Illustration by liuzishan on Magnific
Table of Contents
In the last article, I explained how Archetypes and Paths work in Beyond The Hearth TTRPG.
Now that the basic idea is out of the way, we can finally get to the fun part: looking at the actual Paths.
The Covenant of the Fated is the first finished Path for the Pactbound Archetype, and honestly, it is probably one of the best examples of what we want Paths to do in this game.
Because a Pactbound should not just have a few dark spells and a mysterious patron somewhere in their backstory.
They should constantly have to negotiate, think about the terms of the contract and decide how much they are willing to sacrifice for their lent power.
This is not meant to be a full rules reference. It is a look at what the Covenant of the Fated is supposed to feel like in an actual game: what you do in combat, what kind of problems you create for yourself, and why you might want to play one.
You Were Meant to Lose
Maybe you were meant to die.
Maybe a prophecy had already decided how your story would end. Maybe you were too weak to save a loved one. Maybe you failed and couldn’t accept the concequences.
So you made a deal.
Something offered you the strength to change that ending. To save someone. To take revenge. To finish the task you failed before. To force open a door fate had already sealed.
And in return, it asked for a piece of you.
Not all at once, obviously.
That would be bad business.
A Pactbound with a Covenant of the Fated is someone who borrows power by selling their own future piece by piece. Their Patron gives them the strength to cheat death, twist bad luck, and survive situations that should probably kill them.
The catch is that the Patron remembers every favour and he hates late payment.
Fate had its chance. Now I will have mine.
The Covenant of the Fated Pactbound at a Glance
| Covenant of the Fated | |
|---|---|
| Archetype Resource | Favour |
| Path Mechanic | Overdraft using Debt Cards |
| Combat Role | Close-range controller with reliable support, area control, and strong single-target damage |
| Core Fantasy | Defy an ending that was meant to happen, even if it means owing something terrible afterwards |
| Core Loop | React in the moment, borrow more Favour through Overdraft if needed, then resolve the Debt you created |
| Best At | Saving allies, controlling enemy positions, setting up powerful turns, and turning Debt into damage |
| Complexity | Medium to high: you need to plan at least one turn ahead |
| Best For Players Who Like… | Resource gambling, tactical positioning, combos, reacting to allies, and creating interesting problems on purpose |
The Fated Pactbound is not just a dark spellcaster standing at the back of the map and throwing spooky damage around.
You can absolutely deal damage. Quite a lot of it, actually.
But you are usually strongest when you are close enough to see the whole fight unfold: close enough to react when an ally fails, close enough to control where enemies can stand, and close enough to decide that the current situation is bad enough to justify another deal.
You have reliable options when you want to play safely. You have area damage and control when the battlefield gets crowded. And you have some very irresponsible single-target burst when one enemy simply needs to stop existing right now.
Watch your Narrator look at you with dread every time you stack another Debt Card.
They have a completely valid fear of losing their cool foes before they even get to do anything.
The important part is that the Covenant of the Fated is never just going all in mindlessly, but calculating the cost and considering if it’s worth the Debt.
Favour Is the Easy Part
Like every Pactbound, you use Favour to fuel your Signatures.
You gain some Favour naturally each turn. And when that still is not enough, you have Overdraft.
Overdraft gives you one more Favour immediately.
No waiting. No resting. No hoping that the encounter ends before you run out of spell slots.
You need the power now, so you take it now.
The problem is that every use of Overdraft also gives you a Debt Card.
That is the point where the Covenant of the Fated stops being a normal resource system.
A Fated Pactbound does not have to wait until they have enough Favour for a Signature. They can always push further.
But every time they do, their Patron adds another item to the bill.
Take the power you need now. Deal with the consequences later.
That is the entire Path in one sentence.
Debt Cards
Each Debt Card has a Claim from your Patron.
Maybe it wants you to end your turn beside an enemy. Maybe it wants you to stand beside an ally. Maybe it wants you to buff someone, debuff a foe, use forced movement, strike the same target twice, or simply get yourself into a much more dangerous position than you originally planned.
You can fulfil a Claim to resolve the Debt.
Or you can ignore it.
Your Patron will not stop you.
It will just start collecting payment due.
At the end of your turn, active unresolved Debt Cards deal damage to you. Fortunately, a new Debt Card gets a Grace Token first. That gives you a round to ignore its Claim before it becomes dangerous and basically two turns to pay it off without consequences.
Which means Debt is not just a damage tax.
