Best Contigency Spells

[Lysander]

What are the best spells to have ready with contingency and for what conditions? A really obvious one is "Teleport me to a safe haven should I will it, or should I become helpless while in mortal peril." Some other ones:

"Break Enchantment to free me from any relevant harmful magic, unless I prefer to free myself by other means"

"Bear's Endurance to instantly raise my health if I would die or become helpless otherwise"

"Antimagic Field if I would otherwise be effected by a deadly or incapacitating magical effect"

"Blink if I am ever successfully ambushed by enemies"

What else is good?

[dsmiles]

Contingency....HEAL!

Sorry, I like the Mystic Theurge.

[Edwin]

Break Enchantment to free me from any relevant harmful magic, unless I prefer to free myself by other means

I'm not sure you can make a second contingent activation for a Contingency?

You have to put the limit somewhere, you know.

[Zeta Kai]

"Cast feather fall whenever I fall more than 10'."

That's the most useful/annoying contingency I've ever used. Never be defenestrated (effectively) again.

[PhoenixRivers]

Contingent Teleport is a solid choice.

Contingent Ironguard is another.

For those Cerebremancers out there, Contingent Schism is an excellent choice, as the splinter mind can do a lot to free you from whatever effect may come.

Contingent Dimension Door is an effective battle dodge.

"Cast feather fall whenever I fall more than 10'."

That's the most useful/annoying contingency I've ever used. Never be defenestrated (effectively) again.

Why not use Fly, as you can Feather Fall as an immediate action?

[Tyndmyr]

I'm not sure you can make a second contingent activation for a Contingency?

You have to put the limit somewhere, you know.

You can. However, your mental thoughts are not generally visible to a contingency to trigger it. You can still put manual controls on contingencies, though.

For example, have two contingencies. One is a prestidigitation that does a certain effect on you. It goes off when something specific happens. The other prestidigitation goes off if there is a combination of that effect and (other effect) on you.

This provides you a way to effectively turn contingencies on and off, by using some obscure condition.

[Fitz10019]

Spell: Protection from Evil; Contingency: if I am a victim of any form of mind control

In our campaign, Contingencies are available as an NPC spellcasting service, which charges by spell level, so this one is has a very good usefulnessVcost ratio.

Also, Contingent Detect Scrying is a good way to have that protection without spending a 4th level slot every day.

[PhoenixRivers]

Spell: Protection from Evil; Contingency: if I am a victim of any form of mind control

In our campaign, Contingencies are available as an NPC spellcasting service, which charges by spell level, so this one is has a very good usefulnessVcost ratio.

Problem is, if you're dominated in your sleep, you've gotta make a save to resist the Protection from Evil as well.

[Fitz10019]

Problem is, if you're dominated in your sleep, you've gotta make a save to resist the Protection from Evil as well.

That's news to me. Can you explain that, please?

Edit: ah, "Will negates (harmless)"
I don't think that significantly degrades the usefulness.

[Tyndmyr]

Contingent Spell Reflection seems useful.

You'd need to state the trigger carefully to avoid it being wasted on friendly buffing, but that shouldn't be hard. Anything that gives you good odds on escaping/reducing the alpha strike of a caster is pretty welcome.

Using command word triggered contingencies also seems like a great way of breaking action economy. Speaking is a free action after all.

[Grumman]

Contingent Nightstalker's Transformation when I cast Body of War.

Okay, perhaps not useful, but funny.

[Doc Roc]

"Cast feather fall whenever I fall more than 10'."

That's the most useful/annoying contingency I've ever used. Never be defenestrated (effectively) again.

How about:

Lightning Leap, teleports you right through a dimensional anchor.

Revenance, cast from any number of sources.

Use Share Spells to contingency Body of War on your familiar.

I agree with PR, re: Contingency Schism, and think it's one of the coolest answers I've seen in ages.

[Milskidasith]

"Cast feather fall whenever I fall more than 10'."

That's the most useful/annoying contingency I've ever used. Never be defenestrated (effectively) again.

Feather Fall is an immediate action, meaning you don't need to contingency it.

As for useful Contingincies: Celerity, Invoke Magic, Time Stop, Greater Teleport, and Planeshift are all good ones.

[Boci]

Feather Fall is an immediate action, meaning you don't need to contingency it.

As for useful Contingincies: Celerity, Invoke Magic, Time Stop, Greater Teleport, and Planeshift are all good ones.

Aren't you limited to 6th level spells?

[Milskidasith]

Aren't you limited to 6th level spells?

Craft Contingent Spell. It's like contingency, but broken. And by RAW, doesn't require you to actually know contingency.

[Draz74]

Speaking of Feather Fall ... another option is to trigger a Contingency to go off "when I cast Feather Fall." That way, you can customize the triggering condition to whatever bad happens to you; essentially, you've given one other spell an immediate action casting time, for the price of a L1 and L6 spell slot.

If using this strategy, you might want to buy a Ring of Feather Falling, so that you never have to waste your Contingency to prevent actual falling damage. Also, of course beware of things that can insta-disable you, leaving you unable to cast Feather Fall.

[Woodsman]

Contingent Revivify.

