Contingency + Teleport on Death

[Aldarionn]

As the title says, can I cast Contingency and Teleport with a trigger of "My death" and specify a location for the Teleport in advance? I know I can select Teleport if I'm high enough level, but can I select a location in advance of the Teleport going off as a result of the Contingency?

For example, I'm a 15th level Wizard and I've set up a Clone back at the party base of operations. In the event of my death, my soul would be instantly transported to my new Clone body and I'd wake up back at our base.

The problem is the body with all of my specialized and expensive equipment is still at the scene of my untimely demise, ostensibly with someone who won't want to give it back. One option is to leave a secondary set of more generic equipment with the Clone, and a copy of my Spellbook, however this is expensive and leaves me at a reduced level of power. I'd be less likely to be able to recover my stuff.

If on the other hand I could cast Contingency and pick Teleport as the companion spell, then specify "my death" as the trigger and "my base of operations at X location" for the Teleport at the time of casting, then my corpse along with everything on it would be transported to a place I am very familiar with, leaving me with a 97% chance of my original body and my replacement being in the same place. I'd be conscious and able to grab my gear and mount a rescue on the rest of the party.

Thoughts?

[Under A Bleeding Sun]

Yes. Lots of caster do that. They'll have their body teleport to a friendly temple for res that you already have 5000 in diamond dust with or something similar(like you case)

My favorite contingency though is still the guy whose in love with undead and contingencies Create Undead on self upon death!

[Lifat]

By RAW contingency has a trigger and when that occurs the companion spell is cast. I don't think you can select a teleport location prior to casting teleport. If that is the case then the trick described by OP wouldn't work by RAW. It's a cool trick but I doubt that it works from what I've read.
Personally I would allow it in a home game, partly because it is a cool trick style-wise and partly because I like the idea of the group having one more chance to avoid TPK. It means I can rough-house them a little more :P

[Aldarionn]

@ Lifat - Here is the wording for Contingency:

Contingency wrote:

You can place another spell upon your person so that it comes into effect under some condition you dictate when casting contingency. The contingency spell and the companion spell are cast at the same time. The 10-minute casting time is the minimum total for both castings; if the companion spell has a casting time longer than 10 minutes, use that instead. You must pay any costs associated with the companion spell when you cast contingency.

The spell to be brought into effect by the contingency must be one that affects your person and be of a spell level no higher than one-third your caster level (rounded down, maximum 6th level).

The conditions needed to bring the spell into effect must be clear, although they can be general. In all cases, the contingency immediately brings into effect the companion spell, the latter being "cast" instantaneously when the prescribed circumstances occur. If complicated or convoluted conditions are prescribed, the whole spell combination (contingency and the companion magic) may fail when triggered. The companion spell occurs based solely on the stated conditions, regardless of whether you want it to.

You can use only one contingency spell at a time; if a second is cast, the first one (if still active) is dispelled.

Emphasis mine.

Since the Contingency and the Companion Spell are both cast at the same time, one would assume that you MUST specify a destination for the spell at the time you cast Contingency by the RAW. The second bold section simply states that the Contingency brings into effect or "casts" the spell at the time the Contingency is triggered. It seems as though you must specify everything about the Companion Spell at the time you originally cast it with Contingency.

I could be wrong though. That's why I am asking for other people's interpretations.

[GinoA]

I'd read it like Aldarionn, but that reading has a further implication. You must specify all details of the triggered spell at casting time. No contingent-teleport when I reach 10% HP that I pick the destination when it fires.

Either way seems reasonable, as long as it's consistent in a campaign.

[Kayerloth]

I've always allowed it and had it allowed in games I've been involved in.

That said maybe it doesn't actually work by RAW.

You cast Contingency + Teleport --- okay, now it gets tricky you die triggering your Companion spell. Are you still a legal target? Seems like yes based on spells like Raise Dead and Resurrection the targets of those spells being a 'dead creature touched' but brings up the point of when does a dead creature become an "object" and are those spells specifying a particular type of object namely a dead creature? *shrug* At least Teleport does effect objects as well as creatures even if the basic target is "you (plus stuff)".

[Aldarionn]

GinoA wrote:

I'd read it like Aldarionn, but that reading has a further implication. You must specify all details of the triggered spell at casting time. No contingent-teleport when I reach 10% HP that I pick the destination when it fires.

