Our Top Ten Uses of the Contingency Spell in D&D 5e 

A dm I used to play with would occasionally drop underpants of contingency. When they became wet, they cast Expeditious Retreat on the wearer.

A-hem "When I cast Sacred Flame and Spiritual Weapon in the same turn... Cast Spirit Guardians." Arcana Cleric is fun

I once had my group fighting against a powerful vampire spellcaster in his lair. He had a contingency setup to cast gust of wind after he turned into his mist form, thus blowing him up into the vents on the roof and whisking him away to safety.

The old Sober-Up-At-Closing-Time, "Okay, contingency, when the tavern keeper calls Last Orders, cast Protection from Poison on me."

I remember my very first use of Contingency. This goes back many years when the spell first showed up in AD&D. I was the only player and through creative use of hirelings and henchmen I was able to get my mage up to a fairly high level. My Contingency spell was triggered when I went below 1 hp (which in those days meant death). The spell that was triggered was to Teleport me to my home. My character was married (to a woman that I had rescued in an earlier adventure) so from the DM's point of view, my character shows up dead, in my home. My distraught wife sells several of my higher-powered magic items to pay for the Raise Dead spell. I got my character back and the DM was able to get rid of some of the items I had collected that was making his job that much harder, and there wasn't much I could say about it.

Everyone: There are a lot of great options for Contingency. Kelly: Yeah but I'm a T-Rex and you're not.

The level of a spell is the level it was cast at. It's the first paragraph under _Casting a Spell at a Higher Level_ on page 201 of the PHB, "When a spellcaster casts a spell using a slot that is of a higher level than the spell, the spell assumes the higher level for that casting. For instance, if Umara casts magic missile using one of her 2nd-levei slots, that magic missile is 2nd level. Effectively, the spell expands to fill the slot it is put into." While I agree the wording of Contingency is a bit strange, I think the clear intention was to be able to store a spell of 5th level or lower. So upcasting a 5th level Dispel Magic would be completely acceptable, especially considering you're paying the spell slot for it at the time of casting.

Idea: Cast haste on yourself normally Haste ends, activating your contingency for either otiluke's resilient sphere, mirror image, invisibility or dimension door.

I think my favorite user of Contingency was one my DM used, where an NPC cast Feign Death upon herself after reaching 25% hit points. The result was that we thought we had killed her, and she got to listen in on our discussion of what to do now that she was dead. I don't think players can get much use out of this because they just go unconscious, but other DMs might be able to use this as a sneaky tactic.

Another use I thought of while watching, have invisibility trigger when you cast misty step (or maybe on any teleportation). Both spells should happen at pretty much the same time, so enemies wouldn't know you teleported and assume you were just invisible in the same location. It's similar to mislead, but just using lower level spells.

The perfect way to keep your Archfey BBEG around: Contingency Banishment that activates at X hit point reduction Aka "WE'LL MEET AGAIN SPIDERMANNNNNN"

Contingency saved my level 16 wizard's life when an old DM decided he wanted to kill us all (he intended it to be his last session). He dropped us into a battle with no information or prep time with a group of 4 CR 20 creatures, 3 Beholders, and assorted minions with stunning effects. We had fought off most of the minions, and even taken down 2 of the Beholders, but we were still in a bad way. The Fighter was disintegrated, the Barbarian "convinced" to fight for the other side, one wizard dead, and the Healing Bard had given up and kneeled down to await death. I got hit by a blast from the remaining Beholder which brought me down to 17 hp and triggered my "If I drop to 25 hp or less, cast Resilient Sphere on myself" That let me survive the onslaught of 4 CR 20s as they didn't have Disintegrate and the Beholder had already gone, triggering the effect. When my turn came, I moved over to the corpse of my fellow wizard, dropped concentration to grab his corpse and cast Plane Shift to get me to my personal emergency demiplane bringing the other wizard's corpse (including book and their magic items) with me. The campaign ended there as that DM had no intention of running another session, but my head canon for that character is that they worked the last little bit they needed to get to level 17 (and get access to Wish, used that to revive his fellow wizard, then proceed to get back the rest of the party back (at least the ones who would come back) and they formed a group that defends the material planes against threats from the far realms and keep an eye on up and coming adventurers for recruits. This organization exists in my world and justifies high level NPCs existing in the world that can provide occasional aid, but don't solve all the problems the party encounters. They are focused on bigger things and even when not, they'd rather see what the party can do.

