Summoning directly inside an opposed Magic Circle Against [Blah]


Rules Questions


This has been asked before, but a decade ago, so seems worth asking again, in case there's been a ruling, equivalent situation that can be used as useful precedent, or similar.

If something has a Magic Circle against X up - for this argument, we'll say Good, and someone tries to summon one or more Good creature(s) into that space, does it

1) Suceed
2) Spell fizzles
3) "That's an invalid location to target, would you like to pick another?"
4) Summon(s) are hedged out to the nearest available space. (Randomly if multiple available.)

Previous discussion, from 2011: Summoning good creatures into a Magic Circle

I default to 2, at least in the instance of someone who is summoning things a lot, thus actually running into a countermeasure (even if it's not been deployed specifically against them) and it actually having a cost to them seems reasonable. And because I'm a harsh GM.

But it'd be good to know if there are existing rulings around this.


It should work just like normal when you fail to overcome SR just in reverse as you're summoning into someone else's SR ability. You try to conjure a creature, if it doesn't have SR it will just outright fail and fizzle (see "must summon into an area that is safe, failure means fizzle"; gross paraphrasing), if you summon something that does have SR, the owner of the Circle Against X will roll their SR check to try and prevent you from conjuring the creature into the space. Success on the owner is the same end result as if the creature had no SR above, failure means the creature essentially can ignore the hedging part of Circle Against X.


there are specifics as to how a Magic Circle of Protection is used in conjunction with summoning, calling, allies, trapping/binding, and gates. Circles also have a circumference and direction, outward or inward (attempting to) prevent passage of the warded alignment or type across the circumference into or out of the area of effect. Some circles are permanent and others temporary.

Magic Circle against Evil:A3{as this has more text}
Outward) area inside creature gain protection & Evil summoned creatures cannot enter the area (thus no summoning them INTO the circle either barring an SR check and spells that cannot fulfill their casting requirements simply fail and are wasted {aka "fizzles"}),
Inward) binds non-good creature in the area, again barring an SR check, size & time constraints. Then we get text about special cases of 'breaking the circle' or 'drawing a diagram' with options.
Lastly the stacking prohibition.

Sum Mon 1:C1 is the base spell of Conjuration school. It must arrive in an open location and not in another creature or object.

CRB FAQ on Protection from Evil
There's nothing on Magic Circle against {alignment}.

The game universally assumes that the caster is in control of said circle while using it or the caster of the circle is cooperative. It really doesn't address summoning a creature into a foes circle on the topic of possession or ownership. Is it important? I'd assume that the foe could end the Inward spell by breaking the circle on his action.

I have to say we move into Commentary (GM territory) beyond this.

I'd posit that if another active creature controls/possesses an object of roughly their size the GM would object to another caster summoning the creature ON the object. It's similar to the rule that caster's cannot summon the creature INTO another creatures square even though we know it could squeeze into it. A block of 4 squares each with a small sized humanoid also prevents summoning creatures into those 4 squares. The summoned creature has to appear adjacent in a free and open square. The target square can be partial so long as the obstruction is an inanimate object and the GM agrees.
You can easily test this hypothisis in your home game by wearing a rather long bridal train and see if the BBEG can ruin your 'wedding march' via summoning. Then sew some goblins into it and see how that works...

The analogy only extends so far as people own buildings etc but clearly you can summon critters into someone else's mansion next to them against their will.
So essentially you are in GM territory on this as the rules don't explicitly cover it.

Lastly, many GMs hand wave flying creatures and allow eagles to appear mid air. Technically this is against the rules.


For clarity; I am talking about the 10 minute/level buff cast on a creature, not the 'draw a line on the ground "I SUMMON THEE FIEND!"' version.

Azothath wrote:
area inside creature gain protection & Evil summoned creatures cannot enter the area (thus no summoning them INTO the circle either barring an SR check and spells that cannot fulfill their casting requirements simply fail and are wasted {aka "fizzles"}),

Essentially what I was after was a combination of (barring the SR check, which I do need to remember) a confirmation that

a) the 'appears there' element of summoning doesn't bypass the 'enters' requirement
b) it fizzles rather than them being gently pushed out to the nearest available space (if it was from someone who cast one summoning spell every few games, I might allow the latter. It won't be) or them being able to mystically tell they can't summon there, so targeting elsewhere.

They'll then have to work out what's going on, and summon something different, or take other actions the next turn. But that's half the fun :D


Appearing inside of would not by pass the "cannot enter (read cannot exist inside)" clause, and indeed it would fizzle. That is at least my interpretation though I have no reason to doubt it.

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