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Magically-Binding Contract: Difference between revisions
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** Spells ''geas / quest'' and ''mark of justice'' can be construed to be a type of contract without paper, as well. Also, people don't have to agree to it, so you can just use it to force people to do your bidding. Though it has a ten minute cast time, so unless they're restrained you'll be long dead before you finish casting it.
** The 2nd Edition ''Tome of Magic'' sourcebook had the Contracts of Nepthas. Anyone who breaks such a contract is struck deaf, dumb and blind. Ambiguities in the contract's language can be exploited.
** ''Al-Qadim'' has "Oathbinding" and "Genie Contract" spells. It also mentions that genies use contract magic all the time, including marriage contracts
** Sareshan Oaths in the ''Living Arcanis'' third party setting for 3/3.5 are another D&D example.
* In ''[[Exalted]]'', Eclipse Caste Solars can sanctify any sort of agreement to be magically enforced by Heaven.
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*** There's also the so-called Goblin Pledges, which allow a changeling to make an impromptu deal with some aspect of the mundane world in exchange for a favour. Like asking the moonless night to hide your from your enemies, in exchange for you busting every streetlight you find for a month.
** The [[Old World of Darkness]]' predecessor game, ''[[Changeling: The Dreaming]]'', had a similar mechanic. Characters could willingly swear Oaths to each other. An Oathbreaker not only was a pariah, but suffered serious game-mechanic based penalties as well. The Oaths functioned as magically binding verbal contracts.
** In ''[[Mage: The Awakening]]'', Mages can use Fate magic to bind a person to their word. Such Oaths are permanant unless their terms are fulfilled or fairly powerful magic is used to break them. The Oath does have the advantage that it confers the benefit of giving the person so bound a potential boost of will to overcome anything that might prevent them from fulfilling it. However, if they break the Oath, they are
* In ''[[GURPS]]'', if you manage to summon a demon (fairly easy) and control it (''not'' so easy), you can order it to do one task lasting up to one hour. The demon is bound to obey, but it will use any loopholes it is smart enough to think of, ''and'' get into as much trouble as possible along the way. Remember how we said [[Evil Is Not a Toy]].
* In ''[[Way of the Wicked]]'' the player characters sign a contract to prevent party in-fighting or attacking their boss, damning them to torment in hell if they break it. {{spoiler|Finding the loophole to exclude the boss from it by getting the rank he is specified to have revoked is critical in the final few parts as he turns against the party}}
* ''[[Stars Without Number]]'' magic expansion has a downplayed version in Pacter class, who specializes on summoning Shadows. Pacters cannot harm their summons or do anything against their intrinsic Principles — doing so immediately leaves the entity uncontrolled, and usually quite upset (though it vanishes normally once the duration ends). Intent matters in that the deal is not broken if a wrong order is given by accident, but an attempt to do it via trickery does this; the author also [https://np.reddit.com/r/SWN/comments/e7ymkk/question_about_manipulatory_manifestations/#fa7kpkl clarified] that the given entity's Principles indeed are the only thing that defines which orders are wrong (a nice way to reinforce [[Starfish Aliens|alien nature of such entities]], too):
{{quote|'''Q''': […] would it be considered a betrayal to have a Manipulatory Manifestation run into a group of enemies and detonate a bomb?
'''A''': No, it isn't- a Manipulatory Manifestation doesn't care in the slightest whether it gets blown up or not, [[Exact Words|being "heedless of the consequences"]], so blowing it up in the process of having it manipulate something doesn't qualify as harm to it. It's okay with the concept, the same way that a war-Shadow is okay with getting killed in battle.}}
== Video Games ==
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