Teleportation Circle - how many?

[StreamOfTheSky]

Outside of combat, you can fit many medium-sized people in a 5x5 foot square, you don't even need to be grappling each other. In a combat situation, the 3.5 D&D rules state that each character can't share a square (unless they're prone/squeezing/grappling) and still fight effectively. So you could fit a dozen (exaggerating) people in a 5ft radius, but once combat starts and you surprise the enemy, those dozen people would have to spend that first round spreading out, negating any advantage you had in the first place.

Well, even if you had to spend all of your surprise round actions spreading out, it still might be useful, just for the fact the PCs know combati s coming (can buff beforehand). Also, the spell Shock and Awe comes to mind as something that would make such a trick valuable even without a surprise round -- iirc it's a swift or immediate action, and can only be cast in a surprise round, giving all foes surprised a huge penalty on their initiative rolls. Not saying that's overpowered, just...a smart usage of the situation.

 

[Jack Simth]

A Teleportation Circle is a 5 foot radius circle that teleports the person inside the circle to a designated location via Greater Teleport. Can this function like the standard teleport where everybody joins hands and you can teleport one person/3 levels of the caster? Or, does it function that just one person at a time steps into the circle & teleports? Or, can you squeeze several people into the 5 foot circle at once (like, 4 per grapple)? or, something else?

Thanks

How many people can run past a particular point in a round? The Circle doesn't teleport them based on any turn criteria, just on them being in the circle.

So if I've got a line of 24 Humans who all Run (30 foot move, *4, = 120 feet) into the circle, all 24 of them go.

 

[GreyVulpine]

Well, even if you had to spend all of your surprise round actions spreading out, it still might be useful, just for the fact the PCs know combati s coming (can buff beforehand). Also, the spell Shock and Awe comes to mind as something that would make such a trick valuable even without a surprise round -- iirc it's a swift or immediate action, and can only be cast in a surprise round, giving all foes surprised a huge penalty on their initiative rolls. Not saying that's overpowered, just...a smart usage of the situation.

I'll agree with you, it'll let them buff beforehand, but once they teleport in, they don't know what's waiting for them on the other side. Somebody may have tipped them off, or they may have an item that warns them of an incoming teleport. The opposing party may have Zone of Respite, or Anticipate Teleport, or Forbiddance up. They may have weapons ready and aimed at the spot. By then, it's really no different than a large group of adventurers hiding under a sphere of invisibility, waiting to ambush somebody.

How many people can run past a particular point in a round? The Circle doesn't teleport them based on any turn criteria, just on them being in the circle.

So if I've got a line of 24 Humans who all Run (30 foot move, *4, = 120 feet) into the circle, all 24 of them go.

Well, by RAW, the spell states that subjects need to be standing inside the spell's area and 'activate' it.

 

[NewJeffCT]

I'll agree with you, it'll let them buff beforehand, but once they teleport in, they don't know what's waiting for them on the other side. Somebody may have tipped them off, or they may have an item that warns them of an incoming teleport. The opposing party may have Zone of Respite, or Anticipate Teleport, or Forbiddance up. They may have weapons ready and aimed at the spot. By then, it's really no different than a large group of adventurers hiding under a sphere of invisibility, waiting to ambush somebody.



Well, by RAW, the spell states that subjects need to be standing inside the spell's area and 'activate' it.

well, I've pulled the Anticipate Teleport on them twice, so I don't want to go to that well yet again. Plus, this is an ancient permanent teleportation circle that the PCs will discover - so, the bad guys don't know about it.

 

[Elethiomel]

Well, by RAW, the spell states that subjects need to be standing inside the spell's area and 'activate' it.

OK, so you can fill the area within a 35' radius around the center point of the teleport circle (assuming 30' max speed for the participants) with people, and each spend a move action getting to the teleport circle and a standard action activating it, all within the same round. That works according to the rules, right?

 

[GreyVulpine]

OK, so you can fill the area within a 35' radius around the center point of the teleport circle (assuming 30' max speed for the participants) with people, and each spend a move action getting to the teleport circle and a standard action activating it, all within the same round. That works according to the rules, right?

You would think so, but think about the destination. How are all of those people going to fit inside a 5' radius at the other end of the teleport? You cannot have people teleporting inside other people, nor can you have them ending up in midair. Best case scenario, the teleport circle will not work after the 5' radius at the other end is occupied with a group of people.

 

[Michael Silverbane]

According to the SRD...

The circle itself is subtle and nearly impossible to notice. If you intend to keep creatures from activating it accidentally, you need to mark the circle in some way.

and

Note: Magic traps such as teleportation circle are hard to detect and disable. A rogue (only) can use the Search skill to find the circle and Disable Device to thwart it. The DC in each case is 25 + spell level, or 34 in the case of teleportation circle.

This would imply no activation action to use the circle. Anyone walking across it would trigger the teleport. Now, whether or not that ends their movement is another question.

Personally, I would not have any issues with a fairly large group of people all using the teleportation circle in the same round.