Contingency, Craft contingent Spell, Shadow Evocation, etc.

[D4rkh0rus]

I've been wondering how exactly does contingency work, what kind of stuff (examples) can be done with it, and then I have a question.

Given an Ur-priest with maxed UMD (lets assume he has a +30 modifier and can take 10, therefore hes able to operate every non-epic item).

Would It be a good idea to obtain the ability to make contingent spells? If so what would be the better way?

From what I gathered, the methods of obtaining Contingency would be either UMD'ing a scroll of contingency or greater shadow evocation, or getting the Craft Contingent Spell feat.

Would I be able to make a spell stored inside a scroll/wand/etc into a contingent spell?

This is mainly Cause I wanted to have a "get out of jail button" I.e a Contingent Teleport or Word of Recall.

Also, can variable trigger conditions be given? (Say for example, "if im in the material plane, teleport me to coordinates x, if on another plane, port me in x direction for maximun range")

And finally, is there any way to auto-break dimensional anchor? Like say for example (Im not sure if its doable, but 3 contingent spells, 1 that casts delay death on me If i drop under 0hp, one that teleports me x location if the delay death one is triggered, and finally one that removes dimension anchor/allows me to TP in an antimagic field/etc)

Is such a thing possible?
How can I protect my contingencies from dispels?

TL; Dr...
Is there a contingency Handbook?

[D4rkh0rus]

Anyone care to help out?

[With a box]

1. I think another contigency for dispell dimention anker and old tinfoil hat trick can solve antimagic field part.
Tinfoil Hat trick: Shrink Item on a large cone and wear it as a hat. antimagic will enlage it and you get cover under it

[Vogonjeltz]

I've been wondering how exactly does contingency work, what kind of stuff (examples) can be done with it, and then I have a question.

Given an Ur-priest with maxed UMD (lets assume he has a +30 modifier and can take 10, therefore hes able to operate every non-epic item).

Would It be a good idea to obtain the ability to make contingent spells? If so what would be the better way?

From what I gathered, the methods of obtaining Contingency would be either UMD'ing a scroll of contingency or greater shadow evocation, or getting the Craft Contingent Spell feat.

Would I be able to make a spell stored inside a scroll/wand/etc into a contingent spell?

This is mainly Cause I wanted to have a "get out of jail button" I.e a Contingent Teleport or Word of Recall.

Also, can variable trigger conditions be given? (Say for example, "if im in the material plane, teleport me to coordinates x, if on another plane, port me in x direction for maximun range")

And finally, is there any way to auto-break dimensional anchor? Like say for example (Im not sure if its doable, but 3 contingent spells, 1 that casts delay death on me If i drop under 0hp, one that teleports me x location if the delay death one is triggered, and finally one that removes dimension anchor/allows me to TP in an antimagic field/etc)

Is such a thing possible?
How can I protect my contingencies from dispels?

TL; Dr...
Is there a contingency Handbook?

Two types of contingencies, they don't act exactly the same.
1) contingency (the spell)
2) Contingent Spell (the feat)

The spell says it causes another spell that affects your person to come into effect under some condition you dicatate when casting contingency.

Restrictions on contingency:
Spell used can be no higher than 1/3rd your CL (and no higher than 6th level).
Spell used must affect you. (feather fall, levitate, fly, and teleport)
Conditions must be clear, though they can be general. Examples given: waterbreathing when you're engulfed in water or similar liquid; feather fall anytime you fall more than 4 feet. If conditions are convoluted or complicated, the contingency may fail (DM adjudication time!)

Based on the writing, the authors meant it to be understood that conditions are things happening to your characters person.

So you could have a contingent teleport for anytime you're entangled, or immobilized (which would naturally include being paralyzed). Or when you are prone (although this would be useless if you needed to sleep).

Now, Shadow Evocation. That's a really really bad idea. Here's why:
They are illusions and can be disbelieved.
Shadow Evocation's nondamaging effects have no effect against disbelievers.
A character faced with proof that an illusion isn’t real (For example, the caster of an illusion themselves) needs no saving throw to disbelieve.
So if you cast a shadow evocation contingency, you know it's not real, so it automatically has no effect on you.

You could use dispel magic on yourself, but you'd also automatically remove all your other spells that you cast on yourself and possibly disable all your magical equipment. And even then you might not succeed at removing the anchor.

The variable coordinate teleport sounds both unclear, convoluted, and complicated. So it would almost certainly fail to work. (It almost goes without saying that if your DM approves, then it doesn't really matter if it's rules legal or not, so run this by your DM).

By auto-break dimensional anchor, you mean reactively? No. I believe there's a spell that lets you cast another spell inside an antimagic field...but I don't recall the name of it. Contingencies don't work in an AMF anyway.

