Chain Contingency/Gameplay

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===Usage notes===
Chain Contingency is the most powerful spell in all Baldur's Gate and warps gameplay around itself. It is truly broken, so much so that fixes failed to balance it. There are numerous reasons for this hallowed distinction. As the highest level "condition" spell, Chain Contingency has access to almost every spell in the game, including offensive spells and Level 8 spells, with 3 total uses. This completely outclasses regular Contingency which could only cast one use of a Level 6 or lower NON offensive spell. The sequencers (Spell Trigger, Spell Sequencer, Minor Sequencer) were sometimes corrupted by bugs due to scripting events or condition changes and might fail: the contingencies never suffered from these corruptions as they were coded differently, never being stored in the innate ability slot for on-demand initiation.
Even more ridiculous, in vanilla Shadows of Amn and Throne of Bhaal, Chain Contingency was bugged to have no casting time. By setting a condition of "see enemy", a caster was capable of casting three Level 8 spells instantaneously. The prime target of this is Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting, the strongest damage dealing spell in the game with a normal casting time of 8. This effectively allowed players to have an at-will nuke, at no risk to the player because Horrid Wilting only harmed enemies. While this bug was fixed in the final TOB patch, Chain Contingency remained very cheesy with the "see enemy" trigger, since it still lead to instantaneous death for most enemies.
Casting three spells at once without restriction also revealed unforseen interactions with spells not intended to be cast more than once, or transformations not intended to receive stat bonuses.
Why was this spell so overpowered? Chain Contingency is essentially a simplified, spell version of the scripting language used for NPC behavior. But unlike NPCs, who cannot adapt their scripts and do not have access to game mechanics like sleep, players are free to customize Chain Contingency to counter any surprise or challenge on the fly. When used properly during high leverage encounters, Chain Contingency can pull victories out of almost certain defeat. While practice/experience is required to master and recognize those situations, this spell is what makes miracles happen. --Heparin (talk) 05:07, April 08, 2018 (UTC)
:Yea I have just istacast 6 Dragon's Breath (spell) via Nahal's Reckless Dweomer then limited wish them back, before reading about this most powerfull spell in game.
:95.106.222.33 13:32, August 14, 2018 (UTC)qzq
===Misunderstandings & Confusions===
Frequent misunderstandings and confusions among certain players, as demonstrated in the above "The Usage Note" section as of today (March 24, 2019), are to be corrected in the following text:
1) Misleading speculation: "Chain Contingency is the most powerful spell in all Baldur's Gate..."
-- This is a speculation rather than a fact. Truth: there is no consensus here. If there has to be a list of candidates for the Most Powerful Spell nomination, then CC can hardly get into the top 3, which arguably have to be a contest among Time Stop, Project Image, Imprisonment, and Improved Alacrity (IA).
2) False information: "...regular Contingency which could only cast one use of a Level 6 or lower NON offensive spell."
-- This is completely false. Truth: any one of the offensive and defensive spells, level 1 to 6, from the wizard and cleric spellbook may be put into Contingency, provided that the caster is able to cast it at the time of setting up the Contingency spell. On the other hand, a tiny number of "NON offensive spells" may not be put into Contingency, such as Identify or Knock (for obvious reasons).
3) False and misleading: "Even more ridiculous, in vanilla Shadows of Amn and Throne of Bhaal, Chain Contingency was bugged to have no casting time... this bug was fixed in the final TOB patch..."
-- There are multiple layers of false information. Truths:
a) In vanilla SoA, PC and companion NPCs don't and can't have access to level 9 spellslots without cheating. Due to level cap imposed by original (vanilla) SoA, a wizard can only reach level 17. They can only have spellslots up to level 8.
b) A spell with "no casting time" is not necessarily "ridiculous" or "more ridiculous." In fact, there are other spells with no casting time, such as Spell Immunity.
c) Having no casting time is not necessarily a bug, and BG2 has never fixed such a non-existent bug. In fact, in both BG2 (with final patch or not) and today's BG2 EE, CC has the same casting time.
4) False and misleading: "By setting a condition of 'see enemy', a caster was capable of casting three Level 8 spells instantaneously. The prime target of this is Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting, the strongest damage dealing spell in the game with a normal casting time of 8. This effectively allowed players to have an at-will nuke... it still lead to instantaneous death for most enemies."
