Wards and Indirect Action

I'm aware that Circle wards prevent the targetted creature(s) from being able to cross the circle or break it, directly or indirectly. The question is how indirect can this be? Is asking a friend to break the circle permitted, or even tricking? What about pushing over a stone pillar to break the circle, and if not, how about pushing over the pillar so that it in turn knocks over something that breaks the circle? Is inaction permitted, such as stepping out of the way of a falling pillar so it lands uninterrupted onto the circle? What if the creature catches the pillar, realizes that it will break the circle, and releases its grasp so it continues on its the original trajectory? If said creature can't jump over the circle, can it be thrown over the circle? What about setting up a see-saw system to launch itself over the circle, cartoon style; or it sets it up and asks someone else to thrown down the rock to launch it over?

It's been discussed quite a bit on the forum. The way I like to manage it is if the creature is warded, it ignores all that is on the "other" side. Direct interactions, such as someone talking to a demon within a circle can happen but the demon is not really aware of what is transpiring otherside the circle. A sort of mental block...

But the troupe can set the exat line as usual as the line is not decisively explicit on where it lands. Can the demon politely ask the mundane to break the circle? Can it ask him to go deliver a msg to an acolyte who will then deliver him? Not clear...

W

Warning: This post is Personal Opinion and Interpretation, not rules!

My interpretation: the creature cannot take action with the intent of breaking or crossing the ward, nor can it take action that will result in its power being expressed beyond the ward - with the exception of mundane dialogue. Note that the creature can have the ward broken by inaction; it is not compelled to protect the ward. Thus indirect action with the intent of breaking the ward ain't going to happen. It can try, but something will conspire to result in it not happening.

In my sagas, wards rarely act as forcefields. They instead create magical effects that result in the warded creature not crossing the ward.
Similarly, someone who is warded against swords doesn't have a forcefield; just anyone swinging a sword at them misses. Every time. In the same way, though, the warded person is always thwarted every time they try to pick up a sword. It gets kicked away in the chaos, or it just happens to tip into that gap and move out of reach, or whatever. If the person keeps trying, it's going to make for some improvised slapstick comedy.

For example, if a wizard puts a familiar in a bag, closes the bag, puts the bag in a pack and seals the pack, then while wearing the pack attempts to cross a hostile aegis, then the familiar (and probably the original bag) will end up falling out of his pack. No amount of securing will prevent this from happening. The familiar won't go squish against the ward, they will just end up not crossing the ward with the minimum amount of disruption required to make this happen.

Kind-of the opposite of the bad-penny effect.

I would rule that any of the attempts to break the circle you mention would work, if the circle can be broken that way. I think demons could certainly trick someone into it. Stories of Djinnis tricking others into freeing them would be along these lines. Good summoning circles should be made of metal and buried partly in the ground making them very secure, whereas a quick chalk or salt circle would be easier to break (by a moderate wind perhaps). I think that the warded being cannot DIRECTLY affect the circle or anything on the other side of the circle, but could indirectly do so. A circle warding Fae doesn't keep the Fae from throwing perfectly natural rocks at you. For vaulting over it, I would say absolutely not. The warded being simply cannot cross the threshold of the circle. If the threshold is broken, so is the ward, and it can cross, but leaping, catapulting or teleporting would never work.

I also, consider the circles to be spherical with most wards making a hemisphere half as tall as it is wide. That might be irrelevant, but I thought I'd throw it in.