[LurKing]

Craft Contingent Spell doesn't have anywhere near the number of restrictions that spells used via the spell Contingency do. Disregarding cost and setup time, the crafted versions are strictly better than the single contingent spell enabled via Contingency. (The easiest way to ignore cost and time is with a supernatural or spell-like Wish to create the contingent spells, since they're treated as magic items.)

As far as using consumables in creating contingencies, I believe when crafting you're allowed "to obtain the spell from an alternate source" such as another caster or consumable, but it would probably use one charge (or scroll) per day of crafting time if you make them the slow way. For the spell Contingency it needs to be cast; using a scroll or wand is considered to be activating and not casting. Ask your DM.

Not really a big deal, but without some specific class feature (or a favorable reading of Hardened Criminal) characters cannot take 10 on Use Magic Device. That being said, if you have managed to obtain the ability to take 10, your math looks right in that a check result of 40 will do the trick.

Your examples for teleportation all look fair individually but I don't know if combining them is kosher; when establishing the contingent spell you should be able to make any decisions that would normally be made during casting (and the target location for a Teleport is certainly such a decision.) If your DM is okay with you declaring your spells "I Teleport 500 feet that way if I'm male, and 5 feet that way if I'm not male, or to my mother's house if it's Tuesday" then your variable contingent trigger is no different. If the preceding statement sounds as absurd to him as it does to me, it probably won't fly.

Using Craft Contingent Spell is the only way to have multiple contingent effects and it's perfectly legal to establish simultaneous trigger conditions. Given the nature of interrupts / immediate actions, your DM may rule they resolve in an arbitrary or random order, so you might want to talk to him or instead set the trigger conditions to be "when my contingent Freedom of Movement takes effect, trigger this contingent Mind Blank."

Breaking Dimensional Anchor is probably easiest to do using the Iron Heart Surge maneuver, but I don't know of a way to do this automatically. On the plus side, IHS can also end an Antimagic Field, so it is useful in more than one case. You could always have a Ring of Counterspelling loaded up to counter Dimensional Anchor of course, preventing it from taking effect on you. The Shrink Item hat has already been mentioned, and depending on what you want to do with your levels before Ur-Priest you could snag the Initiate of Mystra feat; this may result in 'wasted' levels since you'll lose other divine casting once you become an Ur-Priest. (I don't recall the alternate qualifying condition for the Initiate feats, perhaps any divine class that grants domains can be used to qualify? Any prestige class that advances divine casting and grants an appropriate domain would do the trick then. Might have alignment restriction issues, though.) One final option is Invoke Magic, but unless you're trying for dual 9th level spells through Sublime Chord or *shudder* Beholder Mage, you won't have access to it. (IM is a spell from Lords of Madness that allows you to cast one other spell in a dead magic zone, typically a Sanctum Spell'd Teleport while outside your sanctum. Curiously, IM itself doesn't specify that it can be cast in a dead magic zone, even if the intent is apparent.)

[D4rkh0rus]

Thanks Lurking, that was pretty informational.


Not really a big deal, but without some specific class feature (or a favorable reading of Hardened Criminal) characters cannot take 10 on Use Magic Device. That being said, if you have managed to obtain the ability to take 10, your math looks right in that a check result of 40 will do the trick.

Doing warlock 4/Binder 1/Ur-Priest W4 gets the take 10



Breaking Dimensional Anchor is probably easiest to do using the Iron Heart Surge maneuver, but I don't know of a way to do this automatically. On the plus side, IHS can also end an Antimagic Field, so it is useful in more than one case. You could always have a Ring of Counterspelling loaded up to counter Dimensional Anchor of course, preventing it from taking effect on you. The Shrink Item hat has already been mentioned, and depending on what you want to do with your levels before Ur-Priest you could snag the Initiate of Mystra feat; this may result in 'wasted' levels since you'll lose other divine casting once you become an Ur-Priest. (I don't recall the alternate qualifying condition for the Initiate feats, perhaps any divine class that grants domains can be used to qualify? Any prestige class that advances divine casting and grants an appropriate domain would do the trick then. Might have alignment restriction issues, though.) One final option is Invoke Magic, but unless you're trying for dual 9th level spells through Sublime Chord or *shudder* Beholder Mage, you won't have access to it. (IM is a spell from Lords of Madness that allows you to cast one other spell in a dead magic zone, typically a Sanctum Spell'd Teleport while outside your sanctum. Curiously, IM itself doesn't specify that it can be cast in a dead magic zone, even if the intent is apparent.)

Magic Of eberron, or one of the magic of books says that if you worship x god, can cast 2nd level divine spells and have access to the cleric spell list you can qualify for the Initiate of X (X being the god you worship) feat.