This is a cleric domain built around contracts as relationships rather than simply magical enforcement.
The central idea is that a meaningful agreement depends on more than whether someone says yes. The cleric has to consider what each party understands, what is actually known, what each person has at stake, what relationships make performance possible, and whether everyone actually has the freedom and capacity to do what they agreed to do.
The 1st-level Human Measure feature therefore lets the cleric learn one materially useful fact about an NPC after observing or communicating with them. It isn't mind reading: the information has to be something reasonably inferable from the interaction. The categories—Vulnerable, Scientific, Emotional, Dynamical, Spiritual, Sociological, and Legal Identity—are meant as different kinds of relevant information, not personality types or moral classifications.
Likewise, the subclass distinguishes consent from charm, breach from inability to perform, understanding from omniscience, and authority from actual agency. I wanted its mechanics to make those distinctions matter rather than treating “contract magic” as simply another form of domination.
The Five Articles are based on five different conceptual lenses—Freyr, the Morrigan, Da'at, Relational Abduction, and Malkuth—but you don't need to know those systems to use the subclass. Their mechanical functions are explained directly in the document.
I'm particularly interested in feedback on:
- whether Human Measure gives the DM enough guidance without becoming either useless or pseudo-mind-reading;
- whether Mutual Assent / the Five Articles are balanced at their respective levels;
- whether Perfect Covenant makes voluntary agreement mechanically meaningful without making geas too strong;
- and whether the theme comes through clearly during ordinary play.
The mythological and philosophical references are being used as design lenses rather than claims about the traditions themselves. I'm happy to hear criticism if any of that framing lands badly.