts 1 minute and requires concentration as though concentrating on a spell. You can create it PB times per long rest; creating another ends the first. The ground is difficult terrain for creatures you choose when it appears. When a chosen creature enters it for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there, it must make a Strength saving throw against your Circle DC. On a failure, its speed becomes 0 until the start of its next turn. A creature makes this save at most once per turn. The bed leaves no permanent damage.

Veiled Play. Once on each of your turns while the bed exists, use a bonus action to choose yourself or one willing creature you can see inside it. Reduce that creature’s Arousal by 1. If a point was actually removed, one willing creature you can see inside the bed gains temporary hit points equal to your Wisdom modifier. This reduction cannot trigger Rebirth.

Unveiled Play. When you remove Arousal this way, you may spend 1 Libido to increase those temporary hit points by PB and allow their recipient to move 5 feet without provoking opportunity attacks. This movement must end inside the bed.

While your bed exists, when a creature you can see inside it drops to 0 hit points, you may use your reaction to give one willing creature you can see within 30 feet temporary hit points equal to 1d6 + your Wisdom modifier. You can use this reaction PB times per long rest. It does not prevent death or restore hit points. Prune Excess. Alternatively, as a bonus action while the bed exists, expend one use from that same pool and choose one creature you can see inside it. It must make a Constitution saving throw against your Circle DC. On a failure, it cannot regain hit points until the start of your next turn. On a success, it is unaffected. This does not remove temporary hit points, prevent stabilization, or alter death saving throws.

Veiled Play. You can also use that same reaction, spending the same pool of uses, when you or a willing creature you can see inside the bed experiences Climax. Resolve the event first. The temporary hit points may go to the triggering creature. You must witness its visible magical release; this feature does not detect private events.

Unveiled Play. After you grant these temporary hit points, you may spend 1 Libido to let their recipient reduce Arousal by 1. Only a willing recipient can accept this effect; it supplies no additional trigger.

At the end of a short rest, choose one willing participant, including yourself, that spent a Hit Die during the rest. It gains temporary hit points equal to your Verdant Keeper level, lasting until its next rest. If it has exhaustion, it also gains advantage on its next saving throw before its next rest. This does not remove exhaustion or suppress any of its penalties. You may grant this benefit once per long rest.

Veiled Play. The participant may also reduce Arousal by up to 2. Reduction never counts as a Climax event or as Arousal removed by Bed of Returning Leaves.

Unveiled Play. If the participant has at least 1 Libido remaining and has experienced Climax since its last long rest, it may regain 1 Libido up to its maximum. A creature can regain Libido through Patient Compost only once per long rest, regardless of the number of Keepers present.

Your bed’s radius becomes 20 feet. Once per long rest, when you create it, you may make it a spring bed. For that bed’s duration, a creature that succeeds on its Strength save still has its speed reduced by 10 feet until the start of its next turn. On each of your turns, as a bonus action, one willing creature you can see inside the spring bed gains temporary hit points equal to your Wisdom modifier + PB. This can be the same bonus action used for its Arousal reduction, but the temporary hit points from those two effects do not stack.

Veiled Play. Once during a spring bed’s duration, when you experience Rebirth inside it, you may choose up to PB willing creatures you can see inside it. After resolving your Rebirth, those creatures may each move up to half their speed without provoking opportunity attacks.

Unveiled Play. When you grant this Rebirth movement, you may spend 1 Libido to also let each chosen creature reduce Arousal by 1. This cannot generate further reactions or restore Libido.

You place returning leaves across a narrow passage, choosing the advancing enemies as hindered creatures. In Veiled play, an ally inside the bed offers one point of Arousal to nourish protective temporary hit points. Later, its Climax can trigger What Falls Shall Shelter, but that event still imposes its normal exhaustion and Libido loss.

Rules boundaries: Temporary hit points do not stack. No Circle feature creates a new core resource, replenishes its own uses, or triggers itself recursively. Each named feature’s use limit applies across all forms and all creatures. These options have received a rules and compatibility review; encounter playtesting remains necessary.