tweaking Teleportation Circle

[Zhorn]

Following on from a thread I started in the 5e forums
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showt...les-Permanence

I'm looking to modify the spell text for Teleportation Circle for the purposes of house ruling.
Intended changes:

• Casting the spell every day for a year is just creating persisting one-way portals to justify the cost/time needed to establish them.
• Casting the spell using a new sigil sequence sets up a targetable 'permanent circle' for use with Teleport and Teleportation Circle casts.
• Language added to emphasise sigil sequences and portals are relatively simple to remove, as to explain why they would not be covering the landscape, and why long standing forms would be in secret/secure locations

House Ruled Teleportation Circle
5th-level conjuration
Casting Time: 1 minute
Range: 10 feet
Components: V, M (rare chalks and inks infused with precious gems with 50 gp, which the spell consumes)
Duration: 1 round

As you cast the spell, you draw a 10-foot-diameter circle on the ground inscribed with sigils that link your location to a permanent teleportation circle of your choice Whose sigil sequence you know and that is on the same plane of existence as you. A shimmering portal opens within the circle you drew and remains open until the end of your next turn. Any creature that enters the portal instantly appears within 5 feet of the destination circle or in the nearest unoccupied space if that space is occupied.

Many major temples, guilds, and other important places have permanent teleportation circles inscribed somewhere within their confines. Each such circle includes a unique sigil sequence—a string of magical runes arranged in a particular pattern. When you first gain the ability to cast this spell, you learn the sigil sequences for two destinations on the Material Plane, determined by the DM. You can learn additional sigil sequences during your adventures. You can commit a new sigil sequence to memory after studying it for 1 minute.

You can create a permanent teleportation circle by casting this spell in the same location every day for one year. You need not use the circle to teleport when you cast the spell in this way.

If you cast the spell using the same sigil sequence in the same location every day for one year, you create a persisting one way portal that lasts until either it is dispelled, or the destination's sigil sequence is altered or destroyed.

If you cast the spell using a sigil sequence not associated with a destination, the spell does not create a portal but instead activates the sigil sequence as a permanent circle, persisting until the sigil sequence is altered or destroyed. Some wizards have their sigil sequences chiselled into solid stone or similar surfaces prior to casting the spell to make the sequence more durable and harder to destroy.

Critiques? Suggested language modifications? Want to be sure the wording is clean, clear, and won't have unintended consequences or interpretations.

[Zhorn]

Edit 1:
Changed "If you cast the spell using the same sigil sequence in the same location for one year"
to "If you cast the spell using the same sigil sequence in the same location every day for one year"

Foolishly without the change that could have easily been interpreted as either a year long cast , or be ambiguous of how often the spell is being caste over that year.

[Danielqueue1]

This definitely brings the spell more in line with what a lot of players think the spell is. Perhaps since players would be able to set up quite the grid of these, increase the material cost to set one up.

[Zhorn]

Have a cost in mind?
Setting up a permanent portal is still a huge cost all tallied up (18,000+ gp), doubled if you want two-way travel (36,000+ gp).

I am toying with the idea of an increased spell cost, but at the same time I'm thinking if the sigil sequence is vulnerable enough that would act as a decent cost.

• Not protected from the elements? Rain will likely wash away circles just chalked or inked to the ground.
• Didn't secure it in a hidden location? Rival could tamper with your sigil sequence, destroying it, or relocating the sigil to screw you over, or even trap the location. Or maybe they just start using it themselves, so that shortcut you set up to the dungeon to loot later is now a shortcut for someone else to loot the place before you get back. Like what was being discussed in the other thread, teleportation circles are a major security risk and there's a good reason they would be kept secret and hidden.

[Flashkannon]

Personally, I think you're being a little lenient with setting up sigil sequences. Those should require a time investment, if not the gold investment. A month of casting the spell seems more fair, in terms of setting up a sigil sequence. Or perhaps keep the year, but lose the gold investment for casting the spell when used in that way.

Alternatively, some means of using multiple casts of the spell to speed up the process. A 20th level spellcaster could cast Teleportation Circle 9 times per day, if they really put their mind to it. Even at a full year's worth of casts needed, that comes out to a little more than 40 days, which seems much more reasonable.

[Zhorn]

Lenient? Quite possibly. Making the spell more accessible won't work for everyone's games.
For me, part of this is also extending out the implications of Teleportation Circle for story reasons, making the spell more user friendly from the casting side of things, but in doing so opens the potential for how risky it can be to use without precaution.

You set up a sigil sequence somewhere, and fail to keep it secret, anyone with access to the spell and knows the sequence has easy access to that location.
Example: Use Teleportation Circle to escape a hostile area? You might be safe for now, but unless something is there to destroy that chalk drawing of the sigil you left behind to cast the spell, you better hope no spell casters get a good look at it any time soon to follow you. With that sort of risk in play, you may be tempted to destroy the destination sigil to prevent being followed. Setting a new sigil is like changing the locks.

Conversely, trying to include in the text how fragile the sigil sequences can be (works until altered or destroyed) can make for some good quest potential.
Example: A mad wizard has escaped from the spell prison and plotting to set up a Teleportation Circle sigil to bring reinforcements into the town for his revenge. You task is to track down his sigil, destroy the original without his knowledge, and set up the same sigil in a spell proof prison to capture his reinforcements when they attempt to teleport to the sigil.

Still I'm interested in how you would set up this multiple casting requirement. What wording would you have in might for the method to allude to? is it still based off a set number of casts, or does it tally the spell levels used to reach a target number?