I was the DM for a group of guys for whom I directed Pathfinder's Wrath of the Righteous Adventure Path. Everything went fine, the players saved the world and all of that wonderful stuff (which is actually canon as of Pathfinder 2) and for the finishing touch, I decided to host a Battle Royale through Roll20 between the PCs.
This was played in a map of my own invention, a two-floor mansion with many traps, and putting each character in a different place. After three days, it's finally down to the arcane caster (a Wizard Archmage of the Admixture School) and the melée fighter (a Champion with five classes), having slain the Bard Marshal, the Life Oracle/Sacred Shield Hierophant, and the Paladin Guardian on the way.
It's the Wizard's turn, and knowing that if the Champion gets too close he's dead, he fires up Gate, directly under the Champion's feet, leading to a very high point in some other plane where the Champion will bite the dust no matter what.
Naturally, this led to a discussion between us. The Champion's player argues that the spell doesn't work that way, while the Wizard states that it can be used that way. In the end, I agree with the latter, but let the Champion roll for Reflex against the Wizard's DC – and he fails. This leads to further discussion, but in the end the Champion's player drops it.
I still am unsure if this was the right call, and I even asked a friend who has DM'd for longer. He agreed with my stance as well, but I'm still wondering.
Can Gate be cast directly under another creature to teleport them away?
Best Answer
Yes
The Gate spell is a Conjuration spell, but it's not a Teleportation effect. The subschool line of the spell tells us that it's a Creation or Calling effect. The Calling does not apply here, because the Gate wasn't used to call a creature, so this use of Gate was a Creation effect. As such this is not subject to the rules on the Teleportation subschool, but the Creation subschool.
The Gate spell itself does not specify the possible targets of the created gate, so we have to fall back on the general rules of the Creation subschool; and the first sentence there tells us all we need to know:
So yes, the Wizard can create the Gate underneath the Champion.
As for the created gate being a horizontal disk instead of the vertical one:
The spell makes it very clear that the caster decides about the gate's orientation. That it even says "typically vertical" proves that it doesn't have to be vertical.
As for being moved to the other plane:
The bolded part is not to suggest that you can only move through voluntarily, but is a modification to the mentioned spell Plane Shift, which has the following target line:
The bolded part modifies this part, removing the necessity of the referenced spell Plane Shift. Gate itself uses this language to describe its travel:
There is no reference to only those who willingly move through are shunted to the other side. This is why it also works with the Calling version of the Gate: The shunted creature need not willingly move through. However, since the travel works like Plane Shift, let's take a closer look at it again, especially this:
A creature can resist being moved either by succeeding on a Will save or the caster failing the spell resistance check on the creature. Spells that only affect willing creatures have the "(harmless)" addition in its Saving Throw and/or Spell Resistance lines. Plane Shift references "willing persons" only as another option of the spell: Either move 1 creature (willing or not) or move up to 8 willing creatures.
The Wizard was right that he could create a Gate in this way, but the Champion should have received a Will save (and spell resistance check) instead of a Reflex save.