diff --git a/spock-core/src/main/java/org/spockframework/compiler/SpecialMethodCall.java b/spock-core/src/main/java/org/spockframework/compiler/SpecialMethodCall.java
index fc095b6024..c44de3bc16 100644
--- a/spock-core/src/main/java/org/spockframework/compiler/SpecialMethodCall.java
+++ b/spock-core/src/main/java/org/spockframework/compiler/SpecialMethodCall.java
@@ -266,11 +266,17 @@ private static boolean checkIsConditionBlock(MethodCallExpression methodCallExpr
     ClassNode targetType = methodCallExpr.getObjectExpression().getType();
     String methodName = methodCallExpr.getMethodAsString();
 
-    List<MethodNode> methods = targetType.getMethods(methodName);
-    for (MethodNode method : methods) {
-      for (AnnotationNode annotation : method.getAnnotations()) {
-        if (annotation.getClassNode().getName().equals(ConditionBlock.class.getName())) return true;
+    try {
+      // if targetType has any method with a parameter or return type that is not in the
+      // compile classpath this call will fail with a NoClassDefFoundError
+      List<MethodNode> methods = targetType.getMethods(methodName);
+      for (MethodNode method : methods) {
+        for (AnnotationNode annotation : method.getAnnotations()) {
+          if (annotation.getClassNode().getName().equals(ConditionBlock.class.getName())) return true;
+        }
       }
+    } catch (NoClassDefFoundError e) {
+      // just assume there is no condition block and return false
     }
 
     return false;
diff --git a/spock-specs/src/test/groovy/org/spockframework/smoke/CompileTimeErrorReporting.groovy b/spock-specs/src/test/groovy/org/spockframework/smoke/CompileTimeErrorReporting.groovy
index 827d958990..bcb96d985d 100644
--- a/spock-specs/src/test/groovy/org/spockframework/smoke/CompileTimeErrorReporting.groovy
+++ b/spock-specs/src/test/groovy/org/spockframework/smoke/CompileTimeErrorReporting.groovy
@@ -14,6 +14,8 @@
 
 package org.spockframework.smoke
 
+import org.codehaus.groovy.ast.ClassNode
+import org.jetbrains.annotations.Debug
 import org.spockframework.EmbeddedSpecification
 import org.spockframework.compiler.InvalidSpecCompileException
 
@@ -80,4 +82,36 @@ println "hi"
     then:
     thrown(InvalidSpecCompileException)
   }
+
+  static class Foo {
+    Debug getDebug() { return null }
+    void bar() {}
+  }
+
+  def "compiling with missing dependencies does not fail"() {
+    given:
+    compiler.addClassImport('org.spockframework.smoke.CompileTimeErrorReporting.Foo')
+
+    when:
+    new ClassNode(Class.forName('org.spockframework.smoke.CompileTimeErrorReporting$Foo'))
+      .getMethods('bar')
+
+    then: 'make sure it would fail for the right reason, this might change if `Debug` makes it into the runtime classpath'
+    NoClassDefFoundError ncdfe = thrown()
+    println(ncdfe.message)
+    ncdfe.message.contains('org.spockframework.smoke.CompileTimeErrorReporting$Foo')
+    ncdfe.message.contains('org/jetbrains/annotations/Debug')
+
+    when:
+    compiler.compileFeatureBody """
+when:
+new Foo().bar()
+
+then:
+noExceptionThrown()
+    """
+
+    then:
+    noExceptionThrown()
+  }
 }