There is a really easy way to use dimension door with contingency and have it activate even if your GM tells you you have to predetermine. One of the viable locations is a place you can describe. So you take some chalk into the Dungeon with you, mark down a predetermined glyph in areas you think are safe and say you teleport to the last chalk glyph you drew. This way, you have a predetermined location you can put down anywhere and at anytime for a convenient escape point.

Contingency is a fantastic spell for Mage villains because the DM can be very creative with the uses to make a challenging encounter for the players

Here's a fun one, Use contingency to cast Seeming when I cast Scatter. Have everyone in the battle suddenly look like you and teleport to random places around the battlefield, so nobody knows who is who and who to attack.

One of the characters I have is a Bladesinger, and I have every intent on giving him Contingency to pair with Haste. My personal trigger is upon activating Bladesong, so with a single bonus action, you become a hyper-competent melee fighter who can now move twice as fast and has the option of two attacks (or one + a cantrip; Shocking Grasp, anyone?) + the Haste action. It's also favorably controllable if you know that you're not going to activate Bladesong for anything other than a combat situation.

I would not recommend Contingency triggering off of incapacitated condition, unless you are an elf or a warforged -- the unconscious condition also includes incapacitated, and you are unconscious when you are sleeping.

Anyone else remember back in 3.5 when Craft Contingent Spell was an Item Creation Feat and you could layer a number of contingencies equal to your total HD on yourself? DMs everywhere should rejoice that their players can't have 11 backup castings of revivify each worded such that it only casts if the previous one in the chain had already been cast.

One spell I'd fine particularly useful in a world of undead, fiends, fey, etc. is Protection from Evil and Good. You can completely shut down Charm/Possession/Fear effects by making yourself immune to them with a "If I would be..." or "If a creature would attempt to ..." clause to express that the protection would occur before the Charm/Possession/Fear effects would take place. This is better than Dispel Magic in cases where (A) the effect is from a higher level spell than you can use with Contingency, or (B) the effect is from an ability a creature has and not a spell. It uses your concentration, but in these situations it could be well worth it.

Between this and the RPGBot guide to contingency coming out in the same day, I guess I know what I'm giving my wizard next

One of my favorites that I saw in a printed adventure was in the original Curse of the Crimson Throne. The court wizard had a Permanent Contingency set up to teleport him to his sanctum whenever he snapped his fingers.

I had a contingency set up for when I purposely blinked both eyes 3 times which can go into the cheeky way to trigger without needing to speak. I had it set up to cast blink

for dispell magic you can set the trigger to "when I'm under the influence of a spell or magical effect crested from an enemy" that covers pretty much all, charms, incapacitation frighten and the list goes on

Fire Shield is a fantastic Contigency option that wasn't mentioned, you can have the trigger being when you take cold or fire damage, or better yet - when a creature within 5 feet of you hits you with a melee attack!

Death Ward and Freedom of Movement are also pretty epic spells for Contingency, also if you want to use two magical secrets Antilife Shell is also a Shout from the Druid Spell List

An excellent one that I haven’t seen yet is what’s the best spell at each lvl…..for each class Best spell is often done but I think there’s a vast diff between a clerics best spell at lvl 3 and a Wizard’s best spell at lvl 3. Would love to see y’all’s opinion on that

One good combo is to set it up so when you cast mislead, you dimension door out of there. That way, not only are you gone, but they don't even realize it at first

I would highly recommend using a phrase as the trigger, unless you plan on having it trigger while you can’t talk or your DM doesn’t let you say thing between turns. Talking gives you basically 100% agency when deciding when it activates, so instead of having it activate when you drop to 10% health but there’s only one minion left you can save the contingency for when you need it. For their example of casting haste when you draw your sword having a trigger phrase is way better since then you don’t need to waste your contingency each fight. Basically when choosing a trigger think “is there any situation that I care about where the trigger I want would work but a trigger phrase wouldn’t” and it’s decently likely that the answer will be no. (Also I say phrase instead of word because your far more likely to accidentally say something like rutabaga than the phrase potato rhino purple sailing).