Craft Contingent Spell, or Mystic Theurge, and there you have it. Laugh in Death's face time and time again!

[Lysander]

While contigent feather fall isn't bad, you'd be better off just making a contingent flight spell. Or contigent dimension door to teleport straight down to safe ground. I mean, the contigent spell doesn't penalize you for using higher level spells. You're best off using the most powerful one possible that provides additional side benefits.

[Kobold-Bard]

Contingent AMF is cool when playing a Gish.

"If I come up against a Spellcaster with a Caster Level equal or higher than my own" - Widened Antimagic Field (Contingencies could use Metamagic Rod charges in their setup, but the charge was unusable again until the contingency was triggered).

Meet BBEG (Avatar of Lolth). Trigger AMF. Party proceeds to beat her to death very, very slowly (DR/Epic is a bitch at level 16), moving away from me whenever the Cleric needed to patch them up.

Contingent Protection from Energy can be useful, as can Contingent Sanctuary if used against things with bad Will Saves.

While contigent feather fall isn't bad, you'd be better off just making a contingent flight spell. Or contigent dimension door to teleport straight down to safe ground. I mean, the contigent spell doesn't penalize you for using higher level spells. You're best off using the most powerful one possible that provides additional side benefits.

I think the idea behind Feather Fall is that if it's just going to sit there, unused most days then it's better to use a low-level slot than something more all roundly useful like Fly.

[Lysander]

I think the idea behind Feather Fall is that if it's just going to sit there, unused most days then it's better to use a low-level slot than something more all roundly useful like Fly.

But a contingent spell can last for days, basically giving you an extra bonus spell slot on the day its used. You're better off getting a bonus high level spell than a low one.

The only incentive to use a low level spell is if you need all your high level spell slots on the same day you cast Contingency.

[Kobold-Bard]

But a contingent spell can last for days, basically giving you an extra bonus spell slot on the day its used. You're better off getting a bonus high level spell than a low one.

The only incentive to use a low level spell is if you need all your high level spell slots on the same day you cast Contingency.

Do you get to use the spell slot the next day? I thought it was used up until the contingency triggered...

[Lysander]

Do you get to use the spell slot the next day? I thought it was used up until the contingency triggered...

You can't have two instances of contingency on you at one time, but it doesn't say anything about taking up either spell slot. It's basically "Cast two spells now, get a free automatic spell whenever you want in the next 1 day/level". Since that's the case, even if you want to make a lower level spell contingent its still in your best interest to heighten it to level 6 anyway.

[Foryn Gilnith]

Contingent Revivify!

Or, if you're a druid, Contingent Last Breath.

[cZak]

Yea, Craft Contingent Spell is persona non grata in my games...

Considering the limitation of 1/3 caster level for spell level, when you first gain access to contingency you are limited to 3rd level spells.

So what are good contingencies at the various stages?
</= 3: I generally liked the defensive spells; blur & displacement to foil incoming or surprise sneak attacks. Very few low level 'get away' spells, but Gaseous form would work.

@4th level spells: Stoneskin is probably best insta-defense. D-door for escape, but do you have to state the direction and distance when you set the contingency or can you do it when it goes off?

[Edwin]

You can. However, your mental thoughts are not generally visible to a contingency to trigger it. You can still put manual controls on contingencies, though.

For example, have two contingencies. One is a prestidigitation that does a certain effect on you. It goes off when something specific happens. The other prestidigitation goes off if there is a combination of that effect and (other effect) on you.

This provides you a way to effectively turn contingencies on and off, by using some obscure condition.

Barring sleazy options, such as Craft: Contingent Spell, you can't have more than one contingency.

So no, no two contingency cheese.

Also, how does the above help you? It just means you waste two 6th level slots, and a prestidigitation, to create the same effect.

[Foryn Gilnith]

What makes that cheese, exactly? Fine control of contingencies seems like exactly the thing wizards would try to research in-universe.

[Gametime]

You can't have two instances of contingency on you at one time, but it doesn't say anything about taking up either spell slot. It's basically "Cast two spells now, get a free automatic spell whenever you want in the next 1 day/level". Since that's the case, even if you want to make a lower level spell contingent its still in your best interest to heighten it to level 6 anyway.

Amusingly, Craft Contingent Spell allows you to have a number of contingent spells on you not exceeding your hit dice. If that seems excessively generous to you, well, apparently Wizards didn't think too hard about this feat. It's downright ridiculous.

[tyckspoon]

What makes that cheese, exactly? Fine control of contingencies seems like exactly the thing wizards would try to research in-universe.

And easily achieved by setting the contingency to "When I say the word (something you are guaranteed to never use in daily conversation, probably made up entirely.)" Free action, can be taken out of turn, doesn't burn your next swift or a spell slot the way using Nerveskitter or Feather Fall as the trigger does.

[Boci]

And easily achieved by setting the contingency to "When I say the word (something you are guaranteed to never use in daily conversation, probably made up entirely.)" Free action, can be taken out of turn, doesn't burn your next swift or a spell slot the way using Nerveskitter or Feather Fall as the trigger does.

I thought you couldn't take free actions out of turn.

[Edwin]

I thought you couldn't take free actions out of turn.

You can't.

He is thinking of immediate actions.