Pact of the Flesh-Etched

What is written upon me remains mine to revise.

Living Inscription

1st-Level Subclass Feature

During a long rest, choose one inscription: Shelter, Passage, or Witness. It remains until you replace it during another long rest. Shelter: when you invoke a Petition, you may grant yourself temporary hit points equal to PB. Passage: when you invoke a Petition, you may move 5 feet without provoking opportunity attacks. Witness: when you invoke a Petition, gain advantage on the next Wisdom (Insight) check you make before the end of your next turn. Each inscription’s benefit occurs at most once per turn. Your inscription functions beneath clothing and can serve as your spellcasting focus for Pactsworn spells; it does not replace costly or consumed components.

The Visible Clause

1st-Level Subclass Feature

When you gain your inscription’s benefit, you may accept this Term: until the start of your next turn, the mark glows, you shed dim light for 10 feet, and you cannot benefit from being invisible. If you accept, Shelter grants PB + your Charisma modifier temporary hit points (minimum 1), Passage moves you 10 feet instead, or Witness also grants advantage on your next Charisma (Persuasion) check before the end of your next turn. This is a Term for Temptation’s Price.

Veiled Play. Accepting lets you voluntarily gain 1 Arousal.

Unveiled Play. You may instead spend 1 Libido to gain the enhanced inscription benefit without accepting the Term; this expenditure can interact with Temptation’s Price under its normal limits.

Ritual and Social Identity — The Witnessed Revision

1st-Level Subclass Feature

Spend 10 minutes during a short or long rest tracing a harmless temporary symbol while a willing participant names a promise and its limits. Touch is optional. You or that participant gains temporary hit points equal to PB + your Charisma modifier (minimum 1), lasting until the next long rest. A creature can receive this rite once per long rest.

Unveiled Play. You may spend 1 Libido to let the recipient also reduce its Arousal by 1. The rite cannot create obedience, ownership, a Pathos-Toll, or a transferable magical contract. You have proficiency with calligrapher’s supplies, gained when choosing this pact.

Veiled Play. You may gain 1 Arousal during this rite to grant its other participant advantage on its next EROSave before its next long rest. Each creature can receive this benefit once per long rest; resolve any resulting Climax immediately.

Margin of Mercy

3rd-Level Subclass Feature

As a reaction when you or a willing creature you can see within 30 feet takes damage, spend 1 Favor to reduce that damage by 1d8 + PB. You may use this feature PB times per long rest.

Veiled Play. You may gain 1 Arousal as part of this reaction to give the protected creature advantage on its next EROSave before the end of its next turn.

Unveiled Play. Instead of gaining that Arousal, you may reduce your own Arousal by 1 to increase the damage reduction by your Charisma modifier (minimum 1). You must have at least 1 Arousal to do so. The protected creature gains no Arousal: you negotiate and bear the price.

Rewrite the Living Contract

6th-Level Subclass Feature

As a bonus action, change your active inscription and gain temporary hit points equal to your Pactsworn level. Use this feature once per short or long rest.

Veiled Play. When using the bonus action, you may gain 1 Arousal to grant one willing creature you can see within 30 feet PB temporary hit points. After your own Climax activates Fulfillment, you may expend this feature’s available use without a bonus action to change your inscription and grant up to PB willing creatures within 30 feet temporary hit points equal to PB + your Charisma modifier (minimum 1), replacing your normal temporary hit points.

Unveiled Play. When using the bonus action, you may spend 1 Libido to let one willing creature within 30 feet reduce its Arousal by 2. Alternatively, immediately after your own Climax and Fulfillment resolve, you may expend this feature’s available use without an action to change your inscription and let up to PB willing creatures within 30 feet each reduce Arousal by 1. This alternative grants no temporary hit points.

The Covenant Walks

14th-Level Subclass Feature

Once per long rest, as a bonus action, unfold your inscription into a temporary mantle for 1 minute, ending early if you are incapacitated. You gain resistance to psychic damage and all three Living Inscription benefits are active; each can occur once per turn. When you use Margin of Mercy, its range becomes 60 feet and its reduction becomes 2d8 + PB. Its Favor cost and use limit remain. The Visible Clause enhances only one inscription benefit per turn.

Veiled Play. During the mantle, accepting The Visible Clause lets you gain 1 Arousal for advantage on your next EROSave before your next turn. Use the Clause’s existing gain rather than adding another. Once during the mantle, your own Fulfillment lets you use Rewrite the Living Contract’s Veiled Climax effect without expending its use. This replaces the ordinary Rewrite effect for that Climax.

Unveiled Play. Once during the mantle, after your own Climax and Fulfillment resolve, you may spend 1 Libido to let up to PB willing creatures you can see within 60 feet reduce their Arousal by 2. This does not activate Rewrite the Living Contract or duplicate its effect.

Combat Identity

Defender and support caster, expressing chosen promises through living inscriptions.

Desire Identity

Arousal charges the covenant, restraint directs its protection, and Fulfillment turns release into shelter.

Class Integration

Using This Patron Pact.

You gain these features at Pactsworn levels 1st, 3rd, 6th, 14th. This subclass works through Patron Pact, Terms, Favor, Petitions, and Fulfillment; your Pact Boon is a separate 3rd-level choice. Use the costs, triggers, limits, and recovery stated in the individual features and parent class.

Choose this subclass through the Pactsworn’s 1st-level Patron Pact. It grants Patron features at levels 1, 3, 6, and 14. Your 3rd-level Pact Boon (Blade, Chain, Tome, or Veil) is a separate choice; any boon can accompany this pact. Your patron may be any suitable supernatural power: this pact describes the bargain, not a new deity.

Ritual and Social Use

Witness voluntary revisions and promises without making marks a claim of ownership. The Ritual and Social Identity — The Witnessed Revision feature gives the applicable observance and its complete benefits; this guidance adds no additional ritual reward.

Example of Play

Choose an inscription to match the day’s expected pressures, then decide whether exposing your magical signature is worth its stronger effect. A patron’s obsolete clause appearing in a ruined mural, or a community asking you to witness a fair covenant, brings this pact into exploration and social play. All bodily transformations are cosmetic unless a feature gives a specific mechanical effect.

Additional Rules

Rules and Modes.

PB means proficiency bonus. Your pact save DC is 8 + PB + your Charisma modifier. Favor, Petitions, Terms, Temptation’s Price, and Fulfillment retain their base-class rules and limits. These features add no new resource pool. Temporary hit points never stack. A subclass use is expended even if its Term refunds Favor through Temptation’s Price; a refund never restores a use.

Resolution and Safeguards.

Follow the current Mechanics of Desire and Pactsworn rules. At 6 Arousal, resolve the applicable Climax Effect, reduce Libido by 1 where tracked, reset Arousal to 0, and then resolve Pactsworn Fulfillment and any applicable subclass rider. In Unveiled Play, lose 1 Libido as instructed by the core rules; at 0 Libido you are Depleted, not unable to use class features. You cannot spend Libido you do not have. These subclasses impose no automatic healing or Exhaustion on Climax; use only the applicable effect and the core Depletion rules. Arousal gains obey the core limit of 3 per turn. A feature cannot reduce Arousal below 0. Subclass riders neither duplicate Fulfillment nor replace its Favor, Petitions, or later improvements. Nearby Climax events use the base class’s rules and grant no additional subclass effect unless expressly stated. All effects preserve player agency and may be narrated abstractly.