Speak as an immediate action?

[anest1s]

@RUMBLETiGER Again, that would most likely result in his death anyway.
@Greenfield Doesn't an immediate action happen immediately prior to an event? For example, a Contingency - Stabbed in the Back would fire immediately before the stabbing took place, thereby ignoring the stab altogether?

If you roll the dice, the dice is rolled. You either teleport before that, or after. If the condition is "someone tries to stab me" then he teleports before, if the condition is "I get stabbed" then after. You can't say "lets wait to see if he will miss and teleport only if he hits, but before I take damage". (Well I don't think it makes sense)

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

@RUMBLETiGER Again, that would most likely result in his death anyway.
@Greenfield Doesn't an immediate action happen immediately prior to an event? For example, a Contingency - Stabbed in the Back would fire immediately before the stabbing took place, thereby ignoring the stab altogether?

I see the issue.
-Immediate Actions can interrupt an opponent's action.
-Speaking can be done as a free action, but not needed to be done on your turn.
-however, as you have stated, a free action cannot interrupt an event the way an Immediate action can.
...and now I understand your OP.

This still returns me to my question about what sort of Contingency you are using. Is the Contingency method itself indicative of being used as an immediate action? If not, it's likely going to be a reaction and not an action-interruption.

And so... I'm not sure how to rule your OP. If the Contingency can be triggered as an Immediate action, and you can set that trigger to be a free action speech, then it's possible that a DM could rule that speaking the words, as the knife arcs towards your back, could trigger the Teleport as an immediate action.

I would like to offer a few alternative suggestions that may serve your scenario, if not address your Contingency Teleport idea.

1. A Contingent Heal or the like spell that automatically restored a ton of Hitpoints after taking massive damage would work after the damage was dealt, and so you'd not need to worry about the order of the Contingent trigger.

2. I checked the Find Spells index and looked up what spells DID work as immediate actions. None of these would require being made into contingent spells, only to be spells you have prepared and ready to cast when you need to. Some options include:
2a. Celerity- Take a standard action as an immediate action, end up dazed for 1 round. Use that standard action to Teleport. The lesser form of this spell grants you a move action which may allow you to move out of the attack's range, the greater version grants you a full action to do whatever.
2b. Deflect- Increase your DC so that the attack never lands.
2c. Delay Death- Even if the attack should kill you, it won't. Use the remaining time to receive whatever healing is necessary.
2d. Hesitate- cause the enemy who is about to kill you to stop, preventing the attack from happening.
2e. Permeable Form- become incorporeal for 1 round, the attack misses.
2f. Stay The Hand- much like Hesitate, the attack never happens.
2g. Warp Destiny- Yeah, just as it sounds, alter reality. That attack that hit you? Now it didn't.
2h. Wings of Cover- If you don't already know about this spell, now's the time to learn it. Yeah, it's ridiculous as a level 2 spell. But there it is.

3. Establish a Contingent Raise Dead or stronger spell that will restore you even if you do die. See that it's delayed a bit, for example set the Contingent trigger to be "one day after my death" or something. I did this back in my 2nd edition days, and it pissed of one of my players when he tried (and succeeded) in killing me in our teen angst, PVP days.

 

[Sekhmet]

Those are excellent suggestions, I think I'll just recommend one of those to prevent the situation from ever arising. Thanks.

 

[Greenfield]

An immediate action *can* interrupt someone else's action. It doesn't always.

It can't, for example, interrupt an action the character isn't aware of.

But I like the other solution better: Speaking is a Free action you can use when it isn't your turn, but not an Immediate one.

Besides, interrupting the DM is rude.

 

[Crust]

As has already been mentioned, speaking is a free action you can perform even when it isn't your turn, which means you CAN use a free action power word, such as "Shazam," in conjunction with contingency to interrupt another's actions. As others have pointed out, the speaker must be aware of the situation in order for that to work.

For example, a wizard could cast contingency on him/herself and set the following trigger: "Teleport is cast on me (taking me to my 'safehold') whenever I speak the word 'shazam.'" If a great wyrm red dragon wins initiative and breaths, the wizard can interrupt the dragon's actions by speaking "shazam" and be gone before the breath weapon leaves the dragon's mouth. Of course, that wizard must be aware of the impending breath weapon and be able to speak in order for that to work.

I might also add that whether the spell is contingency or a contingent spell, speaking is still a free action that can be performed when it's not your turn, and if the trigger is a word, speaking that word will interrupt another's actions, whether that action is casting a spell, attacking, or anything else the caster can discern with his/her own conscious senses (spot checks, see invisibility, etc.).

As another example, the contingency trigger "Stoneskin is cast whenever someone tries to attack me" would fail every time because contingency has no way of identifying an attacker. The spell's range is "personal" and its target is "you," the caster, and there is no numerical value in the spell's description indicating how far out contingency's spell effect extends from its point of origin (the caster). Therefore, only when the caster is directly affected will contingency work properly. That wizard can also set off his/her contingency by taking direct action, such as speaking a command work, which, again, is a free action that can be performed even when it's not your turn (thus, interrupting the actions of those who won initiative).

 

[Greenfield]

This question does bring up something I just wrote about in another thread: Command activated items.

Activating such an item is a Standard Action, but the text in the SRD says that you can activate them by accident in normal conversation if you happen to be using a common word or phrase as the activation command.

Does that mean that I use my standard action out of sequence by speaking the activation word on someone else's action? That seems to be the only way for both parts of that rule to be right, but the result seems so wrong.

 

[irdeggman]

Speaking whenit is not your turn is not a "normal conversation", it is limited to a few words and such.

Activating an item still requires a standard action (unless specifically stated as otherwise). So unless the command word activated item can be activated as an action other than a standard action it cannot be activated outside your turn, or even during your turn without using a standard action to do so (which may include having a normal conversation).

 

[Noumenon]

I believe you should make a general ruling that Contingency activates on external conditions only. Allowing someone to contingently "cast spell X if I say Y" gives you the equivalent of a quickened spell, only better because you can do it during other creatures' turns.

 

[Sekhmet]

[MENTION=70102]Noumenon[/MENTION] Yes, a Quickened Spell for the cost of a 6th level Spell Slot. Why is that a bad thing?
You can use it on 6th level spells, so it does allow you to Quicken one level higher of spell, but takes two slots instead of just one.