Can Contingent Action be used to trigger a Wand, Potion, Staff, or Scroll?


Rules Questions

Scarab Sages

Can Contingent Action be used to trigger a Wand, Potion, Staff, or Scroll?

The ACG introduced a lot of new options, including the spell Contingent Action. It is unclear to me from the description of the spell whether or not it can be used to activate a Spell-trigger or Spell-completion item.

Contingent Action:

Contingent Act ion
School evocation; Level bard 2, sorcerer/wizard 2
Casting Time 1 minute
Components V, S
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target one willing creature
Duration 1 minute/level (D) or until discharged
Saving Throw Will negates (harmless); Spell Resistance
Yes (harmless)
The target gains an extra action that becomes available
when a condition which you dictate is met. At the time of
casting, you dictate the condition, and the target specifies
a readied action that occurs when triggered by this condition.
The condition needed to trigger the readied action must
be clear, although it can be general. If a complicated or
convoluted condition is prescribed, the whole combination
might fail when triggered. For example, suppose the trigger
and the action are stated as “If the target is attacked while
he is not holding a weapon, he draws a weapon.” If the
target has no weapon to draw when the trigger occurs,
the action fails. If the trigger and the action are “If an
ally within 20 feet falls unconscious, the target moves to
a space adjacent to that ally” but the target is chained
to a wall when the trigger occurs and can’t reach the
unconscious ally, the action fails.
The readied action must be a standard, move, or swift
action—it cannot be used to cast a spell or use a supernatural
ability.
This action counts as a readied action and doesn’t
count toward the number of actions the creature can take in
a round. When the condition occurs, the target can decide
not to use the readied action. Once the condition is triggered,
the spell is discharged—whether or not the target uses the
readied action or the action is successful.
This spell counts as a contingency spell for the purpose
of having multiple contingent effects on a creature at the
same time.

(bolding mine)

With regards to activating a Wand, Potion, Staff, or Scroll counting as "casting a spell," we have this FAQ.

Core Rulebook FAQ wrote:

Items as Spells: Does using a potion, scroll, staff, or wand count as "casting a spell" for purposes of feats and special abilities like Augment Summoning, Spell Focus, an evoker's ability to do extra damage with evocation spells, bloodline abilities, and so on?

No. Unless they specifically state otherwise, feats and abilities that modify spells you cast only affect actual spellcasting, not using magic items that emulate spellcasting or work like spellcasting.

posted August 2010

Thoughts?

Grand Lodge RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

I can't think of any precedent for the use of an item counting as casting the spell, whereas for NOT counting as casting the spell we have the FAQ you mentioned.

Looks to me like, unless it gets changed, items work fine.

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