It is a planning problem.
And honestly, that is where the Covenant gets really fun.
Think about the bigger picture
The beginner version of the Covenant is simple:
“I have a Debt Card. I should probably try to clear it.”
The more interesting version is:
“I have three Debt Cards. How can I clear all of them with one good decision?”
Imagine you gain these Claims in a turn:
- End your turn isolated.
- End your turn adjacent to a Foe.
- Remove two Grace Tokens from other cards to pay this Debt.
That looks like three problems.
But it can also be one solution.
Remove the Grace Tokens from the other two cards, then end your turn adjacent to a foe, without an Ally in 6 Squares range (that is what isolated means on a mechanical level). As a reminder: you usually gain around 3 Favour per turn until level 6 passively. And you just casually doubled the amount without real consequences.
The same applies to other Claims.
A Debt Card that asks you to Buff an Ally can be resolved through Serve Thy Purpose, while another Claim might reward you for standing beside that same Ally. A Claim that wants forced movement can line up perfectly with Creditor’s Grip or Patron’s Claw. A Claim that wants you to hit the same enemy twice can be resolved with two low-cost Manoeuvres.
Debt is much less scary when you start treating it like a small puzzle instead of a punishment.
That is also why the Grace Period exists.
You are not supposed to draw a card, immediately take damage, and feel bad about using your cool feature.
You are supposed to draw a card, look at the battlefield, and start making a plan.
Sometimes You Do Not Plan to Pay the Debt at All
Of course, there is another way to play the Fated.
You can simply decide that the fight should end before the bill comes due.
That is where Shylock enters the conversation.
A typical 4 Archetype Resource Signature deals around 3d8 Damage.
Shylock costs 4 Favour and deals 1d10 Essence Damage, plus another 1d10 for every Debt Card you currently owe.
That can get ridiculous very quickly.
You can use Overdraft to gain the Favour you need. You can draw Debt through Blackened, Serve Thy Purpose, or the optional Debt from A Future Stolen. You can even set up Guarantor first, making an enemy take Psychic damage every time you generate a Debt Card.
Then you cast Shylock.
At that point, you are not really trying to avoid Debt anymore.
You are loading a magical shotgun with your own terrible financial decisions.
And yes, this can absolutely be the correct play.
Sometimes the Boss is nearly dead. Sometimes the group is getting overwhelmed. Sometimes taking three Debt Cards right now is better than giving the enemy another full round.
A dead enemy cannot deal damage – in most cases.
Your Patron still can, obviously.
But that is a future-you problem.
The Fine Print
At level 5, the Covenant of the Fated gains Foreseen Terms.
Whenever you would gain Debt, you reveal the top two Debt Cards and choose which one you take.
That is a small Knack with a huge effect.
Early on, you take the deal your Patron offers.
Later, you learn how to negotiate.
You might choose a Claim that fits what you were already planning to do. Maybe your frontliner is about to attack and you can safely take a “Buff an Ally” Claim. Maybe you know you are about to use forced movement. Maybe you are already standing close enough to fulfil an adjacency Claim.
You are still making a bad deal.
You are just making a bad deal you actually planned for.
Manoeuvres
The Covenant’s Manoeuvres are where the Path becomes part of your moment-to-moment play.
Not every turn should be a huge Signature. Not every turn should put you three cards deep into magical debt. Sometimes you need a reliable tool, a safe option to pay off a Debt, or a way to set up something bigger.
And sometimes you need to react when someone else’s turn goes horribly wrong.
Gloomy Orb
Gloomy Orb is your uncomplicated, reliable damage tool.
It costs 1 AP, reaches six Squares, and deals Essence Damage without creating Debt.
That might sound boring next to claws from another dimension and reality-breaking rifts, but it is important. A Fated Pactbound needs a way to contribute without making every single turn into a gamble.
Sometimes you just need to hit the enemy.
Sometimes saving your Debt capacity for the next round is smarter than spending it because you can.
And sometimes the other players will be very grateful that you did not add another card to your pile right before the Narrator’s strongest enemy takes a turn.
Blackened
Blackened deals Psychic Damage, inflicts Blind, and gives you a Debt Card.
This is one of the clearest examples of the Path’s normal decision-making.
Blind can be a huge deal when the right enemy is affected. It can disrupt a dangerous attacker, make a frontline enemy less reliable, or give your group a little breathing room.
But you are paying for it with another future problem.
That means Blackened is strongest when the control actually matters.
