TEXT: EN World EN5idEr | Legend of the Heart-Eater
   
  writing James J. Haeck
   color art Kim Van Deun
   
  editing James J. Haeck
   
  layout Eric Life-Putnam
  S
  treaks of red bleed into your vision, 
  and you feel your life end.
  You open your eyes and gaze out upon a 
  claustrophobic, lightless chamber. A sear-
  ing pain flashes through your chest, and 
  you feel an incredible weight within it, 
  pulling you down and pinning you to the 
  ground. From the darkness emerges two 
  crimson lights—eyes, fixated upon your 
  prostrate form. 
  A voice bubbles out of the darkness, ad-
  dressing you. “Your heart is killing you. 
  Moments from now, back in the world of 
  the living, your heart will pump the last 
  drops of precious blood out of the wound 
  in your body.”
  A hand emerges from the void, concealed 
  within a white glove stained with blood. “I 
  can save your fragile life and return you 
  more powerful than before. All I ask for in 
  return is your treacherous heart.”
  The LEgend of the
  H e ar t
  E at e r
  
  Legend of the Heart-Eater | EN World EN5idEr
  Open Game Content | The game rule information 
  in this article is designated Open Game Content. All other 
  material in this article, including maps and illustrations 
  (including illustrations in the public domain), in-character 
  and out-of-character narrative and descriptive text, 
  character and place names, trade dress, “EN Publishing,” 
  “EN World,” “EN5ider,” EN Publishing product 
  and article titles, and  EN World and EN Publishing 
  logos, are designated Product Identity.
  The legend of the Heart-Eater is a story told by vet-
  erans of war—some old and scarred, others young 
  and freshly wounded. It is told by folk who’ve 
  dined at death’s door and somehow returned to tell 
  the tale. In their stories, the Heart-Eater appears as 
  a monster in the dark, stinking of iron and smiling 
  hungrily like the skull of Death itself. 
  The Heart-Eater’s appearance varies. There was 
  a young commoner who was stabbed in the chest 
  by a mugger, and was awoken by gentle kiss and 
  a delicate hand on his chest. There was a middle-
  aged sage whose experimental spell wreathed her 
  in flame, but was saved by a woman made of star-
  light who passed through the flames unburned. 
  In all these stories, only one thing is constant. 
  The Heart-Eater appears before you when you are 
  on the verge of death and offers to save your life—
  and only asks for your heart in return. 
  Meeting the Heart-Eater
  The Heart-Eater is a new warlock patron that is best 
  used as a tool for the Game Master. While it can be 
  offered to players as a character customization op-
  tion, it is most potently deployed when a character 
  rolls their third death save—and dies. The Heart-
  Eater appears to the dying character in the split 
  second before they die, supernaturally stretching 
  that instant into minutes. In those precious minutes, 
  it offers them a second chance at life. It whispers 
  that their heart has betrayed them, stupidly pump-
  ing their lifeblood into the dirt through a mortal 
  wound, and offers to save their life by taking their 
  treacherous heart from their chest and replacing 
  their blood with magic.  
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  A character that accepts the Heart-Eater’s offer is 
  restored to full hit points and automatically gains 
  a level in the warlock class, if they are not already 
  a warlock. If the dying character already has levels 
  in the warlock class, they do not gain additional 
  warlock levels, but the Heart-Eater demands that 
  they break their pact with their current patron and 
  take it as their new patron instead. In addition to 
  impling that there will be strong (but interesting) 
  narrative consequences to this decision, the GM 
  should make it clear to the player that this choice 
  will have a mechanical impact on their character. It 
  will grant them a level in a class that they may not 
  have otherwise chosen, so be sure that your players 
  are okay with the story of the game disrupting their 
  characters’ “builds.” 
  A simple way of handling a player gaining a new 
  level in the middle of a session is to simply have all 
  other characters gain a level as well. If you follow 
  strict XP guidelines, you can also “loan” the pact-
  making character a level by giving them a level now 
  and not having that character gain a level when 
  they reach the required XP threshold. 
  The roleplaying implications of breaking a pact 
  are left to you to decide, but some samples are pro-
  vided below:
  
