Must Planar Binding reach to another plane?

[Tiberius]

If you play in my campaign, you may stop reading now.

For the rest of you, I've got a question with respect to the Planar Binding chain of spells. I have as one of my PCs a tiefling character. I was thinking of eventually having the party's adversaries use these spells to summon her and compel her to service. By my reading, there is no language in the spell description that requires the target to be presently on another plane, but merely to be an outsider. Does anyone know of any clarifications or other rulings on these spells?

Thanks!

-Tiberius

 

[Epametheus]

From the SRD, first paragraph of Lesser Planar Binding:

Casting this spell attempts a dangerous act: to lure a creature from another plane to a specifically prepared trap, which must lie within the spell’s range. The called creature is held in the trap until it agrees to perform one service in return for its freedom.

Note the phrase, "from another plane." It's also sub-typed as a calling spell, and the description of that type specifically mentions bringing creatures in from another plane.

However, they can get around this by just plane-shifting to another plane and casting the binding there, assuming that the villians can reach other planes on their own.

I don't have a FRCS handy, so I can't check whether or not there's a clause exempting native outsiders (like tieflings) from being summoned; it's entirely possible that there is, though.

 

[Tiberius]

Hmmm. I was interpreting that "from another plane" to mean "Outsider" not "the targer must be on a different plane from the one you are on", though I can see how it would be read that way. Having the villians shift to a different plane to do it is probably the best solution, as it would avoid the inevitable text parsing arguments. Thanks!

-Tiberius