Cast greater invisibility on myself when I Bladesing. Advantage for you on attacks and disadvantage for them if they try to hit you. Think this is a better choice overall than haste especially if you are an elf with elven accuracy and thus get 3 dice to hit them instead of just 2 and no lost turn if someone tosses a dispel at you and gets rid of your haste or you lose concentration. You are also immune to spells that require them to see you like hold person etc.

Alternate title: Top 10 ways Strahd will use the contingency spell to screw over the players in your campaign

I've put this on my wizard's spell list a few levels ago and I've been thrust back in time fighting dinosaurs and such. It's hard to get a statue made of yourself encrusted with diamonds. Maybe an video on how to get all the weird spell components for the wizard spells. Ruby Dust, Rubies, enough snow to pack into a simulacrum, diamonds, circlet of jewelry for your noggin, a few tuning forks attuned to various planes of existence. I'm going to take the fabricate spell, and all the skill proficiencies I can think of and start making this stuff as soon as I get it.

One of my favorite contingencies I've ever used was with invisibility. The trigger was a keyphrase which was intentionally easy to understand, "warp". My wizard vanishes into thin air, and any enemy who heard them assumes they have teleported somewhere else. Meanwhile, my wizard simply stays put until it's safe to reappear or run

"You wouldn't like me when I'm angry" polymorphs into giant gorilla

By the wording of at least Counterspell and Dispel Magic, a spell's casted level is what is referred to when a spell uses the activation of a second spell. So, you can upcast Dispel Magic with Contingency. If not, then Dispel Magic or Counterspell would instantly work against 3rd level or lower spells even if they were upcasted above 3rd level.

Interestingly, in 1st / 2nd E, Contingency + Stoneskin was the #1 combo most of the time for magic-users. Stoneskin got seriously nerfed for 5E (and not complaining, because it was pretty OP in the earlier editions). Great video!

Loving all the recent videos! Got my Drakkenheim Kickstarter last week and am loving it too! Going to run several adventures with it over the summer and have already incorporated it into my hombrew world and champaigns

I have been waiting for this video for sooooo long! Thanks for the topic guys!

Contingency is one of those great spells that I would talk with the GM before taking. Contingency has a costly material component that is also a special piece of artwork. The contingency spell requires a 1500 gp statuette of the caster carved from ivory and decorated with gems. By Xanathar's down time crafting rules, the statuette takes 30 workweeks to make. Probably less due to the inherit value of the gems used, but still months to create the statuette. So if it gets lost or stolen, you may be without access to Contingency for an extended period of time. Then again, having the statuette stolen is a great plot hook. Was the statuette taken by simple thieves out for money or an enemy caster who plans to use it in a nefarious ritual targeting the wizard. Who knows what will happen when the statuette goes missing.

One of the best examples of your mentioned use of Contingency and Revivify I have heard of is from Tulok the Barbrarian for his build video for Gandalf in D&D (for context, he made Gandalf a Protector Aasimar 14 College of Lore Bard/6 Oath of Devotion Paladin). He used his Magical Secrets to acquire Contingency and Revivify. It perfectly for replicated Gandalf’s resurrection and ascension from Gandalf the Grey to Gandalf the White. Obviously, this only works for Bards or Arcana Clerics, but it was nonetheless pretty damn clever

I had a character that used contingency to invoke Otiluke’s Resilient sphere and set things up with another party member to cast Levitate on the sphere and get it above the ground. This helped get my character out of melee range when the spell ended, giving me the choice to cast feather fall or fly

