Is craft contingent spell to powerful?

[charlesatan]

Yes but some items just ooze exploitation. And for me, its easier to dis-allow a few items of feats altogeather, than have to argue with the player why he cant do something cheesy

The problem is that a lot of things in the game, under certain specific conditions, can be abused. These items/spells/classes/whatever work okay in isolation or even make great combinations with others. It only becomes broken under a specific set of circumstances. As Michael Silverbane mentioned, it's better to talk it out with the player rather than ban things outright.

Of course having said that, there are a tiny few items/abilities/whatever that can be too easily abused. There's Thought Bottle for example but I could easily houserule it to only work as it was meant to be (i.e. restoring XP due to death, level drain, etc.) rather than the more blatant abuses (i.e. crafting a huge xp draining item and then using Thought Bottle).

 

[starwed]

I'm pretty sure Craft Contingency is inherently broken at high levels, when you can run around with a dozen low level contingencies on at very little cost. It may cost 8 times as much as a scroll, but it's easy to word the trigger such that it doesn't cost an action of any type to activate.

 

[Justin Cray]

Man this feat would be so unfair in the hands of a dedicated BBEG. On the other hand it would make some final encounters more interesting.

 

[Mistwell]

I could point you to a dozen optimization threads using craft contingincy in ways that would just make you shake your head in disgust.

Please do so. In fact I will cut you a break and hold you to only half a dozen.

 

[Felix]

I'm pretty sure Craft Contingency is inherently broken at high levels, when you can run around with a dozen low level contingencies on at very little cost. It may cost 8 times as much as a scroll, but it's easy to word the trigger such that it doesn't cost an action of any type to activate.

Comp Arc page 139

"Triggers for contingent spells are usually events that happen to the bearer of the spell"

This is open ended, but open ended enough for the DM to rule that the bearer of the contingent spell may not be the one to consciously activate the spell. This would lead to a situation where a 15th level character has 15 contingent spells upon them for 15 different situations. Which means that for any one situation, you will only trigger one contingent spell unless you have loaded more than one egg into that situation's basket. The trigger conditions on Contingent Spell may be broken as easily as the conditions for the Ready action. Restrain the triggers for the Contingent Spell as you restrain the triggers for Ready Actions and you'll have less of a problem.

The minimum cost for a 1st level contingent spell is 1100gp, unless you allow the crafter to lower his caster level. If you do allow the crafter to lower his caster level to 1, the minimum cost would be 100gp, and the contingent spell would be dispelled at the first targeted Dispel. Tradeoff either way. And this is only 1st level spells, the casting of which will not disturb the game since the crafter of the contingent spell must be at least 11th level. If you disallow the crafter to lower his caster level, you'll have less of a problem, because suddenly Contingent Spells will become expensive; at minimum 15,300gp for a 9th level spell (17x9x100).

If targetted Dispel Magic is rare in your game, this will be a more powerful feat. Targeted Dispels are very common in the higher level games I've played in, so the power of this feat is mitigated: do you strengthen your offense by permanently upgrading your weapon, or do you sink that money into a one-time-use spell, the trigger for which may never occur, and which may be dispelled at any time? It's a horribly tenuous store of value.

 

[green slime]

I've had no problems with it. But I can see how it could cause problems in certain games.

 

[coriolis]

Man this feat would be so unfair in the hands of a dedicated BBEG. On the other hand it would make some final encounters more interesting.

I used it for Laveth (http://www.stephendaniele.com/gallery/gal_usurper.html) for my version of Monte Cook's 'The Harrowing' (I changed her to a Favored Soul 14 + Divine Level 0). I used it mainly defensively (the 5 protections from energy triggering when hit by the appropriate energy type, cure serious wounds when at a certain hp treshold, etc.)

One thing I noted: technically, the contingent spells are 'items', and so the crafting costs count as treasure... which the party can't ever use.

(I know, I know. It's a pretty literal interpretation that hoses the players. I compensated by allowing them to get a few divine sparks (http://www.montecook.com/cgi-bin/page.cgi?mpress_R4AG) if they managed to defeat Laveth on time.

 

[Vegepygmy]

The thing about Craft Contingent Spell is that a single targeted greater dispel magic can ruin your whole day.

 

[airwalkrr]

Craft Contingent spell is prohibitively expensive, first of all. That means its usefulness is very limited for PCs. Secondly, if you follow the guidelines for NPC wealth in the DMG, then NPCs gain little use out of it since it costs so much. Add to that the simple fact that a dispel magic can ruin it, and I would hardly say it is too powerful.

 

[Nail]

I'm pretty sure Craft Contingency is inherently broken at high levels, when you can run around with a dozen low level contingencies on at very little cost.

That's exactly what I had my high level Clr do. My favorites were 1st land 2nd evel spells, like Obscuring Mist, Lesser Vigor, Ghost Touch Armor, Invisibility, Feather Fall, etc.....and that was before Spell Compendium introduced all of those swift spells.