Magic circles- evil/good/law/chaos

[maull]

Are circles of protection against X a cylinder, a hemisphere, a sphere or something else? References and support are cordially requested.
Thank you.

[Janthkin]

Are circles of protection against X a cylinder, a hemisphere, a sphere or something else? References and support are cordially requested.
Thank you.
Sphere'ish.

PHB:
p. 249, "Magic Circle Against Evil", Area: 10-ft. radius emanation from touched creature.
p. 175, "Aiming a spell," second column: "An emanation spell functions like a burst spell, except that the effect continues to radiate from the point of origin for the duration of the spell. Most emanations are cones or spheres."

If it's got a radius, it ain't a cone. That said, it's not a perfect sphere as defined, either, as most creatures you target the spell on aren't spherical themselves; it ends up being closer to an oblate spheroid. And note that emanations don't bypass total cover, so most of the time it's not going to affect much below the target creature.

[Zaq]

The text describes the effect as an Emanation. The Emanation rules reference the Burst rules, and the Burst rules say that Bursts are spheres unless stated otherwise. Magic Circle Against [X] doesn't state otherwise, so it's a sphere.

It does get a little weird when you use the "trap" version to bind a called creature, but nothing in the rules actually says that the shape would be different for the trap version than for the protective version.

[nedz]

Sphere'ish.

PHB:
p. 249, "Magic Circle Against Evil", Area: 10-ft. radius emanation from touched creature.
p. 175, "Aiming a spell," second column: "An emanation spell functions like a burst spell, except that the effect continues to radiate from the point of origin for the duration of the spell. Most emanations are cones or spheres."

If it's got a radius, it ain't a cone. That said, it's not a perfect sphere as defined, either, as most creatures you target the spell on aren't spherical themselves; it ends up being closer to an oblate spheroid. And note that emanations don't bypass total cover, so most of the time it's not going to affect much below the target creature.

this, pretty much - however:

If the creature is large then the AoE increases.
It cannot be cast on flying creatures since you have to trace a circle on the ground.
It's not really a sphere but more a collection of cubes.