Contingency

[Emperor Demonking]

If a wizard doesn't know who he'll face that day. What would a typical contigency be.

I'd probably do, dimension door- whenever the wizard feels he's in danger.

[Emperor Tippy]

A good contingency trigger if you don't know what you are going to face or don't have a specific circumstance in mind is "If I cast Feather Fall".

Feather Fall being an Immediate Action means that you can use it on other peoples turns while not having to come up with overly complicated triggering conditions.

I generally use Dimension Door or Teleport as my effects. Greater Heroism can be useful as well as part of a general use contingency.

If you can use stuff outside of core you get a lot more options. And if you are playing with Craft Continent Spell then you should have more tailored contingencies.

[TheLogman]

Whenever "I take more than a certain amount of damage" is good. If you know that you're facing against anything specific, like archers, a certain element, or anything that can be foiled by any certain spell, then a protection from it can be great, especially if the danger requires a short-lived protection that can't be buffed, or the danger is surprising.

Another good one is whenever I roll initiative, Celerity. If your DM says that that's too meta-game, change it to whenever I am aware of hostile creatures or subject to a dangerous or damaging substance. Celerity allows for more versatility.

[Sornjss Lichdom]

I like the casting feather fall also, but if you get some sort of magic induced stupor then your screwed, but if you say "If my mind becomes aldeled" then a mean DM will have you teleportin away if you take a sip of wine. Go with "If I cast feather fall, or become magicaly inable to cast spells." that ought to do it.

[Toliudar]

For metagame reasons, I don't have DD or teleport as my wizard's contingency - since there's a good chance that, if triggered, it means I'm abandoning the group when they're in serious trouble.

Right now, my contingency's set for "if I get below X hit points", and is a polymorph spell. I'm hoping that, between the regained hit points and the ability to change into one of any number of creatures, depending on the situation, it's enough to help my wiz survive without running away.

[Sornjss Lichdom]

ya but what if you get somthing like Domanite Monster cast on you, then you SOL.

[Chronos]

I think that all choices related to the triggered spell must be set at time of casting, not triggering. So for a Polymorph, you need to choose the form in advance, and for Teleport, you need to choose the destination.

Myself, I would use "If I am ever rendered incapable of casting spells with verbal and somatic components". As a wizard, as long as I can cast my full selection of spells (or close to it), I'm in pretty good shape. If I'm somehow rendered incapable of casting the bulk of my spells, though, I may have a problem. This trigger would cover being caught in a Silence spell, or being incapacitated somehow, or being immobilized, or possibly being caught in an antimagic field (depending on how one rules on the timing of triggered events).

Emperor Tippy, I see what you're getting at with the Feather Fall thing, but why not just make it "Whenever I say the word 'zounds'" instead? Talking is a free action that can be taken at any time, so you could still trigger it whenever you wanted, but it wouldn't depend on you being able to cast a spell, and wouldn't use up a spell slot or a swift action (of which you only get one per round). In either case, though, a trigger that depends on something you do won't help if you're suddenly incapacitated.

[Green Bean]

ya but what if you get somthing like Domanite Monster cast on you, then you SOL.

As opposed to a (lower level) Dominate Person when the spell isn't active?

[OneWinged4ngel]

((Blargh, double post!))

[OneWinged4ngel]

I personally houserule that you cannot state a contingency in metagame terms (like "I take 10 damage" or "If I don't win initiative"), and that contingency provides no special awareness or sixth sense of its own. For example, if your contingency is "when an enemy approaches within 100 feet" it's not going to notice an invisible foe unless you yourself do.

Anyways, these little changes make the spell a good deal more manageable.

Whenever "I take more than a certain amount of damage" is good.

Also, I'd think you should like to AVOID damage, since at higher levels you'll often go squish if people manage to do it to you.

A good contingency trigger if you don't know what you are going to face or don't have a specific circumstance in mind is "If I cast Feather Fall".

Feather Fall being an Immediate Action means that you can use it on other peoples turns while not having to come up with overly complicated triggering conditions.

There's a bit of a problem with your thinking here. Yes, Immediate Action is good, but Contingency can do better than that. Speaking is a special free action that can be done outside the boundaries of your turn. Basically, it's a costless immediate action. As a result, you can say "I speak whatever word" as a better-than-immediate activation to spur spell combos or counters. No need to set some random spell to it.

If you're worried about silence or control sound, of course, you could do something more along the lines of "if I use the hand motion." Sign language doesn't take a different kind of action than verbal communication, after all.

[Inyssius Tor]

Emperor Tippy, I see what you're getting at with the Feather Fall thing, but why not just make it "Whenever I say the word 'zounds'" instead? Talking is a free action that can be taken at any time, so you could still trigger it whenever you wanted, but it wouldn't depend on you being able to cast a spell, and wouldn't use up a spell slot or a swift action (of which you only get one per round). In either case, though, a trigger that depends on something you do won't help if you're suddenly incapacitated.

