I'd make it an absolute effect: Unless broken, it blocks magic. Period.
There are exceptions, but they're rare and plot-relevant only (I'd allow a Death Curse to escape, for example. Or a diety or something else in that league). Barring those, it stops magic...but is casually broken as a Supplemental mundane action (a thrown pebble, for example).
I'd make it an absolute effect: Unless broken, it blocks magic. Period.I'd actually let it block death curses... so long as the circle is up, at least. Break the circle, and out the curse goes. Just like that entropy curse powered by HWWB
There are exceptions, but they're rare and plot-relevant only (I'd allow a Death Curse to escape, for example. Or a diety or something else in that league). Barring those, it stops magic...but is casually broken as a Supplemental mundane action (a thrown pebble, for example).
I'd actually let it block death curses... so long as the circle is up, at least. Break the circle, and out the curse goes. Just like that entropy curse powered by HWWB
If it was an absolute effect then why did Harry, when facing the entropy curse and the heartripper spell, didn't simply block them with a circle?
If it was an absolute effect, then why do supernatural creatures that are not omnipotent but are still powerful (i.e. summoned demons) fight to escape or pass through circles and the caster of the circle feels the pressure? And remember that even with an elaborate circle, Kim Delaney was still eaten by the Loup Garou.
If it was an absolute effect, then why use simplistic circles against small things, elaborate circles vs bigger things and ridiculously complicated stuff against, say, the Loup Garou, the Erlking or the Archive?
Harry had to strain hard to contain Chauncy with his.
If it was an absolute effect then why did Harry, when facing the entropy curse and the heartripper spell, didn't simply block them with a circle?
If it was an absolute effect, then why do supernatural creatures that are not omnipotent but are still powerful (i.e. summoned demons) fight to escape or pass through circles and the caster of the circle feels the pressure? And remember that even with an elaborate circle, Kim Delaney was still eaten by the Loup Garou.
If it was an absolute effect, then why use simplistic circles against small things, elaborate circles vs bigger things and ridiculously complicated stuff against, say, the Loup Garou, the Erlking or the Archive?
I'm gonna say this one more time, because people keep using it as an example:
THAT WAS NOT A CIRCLE. Not as we're discussing the term, anyway. It was a Ward that hapened to be circular. Chauncy, having a will of his own, could casually walk through a mere Circle. If you doubt me, re-read the Summoning and Binding rules (which involve a warded circle to contain the summoned entity).
I could see that, though if the circle were ever broken, the curse would then escape.That's exactly what I meant.
I'm pretty sure Chauncy, being a demon, has no free will and thus couldn't cross a circle's boundaries any more than Toot-toot, Bob, or Binder's Gray Men could--and even if he did, it would cut off the magic holding his ectoplasmic form together, and he'd promptly melt into goop.
Demons don't have 'free will' in quite the sense mortals do, but anything with a name or sense of individual identity has more than enough individual agency to break a Circle.
And no, there's no evidence getting out of a Circle would do anything of the kind. Now, if he was surrounded by a circle once freed from the wards...that might drop his Ectoplasm and shunt him back to the Nevernever, but only if they were being maintained externally. I wouldn't bet against Chauncy having some internal energy reserves against such an eventuality.
I don't think that's accurate; Harry uses a magic circle to trap Toot-toot in Storm Front, after all--and in that case it's pretty explicitly a magic circle, not a ward. The language used to describe what Harry does is basically identical to the language every other time Harry creates a circle. Later in the same book, when he breaks the Shadowman's circle, he explicitly points out that it was because it was an act of "human will" or something similar.
I was referring to stepping into a circle, assuming such a feat could be accomplished without breaking it.
I don't think that's accurate; Harry uses a magic circle to trap Toot-toot in Storm Front, after all--and in that case it's pretty explicitly a magic circle, not a ward. The language used to describe what Harry does is basically identical to the language every other time Harry creates a circle. Later in the same book, when he breaks the Shadowman's circle, he explicitly points out that it was because it was an act of "human will" or something similar.This. Chauncy was just one example used, so chill. There's this incident with Toot toot, a couple of times in the books.
I don't think that's accurate; Harry uses a magic circle to trap Toot-toot in Storm Front, after all--and in that case it's pretty explicitly a magic circle, not a ward. The language used to describe what Harry does is basically identical to the language every other time Harry creates a circle. Later in the same book, when he breaks the Shadowman's circle, he explicitly points out that it was because it was an act of "human will" or something similar.