-- There are a few layers of false information. Truths:
a) The spells stored in CC are not meant to be cast by the caster. They are meant to be cast by the game AI.
b) The way how the spells stored in CC are cast is not controlled by the caster/player at all - the caster/player can only set the trigger condition to one of the options. This leads to certain unpredictable behaviors of CC. For example, when the "enemies sighted" condition of an active CC is satisfied, the CC does not always get fired up right away. It is possible that the delay is so significant that the enemies, who could have been wiped out by the spells stored in CC, may have already killed the caster when CC is finally triggered. It is not unusual to see BG2 liches get killed when their protective CC is triggered that was meant to prevent their death.
c) Storing 3x ADHW in CC with the trigger condition of enemies sighted is only ONE of many ways of using CC. In TOB or late game, powerful enemies tend to have high magic resistance. As a result, putting 3x ADHW in CC tends to be an unwise way of wasting spells.
d) Getting the result of 3x L8 spells in a non-player-controlled way for the cost of those 3x L8 spells plus an extra 1x L9 spell is a quick way to drain L8/9 spells. It is so costly, especially during active combat, that CC is never an at-will nuke and can never become one.
5) Trying to mislead everyone: "Why was this spell so overpowered?..."
-- This question treats an unproven opinion as if it had already been a widely known fact. Also, what follows the question that is supposed to offer an answer to the "why" question, does not make sense at all.
6) An example to demonstrate the superiority of Time Stop (TS) + Improved Alacrity (IA)
Regardless, there are far more powerful spells and spell combos than a passive CC that consumes 1x L9 spell just so as to hand over 3 memorized (mage) or castable (sorcerer) spells to the game AI for casting them later upon a trigger condition.
For example, if you are a sorcerer, unless under special circumstances (such as Dead Magic) or for self-defense purposes, why would you waste 1x L9 spell to let the game AI cast 3 of YOUR L8 spells on YOUR behalf? With a single L9 spell (Time Stop), could you not cast those 3 spells by yourself - uninterrupted during your Time Stop? If you are willing to combine 2x L9 spells (Time Stop + IA), you can cast dozens of spells uninterrupted during your Time Stop - potentially resulting in 1000s of raw damage in a large area. If 3x L8 spells (ADHW) cast on enemies on sight could kill most of them (not true in tough battles late game), would 20+ spells from level 1 to 9 cast during your Time Stop lead you to a guranteed victory? Compared to the cost of 1x L9 spell in setting up a passive CC, the only mandatory extra cost of using TS + IA is just another L9 spellslot.
Here is an example to demonstrate the superiority of Time Stop (TS) + Improved Alacrity (IA)
1x Lower Resistance (Note: meant to counter Spell Shield just in case)
1x Spellstrike
3x Lower Resistance
1x Breach
1x Remove Mage
6x Magic Missile
6x Acid Arrow
5x Skull Trap
6x Delay Blast Fireball
3x Dragon's Breath
3x ADHW
→ All the above spells can be cast during TS, with these net results:
1) One target has lost 90% or 120% magic resistance and all spell/combat protections
2) Raw damage with max near 2000 to all enemies in a large area
3) Up to 3x chances to knock down every enemy in the range
Note: You could summon a Planetar to kill survivors, by casting only 2x Dragon's Breath.
Note: a handful of enemies in BG2 /BG2EE are immune to your Time Stop. They will fight you during your Time Stop and may interrupt your spellcasting. Also, more than a handful of enemies cannot be touched by Lower Resistance and/or Breach, and some are completely immune to low-level spells. So the above example only serves as a demonstration.
====Conclusions====
1) Chain Contingency, being a top level spell, is a powerful defensive mechanism, not just a single spell. In particular, it is a best and costly way for high-level mages/sorcerers to remain powerful in all Dead/Wild Magic zones.
2) If used offensively, however, Chain Contingency has never been the most powerful spell in the game. However, some players may mistake this spell as the most powerful one in the game, ultimately because they are unaware of the existence of more powerful spells and spell combos available to a mage/sorcerer who is approaching or has already reached their highest possible class level (up to level 31 in official BG2).
-- Added by HenryNY (talk • contribs) 
The above completely fails to take into account you can just rest and regain all your spell slots you used on the chain contingency. Including the slot you used on the contingency itself - contingencies and sequencers/triggers are a flat bonus to your spellbook. Fill your spellbook with your contingency spells, rest, cast contingency, refill your spellbook with whatever you want, rest again, and now you have up to 12 bonus spells (2+3+3+1+3) for free. -- Added by a FANDOM user (talk)