or rather, two Psions, (cause I just remembered that contingency only works on 6th level or lower)
If Psion A and Psion B are about to square off, and Psion A casts Temporal Acceleration, what happens if Psion B has a contingency? One that states whenever he identifies someone casting Temporal Acceleration, his own Temp Acc goes off.
What would happen?
The fluff says that Temp Acc puts you in a sped up time frame, so would they both simultaneously enter eachothers Temp Acc? So to both of them it seems like nothing happened?
Well...contingency spells effect happen immediately. so i would treat treat Psion B's temoral acceleration as having come first even though it is not his turn.
Psion A's Turn
Psion A starts casting Temporal Acceleration
Psion B recognizes the spell and contingency goes off.
Psion B gets x number of rounds based on power points (been a while since I thought in psionics rules)
Psion B comes out of temporal acceleration
Psion A enters temporal acceleration and gets x number of rounds based on power points spent.
Psion A's turn ends
Psion B's turn
Psion B does something while shaken.
Thanks guys, definitely appreciate it.
Out of curiosities sake, what would happen if psion A also had contingent Temporal Acceleration? (same trigger)
do two contingent actions happen simultaneously?
Psion A's contingency spell (if worded the same) would not go off because Temporal acceleration is not being cast by Psion B. Psion B cast the temporal acceleration at the time that he cast the contingency, which was well before he ever ran into Psion A. All that happens is that contingency holds the effect in stasis until certain criteria are met and then that spells effect happens immediately. There is no way for Psion A to spellcraft it / identify what is happening before it happens.
Time Stop (and, I presume, Temporal Acceleration) effectively removes the caster from the round sequence. The other posters are correct in what would happen.
Psion A starts using TA, which triggers Psion B's contingent TA. Psion B gets to do whatever he does. When his TA has finished, he has done nothing that Psion A's contingent TA could perceive as being a trigger (despite any movement Psion B may have taken).
In technical terms, the instant a Contingent effect is triggered, it happens, interrupting the normal turn sequence of actions. It is hypothetically possible to have stacked contingent effects go off (Wizard X has a contingent Fireball set to trigger whenever he takes cold damage, and Wizard Y has a Contingent Cone of Cold set to go off whenever he takes fire damage) between opponents, but the cause must always follow a perceivable effect.
In the case of the TAing Psions, there is no perceivable effect around "if my opponent uses a contingent Temporal Acceleration" until, at best, that opponent's TA has finished.
At no point can two TA/Time Stop effects be happening simultaneously (barring something like a wish being used to grant it to a whole party at once). While there may be no gap between them in the round sequence, one of them will always happen before the other.