The argument presented in this Reddit post is that the spell find traps can be cast on a legal document to find out if that legal document is fair, or if it contains any non-obvious "legal" traps which would disadvantage one party in a non-obvious way.
The argument is that the description of the find traps spell is:
You sense the presence of any trap within range that is within line of sight. A trap, for the purpose of this spell, includes anything that would inflict a sudden or unexpected effect you consider harmful or undesirable, which was specifically intended as such by its creator.
This spell merely reveals that a trap is present. You don’t learn the location of each trap, but you do learn the general nature of the danger posed by a trap you sense.
So casting find traps on a complicated contract written with malicious intend would reveal that the contract contains a "legal trap".
Is this argument correct?
Best Answer
I think it is useful here to approach this from both the RAW and RAI approaches.
RAW: Yes
Let's take a look at what Find Traps says:
So let's look at each part of the spell in turn:
It seems like the above criteria are met, so the spell should work as written. Keep in mind that the specific trap will not be revealed, but only "the general nature of the danger posed".
RAI: Probably not
I think reading the broader spell, however, indicates this would not work under RAI. Let's look at the examples in the spell:
These examples are all physical and magical traps in the typical sense of the word. Though an examples list is not exhaustive, it does not seem that a "legal trap" would fall under the same categorization as the examples listed. As a result I think doubt the spell was intended to spot "legal traps" in contracts. That being said this is RAI, and since we don't have any guidance, it is ultimately up to the DM, which leads me to...
Rule of cool: heck yeah!
I think this is exactly the type of creativity I would want to encourage at my table, and in the spirit of the rule of cool, would give the party something for taking a rarely-used spell and applying it in an fun and unconventional way.
Keep in mind that:
So I would give the party some hint that something is amiss - maybe the term "bound" in the context of "You bind this demon" is defined strangely, or perhaps the time at which the contract expires seems sooner than the party intended. Whatever the specific case, this is a great opportunity to let the players have some fun, build some plot/intrigue, and reward good, creative, and fun roleplaying!