In the books, you need Free Will before you can break a circle. For example, in Ghost Story:There was someone trapped in a containment circle and Harry couldn't walk across the circle to help him.
Another example: in the first book, Harry goes into his inscribed summoning circle (i.e. one meant to contain what's summoned) and Mr. Toad demon couldn't cross it to get to him.
Why does a magic circle work this way? Because either way you look at it, a circle is a threshold. It divides the world as "things inside the circle" and "things outside the circle" with the circle as the threshold that defines which is which. Cross the threshold and you are changing your definition of "this" to "that".
In the game system... Circles aren't very well defined, but I would still go with them working both ways.
Richard
He can't break a circle because he is a spirtual being at this point. He has no physical form or whatever to break it with. No force, no breaking.I think we are talking about Sir Stuart trapped in the circle after the 2. attack on mortys house. Eihter way, Harry had free will at this point.
Free will has absolutely nothing to do with, even a falling leaf can break a circle
I hate being explicit in spoilers - even using the tags. Of course, the scene I'm taking about is when Harry tries to rescue Sir Stuart from the circle.
He can't break a circle because he is a spirtual being at this point. He has no physical form or whatever to break it with. No force, no breaking.I think we are talking about Sir Stuart trapped in the circle after the 2. attack on mortys house. Eihter way, Harry had free will at this point.
Free will has absolutely nothing to do with, even a falling leaf can break a circle
If the circle couldn't keep him out, why didn't Harry walk across the circle to help Sir Stuart? Because he couldn't. The circle was like a wall to him - just like the graveyard walls, Murphy's door, etc. It was a threshold that he couldn't cross.
As for creatures without Freewill being able to mar a circle, reread why Binder's minions couldn't do that in Turncoat.
As for facing, there is 'in' and there is 'out' and a threshold between them. If you can't cross the threshold it doesn't matter which way you were going.
Jim has written a few posts about magic circles and what can (and can't) break. If you search through his transcribed interviews on the WoJ board you can find more on how magic circles work.
Richard
I hate being explicit in spoilers - even using the tags. Of course, the scene I'm taking about is when Harry tries to rescue Sir Stuart from the circle.
If the circle couldn't keep him out, why didn't Harry walk across the circle to help Sir Stuart? Because he couldn't. The circle was like a wall to him - just like the graveyard walls, Murphy's door, etc. It was a threshold that he couldn't cross.
As for creatures without Freewill being able to mar a circle, reread why Binder's minions couldn't do that in Turncoat.
As for facing, there is 'in' and there is 'out' and a threshold between them. If you can't cross the threshold it doesn't matter which way you were going.
Jim has written a few posts about magic circles and what can (and can't) break. If you search through his transcribed interviews on the WoJ board you can find more on how magic circles work.
Richard
Spoilers for GS Follows:
I don't think the Circle trapping Sir Stuart counts in this discussion, because (as I remember it) Harry explaied that this particular circle was made by setting fire to Morty's house and having dug a circle in the hard ground. Sir Stuart was trapped because the melting snow made a moat of water around him that he, as a spirit, couldn't cross. Neither could Harry, because he was also a spirit at the time. This makes that particular circle a special case, utilizing a creature's "weakness".
Weren't ghosts all over Mort's house? Though I think only Sir Stuart was able to get into the office / lab. I also seem to remember Harry pushing through one threshold...though I need to reread it to be certain.
If you are a spiritual creature and you get invited into a house the threeshold doesn't matter. And if the threeshold is weak then you can force your way through if you have enough power.
I disagree. Purely spiritual creatures - ghosts, spirits - cannot force their way across a threshold. In Grave Peril the super ghost couldn't break through thresholds - it had to use the "you leave this world when you dream" trick. And in GS Harry encountered solid walls. He couldn't begin to force his way through them.
#and if a demon/erlking could break a circle by just stomping their foot then there wouldn't be such containmend circles. The existence of them shows that this is not possible. All the power of the beeing is stoped at the edge of the circle.
Again, I'm not talking about projecting their power at the circle itself but at the environment and letting nature take its course.
Let me break it out. We both agree that Demon Sorcerer can't cast an erase spell on the circle. The point where there's some dispute on purely physical actions that are directed at the area bounded by the circle.
For example, Harry's summoning circle is in concrete. If you apply a huge force to concrete (by standing your foot with beyond human strenght) it will crack with the cracks spreading out from the impact point. Thus the cracks could spread to the binding circle itself. Cracks in a circle renders it useless (unless they were there and forming the circle when you empowered it) which means that a demon could not have stamped his hoof that hard on concrete - otherwise he would have broken the circle and (lacking freewill) he cannot do that.
Richard