  EN World EN5idEr | Legend of the Heart-Eater
  Pactbreaker Table: The Archfey
  1d4 Broken Pact Result
  1
  The Archfey infests the pactbreaker’s camp with 
  a poltergeist (variant specter) for a year and a 
  day. If the poltergeist is destroyed, a new one 
  appears after 1d10 days.
  2
  Whenever the pactbreaker casts a spell of 1st 
  level or higher, they must make a DC 10 Wisdom 
  saving throw. On a failure, they are transported 
  to a random location in the Feywild until the end 
  of their next turn.
  3
  When the pactbreaker wakes up from their next 
  long rest, they find the Archfey in bed with them, 
  in humanoid form and wearing a regal ensemble. 
  The Archfey is not angry, but wants to know what 
  went wrong in their relationship. 
  4
  When the pactbreaker wakes up from their next 
  long rest, a massive bouquet of otherworldly 
  lilies has been left next to their bedroll. On it is a 
  card written in elegant, flowing script that reads: 
  “Sorry to see you go. Safe travels—I hope we 
  never meet again, or else.” 
  Pactbreaker Table: The Fiend
  1d4 Broken Pact Result
  1
  The Fiend hires a company of fiendish 
  mercenaries from Gehenna to pursue the 
  pactbreaker and deliver their soul to him. This 
  company is comprised of 1d6 neutral evil fiends 
  of the GM’s choice. They locate the pactbreaker 
  within 1d10 days unless prevented by magic such 
  as the nondetection spell.
  2
  The Fiend manipulates flames around the 
  pactbreaker, causing the pactbreaker to gain 
  vulnerability to fire damage for the next 1d10 
  days. 
  3
  The Fiend tries to subvert the Heart-Eater’s 
  power. Whenever the pactbreaker casts eldritch 
  blast, it deals fire damage instead of force 
  damage.  
  4
  For the next 1d10 days, all food the pactbreaker 
  eats tastes of ashes and all liquids the 
  pactbreaker drinks tastes of oil. They must 
  succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or 
  vomit after completing a meal.
  Pactbreaker Table: The Old One
  1d4 Broken Pact Result
  1
  For the next 1d10 days, whenever the 
  pactbreaker takes a long rest, they must make 
  a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, the 
  pactbreaker is plagued by horrifying nightmares 
  of the Old One’s revenge and only gains the 
  benefits of a short rest instead.  
  2
  For the next 1d10 days, whenever the 
  pactbreaker rolls initiative, they must make 
  a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw as the Old One 
  summons shadowy visions of every creature 
  the pactbreaker has ever killed. On a failure, the 
  pactbreaker’s speed is reduced to 0 until the end 
  of their first turn in combat.
  3
  For the next 1d4 days, the pactbreaker must 
  make a DC 10 Wisdom saving throw when they 
  make their first attack in a combat encounter. On 
  a failure, the Old One takes over their mind and 
  attacks the nearest friendly creature instead of 
  the attack’s target, then relinquishes control of 
  the pactbreaker’s mind.
  4
  For the next day, the pactbreaker’s arms are 
  replaced by tentacles after they complete a long 
  rest. The pactbreaker’s arms return to normal 
  after completing another long rest.
  
