Contingency Advice

[Eugene Nelson]

So I have an 11th level wizard and I have contingency and I would like to use it better than I have seen it used. Please let me know your combinations of spells and triggers for a summoning wizard with crappy stats except for intelligence. Thanks All!!

[Thazar]

I personally am a fan of Mirror Image keyed to the phrase "Stop touching me!!!" Dispel Magic keyed to the my being given a condition caused by magic. And once I get to level 12 having Dimension Door keyed to gaining the grappled condition.

Lots of other choices, but those are all solid ones when you do not know what you are going to be facing.

[Artanthos]

For a wizard, contingency teleport: dying or incapacitated. Have it send you to friendly church that you have prearranged treatment at.

[Axebeard]

A high-level wizard getting dominated is pretty much game over for the party, especially if the wizard already has a lot of summons out, so here's how I've worded the contingency on my wizard:

"Magic Circle Against Evil shall trigger on my person should I ever fall under the sway of any spells or effects generated by an evil entity that possess or exercise mental control over me (including enchantment [charm] effects and enchantment [compulsion] effects, such as charm person, command, and dominate person)."

The combat right after we hit level 11 and my wizard cast his first contingency, we attacked a vampire stronghold and, round 1 right when we dimension door'd in, my wizard rolled a natural 1 against a vampire's dominating gaze. Magic Circle triggered, he succeeded on his save, and all was well. (It could have also been precast given that it would have lasted for a while.)

Granted, I'm playing in an undead-heavy campaign and we're fighting vampires at the moment, but dominating the wizard is a huge swing in a combat. Plus, the Magic Circle would then last for a while (10 min/level) and protect anyone near you.

[boring7]

When I was working up my means of immortality...there's a sentence.

*ahem*

I found the purely-within-RAW contingency is to cast a Clone spell, place a Temporal Stasis on it seconds before the clone is ready to "decant" (probably using a scroll) and contingency a dispel (or greater) spell that fires off when your soul enters its new body. The target is still personal (even though you're a new person) and it ends the stasis spell, freeing you to climb out of your naked glass tube and say something cliche/awesome like, "I LIVE AGAIN!"

Plus your new clone-body should still be young and healthy. Probably.

[tonyz]

You only get one contingency, so you want to think about what you're likely to go up against, what you can handle by other means, and what the rest of your party can handle for you.

[Morbios]

I like "Should I be denied proper control over the actions of my person using an effect that can be ended by break enchantment, that spell shall immediately come into effect targeting me."

Break enchantment has advantages over dispel magic in that it can even end instantaneous effects (e.g. flesh to stone), and that it can free you from multiple status effects (though it would be unusual to be carrying one already without triggering the spell). The downsides are that some status afflictions aren't enchantment, transmutation, or curse - these are mainly in necromancy (e.g. magic jar) - and that it can strip you of your beneficial enchantments (e.g. heroism) and transmutations (e.g. haste).

I've read others (maybe Treantmonk? I forget exactly) who like resilient sphere in the event you drop below X% of your HP.

If you're a mystic theurge or have ranks in Use Magic Device, you can tie a heal to it in the event you eat one of the conditions that can cure, or if you drop below X% HP.

If you're the type to keep a sanctum, you can key it to teleport you into a predetermined (and well-defended!) area in the bowels of your hideout. Ideally that area would be armed with several proximity-triggered magic "traps" designed to rid you of any and all status ailments and heal you back to full HP - say three or four casting greater dispel magic and one casting heal, for starters. You'll then be free to teleport back to the action on your turn. Some GMs might balk at the tactic, but I fail to see why high-level arcanists wouldn't be resourceful...