Vendor Lock-In

3rd-level Procurement & Resourcing

Casting Time: 1 action, following a successful Three Bids and a Buy
Range/Area: Touch, one vendor or supplier relationship
Components: V, S, M (a multi-year contract with an early-termination penalty clause, consumed)
Duration: Until the contract term expires, commonly 3 to 5 years
Classes: Procurement Officer, Category Manager

Touch one vendor relationship your organization currently holds. That relationship becomes warded: for the duration, any rival organization attempting to acquire the same vendor, or persuade your organization to switch away from it, must succeed on a Discovery saving throw against the early-termination penalty clause’s true cost, deliberately obscured at signing. On a failed save, the rival’s attempt costs them additional resources equal to the clause’s penalty, paid to your vendor, not to you.

This spell does not prevent your organization from wanting to switch vendors — only from being able to do so cheaply. Casters occasionally forget this distinction until it is too late.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, the ward extends to prevent the vendor itself from unilaterally renegotiating terms mid-contract, locking in pricing as well as exclusivity.

Flavor: “Early termination of this Agreement prior to the end of the then-current Term shall require payment of one hundred percent (100%) of the fees remaining…” — Master Services Agreement, Section 22