The Heartstring

Plays like: the Bard — the Heart’s full caster; you play the bonds between people like strings.

The Heartstring is the performer who learned that the instrument was never the lute — it was the room. They hold a Reaching into the Heart, red Chaos-fire that moves emotion the way wind moves grass: calming a mob, kindling courage down a shield-wall, making a stranger lean in and trust. In a world whose oldest truth is that the bond is the only real freedom, the Heartstring is the Calling that touches bonds directly — and pays the only honest price for it. Every heart they play frays their own; a veteran Heartstring can name every crowd they ever swayed by the small pieces of themselves they left in it. They come out of the White Legion’s stage-circuit, out of guild-hall envoy schools, out of tavern corners where eight-corners travelers trade tall tales for a bed.

“You think I made them brave. No. The courage was theirs — sitting in them like an unplucked string. I just knew where to put my finger. What did it cost? Ask me what my mother’s laugh sounded like. Go on. Ask.” — Verse Adamant, Heartstring of the Legion Stage

Quick Build & Core Stats

Quick Build: High Charisma, then Dexterity, then Constitution. Choose an instrument you love and the Persuasion and Performance skills.

• Hit Die: d8
• Primary Ability: Charisma
• Saving Throw Proficiencies: Charisma, Dexterity
• Armor: Light armor
• Weapons: Simple weapons, plus the rapier, shortsword, and hand crossbow
• Tools: Three musical instruments of your choice
• Skills: Choose any three
• Starting Equipment: (a) a rapier or (b) a shortsword; leather armor; a dagger; an instrument of your choice; an entertainer’s pack; and a performer’s chit from a tavern-hall or the White Legion circuit — proof you have played for your supper before

Level Progression

Level	Proficiency Bonus	Features	Heartstring Dice	Max Working Tier
1	+2	Reaching: The Heart, Heartstring Dice, Read the Room	2d6	1
2	+2	Eight-Corners Knack, Song Between	3d6	1
3	+2	Hall (Path), First Refrain	3d6	2
4	+2	Ability Score Improvement	4d6	2
5	+3	Sour Note	4d8	3
6	+3	Hall feature, Second Refrain	5d8	3
7	+3	Weathered Strings	5d8	3
8	+3	Ability Score Improvement	6d8	4
9	+4	Standing Ovation	6d8	4
10	+4	Hall feature, Third Refrain	7d8	4
11	+4	Long Reach	7d10	5
12	+4	Ability Score Improvement	8d10	5
13	+5	Hold the Note	8d10	5
14	+5	Hall capstone	9d10	5
15	+5	The Deep Chord	9d10	6
16	+5	Ability Score Improvement	10d10	6
17	+6	Perfect Pitch	10d12	6
18	+6	Unfrayed Heart	11d12	6
19	+6	Ability Score Improvement	11d12	6
20	+6	The Standing Chord	12d12	6

Class Features

Reaching: The Heart

You hold a Reaching into the Heart, the Chaos discipline of emotion, the self reaching outward, and the moving of crowds. You can attempt Workings up to your Max Working Tier (above), spending Fray per the standard magic system. Your eyes flash deep red on every cast — a matte, absorbing red that drinks the light, as Chaos colors do — and enemies who witness it gain advantage on Insight checks to read your intent. Before adding a Working’s Tier to your Fray, roll your Faith Die (set by your Conviction) and subtract it, minimum add 1; roll twice and take the higher if the cast is dead-center of your Tenet. At 75% of your Fray cap, casting triggers a d6 against your Loss Menu; at cap, you Overchannel or you stop. Fray never clears on a short rest — only a long rest of true stillness heals half. When a Heart Working calls for a saving throw, the DC is 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier.

Heart Workings — the Set List

The Heart persuades, but it also commands the room. These are the codified stagecraft of the Calling — if you can reach the Tier, you can attempt the Working, and the standard economy applies in full. Every one needs your voice, your instrument, or your open face — a gagged, hidden Heartstring is just a person. Unless noted, an effect lasts 10 minutes or until you dismiss it (no action).

