Contingency for non-spellcaster

[Kish]

Is there a way for a non-spellcaster without ranks in Use Magic Device to have a Contingency effect, in 3.5ed?

[Flickerdart]

Yes. Complete Arcane and Unapproachable East bring us the feat Craft Contingent Spell. A spellcaster with that feat can place one or more contingent spells on a creature (up to the creature's HD) that then last indefinitely until triggered. The market price of a contingent spell is CL * spell level * 100gp. The crafter must have at least CL 11 to get the feat, so powerful enough mages won't be very common.

[Kish]

Mm, suboptimal, but I can work with that. Thanks!

[Kelb_Panthera]

You can also buy a skull talisman each for contingency and the spell you want contingent but you'll have to work directly with the crafter for how you want the contingency to trigger.

[Flickerdart]

You can also buy a skull talisman each for contingency and the spell you want contingent but you'll have to work directly with the crafter for how you want the contingency to trigger.
Sadly, this is strictly worse than a Craft Contingent Spell - it costs the same amount of money to buy, but you can only have one contingency active at a time and it expires after CL days just like the spell.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Sadly, this is strictly worse than a Craft Contingent Spell - it costs the same amount of money to buy, but you can only have one contingency active at a time and it expires after CL days just like the spell.

It's also far less likely to be banned because of the shennanigans that go with the craft contingency feat. 1/HD is way too many, even to me, and I'm a pretty permissive DM. (Houseruled to 1/3HD)

[Flickerdart]

It's also far less likely to be banned because of the shennanigans that go with the craft contingency feat. 1/HD is way too many, even to me, and I'm a pretty permissive DM. (Houseruled to 1/3HD)

Less likely to be banned by DMs who judge each item on its own merits, but more likely to be banned by blanket book bans. Complete Arcane is a much less obscure source than Frostburn, and Frostburn material is tightly connected to the Frostburn "setting" which some DMs may also ban for that reason.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Less likely to be banned by DMs who judge each item on its own merits, but more likely to be banned by blanket book bans. Complete Arcane is a much less obscure source than Frostburn, and Frostburn material is tightly connected to the Frostburn "setting" which some DMs may also ban for that reason.

People in the latter camp tend to find out, in relaltively short order, that it's a terrible way of achieving any semblance of balance. They also tend to be a bit trigger happy with the ban-hammer as well; craft contingent spell is likely to end up on the chopping block pretty quickly when it's noticed how dangerous it is, as written.

[Flickerdart]

People in the latter camp tend to find out, in relaltively short order, that it's a terrible way of achieving any semblance of balance. They also tend to be a bit trigger happy with the ban-hammer as well; craft contingent spell is likely to end up on the chopping block pretty quickly when it's noticed how dangerous it is, as written.

People in the latter category usually wouldn't notice balance if it walked up to them and punched them in the nose.

[Troacctid]

Eh. Contingent spells are expensive and consumable. If you're high-level and paranoid enough to spend all those resources on them, I say more power to you.

[weckar]

The trigger-and-gone nature of CCS I've found makes it useful for only a limited range of situations. Only time I've ever used it was to create a sleeper agent: CCS to trigger when a specified amount of time has passed, triggering a normal Contingency to trigger when next laying eyes on the local ruler to effectively set off a magical nuke.