immediate actions help please :)

[finaldooms]

i keep looking and looking but i never seem to find the right spot so i figured id ask here

i know you can use an immediate action when its not your turn ( just like a swift but it has to be on your turn)
BUT
can you use an immediate action when you are caught flat-footed? such as before you take an action ( going slower in the initiative roll)
AND
what about quicken meta-magic..can you use it at anytime? such as on the opponents turn as well?
having an argument with another player because i killed him at the BBEG before he had a turn ( he rolled an 8 total and the BBEG had rolled a 19).. and after i said no he couldnt use an immediate action flat footed he then said he should have been able to quicken cast contengency..which lets him stop an enemy attack in the middle of swinging his weapon

* EDIT* ..so i finally got time to look at quicken meta-magic ..it says you cast a spell as a free action..so i guess he could have used contengency ? ..idk that still sounds really annoying that he could just throw out a sudden stop

[JDL]

Per the 3.5e Rules SRD:


Immediate Actions
Much like a swift action, an immediate action consumes a very small amount of time, but represents a larger expenditure of effort and energy than a free action. However, unlike a swift action, an immediate action can be performed at any time — even if it's not your turn. Casting feather fall is an immediate action, since the spell can be cast at any time.

Using an immediate action on your turn is the same as using a swift action, and counts as your swift action for that turn. You cannot use another immediate action or a swift action until after your next turn if you have used an immediate action when it is not currently your turn (effectively, using an immediate action before your turn is equivalent to using your swift action for the coming turn). You also cannot use an immediate action if you are flat-footed.

Per the Pathfinder Rules SRD:


Immediate Actions

Much like a swift action, an immediate action consumes a very small amount of time but represents a larger expenditure of effort and energy than a free action. However, unlike a swift action, an immediate action can be performed at any time—even if it's not your turn. Casting feather fall is an immediate action, since the spell can be cast at any time.

Using an immediate action on your turn is the same as using a swift action and counts as your swift action for that turn. You cannot use another immediate action or a swift action until after your next turn if you have used an immediate action when it is not currently your turn (effectively, using an immediate action before your turn is equivalent to using your swift action for the coming turn). You also cannot use an immediate action if you are flat-footed.

Your DM is correct.

[finaldooms]

do you happen to know what page/ and or book that is ..id assume players hand book ( for 3.5)
..just so i can point it out to him
..well and tell him to shut up and deal with it now lol

btw the BBEG did die..and killed the party in the process so i considered it a good game, they saved the world, they got to look badass ..aside from one player deciding he quit because he "couldnt" do anything..so i just said he fell and died while flying

[JDL]

This content is part of the Open Game Licensed content, but not published in the Player's Handbook. It was originally published in the Expanded Psionics Handbook but released under the OGL and is included in the SRD due to this. If your DM rules the Player's Handbook as the primary source over the SRD, you're left with the sketchy definition of the Free Action instead. Nevertheless you still can't take an action when flat-footed. The Player's Handbook is crystal clear on this point.

[Crake]

Contingency has a 10 minute cast time, I just want to throw that out there. Perhaps he meant celerity, which is an immediate action cast time, thus has no need to be quickened. Quickened spells cannot be cast out of your turn, as you cannot act unless it is your turn, with the exception of immediate actions, however, immediate actions also cannot be used flat footed, so there's that. Basically, the guy rolled poorly on initiative, and lost out, sucks, but that's how it goes sometimes.

[Flickerdart]

* EDIT* ..so i finally got time to look at quicken meta-magic ..it says you cast a spell as a free action..so i guess he could have used contengency ? ..idk that still sounds really annoying that he could just throw out a sudden stop
Quicken Spell is a swift action. At the time it was written, there was no such thing as a swift action, but they changed it afterwards. A contingent spell, on the other hand, does not require an action to trigger at all - you could have a contingent fireball on "I insult my enemy's mother" and then insult his mother as a free action to blow him up.

[finaldooms]

thank you a bunch, i just showed him this..he was then mad that i had killed the party a few times before ( actually only once on purpose..which i told the party about) ..and i killed him once before ..again on accident. he was running a kobold binder...somthing and we ran into a roc..it grabbed a guy found out FOM doesnt allow that ( duh) so we reset the encounter by like 3 turns..got a hit or 2 in then it grabbed the smallest person to take for food..guess who that was?
turns out he didnt have FOM..when he always has FOM -_- ..so he was mad that a roc killed him ( lvl 12 character i beleive at the time)
the rest of the party has died a time or 2 as well but no one else was mad about it lol
..plus he keeps making more and more overly powerful characters when i tell him to tone it back OR at least let me see what he is making first so i could say no or not

also when they entered the BBEG dungeion i told them that the BBEG MADE this and could see everything that happened in it ( mosto f the party was melee or played it safe with thier powers to hide what they could do) he didnt and so obviously looked like the greatest threat when the fight came to happen

[XionUnborn01]

If he's not playing to the level of the party's optimization AND not telling you what characters he's bringing in, you have a bigger problem than with spell casting times.

[Deophaun]

...which lets him stop an enemy attack in the middle of swinging his weapon
Very, very, very little lets this happen, and neither contingency nor celerity have that capability. I believe there is only one thing in the whole game that can actually force a character to commit to the attack action he was taking before it was interrupted, because it specifically says so.

Anyway, the trick is to have foresight up beforehand, as that prevents you from being flat-footed. 'Course, that's a 9th level spell.

[finaldooms]

intresting.. i just looked at celerity...i see that it says it interupts an oppentents turn
so..idk.. but he still couldnt cast it