Do not use it just because you can make an enemy – or better, the Narrator – sad.
Although you should probably do that from time to time. The Narrator has their own toolbox for making your life more complicated, after all.
By Other Means
By Other Means lets you move up to half your Movement while automatically succeeding on Saving Rolls caused by moving through or leaving an area.
So yes, you can walk through the cursed fog.
You can escape the burning floor.
You can leave the horrible magical circle the Narrator put underneath you or escape the enemies that just surrounded you because you had to fulfill a Debt.
You cannot walk through walls. Your Patron is powerful, but apparently still has some standards.
By Other Means is a movement tool, but it is also a positioning tool.
It lets you reach the Square you need to resolve an awkward Debt Claim. It can get you beside the Ally and Foe you need to stand next to. It can bring you close enough to use a short-range Signature. It can help you escape a control area without wasting your whole turn.
The Debt Card it creates means you should not use it casually.
But when movement itself is the problem, it gives you a solution that feels very Pactbound:
The normal way is blocked. So you use another one.
Done Deal
Done Deal is a Trigger Manoeuvre that gives an Ally Lucky after they fail a Roll.
No Debt. No Favour. No setup.
Someone fails at the worst possible moment, and you simply refuse to accept it.
That makes Done Deal one of the most beginner-friendly Fated tools, because it is useful in almost every fight and teaches you an important part of the Path: you are watching the whole table, not only waiting for your own turn.
The Fated Pactbound is often the person who turns:
“Well, that failed.”
into:
“Actually, roll that again.”
Serve Thy Purpose
Serve Thy Purpose lets you draw a Debt Card to give an Ally Strengthened for an Attack.
Strengthened increases the Attack Tier so the Ally literally can’t miss anymore.
Your Warrior is about to make the attack that could finish the enemy.
Your Thief finally has the perfect opening.
Your Sorcerer has lined up a big spell.
You can make that moment reliable and your teammate happy.
It is strongest when the attack is actually important: a big Signature, a high-value target, a turn that can resolve another player’s setup, or the exact hit your team needs right now.
It also creates some really nice Debt planning.
If you have a Claim that asks you to Buff an Ally, Serve Thy Purpose can clear it. If you have Guarantor active on an enemy, the Debt you draw also deals damage to them. If your Ally is about to use a Signature against a target you marked with End Him!, you can help create one very stupid round.
That is exactly the kind of teamwork we want combat to have.
Donation
Donation triggers when a creature dies within six Squares.
You draw a Debt Card, consume the corpse, and deal Essence Damage in a 3×3 area around it.
It is not the nicest way to honour the dead.
But it is efficient.
Donation rewards you for paying attention to the battlefield after something dies and can be really stupid for groups of Minions, starting a chain reaction. It can even be used on Ally Corpses of for example the Summoner Archetype, but that’s a topic for another article.
Just maybe check whether the group needed that corpse for something first.
Signatures
Let’s now dive into some of the fun Signature Combos.
Prepare the Boss
End Him! is less about your own damage and more about setting up the group.
You deal Essence Damage, inflict Vulnerable, and then every Ally who hits that target with a Signature before your turn ends adds another Vulnerable. So you can stack it for multiple turns, increasing everyones damage.
Tell your group that you want to go first, then use End Him!.
The Warrior might have their big strike ready. The Thief might have the perfect angle. The Sorcerer might be waiting for the target to be just a little more vulnerable before committing their own resources.
Make Foes Less Annoying
Save up 4 Action Points and 6 Favour, do Anticipation and Patron’s Maw to instantly disable two annoying features of a foe. Maybe the boss constantly shifts away your frontliner or an elite is chasing your backliner.
Make Your Debt Their Problem
Guarantor lets you choose a foe and make them responsible for your Debt.
Every time you generate a Debt Card, they take Psychic Damage.
Now generate your maximum of Debts for Favour, add a Debt Manoeuver into the mix and end it with Shylock, which deals damage based on all your Debt Cards.
That turns your normal risk engine into an insane damage engine.
And a normal turn with 25ish damage into 60+ damage!
Control Package
At higher Tiers, the Covenant starts getting even ruder.
Patron’s Claw tears through a line of enemies, damages them, and moves them to the end of that line.
Broken Reality creates a large area that Fractures creatures inside it. The first time each turn a Fractured creature moves or is moved, it takes Essence Damage, and you can teleport them within 3 Squares.
That gives you some very mean positioning chains.