Either way seems reasonable, as long as it's consistent in a campaign.

That's what I'm reading, which means the Contingency Dimension Door when below 20 HP I've been using since level 12 wouldn't actually work since I'd have to specify direction and distance when I originally cast the spell. Contingency Teleport works better since the range is far less of a limiting factor and you pick a specific place. I think when I DM for all future campaigns I will go with that interpretation. It's cleaner and makes more sense. It is, after all, a contingency that works if you want it to or not, so it would make sense that you set everything up in advance down to the last detail of the Companion Spell.

I'll run it by my DM and see what he thinks, but I imagine he will read it much like I do.

[wraithstrike]

It seems to work to me unless teleport calls out "creatures".

[Lifat]

Aldarionn wrote:

@ Lifat - Here is the wording for Contingency:

Contingency wrote:

You can place another spell upon your person so that it comes into effect under some condition you dictate when casting contingency. The contingency spell and the companion spell are cast at the same time. The 10-minute casting time is the minimum total for both castings; if the companion spell has a casting time longer than 10 minutes, use that instead. You must pay any costs associated with the companion spell when you cast contingency.

The spell to be brought into effect by the contingency must be one that affects your person and be of a spell level no higher than one-third your caster level (rounded down, maximum 6th level).

The conditions needed to bring the spell into effect must be clear, although they can be general. In all cases, the contingency immediately brings into effect the companion spell, the latter being "cast" instantaneously when the prescribed circumstances occur. If complicated or convoluted conditions are prescribed, the whole spell combination (contingency and the companion magic) may fail when triggered. The companion spell occurs based solely on the stated conditions, regardless of whether you want it to.

You can use only one contingency spell at a time; if a second is cast, the first one (if still active) is dispelled.

Emphasis mine.

Since the Contingency and the Companion Spell are both cast at the same time, one would assume that you MUST specify a destination for the spell at the time you cast Contingency by the RAW. The second bold section simply states that the Contingency brings into effect or "casts" the spell at the time the Contingency is triggered. It seems as though you must specify everything about the Companion Spell at the time you originally cast it with Contingency.

I could be wrong though. That's why I am asking for other people's interpretations.

Thank you for bolding it. I actually did read the spell after reading the OPs question, but my brain got stuck on the second bolded line and missed the first line. I have to change my stance and agree with you that OPs trick should work by RAW, which suits me just fine, because as I said, I would allow it regardless.

Wraithstrike wrote:

It seems to work to me unless teleport calls out "creatures".

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by that? Do you mean if the "Target" of the spell is creature? In that case it would work

[LazarX]

I would allow that to work... I'd still make the usual roll for teleport to see if your body actually pops up at the right place though.

[Aldarionn]

Thanks for all the input!

I'll be using this trick in the final stages of Kingmaker. Spoilers below:

Spoiler:

We are about to assault The House Beyond Time in the final book of Kingmaker and we are making final preparations. We know the final boss will be ready for us since she has been scrying us for some time, and we know there will be a Worm that Walks. He is what we are worried about more than anything because powerful spellcasters tend to have death spells and I know how Paizo prepares them. I've run a few AP's myself.

We successfully ripped the castle from the First World into the Material Plane already, so we won't have to deal with any of those negative effects, but I do expect it to be extremely challenging so I'm setting up a contingency plan in case things go sour. I will be giving a Scroll of Resurrection, a Scroll of Restoration, and 11,000GP of Diamond Dust to our High priest, and specifying the temple in that city as my teleport destination. I will also be setting up an alarm spell to alert the high priest should my body appear. He will have instructions to use both scrolls to bring me back to life as quickly as possible, and I will then assess the situation via Sending, and Teleport back to the party if possible.

I'm our kingdom's Grand Diplomat, so if all else fails and we have a TPK I will have a 97% chance to be back in the capital minutes after it happens to take the reins of the kingdom and mount a rescue mission for the King and Queen.

Of course there is also a 2% chance I will land NEAR the temple, and a 1% chance I will randomly appear in some other temple in Golarion, presumably causing mass confusion as to why the corpse of a powerful Wizard just popped into being out of thin air. Either way, it amuses me greatly!