About Contingency

[Zappo]

A thread in general discussion sparked this.

Consider this contingency:

"Teleport me out if someone casts a 9th level spell near me",

Ignore the ambiguity of "someone" and "near", as well as the destination of the teleport for now.

The questions are:

1) The contingency can certainly know that I'm casting a spell, but can it know its level too? More generally, what does a contingency know about its surroundings.

2) Assuming it's allowed, when exactly does the teleport happen?
A) Before the 9th level spell. So it can be used to escape a Disjunction or Time Stop.
B) After the 9th level spell. So it can't be used to escape a Disjunction (which would kill the contingency) or Time Stop (which would allow me to throw a nuke at you before you teleport away).
C) "During" the 9th level spell, but please explain "during" and how it would interact with a Time Stop and/or Disjunction.

 

[Berk]

It's all in the wording of the contingency. As you have it now.

"Teleport me out if someone casts a 9th level spell near me"

The contingency would go off after the spell was cast.

How does it know that the spell was 9th level, well it's magick, there is no sense to try and argue that it doesn't or that it does. It is magick.

If you wanted the contingency to go off before or during the casting of the 9th level spell then you would have to rephrase the contingency. =o)
I

 

[Zappo]

OK. Let me rephrase the problem.

Is there a way to make a contingency, linked to the casting of a 9th level spell, that would take effect before the spell itself?

 

[Berk]

Sure, phrase it like, "Teleport me to blahblahblah if any 9th level spell is being cast with blahblahblah feet of me."

Some DM's might think this is too broad though and require you to state a specific spell but personally I don't think that specifically stating any 9th level spell is too broad. =o)

Since the companion spell that the contingency was cast with happens immediately and instantaneously the teleport would happen before the spell is done being cast. =o)

 

[Zappo]

That would be fine if the Contingency could tell something (the level) about a spell before "seeing" its effect, IE from the gestures and words, IE by making a Spellcraft check. Whether a Contingency has the possibility to make a Spellcraft check is debatable.

The idea of Contingency having a magical sense equal to detect magic is debatable too, and in any case it would be useless if you need it to trigger before the spell is cast.

 

[Berk]

That would be fine if the Contingency could tell something (the level) about a spell before "seeing" its effect, IE from the gestures and words, IE by making a Spellcraft check. Whether a Contingency has the possibility to make a Spellcraft check is debatable.

The idea of Contingency having a magical sense equal to detect magic is debatable too, and in any case it would be useless if you need it to trigger before the spell is cast.

Using what you just said then make contingency useless cuz it would never work then. If you had it to go off when you got hit by a fireball how would it know that you got hit by a fireball and not say engulfed in flames from a backdraft or something? It's magick. Don't think too much into it. It's silly to debate if magick can detect other things that are magick.

 

[Shard O'Glase]

contingencies are worthless one dispel magic and there by-by. Dispels are so common by the time contingencies exst IMC most contingencies are a waste of an expensive amterial component. The best one so far has been teleport to X if I'm the target of or caught in the area of effect of a dispel. Or my favorite if I'm ever caught by surprise teleport me to X.

 

[Zappo]

Well, if I see a guy waving his hands and chanting, and then a fiery pellet shoots from his hands, reach the ground at my feet and burst into a ball of flame... shortly, I don't need magical senses or a skill check to recognize a fireball after it has been cast, and neither does the contingency. OTOH, to recognize a 9th level spell before it goes off takes a Spellcraft check.

Shard -> it gets worse if instead of a dispel you have a Mordenkainen's Disjunction. Which is exactly the reason for which we need to know if you can Contingency against a specific spell or spell level, and which spell goes first.

 

[Berk]

Well, if I see a guy waving his hands and chanting, and then a fiery pellet shoots from his hands, reach the ground at my feet and burst into a ball of flame... shortly, I don't need magical senses or a skill check to recognize a fireball after it has been cast, and neither does the contingency. OTOH, to recognize a 9th level spell before it goes off takes a Spellcraft check.

Yeah but that is you, NOT the contingency. =o)

 

[Zappo]

Yeah but that is you, NOT the contingency. =o)

I draw the line at skills. Contingency has the sensory abilities of the character, and the same understanding of his surroundings, but not the skills.

Problem is, that's where I draw the line. The spell description is just too imprecise, both in its timing and in what conditions are legit. We could go on debating forever, without an official ruling.