• Tier 1 — Still Water. Choose up to three creatures within 30 feet; each makes a Wisdom save or has all hostility, panic, or grief in it dampened to embers for the duration. A calmed creature rouses instantly if harmed.
• Tier 2 — The Open Door. One humanoid within 30 feet makes a Wisdom save or regards you as a trusted friend for 1 hour. When it ends, it knows exactly what you did, and remembers your eyes going red.
• Tier 3 — Rally the Line. A rolling chant catches up to six creatures within 30 feet: for 1 minute each adds 1d4 to attack rolls and saving throws, and is immune to being frightened. Courage borrowed is still courage.
• Tier 4 — Sway the Hall. Every creature of your choice in a 30-foot radius (a tavern, a courtroom, a mob) makes a Wisdom save or adopts one reasonable-sounding course of action you name — disperse, listen, hold your fire — for the duration.
• Tier 5 — Break Their Nerve. Each enemy in a 60-foot radius makes a Wisdom save or is frightened of you for 1 minute, repeating the save at the end of its turns; those who fail by 5 or more drop what they hold and rout.
• Tier 6 — One Heart. For 10 minutes, every creature you choose within 300 feet — a district square, a battlefield flank, a festival crowd — feels one emotion you name, at full tide (Wisdom save resists). Wars have ended on this Working. So have the Heartstrings who cast it.

These are Workings, not tricks — every one shows in your eyes, and every one goes on the ledger.

Heartstring Dice

You carry a pool of Heartstring Dice (see table) — disciplined stagecraft, not raw Working-craft, so Fray-free on its own. The pool refreshes on a short or long rest. As a bonus action, you give one creature within 30 feet that can see or hear you a Heartstring Die; within the next 10 minutes it may roll the die and add it to one d20 roll it makes, after seeing the roll but before the outcome is declared. A creature holds only one at a time.

Borrowed Feeling

The dice feel free. They are not. The third time since your last long rest that a creature other than yourself rolls one of your Heartstring Dice, and every time thereafter, you gain 1 Fray — the Heart pulling on you sideways. Every feeling you lend outward is carved from somewhere; this is the core tax of the class, and it makes generosity a resource, not a reflex.

Read the Room

You always know the dominant emotion of any creature or crowd you can see within 30 feet (afraid, hostile, grieving, hopeful, hiding something) without a check — the Heart hums it to you like a tuning fork.

Eight-Corners Knack (2nd level)

A circuit performer picks up a little of everything. Add half your proficiency bonus, rounded down, to any ability check you make that doesn’t already include your proficiency bonus.

Song Between (2nd level)

If you perform during a short rest, each creature that spends Hit Dice to regain HP during that rest regains an extra 1d6 (1d8 at 9th level, 1d10 at 13th, 1d12 at 17th). This is craft, not Working — no Fray, no red eyes, just a song doing what songs have always done.

Refrains (3rd, 6th, 10th level)

At each listed level, learn one Refrain — a signature technique that changes what your Heartstring Dice can do:

• Lullaby: a creature holding your die may spend it to end one charmed or frightened condition on itself (no action).
• Dirge: when a creature holding your die hits with an attack, it may spend the die to add the roll to the damage.
• Marching Song: a creature holding your die adds the roll to its initiative and gains +10 feet speed on its first turn.
• Duet: when you give a die, you may split it — two creatures each receive a die one size smaller (minimum d4).
• Encore: once per short rest, when a creature rolls one of your dice and dislikes the result, it may reroll and take either.
• Heckler’s Ear: your Sour Note range becomes 60 feet, and you may use it even if you can’t see the creature, so long as you can hear it.

Sour Note (5th level)

As a reaction when a creature you can see within 30 feet makes an attack roll, ability check, or damage roll, spend one Heartstring Die and subtract the roll from theirs — one flat phrase, one dropped chord, and their nerve goes with it. A creature immune to being charmed is immune to your Sour Note.

Weathered Strings (7th level)

Your Fray cap increases by 2, and whenever you roll on your Loss Menu, you may reroll once and take either result. You have played rooms that hated you; your self has calluses.

Standing Ovation (9th level)

Once per long rest, you may cast one Heart Working of Tier 3 or lower without adding any Fray — the crowd carries it for you, a room’s worth of attention paying the toll a single heart usually pays. It only works with an audience: at least six creatures must be able to see and hear you. Your eyes still flash; only the ledger stays quiet.

Long Reach (11th level)

Your Heartstring Dice reach 60 feet, and giving one no longer requires the creature to see or hear you if it has held one of your dice before — the string, once played, stays tuned to you.

Hold the Note (13th level)

Once per long rest, when you would gain Fray from Borrowed Feeling or from a Heart Working of Tier 3 or lower, you may mark it as debt — delaying it to the end of the encounter — playing through the pain until the last chord lands, and paying all at once.