I had a Bladesinger mage that when she's scream "SHAZAM" she's go Haste with contingency, too much fun with it

Ya'll should do one on spells like ceremony, augery, etc. Loved this

This has always been one of my favorite spells and seeing you guys do a video on this made my day

With polymorph, "Strike me down and I shall become more powerful than you could ever imagine." Baddy strikes anyway. *T-rex pops into being.*

Antiquing! I love the Futurama deep cut. You two are so cool lol ❤️

I like True Sight triggered whenever an invisible creature, object, illusion or magically concealed door or trap is within 75’ range. In a sense it is better than a robe of eyes because you’ll know it is triggered even if your opponent is otherwise concealed so you’ll be looking carefully, without appearing to be looking carefully. It gives you the upper hand when your opponent thinks they have the upper hand.

You must cast the spell that Contingency triggers as part of its own casting. Due to that, the rules do support upcasting Dispel Magic at your highest available spell slot, because when upcast, a spell becomes a spell of that level.

Evoker wizard using sculpt spells + thunderstep is so much fun :) (Assuming thundersetp is upcast to 5th level, you can ensure that 6 of your companions dont take any dmg from thunderstep, by the sculpt spells feature)

My personal favorite alternative to the "keyword" activation is a specific series of blinks and winks. You can do that even if you're gagged/silenced. The only way to prevent it is unconsciousness or maybe paralysis depending on how your DM rules that

The only thing with spirit shroud though is that it is a bonus action so it’s not a valid contingency target. I like the haste idea though, never thought about that.

Our DM put in a necklace that let casters concentrate on two spells, during the final fight I had set a contingency for when I cast Tasha’s otherworldly guise, haste activated. Basically gave my bard devil trigger

This is a really great and insightful video. Thank you dudes!

Those are some very fun and good ideas :) Thanks for the guide, Dudes!

This is awesome content!! Definitely helpful for newer players!!

Fantastic video guys, very useful.

Wow my Wizard Bladesinger just turned level 10 last Friday and I was thinking of Contingency options for next level and this video drops. You guys are the best.

Important to note on Polymorph that War Caster and Resilient don't apply to your polymorphed form. As a result, that T-Rex will only have a +4 to con saves regardless of what's on your character sheet.

Contingency is so much fun that I gave a custom magic items to one of the Liches in the campaign I'm currently running that allows them to upcast contingency to hold higher level spells. I can't wait to see the party's reaction when the Barbarian gets hit with a maze after his first hit on the Lich, and I'm equally as excited to see what the party wizard does with the item after (if) they defeat the Lich!

My go to contingency in older editions was cast dispel magic if an enemy spell causes loss of control of my character. Protection from evil is also in the same vein.

In regards to quotes about plans, the best is simply. 'Plans are worthless, planning is everything' Re dimension door, I would assume RAW you have to select a target when you cast it into contingency, so you have to stick within its confines. It also allows you to make the spell work how you are saying, you just need to he smarter about how you word it. Contingency states (part of it) 'a place you can visualize'. Simply state when casting the spell on the desired trigger (being attacked/surrounded etc) 'within 5 feet of the ally furthest away from me provided there is safe space to do so'. We can have our cake and eat it without bending the rules, and with a spell like contingency, I think its important to stick to RAW because its a spell easily abusable.

I like "if i fail a 3rd death saving throw, cast fireball at 5th level" it really incentivises the cleric to prioritize healing me.

I would add that you can add "and" and "or" to the if trigger to make it more specific or open ended as you wish. Or do both for example: If I start bladesinging AND I make an attack OR say "insert keyword here"

Excellent discussion. Thank you gents.

This is a HUGE topic for me! I've never played as a mid to high level wizard, BUT when the day come I'll remember this video with a malicious smirk and my DM will have a better adversary then.

HI nice video, i just remembered and i think you didnt mention it, Genie Warlock at 14. lvl gets Limited wish which can cast Contingency and it even bipasses the costly material component. Btw from EU and i am just excitingly expecting the Drakkenheim Kickstarter pack.