  Legend of the Heart-Eater | EN World EN5idEr
  Otherworldly Patron: 
  The Heart-Eater
  The Heart-Eater hungers for the emotions of life. It 
  longs to feel love and hatred, anxiety and elation. 
  By making a pact with you and taking your heart, 
  the Heart-Eater leaves your chest light and free. It 
  constantly urges you to live life to the fullest and 
  experience all the dizzying highs and despairing 
  lows that reckless life brings. Yet you never feel 
  fully satisfied, for little do you know that your pa-
  tron steals your emotions from your empty chest, 
  feeding upon their potency.
  Though you look the same and may seem the 
  same to casual acquaintances after making a pact 
  with the Heart-Eater, close friends may realize that 
  something has changed in you. You are brighter, 
  more energetic, and less risk-averse in public, but 
  grow dour, depressed, and even cruel in private. 
  You may try to regain your heart in order to break 
  your pact with the Heart-Eater, but doing so could 
  be the goal of an adventure or an entire campaign.
  Expanded Spell List
  The Heart-Seeker lets you choose from an expand-
  ed list of spells when you learn a warlock spell. The 
  following spells are added to the warlock spell list 
  for you. 
  Heart-Eater Patron Spells
  Spell Level
  Spells
  1st
  false life, sleep
  2nd 
  alter self, calm emotions
  3rd 
  bestow curse, nondetection
  4th
  death ward, polymorph
  5th
  animate object, modify memory
  Heartless
  Starting at 1st level, your patron plucks your heart 
  from your chest, dulling your emotions. You have 
  advantage on saving throws against being charmed 
  or frightened. Additionally, any effect that changes 
  your emotional state, such as being charmed, fright-
  ened, or entering a barbarian Rage, affects you for 
  only half its usual duration.
  Bloodless
  Also at 1st level, you no longer bleed, for your life 
  is sustained by the magic of your patron. You are 
  immune to spells and effects that require a target 
  to have blood. When you are reduced to 0 hit points, 
  you do not make death saving throws. You can still 
  fail death saving throws when you take damage 
  while at 0 hit points.
  Arcane Vitality
  Starting at 6th level, the magic that courses through 
  your veins fortifies you whenever you call upon the 
  Heart-Eater’s strength. When you cast a warlock 
  spell of 1st level or higher, you gain temporary hit 
  points equal to twice the level of the spell slot used. 
  Cruel Retribution
  Starting at 10th level, you are quick to retort to any 
  slight. When you are hit by an attack, you can use 
  your reaction to make a melee weapon attack or cast 
  eldritch blast at the creature that attacked you. 
  If your attack hits, you can choose to reduce the 
  target’s speed to 0 until the start of its next turn. 
  Once you do this, you cannot do it again until you 
  complete a short or long rest. 
  Heartseeker
  Starting at 14th level, when you hit a creature with 
  an attack, you can use this feature to cause the at-
  tack to strike its heart directly. The attack’s damage 
  is tripled and the creature must make a Constitu-
  tion saving throw against your warlock spell save 
  DC. On a failed save, it is paralyzed for 1 minute. It 
  can repeat this saving throw at the end of each of its 
  turns, ending the effect on a success. 
  If this damage reduces the creature to 0 hit points, 
  the creature dies and its heart appears in your hand. 
  Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again 
  until you finish a long rest.
  
  EN World EN5idEr | Legend of the Heart-Eater
  Eldritch Invocations
  Bloodless Blade
  Prerequisite: Heart-Eater patron, Pact of the Blade 
  feature
  When you hit with an attack using your pact 
  weapon, you can spend a number of temporary hit 
  points up to your warlock level. The target takes ex-
  tra force damage equal to the number of temporary 
  hit points you spent. 
  Devour Emotions 
  Prerequisite: Heart-Eater patron, Pact of the Tome 
  feature
  You can cast calm emotions once without using a 
  warlock spell slot. You can’t do so again until you 
  finish a long rest.
  Additionally, whenever you cast calm emotions, 
  you gain temporary hit points equal to twice the 
  number of creatures that fail their saving throw 
  for the duration of the spell. These temporary hit 
  points stack with your other temporary hit points 
  and are depleted first when you take damage.
  Heart Familiar
  Prerequisite: Heart-Eater patron, Pact of the Chain 
  feature
  The Heart-Eater grants you a familiar sustained 
  by your own heart. This familiar can be any ele-
  mental of challenge rating 1 or lower, and can be 
  summoned using the find familiar spell. As long as 
  you and your heart familiar are on the same plane 
  of existence, the familiar takes only half damage 
  from all sources, and the other half is transferred 
  to you. 
  Additionally, your heart familiar’s attacks count 
  as your own attacks whenever you use a warlock 
  class feature that requires or allows you to make an 
  attack roll. e
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Dungeons & Dragons [multi]/5th Edition (5e)/3rd Party/EN World EN5ider/EN5ider 194 - Legend of The Heart Eater.pdf