Contingency - Heal?

[werk]

This came up last night fighting very overpowered bad guys...again.

I understand the level restriction, so you'd need a 18th level contingency caster to hold a 6th level heal, but can someone else cast the contingent spell?

I read it a couple of times last night and didn't see anything specifically requiring where the contingent spell came from...nor anything specifically allowing it aside from the first sentence of the description: "You can place another spell upon your person..." Notice it doesn't say 'cast' it says 'place'. It goes on to say that the spells are both cast at the same time, which almost hints that you cannot cast your own spell that will be triggered.

Case in point is a wizard who's contingency pops a heal on him when he gets below a certain percentage of hit points...it happened twice.

What's your take on it? Conservative? Liberal? Bad wording?

 

[Nail]

If it happened twice in the same combat, that's a problem.

 

[werk]

If it happened twice in the same combat, that's a problem.

Of course it did, but that's secondary to "can contingency trigger a spell that was not cast by the contingency caster?"

At least for the moment anyway.

I had my head cut off by a wu jen in the first round of combat (rolled a 2 on my fort save), so it doesn't matter to my character, I'm just trying to figure out if this was foul or not.

 

[Goddess FallenAngel]

Of course it did, but that's secondary to "can contingency trigger a spell that was not cast by the contingency caster?"

I've always seen it ruled / ruled it myself as "no". The caster must cast both Contingency and the spell that the Contingency triggers.

However, there is a contingency heal spell - I can't recall what it is called now, but it is in Magic of Faerun and was reprinted in the Spell Compendium, that is basically a delayed heal spell that goes off when you drop below so many HP. I think that it's lower level than Contingency, but a much shorter duration - a couple of hours at max, I think. Sure it wasn't that spell instead?

 

[Goddess FallenAngel]

I read it a couple of times last night and didn't see anything specifically requiring where the contingent spell came from...nor anything specifically allowing it aside from the first sentence of the description: "You can place another spell upon your person..."

Which source are you getting that from, I wonder? That wording isn't in the SRD version of the spell: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/contingency.htm.

It does say "You can place another spell upon your person so that it comes into effect under some condition you dictate when casting contingency."

Note the bolded part.

 

[werk]

I've always seen it ruled / ruled it myself as "no". The caster must cast both Contingency and the spell that the Contingency triggers.

However, there is a contingency heal spell - I can't recall what it is called now, but it is in Magic of Faerun and was reprinted in the Spell Compendium, that is basically a delayed heal spell that goes off when you drop below so many HP. It's lower level than Contingency, but a much shorter duration - a couple of hours at max, I think. Sure it wasn't that spell instead?

Me too, and no, I'm not sure it wasn't that spell aside from the DM said "When you hit him, his contingency goes off and he's fully healed." He always talks meta like that.

Anyone know what that spell is called so I can look it up quick? He'd be able to cast it as we were basically ambushed.

 

[hafrogman]

Reading the spell, I'd say the clear intention was that the caster of contingency is the caster of both spells. The spells are cast at the same time. . . over a ten minute period of time.

The wording is unusual though, I will grant you that.

That said, depending on the books being used, it is possible for a sorcerer to cast heal.

 

[werk]

Which source are you getting that from, I wonder? That wording isn't in the SRD version of the spell: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/contingency.htm.

It does say "You can place another spell upon your person so that it comes into effect under some condition you dictate when casting contingency."

Note the bolded part.

Now I'm confused...isn't the bolded part the part I quoted? I got mine from the PHB.

 

[Goddess FallenAngel]

I also note that there can only be one contingency on a given person at a time, according to the wording of the spell.

"You can use only one contingency spell at a time; if a second is cast, the first one (if still active) is dispelled."

Sounds like you might have problems with you DM if the bad guy had 2 of them... but it sounds like you already guessed that.

 

[Goddess FallenAngel]

Now I'm confused...isn't the bolded part the part I quoted? I got mine from the PHB.

Heh... you're right, I misread it to say "another person". My bad, not yours.


Sorry, wish I could recall the name of the contingency heal spell... I can recall the books that it is in, but we always refer to it as "Auto-Life" or "Life 3"in the game (video game references), so I can't recall the name, and I am at work, so no access to books.