Great video! Just one small thing: I believe spirit shroud uses a bonus action to cast so it wouldn't be an alternative to haste.

I love Mislead. I used it for scouting in the middle of an enemy camp once, because the duplicate can't be attacked. And after I figured out where we needed to go, I used it to cause a distraction to make it easier for the party to sneak into the camp.

I created the spell mislead in 1988 with my wizard. I also set it at level 5 and it was called Chicken Chase... loved that spell :)

If [keyword] while wearing [item], cast [spell] Then you take [item] to a shopkeeper and sell it as a neat magical item with a once per day use. Show it working with Contingency, and you'll have at least a day to get out of town before they realize.

Great video guys

Has never played dnd. Has no intention of playing. Has no friends 😂 Still excited when you guys upload, the mark of true content

As a bard, you can set a contingency to when you cast Plant Growth or Transmute Rock, the spell Sickening Radiance goes off along with it.

Good video idea!

Antiquing is the first word I thought of. Thank you so much, Kelly.

Revivify can also be good if you have a ring of spell storing and a cleric friend. They can store it in the ring and now the wizard can cast it. If you die, you come back!

Thanks for the vid. If you determine where you go with dimension door after the trigger. Is it the same for polymorph? You choose after the trigger? Thx

Magic Mouth is VERY open-ended in the triggers that can be used to set it off, and the ways you can combine castings to program things like alarm systems. Combining it with Contingency opens up all kinds of fun.

Another fun no-concentration defensive option and a sometimes favourite of mine for my Bladesinger/Rogue has been Blink. It's a good one to set for the "when I drop to X health" contingency. It does get past the Blindsight issue with Mirror Image/Invisibility, though sadly once creatures start getting Truesight it can be outmoded. But it's saved my Bladesinger's ass multiple times, especially if she gets overrun by multiple enemies.

Well somebody got a nice tan. Trigger: activating Bladesong (or a word) Spell: Steel Wind Strike This lets you still attack and cantrip in addition to doing a bunch of damage to several targets.

Could be a good spell for bard magical secrets, because they also get revivify, right?

Next up should be top 10 Glyph of Warding spells!! Similar ability to buff yourself but without the fear of Concentration!

My artificer1/wizard13 was using a level 5 Cure Wounds with a command word, for on-demand healing.

Question: I always wondered if contingency would thematically work better if it followed the same parameters of what spells could work, but that it functions as a spell cast as a reaction, at any time, to cast any other spell you know, up to the level spell slot used to cast contingency (min. 6) It would amp up the diversity that a wizard can bring to bear, and free up prepared spells for non self/action spells. Thematically, I think of how a wizard is super smart, and it is a spell that supports the theme with mechanics. Unfortunately I've never gotten the opportunity to play test it done this way. I'd love to know what y'all think. Thanks for the awesome videos!

The "pre determined choice" for dimension door doesn't even make sense rules wise, since the spell isn't cast when you cast contingency. The description specifies that you expend the spell slot for the contingent spell, but it is only cast when the condition is met. For DD, you choose the destination when you cast the spell, so in the case of it being your contingent spell, you would choose the destination when the condition is met and the contingent spell is effectively cast

I just got my Dungeons of Drakkenheim book shipped to me!!! I’m hyped!!!

So, aside from the flex of rising from the dead, why wouldn’t you use contingency on a healing spell when downed rather than use revivify? You get more health back, don’t have to wait until your death saves run out, and it costs nothing.

You could word Dimension Door as “Teleport me the shortest distance to behind full cover from the creature that hit me if possible” and I would accept that as valid.

I’m impatiently waiting for my Drakkenheim books to arrive later this week. I’m excited to set up a Drakkenheim campaign!

