How does concentration for a spell cast by contingency work? As if you cast it when the contingency fires (which can be weird because a contingency can fire when you are unable to concentrate), or is it more like a portable glyph of warding?
@LeMarcSharmaContingency: if the spell stored requires Concentration, do you need to maintain concentration on it when Contingency is triggered? @JeremyECrawford The contingent spell stored by contingency doesn't come into effect until its condition is met. When that happens, the contingent spell functions as normal, including its duration.
It seems like the original question is mostly about a potential corner case where the spellcaster is unable to concentrate at the moment that the trigger causes the spell to take effect. One example might be some sort of multi-class Barbarian character who casts a spell and then enters a Rage and the spell then takes effect during some moment while the Rage is still active.
Does the spell take effect briefly and then ends on subsequent turns due to a lack of concentration, or does the spell dissipate without ever taking effect?
Some spells and other effects require Concentration to remain active, as specified in their descriptions. If the effect’s creator loses Concentration, the effect ends.
The Sage Advice doesn't really cover the edge case of a caster being unable to concentrate when the condition for Contingency occurs.
Another way to rule this might be that if the spell requires concentration, but the caster is unable to concentrate on it for whatever reason, then the spell cast with Contingency would take effect for only a moment before dissipating. So as an example, if Wall of Fire were the contingent spell, the fire would spring up momentarily, deal its initial damage, then immediately dissipate.
I'd agree with that ruling. My wizard had that issue nearly come up once where it would be completely useless because of the effect, since he was incapacitated.
The Sage Advice doesn't really cover the edge case of a caster being unable to concentrate when the condition for Contingency occurs.
Another way to rule this might be that if the spell requires concentration, but the caster is unable to concentrate on it for whatever reason, then the spell cast with Contingency would take effect for only a moment before dissipating. So as an example, if Wall of Fire were the contingent spell, the fire would spring up momentarily, deal its initial damage, then immediately dissipate.
This ruling makes the most sense to me and feels more in line with the concentration section in the rules glossary.
"Some spells and other effects require Concentration to remain active, as specified in their descriptions. If the effect’s creator loses Concentration, the effect ends." According to this concentration is required for the effect to remain not begin. If the caster loses concentration because they can't concentrate the effect ends.
You're still casting the spell but by not concentrating the effect doesn't remain active after the casting. It be like you cast wall of fire and immediately dropped concentration on it. Makes for a bad day if your contingency is for haste and you can't concentrate.
How does concentration for a spell cast by contingency work? As if you cast it when the contingency fires (which can be weird because a contingency can fire when you are unable to concentrate), or is it more like a portable glyph of warding?
It's different from Glyph of Warding, since it doesn't have the exception from that spell:
So I'd say you need to keep Concentration when the trigger occurs.
This is from the Dev (link to sageadvice.eu):
It seems like the original question is mostly about a potential corner case where the spellcaster is unable to concentrate at the moment that the trigger causes the spell to take effect. One example might be some sort of multi-class Barbarian character who casts a spell and then enters a Rage and the spell then takes effect during some moment while the Rage is still active.
Does the spell take effect briefly and then ends on subsequent turns due to a lack of concentration, or does the spell dissipate without ever taking effect?
Basically the same opinion: the contingent spell requires your Concentration when it activates; otherwise, it never activates.
The Sage Advice doesn't really cover the edge case of a caster being unable to concentrate when the condition for Contingency occurs.
Another way to rule this might be that if the spell requires concentration, but the caster is unable to concentrate on it for whatever reason, then the spell cast with Contingency would take effect for only a moment before dissipating. So as an example, if Wall of Fire were the contingent spell, the fire would spring up momentarily, deal its initial damage, then immediately dissipate.
I'd agree with that ruling. My wizard had that issue nearly come up once where it would be completely useless because of the effect, since he was incapacitated.
This ruling makes the most sense to me and feels more in line with the concentration section in the rules glossary.
"Some spells and other effects require Concentration to remain active, as specified in their descriptions. If the effect’s creator loses Concentration, the effect ends." According to this concentration is required for the effect to remain not begin. If the caster loses concentration because they can't concentrate the effect ends.
You're still casting the spell but by not concentrating the effect doesn't remain active after the casting. It be like you cast wall of fire and immediately dropped concentration on it. Makes for a bad day if your contingency is for haste and you can't concentrate.