You already mentioned the silence spell in your post, which neatly disables the word "zounds." I like your "If I am ever rendered incapable of casting spells with verbal and somatic components", but I would add "... or come within one half-inch of any effect that nullifies magic," if that isn't too complex for a contingency's trigger.

[Skjaldbakka]

Basically, it's a costless immediate action. As a result, you can say "I speak the command word" as a better-than-immediate activation to spur spell combos or counters.

Most DMs I play with (actually, I use this rule as well), will not allow you to speak when flat-footed. Also, even if that rule is not in play, you don't want to use the phrase 'command word' in your contingency, as using a command word is a standard action. As opposed to speaking a specific word, which apparently is not.

I like the contingency (triggered by)featherfall, though.

[OneWinged4ngel]

I like the contingency (triggered by)featherfall, though.

Why? That eats up your immediate/nextswift action. I like those things!

[Skjaldbakka]

Because most of my DMs would rule your method counts as a command word. Command words are standard actions. I need those more.

[OneWinged4ngel]

Because most of my DMs would rule your method counts as a command word. Command words are standard actions. I need those more.

That's just silly. Your contingency is "when I speak the word abracadabra." You can speak the word abracadabra as a special free action. Saying otherwise is a (rather silly) houserule. Especially since many Immediate action spells have verbal components.

You're basically trying to tell me that speaking a word normally somehow takes a standard action when it is connected to a contingency (but in no other case) but when invoking a spell, speaking a string of words takes less time. Essentially, when using a very complex arcane process, perhaps throwing in hand motions for good measure, and speaking however many words, you take less time than speaking a single word with no strings attached. An you are further telling your players with this absurd ruling that a sentence like "Hey, look at me, I am saying things" takes a full 48 seconds to get out of your mouth, since it takes a whopping 8 rounds to say it. I'm sorry, but while I've met my share of unreasonable DMs playing online, I've never met one THAT unreasonable. If you have DMs that rule that way, I pity you, because even my worst DM horror stories don't include decisions that make that little sense.

Further, if you somehow rule that a hand motion or whatever cannot be a special free action, you can simply specify the lip movements of whatever word you would have spoken as the trigger, thus making the actual sound irrelevant.

[Skjaldbakka]

You're basically trying to tell me that speaking a word normally somehow takes a standard action when it is connected to a contingency (but in no other case) but when invoking a spell, speaking a string of words takes less time.

As opposed to wiggling your fingers and speaking gibberish only taking an action of any sort when it is a spell? You already suggested making a handsign and/or speaking abracadabra as a suggestion for triggering a contingency. Not to mention the fact that speaking a word to trigger a magical effect has precedent in the D20 rules (command word triggered magic items are, standard actions, as they ought to be, since command word activation is a cost reducer.

I don't use that rule, btw. I do use the "can't speak when flat-footed" rule.

I don't think it would be at all unreasonable to say that speaking is an immediate action. Probably up to X words is an immediate action, up to X+Y is a swift, and so on, up to saying a lot of words is a full-round action.

[Sornjss Lichdom]

I like the uncounsious idea. that or when something would stop your spell casting for longer than 12 secounds (or two rounds).

ya definently the last one. but the silence spell can be over come with a sixth level spell slot and the metamagic feat, "Silent Spell". One standered action, and you can activate the spell teleportation silently and your gone, you could do this while bound, gaged, deafened, and blind. Just *poof*, were'd Oscar go?

[Collin152]

When I snap my fingers.
Unlikely to happen unless you mean it, it'll work in a silence spell, shouldn't take more than some variation of a free action.

[OneWinged4ngel]

I don't think it would be at all unreasonable to say that speaking is an immediate action. Probably up to X words is an immediate action, up to X+Y is a swift, and so on, up to saying a lot of words is a full-round action.

You keep on thinking that. I'll go by the rules for speaking as they are, since they're not enormously disruptive to game balance to the point that no one would pretty much ever speak in combat, nor do they require you to count words to avoid a Nale-esque message spell comedy routine. It's not fun. It's not reasonable. It doesn't enhance balance in any particular form. It's a bad houserule. In fact, it's a potentially game killer houserule of the sort that can actually cause people to get up from a gaming table and walk away, like a certain past DM's surprise blend of D&D and Rolemaster with the atrocious critical miss rules about tripping over invisible turtles for two rounds that drove away his entire party of players as soon as it was mentioned. There's a reason free actions exist. You just seem to be offended by the idea that anything can be a free action. Unless you are ruling that free actions don't exist, just pick some other free action besides speaking if you have a DM who is silly enough to make speaking a single word normally into a standard, swift, or immediate action (completely ignoring the descriptions of the sort of effort all such actions are supposed to entail) and for some weird reason are not willing to just get up and leave the gaming table when it gets to that point of absurdity.

[Sornjss Lichdom]

When I snap my fingers.
Unlikely to happen unless you mean it, it'll work in a silence spell, shouldn't take more than some variation of a free action.

ya but what if you imobalized?...

im telling you guys, a variant on the unability to cast spells. it cant be to vague because then a DevilDM will just say when you cough and grab somthing at the same time (effectivly keeping you from using V,S, and maybe M components) you go POOF, and teleport away, waisting a contengincy.

