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Desril
2010-07-25, 04:35 PM
What sort of limits exist for a contingency? Can it only be when a certain physical event happens, like "If I am rendered unconscious by violent action..." or "when my friend Bob says the words 'abracadabra'"? Or can it apply to things just...being, like "If anyone who I have not told personally told learns [obscure secret]..."?

Jack_Simth
2010-07-25, 04:44 PM
What sort of limits exist for a contingency? Can it only be when a certain physical event happens, like "If I am rendered unconscious by violent action..." or "when my friend Bob says the words 'abracadabra'"? Or can it apply to things just...being, like "If anyone who I have not told personally told learns [obscure secret]..."?

Not clearly defined; ask your DM. If you treat Complete Arcane as the primary source for it, and look on page 139, it has a list, but doesn't explicitly say whether that's an exhaustive list or a set of examples on an open-ended set.

Desril
2010-07-25, 04:52 PM
That's the problem, I AM the DM, I just don't like cutting off options for my players, but I don't want them becoming invincible either. Epic Campaign and certain contingencies...can get impossible to get around.

Jack_Simth
2010-07-25, 05:10 PM
That's the problem, I AM the DM, I just don't like cutting off options for my players, but I don't want them becoming invincible either. Epic Campaign and certain contingencies...can get impossible to get around.
Okay, then make something up. Some simple, hard-and-fast rules you can give your players, like....

1) The spell doesn't have any more awareness than you would have if you were awake (So it can't see invisible things unless you've got See Invisibility up, it can't identify spells being cast on you unless you could, and so on), with the exception that it knows any status effects currently applied to you (so "Trigger if I become blind" will always work, while "Trigger if someone casts a spell at me" will only work if you know the spell is being cast at you, and "Trigger if anyone in the world whispers 'I wish I were an Oscar Meyer Weiner'" will almost always fail to trigger)
2) The complete trigger condition, when expressed in English, can't use more than 25 words (So: "Trigger when I'm under the effects of anything that could be solved by a Heal spell" is a valid 16 word condition, but "Trigger when anyone I do not personally consider a friend comes within three hundred feet of me unless I have spoken the word 'rutabaga' aloud within the last twenty-eight minutes" isn't valid because it is 31 words long).
3) You cannot express things using game-mechanical terms (So "If I am below 50% of my hit points" doesn't work, but "If I am severely injured" might)

Give it to them before they start making use of the spell, stick to it, and you're good.

FMArthur
2010-07-25, 05:14 PM
Craft Contingent Spell is among the most broken and convoluted caster defenses that exist. I would seriously advise against allowing it at all. Most full casters go from "quite overpowered" to "completely invincible" with the simple addition of this feat.

Optimystik
2010-07-25, 06:10 PM
I would definitely go with Jack's recommendations. Limits on what Contingencies can perceive and the length of the conditions players can use are an absolute must.

Thiyr
2010-07-25, 09:46 PM
Personally, I'd be hesitant to allow people to craft recursive contingencies. Letting a contingency occur based on a contingency can get bizzare.

"Cast snakes swiftness on myself the next time snakes swiftness is cast on myself and I an enemy is in reach." Dunno how many other such recursive uses there are, but that one alone would be silly.