Oath of Sacred Script

A promise written upon the body must first be kept within the heart.

Lore Overview

The body becomes a chapel whose doors open toward danger. Each sigil records a promise freely made: shelter the frightened, bear witness to harm, and let no entrusted life become a trophy of authority. Those who swear the Oath of Sacred Script entrust their protection to divine sigils inscribed upon the body rather than worn armor. Their living covenant shines across skin, fur, or scales, turning conviction into a sacred ward. Inscription can be ink or divine light; pain and permanent marking are never required. Ordinary clothing may cover the sigils without weakening them.

You are a defender who intercepts harm through a covenant mark. Arousal is the burden your inscriptions retain, making protection more effective as pressure rises. Libido can stabilize that pressure without erasing the cost of release. Vindication renews the covenant’s shelter and sustains your role as a sacred defender.

Oath of Sacred Script Features

Divine Sigil Protection

3rd-Level Oath of Sacred Script Feature

Your sacred script manifests as a protective ward over your body. While you are wearing no armor, your Armor Class equals 10 + your Dexterity modifier + your Charisma modifier. You can use a shield and still gain this benefit. This is an alternative AC calculation; it does not add to armor, natural armor, or another feature’s AC calculation. Ordinary clothing, robes, and ceremonial adornments do not count as armor and do not interfere with this feature. The sigils need not be exposed to function.

Wearing armor suspends Divine Sigil Protection until you remove it; it does not break your oath or disable your other subclass features. This protection is continuous, costs no action or resource, and functions whether or not your table uses the Mechanics of Desire.

Covenant Inscription

3rd-Level Oath of Sacred Script Feature

During a 10-minute rite, mark yourself and designate one willing creature you touch as your ward until your next long rest. You may instead designate a new ward as a bonus action within 30 feet; the old designation ends. You can have only one ward. When your ward within 30 feet takes damage, you can use your reaction to reduce that damage by 1d8 + your oath modifier, to a minimum of 0. You can do this PB times per long rest.

Veiled Play. if you have 3–5 Arousal when you react, the reduction increases by your PB. This benefit does not remove any Arousal penalties.

Channel Divinity: Illuminate the Covenant

3rd-Level Oath of Sacred Script Feature

As a bonus action, awaken your bodily sigils for 1 minute, ending early if you are incapacitated. You and your ward each gain temporary hit points equal to your Oathsworn level + your oath modifier. While active, your Covenant Inscription reaction can protect any willing creature within 10 feet of you instead of only your ward, using its normal remaining uses.

Veiled Play. a creature protected by that reaction also has advantage on its next EROS Save before the start of your next turn.

Channel Divinity: Witness of the Written Vow

3rd-Level Oath of Sacred Script Feature

As a Magic action, touch a willing creature and awaken a witness sigil for 10 minutes. It gains advantage on Wisdom (Insight) checks to recognize intimidation or manipulation, and on saving throws against being charmed. It may freely end the sigil.

Veiled Play. it also has advantage on EROS Saves during this time. This reveals no secrets, verifies no spoken claim, and compels no testimony.

Sanctuary Warrant: Let the Mark Bear It

3rd-Level Oath of Sacred Script Feature

When you use Covenant Inscription to reduce damage, you may issue this Warrant through your unexpended Seal of Sanctuary as part of that same reaction. Increase the reduction by 1d8.

Veiled Play. the protected creature may also reduce its Arousal by 1, while you gain the normal 1 Arousal from issuing the Warrant. This can trigger your Vindication normally.

Script of Steady Breath

7th-Level Oath of Sacred Script Feature

Your ward within 10 feet of you has advantage on saving throws against being charmed while you are conscious; this range becomes 30 feet at Oathsworn level 18.

Unveiled Play. when you use Covenant Inscription, you may spend 1 Libido to reduce your Arousal by 1 after the reaction and any Warrant have fully resolved. You cannot use this expenditure to interrupt or reverse a Climax that has already triggered. You may spend Libido this way only once per round.