[OneWinged4ngel]

ya but what if you imobalized?...

im telling you guys, a variant on the unability to cast spells. it cant be to vague because then a DevilDM will just say when you cough and grab somthing at the same time (effectivly keeping you from using V,S, and maybe M components) you go POOF, and teleport away, waisting a contengincy.

There's also the potentially controversial idea of a THOUGHT trigger. You are aware of what you're thinking, so Contingency needs no special foresight to realize that you are giving a thought command. In that way, it's more reasonable than things like "if I come within x distance of an unseen antimagic field."

This does not require you to do so much as breathe. It just requires that you're not braindead.

[Zeful]

Well just to nitpick...

Myself, I would use "If I am ever rendered incapable of casting spells with verbal and somatic components." As a wizard, as long as I can cast my full selection of spells (or close to it), I'm in pretty good shape. If I'm somehow rendered incapable of casting the bulk of my spells, though, I may have a problem. This trigger would cover being caught in a Silence spell, or being incapacitated somehow, or being immobilized, or possibly being caught in an antimagic field (depending on how one rules on the timing of triggered events).

There are very few instances where your contingency would come up. You could walk into a silenced area and still have your hands free, doesn't trip contingency. You could be tied up and left ungagged, doesn't trip contingency. There are alot of instances where this won't work.

However this contingency is very good, because you can simply in a situation where you lose your ability to cast spells with somatic components (grappled, shackled, imprisoned etc.), you can have a Stilled Silence that you cast on yourself to trip your contingency.

[Collin152]

ya but what if you imobalized?...

im telling you guys, a variant on the unability to cast spells. it cant be to vague because then a DevilDM will just say when you cough and grab somthing at the same time (effectivly keeping you from using V,S, and maybe M components) you go POOF, and teleport away, waisting a contengincy.

I'm pretty sure I can snap my fingers in any given immobilization, unless they specifically tie them up, or if its a magical binding effect.
And if they're going through the effort to bind me magically by some means, they've probably dimesnion locked me too anyway.

[Chronos]

There are very few instances where your contingency would come up. You could walk into a silenced area and still have your hands free, doesn't trip contingency.

If I walk into a silenced area, I can't cast spells with verbal and somatic components, so it would trigger. I said "and", not "or".

And if they're going through the effort to bind me magically by some means, they've probably dimesnion locked me too anyway.

Maybe you were hit by a Hold Person, and they're going to cast the Dimension Lock the next round. Or maybe the Hold Person was cast by a third-level cleric who just got incredibly lucky, and doesn't have any means of Dimension Locking. Yeah, it's unlikely for a wizard to be affected by a Hold Person, but the whole point of Contingency is to cover those rare cases when your standard protections fail for some reason.

[Collin152]

Hold Person wouldn't keep a wizard down long anyways, as many will saves as it mandates to keep it down. Besides, I could still cast a silenced Dimension Door (What wizard would go without one? It's the only reason Sudden Silence exists.) and get out of there, then use my massive will save to break free in a matter of seconds.

[Saph]

I'm with the school of thought that says that a trigger word to activate a Contingency should count as an immediate action. An immediate action is very fast and can interrupt someone else's turn, but can't be done when you're flat-footed. This seems like a pretty good representation of "speaking a word to activate a spell".

Otherwise Contingency becomes (effectively) a free extra action that can be taken even if you're unaware of what's happening, which overpowers a spell that's quite powerful enough already. (And let's not even get into the implications of using that rule with Craft Contingent Spell.)

Incidentally, the DMs for our gaming group usually do limit how many words you can say during a round. (Our regular DM has a limit of ten words in your turn, two words out of it). The rule's rarely enforced - it's there just to limit the silliness of PCs having long involved tactical discussions in what's supposed to be a six second combat round.

- Saph

[Sornjss Lichdom]

And if they're going through the effort to bind me magically by some means, they've probably dimesnion locked me too anyway.

Doesnt matter. By your logic, by the time you can cast contengency with a teleport spell, around level 15, their would be diminsional locks every where effectively elimenating it's usefullness. Which is bull, so there not that effecient, but they are, so your logic is mistaken.

[Collin152]

Doesnt matter. By your logic, by the time you can cast contengency with a teleport spell, around level 15, their would be diminsional locks every where effectively elimenating it's usefullness. Which is bull, so there not that effecient, but they are, so your logic is mistaken.

Yeah, I'm not seeing how that defies my logic. I can barely see what logic you're refferring to. I'm just saying, if they feel I'm worth binding so thoroughly that I can't so much as snap, they are goign to take every precaution to ensure I can't escape. If they don't? Silenced Dimension Door gets me free.

[Crow]

I don't see how a thought trigger would be against the rules. Unbalancing? Maybe.

[Sornjss Lichdom]

I agree with the silent spell.

It's just that a spell that locks you magiclly is more effective then any rope.

ps. Oh, if you get in a tussle with some orcs they might jsut cut your thumbs off. No Snappy Snapp. but thats just a smart a** remark .