The Deep Chord (15th level)

Your Max Working Tier reaches 6. Once per long rest, when you Overchannel on a Heart Working, you may take the permanent Chaos loss as a temporary one instead — it fades on your next long rest of true stillness. This does not apply to losses taken at the Break.

Perfect Pitch (17th level)

Your Heartstring Dice become d12s. Once per long rest, as a bonus action, regain 2d12 Heartstring Dice mid-scene — you find the room again, the way a master finds the key.

Unfrayed Heart (18th level)

When you would hit your Fray cap, you may reduce the incoming Fray by half (round down) once per long rest — a self so practiced at being lent out that it has learned the trick of coming back.

The Standing Chord (20th level, Capstone)

This is your one big button. Once per long rest, as an action, you strike the chord every Heartstring spends a lifetime reaching for. Choose any number of creatures within 60 feet who can see or hear you: each ally gains a d12 Heartstring Die (this ignores the one-die limit and doesn’t draw from your pool), immunity to being charmed or frightened for 1 minute, and immediately regains HP equal to your Heartstring level; each enemy makes a Wisdom save or is frightened and unable to willingly approach you for 1 minute. You then gain 6 Fray — the price of an Overchannelled Tier-6 Working — and if that carries you past your cap, you Overchannel it (naming your permanent loss) rather than being able to refuse. The chord is real. So is the bill.

The Three Halls

The Legion Stage

You came up through the White Legion’s entertainment circuit — the stage is your fortress, the crowd your army.

• 3rd — Command the Board: Gain proficiency in Performance (expertise if you have it). When at least six creatures are watching you, you have advantage on Charisma checks against any of them, and you can use Read the Room on the whole crowd at once.
• 6th — Pull Focus: As a bonus action, spend one Heartstring Die: until your next turn, every enemy within 30 feet that can see you has disadvantage on attack rolls against anyone but you. The show goes on; the show is you.
• 10th — The House Remembers: Your Standing Ovation works twice per long rest, and its audience minimum drops to three — you can make three tired soldiers into a crowd.
• 14th — Headliner: Once per long rest, cast Sway the Hall (Tier 4) as part of a performance without adding any Fray, its radius doubled. Every creature that fails remembers the show fondly — even afterward, even the ones you turned away from murder.

The Counterpoint

You were trained for courts and guild-halls — the envoy who hears the argument under the argument and answers it.

• 3rd — Diplomat’s Ear: Gain proficiency in Insight and Persuasion (expertise in one you already have). Read the Room also tells you what a creature wants from the current conversation, in a short phrase.
• 6th — Turn the Phrase: When a creature within 30 feet makes a Charisma check against you or an ally, use your reaction and spend one Heartstring Die to subtract the roll — and if this makes it fail, you learn one true thing it was concealing.
• 10th — Under Truce: Creatures charmed or calmed by your Heart Workings treat the effect’s end gently — no hostility from the memory of it unless you harmed them during it. Your Open Door (Tier 2) lasts 8 hours.
• 14th — The Word That Stops the War: Once per long rest, when initiative would be rolled, speak first: every creature that can hear you makes a Wisdom save or cannot attack until the end of its second turn. You gain 1 Fray automatically — holding that many hearts still, even for twelve seconds, costs.

The Cadence

You are the front-line heart — the war-chanter whose drum is the reason the shield-wall is still a wall.

• 3rd — March Discipline: Gain proficiency with medium armor, shields, and martial melee weapons. Your Heartstring Dice can be given as part of the Attack action, not only as a bonus action, while you are within 10 feet of an enemy.
• 6th — Chant of the Line (reaction): When an ally within 30 feet fails a saving throw against being frightened, charmed, or stunned, spend one Heartstring Die: they add the roll and may succeed instead. Nobody breaks on your beat.
• 10th — Second Wind of the Company: When you use Song Between, it also functions in combat: once per short rest, as an action, every ally within 30 feet may immediately spend one Hit Die to regain HP, adding your Charisma modifier.
• 14th — Death-March Coda: Once per long rest, when an ally within 60 feet drops to 0 HP, use your reaction: they drop to 1 HP instead, immediately move up to their speed, and make one attack — the chant refuses to let them fall on the downbeat. You gain 1 Fray automatically; you have played a heart at its very last string.