The Covenant Survives Release

15th-Level Oath of Sacred Script Feature

Your Covenant Inscription damage reduction becomes 2d8 + your oath modifier. Once per long rest, when damage would reduce your ward within 30 feet to 0 hit points without killing it outright, you can use your reaction to leave it at 1 hit point instead.

Veiled Play. whenever you experience Vindication, your ward within 30 feet also gains temporary hit points equal to your Oathsworn level. This latter benefit can occur only once per short or long rest and does not remove your Exhaustion or Libido loss.

The Living Reliquary

20th-Level Oath of Sacred Script Feature

As a bonus action once per long rest, become a living reliquary for 1 minute. Until it ends, you can use Covenant Inscription without expending its PB-limited uses, and its eligible targets include any willing creature within 30 feet. You still have only one reaction per round. At the start of each of your turns, you and your ward within 30 feet each gain temporary hit points equal to your oath modifier. Once during this manifestation, when you experience Vindication, you may prevent the one level of Exhaustion caused by that event; all its other consequences apply normally. This does not remove existing Exhaustion.

Tenets of the Living Covenant

Write only what you intend to keep. Let your own mark bear the cost of your authority. Protect a person’s right to leave your protection. A broken promise calls for truth and repair; the DM does not remove class features automatically for mistakes or disagreement.

Rules for This Sacred Oath

Choose this Oathsworn subclass at 3rd level; its features advance at 7th, 15th, and 20th level. PB means proficiency bonus; oath modifier means your Charisma modifier (minimum 1). Any saving throw called for by this subclass uses your Oathsworn spell save DC. Channel Divinity options spend your existing class uses, with the class’s normal recovery; they do not create a separate pool.

Veiled, Unveiled Play

Use the baseline effects in any game. With Desire tracking off, ignore all Arousal, Libido, EROS, and Vindication clauses, including Arousal gained from subclass Warrants. Quickstart adds the EROS and Arousal clauses but omits all optional Libido expenditures. Advanced Play adds those expenditures. The attached canonical Mechanics of Desire governs these additions: an EROS Save uses the creature’s choice of Constitution or Wisdom; 6 Arousal immediately triggers Climax, resetting Arousal to 0, restoring 1d6 hit points, adding one level of Exhaustion, and costing 1 Libido. Vindication is the Oathsworn’s name for their own Climax, not a second event. No feature below delays that event or changes those consequences unless it explicitly says so.

Authority, Agency, and Limits

A subclass Warrant is learned in addition to the class’s normal Warrants known, but requires the named Sacred Seal; it neither grants that Seal nor increases the number of Seals you possess. Choose the relevant Seal through your normal class choices to use it. Issuing it expends that Seal and adds 1 Arousal after resolution when Desire tracking is enabled. The class’s applicable Seal improvements still apply. Other subclass features are not Warrants and do not expend Seals or add the Burden of Authority. Temporary hit points never stack. A willing creature can decline a benefit or end a bond without an action; willingness never establishes romantic or sexual consent. At 0 Libido, optional Advanced benefits are unavailable until a long rest, but baseline and Quickstart features continue functioning.

Ritual and Social Identity

The 10-minute covenant rite can be renewed during a rest, leaving the ward free to name what protection they want and what they refuse. It needs no special materials, increases no ritual DC, and creates no additional ritual resource. Outside battle, the witness sigil supports negotiations and testimony without replacing judgment or consent. Your marks establish the obligations you accept, never ownership of another person.

At the Table

At 4 Arousal, an Oathsworn of Sacred Script with PB +3 and an oath modifier of +3 can reduce a ward’s damage by 1d8 + 6 with their reaction. Issuing Let the Mark Bear It adds 1d8, lets the ward lower Arousal by 1, and then raises your Arousal by 1. At 5 Arousal, issuing it triggers Vindication after the Warrant resolves. Without Desire tracking, the same reaction and Warrant still reduce damage, but neither changes Arousal.