How omniscient is contingency

OK, a player wants to have his character preotected from level drain by a contingent deathward. If it were contingent on "if I am level drained", then it would be too late to be effective. But, is it possible to say "if I am attack by someone with level draining ability" or "if I am attacked by a negative energy attack"? Does the magic of a contingent spell know that type of thing? Does it have to be based on something the character would know (or is "if an invisible creature passes within 5 feet of me" reasonable)?

As written it seems omnicient. I house rule it, however, so that it relies completely on the perceptions of the caster. YMMV (this has been debated many times - I don't know if there has been a consensus)

apesamongus said:

OK, a player wants to have his character preotected from level drain by a contingent deathward. If it were contingent on "if I am level drained", then it would be too late to be effective.

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Far too late, this is not magic the gathering with last in first out effect resolution.

But, is it possible to say "if I am attack by someone with level draining ability" or "if I am attacked by a negative energy attack"? Does the magic of a contingent spell know that type of thing? Does it have to be based on something the character would know (or is "if an invisible creature passes within 5 feet of me" reasonable)?

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Those all work. "if I am attacked by a negative energy effect" is most efficient.

Contigency is a high level spell that only reacts to one thing: its stated trigger. IMO the spell will react unfailingly to its trigger when and if it occurs. It will react even if the triggering event is unknown or unknowable to the bearer of the effect. And it can and will interupt actions if it is necessary to do so to fulfill its trigger conditions.

Basically, I use the same reasoning I would for a player cast wish spell. I will adjucate the spell according to what the player is trying to do, not look for loopholes in his actual choice of words. If the player wishes to have a contigent deathward to protect from level draining effects, then let him have it. It is by no means a game breaking situation. Now, if he wants a light spell to go off when he is within 10' of a treasure, I get to decide what a treasure is. Mwahaha.

Are you sure you want to make the spell such a powerful divining effect? For example, would you say "cast dancing lights if my party and I are going to be attacked in 1 minute" is a legitimate use of the spell?

Some other threads that have looked at the Contingency issue. There have been lots of threads, I've just picked some of the longest ones. I don't know whether you'll find a consensus amongst them though!

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=81605

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=80310

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=61036

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=34450

frankthedm said:

Far too late, this is not magic the gathering with last in first out effect resolution.

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Well, yes and no. If you look at readied actions (which are superficially similar to a contingency), they do look pretty functionally like lifo. For the specific life draining example, if it goes off before an attack roll is rolled, then it's fifo, but if you wait until the attack roll succeeds before activating the contingency, and then apply the level drain after the contingency spell goes into effect (or not apply given deathward), then it looks an awful lot like lifo.

"If I'm attacked by..." is a clear case

"If I'm drained by..." is a clear case

but, "If I'm hit by..." is between those two, and; therefore, on the borderline.

3d6 said:

Are you sure you want to make the spell such a powerful divining effect? For example, would you say "cast dancing lights if my party and I are going to be attacked in 1 minute" is a legitimate use of the spell?

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Yep, exactly like divinations. Of course, there is no divination that can predict the future with any sort of reliability. None. Sure there is weal or woe, but it can be incorrect if the state action is not performed. Commune and Contact Other Plane are not known for reliably indicating future events. Even prophecy is vague and hard to use as an accurate predictor. So sure, contigency can be used as such, but there would be a 5% chance per round that it gets a false hit. Or 1%. Or .05%. Whatever. But it is more likely to trip off of a false positive than a real threat. Of course, knowing that combat will occur because your contigency went off makes it that much more likely to happen anyway.

My underlying point is that it is a powerful spell. The magic that powers it has some reasonable limitations, though. I would not allow it any perceptive abilities that limited wish could not produce. Why limited wish, a spell one level higher? Because it can not communicate any information about the threat except triggering the effect tied to it. Since it does not provide any additional information, and it only responds to the effect stated, I see no reason why it cannot have near omniscense. Within the bounds of magic already established, that is.