Summoning a creature inside a magic circle

[Quasqueton]

Magic circle against evil prevents (non-Good) summoned creatures from entering. What happens if a caster targets a square inside the circle as the spot for a summoned creature to appear?

Quasqueton

 

[Grazzt]

Magic circle against evil prevents (non-Good) summoned creatures from entering. What happens if a caster targets a square inside the circle as the spot for a summoned creature to appear?

Quasqueton

I am assuming you mean a summoned evil creature, right? My question would be why would a caster summon a creature and target it inside the circle?

 

[Quasqueton]

I am assuming you mean a summoned evil creature, right? My question would be why would a caster summon a creature and target it inside the circle?

I'll clarify.

Good Guy has a magic circle against evil centered on him. Evil Guy doesn't know this, and so casts summon monster, targeting the creature to appear right beside Good Guy.

Does the monster appear and fight without problem?

Does the magic circle push the creature away 10'?

Does the spell fail?

Something else?

Quasqueton

 

[Grazzt]

I'll clarify.

Good Guy has a magic circle against evil centered on him. Evil Guy doesn't know this, and so casts summon monster, targeting the creature to appear right beside Good Guy.

Does the monster appear and fight without problem?

Does the magic circle push the creature away 10'?

Does the spell fail?

Something else?

Quasqueton

Gotcha. As far as I know the rules don't really cover this situation. (I could be wrong, I'm @ work and don't have my books handy.) So, it seems a DM ruling is in order.

I wouldn't let the monster appear in the circle and fight without problem. That is essentially negating the magic circle spell, something summon monster spells shouldnt be able to do.

You could rule that the monster simply appears just outside the circle.

If this occurred in my campaign, I'd probably handle it like this:

1. Evil caster summons fiendish monster and targets area inside (unbeknownest to the evil caster) magic circle against evil.

2. If creature has SR, make a check since the magic circle/protection from evil spell says: "Spell resistance can allow a creature to overcome this protection and touch the warded creature."

3. Depending on result of SR roll, creature can either attack warded creature normally or is shunted just outside the circle.

 

[Gaiden]

the spell would fail.

 

[Fieari]

To expand what Gaiden just said, spells fail if the target is an invalid target. My PHB (3e, I know...) says:

SPELL FAILURE

If you ever try to cast a spell in conditions where the characteristics of the spell (range, area, etc.) cannot be made to conform, the casting fails and the spell is wasted. For example, if you cast charm person on a dog (even a dog polymorphed into a human), the spell fails because a dog is the wrong sort of target for the spell. Spells also fail if your concentration is broken (see Concentration) and might fail if you’re wearing armor while casting a spell with somatic components (see Table 7–5: Armor).

Of course, the question then becomes-- is inside the circle a valid target or not? It's a very simple ruleing to say that it isn't. On the otherhand, other effects may be more dramatic and interesting.

 

[Telperion]

Magic circle against evil prevents (non-Good) summoned creatures from entering. What happens if a caster targets a square inside the circle as the spot for a summoned creature to appear?

Quasqueton

Haven't you guys ever heard of Planar Binding? It's an inverted Magic cirlcle againt GECL. You Call a creature , and then capture it inside a slightly modified Magic circle -spell, until it relents and obeys your commands, for a while anyway. Of course I wouldn't recommend doing this, since the "prison" isn't very effective without considerable preparations and knowledge of outsiders. What would happen if you cast Magic Circle Agaisnt Evil, and then called up a Demon? The thing would grin and proceed to rip you appart. And since this spell is a [calling] it won't "go away" when you die, like it would with a normal [summoning] spell.