One that can actually be really good for party support for a bard with Contingency: Grab Aura of Purity from the Cleric. The trigger is whenever I or a party member within 30ft. is targeted by an attack or spell that Aura of Purity would defend against. Whenever it comes up, the entire party gains resistance to poison, immunity to disease, and advantage on saving throws against all manner of debilitating conditions. Couple this with a Paladin's Aura of Protection and a Counterspell at the ready, and getting a devastating ambush attack on the party becomes exceedingly difficult.

An trickster style character could have a lot of fun with this spell. Preparing mislead to be launched when you cast another spell (or a spoken command) Like... cast fireball (triggers mislead) and make the clone run in a direction, you going invisible on the opposite one, or trigger the casting of Seeming to be launched when surrounded or light flickers to make all enemies and allies look like you, or their boss... or furniture. Extra points if School of Illusion Wizard. Idk if it's the best use of a 6th level spell slot... but it's so fun.

I am watching this video even if I play only martial class or half-caste because I love your content

Use contingency for Plane Shift, and go to the demiplane that you made on a previous day. And of course that demiplane is full of glyphs of warding to get you buffed up.

One I tend to do with my Wizard is I use Contengency to cast Telepathic Bond whenever my Wizard cracks one of their knuckles whenever I know something rp heavy or highly strategic is coming up. By doing that, I can silently set up psychic communication with the party with out any verbal or obvious semantic components so we can actively outplay NPCs while staying in character. Edit: As far why this is good, it means your party becomes unstoppable in terms of skill checks. For example, the Bard can basically have infinite Advantage in social interactions because the party can silently use the Help Action in the form of "Psychically giving the Bard Advice.". This also can lead to situations where rolls only where character might make could benefit from having the whole party roll instead such as when the said Bard feels something is amiss in a conversation and does an Insight Check or Perception check.

A trigger i'd probably consider (had my wizard reached such high level the time i played it) would probably have been "If i become incapable of spellcasting" since it would trigger on all kinds of stun effects, death... but also having a spell on-demand for when polymorphing. But since i played bladesinger i'd probably have Blink on some easy-to-trigger condition most of the time, as while not entirely reliable it does have a chance to make you untargetable by basically everything every turn as well as add 10ft to you movement those turns and let you pop up somewhere else without opportunity attacks and doesn't use concentration which is a big thing. Since you're usually concentrating on the spell you think is best for the situation and Contingency will cancel it when it triggers if you have a concentration spell as part of it. (And it works with polymorph too to become a warping, interdimensional T-rex!)

One thing you didn’t mention about dispel magic is that it will also remove beneficial buffs. Mage armor, aid, gift of alacrity, etc. will also be removed.

For things like Mirror Image/Invisibility/etc as defensive measures against attacks, you should state "If I _would be_ the target of an attack roll..." this way it'll trigger before the attack happens and grant you all the benefits you want against that attack. Waiting until you get hit, especially in the case of Mirror Image, defeats the purpose of preparing those spells as a contingency.

With the Bard's Revivify, I'd make the trigger something like, If I die, and no one raises me within X rounds. ... where X would be between 2 to 5 rounds, depending on what you think works best. That way, you give the Cleric the chance to get to you first, and you don't blow your Revivify, but if they are unable to get to you, you come back a few rounds later. It's also means that the bad guys will have hopefully moved on from you, so you can take a moment to gather your thoughts, maybe do a little self heal, stand up ... and then either rejoin the fray, or get the heck out of there.

A recommendation for those of you that want to be fancy with the trigger words, make the trigger a relevant word in latin or a similarly obscure language. For example, the trigger for a haste might be "celeritas" or something like that.

I liked Dimension door or resilient sphere on a hand sign. The hand sign I could do if bound and gagged

I think it makes perfect sense for Contingency to be able to detect circumstances you personally otherwise can't -after all, the condition can potentially be "if I die…" (or even, if you're feeling canny, "If I have been dead for nine rounds", thereby allowing for someone else to cast Revivify without burning your contingency and only firing it off in the event of a TPK or similarly dire situation) - so one that might be useful in some campaigns is Contingency(I am being observed by invisible or ethereal means within my sight range): See Invisibility.