Couple of spell questions

[shilsen]

1) When placing a Contingency spell on yourself, does the secondary spell have to be cast by you? The spell description says "You can place another spell upon your person" so that indicates that you must be the caster for both spells. However, I think I've seen more than a few discussions on these boards suggesting Cure spells or even Heal as usful contingencied spells, so I wanted to be sure about this.

2) Does Animal Growth affect creatures summoned by the Summon Monster spell? Since all summoned animals tend to be celestial or fiendish, their type is now magical beast, which should invalidate this spell. Our party mage argued that this makes Animal Growth useless for Sor/Wiz types (who can only get it at 11th lvl anyway).

 

[Dark Dragon]

1) I'd say that the caster of Contingency must cast the second spell also. If you want to combine it with a Cure-spell or Heal, you'll need a multiclass charakter (wiz/clr) or an ioun stone of spell storing, loaded by your cleric buddy...

2) It seems to be useless at the first glance, but...use Charm Monster on a dire bear, boost it with Animal Growth and send it into combat - have fun. CM has a quite long duration (1 day/level), so it's an option for arcane spellcasters to get a powerful companion in combination with AG.

If your mage uses Shapechange and takes the form of a huge or legendary tiger for example, he can use AG on himself to boost his HP and combat power, because his type changes to animal...

 

[Dr_Rictus]

Our party mage argued that this makes Animal Growth useless for Sor/Wiz types (who can only get it at 11th lvl anyway). [/B]

Your party mage seems to think he's doing this thing solo. He needs lessons from a cleric in the fact that not all spells are cast for one's own benefit.

 

[shilsen]

Your party mage seems to think he's doing this thing solo. He needs lessons from a cleric in the fact that not all spells are cast for one's own benefit.

Unfortunately everyone in my party other than my cleric seems to think that spells and abilities are only for their own benefit. And the mage in question is an evil Necromancer/Alienist, so it's a little more pronounced in his case!

 

[AuraSeer]

2) Does Animal Growth affect creatures summoned by the Summon Monster spell? Since all summoned animals tend to be celestial or fiendish, their type is now magical beast, which should invalidate this spell. Our party mage argued that this makes Animal Growth useless for Sor/Wiz types (who can only get it at 11th lvl anyway).

The Summon Monster spells conjure magical beasts and elementals, neither of which can be affected by Animal Growth.

Saying that this makes the spell "useless" is nonsense. Nearly all buffing spells work best when combined with the abilities of other classes, and not all spells are suited in all situations. If your party contains no animal companions and no one can cast Summon Nature's Ally, then Animal Growth is obviously a wasted spell slot. But if the party contains a ranger or a druid-- or even if the PCs just ride warhorses-- AG suddenly looks like a decent choice.