A target is standing inside Broken Reality.
You use Patron’s Claw to move them.
They take Fractured damage because they were moved.
Then you teleport them somewhere worse.
Maybe back into the broken area.
Maybe behind your frontline.
Maybe beside the Creditor’s Grip claw.
Maybe right into the area your Allies have been waiting to punish.
The goal is to look at the map and think:
“What would be the most annoying possible place for this enemy to end up?”
That is the Fated Pactbound mindset.
The Big Finishers
Not every Signature needs a complicated setup.
Sometimes you simply need to end something.
Cease Their Fate is the cleanest version of that fantasy: your Patron reaches through a rift, takes hold of a target, and tears away part of their existence for a huge amount of Essence Damage.
And Dreadful Sight is the close-range reminder that you are not alone in this deal. Your Patron manifests behind you, damages nearby enemies, and Frightens them.
You are not a fragile spellcaster hiding at the edge of the fight, you are right in the midst of it, kiting foes and creating tactical advantages for your team and yourself.
Building Your First Fated Pactbound
The current version of the Covenant lets you choose Presence or Might as your Key Attribute.
A Presence-based Covenant of the Fated can feel like someone who forces their will onto the world or emanates the dark presence of their patron.
A Might-based Fated can feel more physical and immediate: an officer who sold his future to save his corps in a hopeless battle.
The Skills That Fit the Deal
The Covenant gives you access to:
- Diversion
- Manipulation
- Folklore
- Intimidation
That already tells you a lot about who this character can be outside combat.
Diversion and Manipulation support the smooth-talking dealmaker: someone who can get what they need without revealing the full cost.
Folklore is perfect for the Pactbound who understands ancient spirits, cursed stories and old prophecies.
Intimidation comes to play, when your Patron and their dark authority shows through.
Three Useful Starting Directions
At character creation, you choose a Manoeuvre, a Trigger Manoeuvre, and a mix of lower-Tier Signatures.
There is no single correct Fated build. But there are a few easy ways to choose your first tools.
| Starting Direction | Manoeuvres to Consider | Signature Direction | How It Feels |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Reliable Fixer | Gloomy Orb and Done Deal | End Him!, Anticipation, and one Tier 4 option | You help the group succeed, stop dangerous enemies, and keep Debt manageable |
| The Dangerous Support | Blackened and Serve Thy Purpose | End Him!, Guarantor, A Future Stolen | You create openings for allies, then turn the Debt you create into pressure |
| The Debt Collector | By Other Means or Blackened, plus Serve Thy Purpose | A Future Stolen, Shylock, Guarantor | You deliberately build Debt, then make an enemy regret being close to you |
| The Battlefield Problem | By Other Means and Donation | Patron’s Maw plus control-focused options | You care about positioning, enemy clusters, and making the map dangerous |
All of them are valid.
Is the Covenant of the Fated for You?
You will probably enjoy this Path if you like:
- planning one turn ahead
- spending resources aggressively instead of saving everything “just in case”
- reacting to what your allies do
- setting up stronger turns for the group
- combining features and positioning effects
- making a bad situation better by creating a different bad situation
- playing a character whose power has actual consequences.
You may want a different Pactbound Path if you want:
- a very low-tracking character
- predictable turns without delayed costs
- to stay far away from danger
- a simple damage-focused playstyle without much resource planning
- a Patron who is more supportive and less interested in collecting payments.
The Covenant of the Fated is not the most relaxed Path.
You will have Debt Cards to track. You will occasionally make your own life more difficult. You will sometimes end up beside an enemy because your Patron told you to.
But that is the whole point.
A Covenant of the Fated Pactbound is powerful because they should not be.
They keep winning fights they had no business winning. They survive things that should have killed them. They borrow from the future again and again, hoping there is still something left once their Patron finally comes to collect.
And sometimes?
Sometimes there is.
What Comes Next
The Covenant of the Fated is still in active playtesting, and we will keep changing numbers, wording, Claims, and features whenever the game needs it.
It should make you make that bargain again and again while playing.
Every Debt Card changes your next decision.
Every Signature asks whether now is the time to stop playing safe.
And every time the fight looks unwinnable, the Fated asks his Patron one very dangerous question:
“How much more can I borrow?”
Because fate already had its chance.
Now it is yours.
To stay in the loop and be part of the first wave of playtesters sign up for free to the waitlist below. I’ll see you in the next article.
Cheers,
Jonas
