:smallconfused: DMG Demographics encourage there being enough casters of sufficient level for this.
Spellcasters charging per spell is irrelevant except in cases where the crafter can outright afford it.
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Irrelevant, optimization is not the norm. You might have one person pulling whatever shenanigans you want, but without multiple level 17 wizards, you can't have the TV as stablished. You will have one guy using Teleportation Circle and one person is not the TV. Not only do you need someone able to do that, you need someone that wants to do that. For that single caster, the benefits are minimal.
TV is not a guaranteed outcome, stop preaching like it is. It depends on several assumptions to be true and all the OP wanted were ways to avoid it happening. Several were listed already.
I've actually got a rather fun setting that explores what happens after the Tippyverse. If any of my players are reading this, don't open the spoiler.SpoilerBasically what happened is that centuries ago, there was a functioning TV. Then someone developed Epic Spellcasting, and made the first strike. The ensuing Global Thaumonuclear War threatened to tear apart the fabric of the very planes themselves, so on Mechanus, Primus gave an order. inevitables descended on the Prime en masse, and wiped out pretty much everyone in the big cities. The only people who survived were those few still living in the countryside, some of whom managed to flee through caves into the Underdark. They didn't really understand what happened, but they knew it was the mages' faults. So magic came to be reviled, and magic users persecuted. Centuries pass, and magic has been all but eliminated, remaining only in legends and cautionary tales.
Then I went and made the PCs casters.
And the Epic Level Handbook, Manual of the Planes, or Planar Handbook has a continuation of that table with the "Planar Metropolis" settlement category (200,000 or more individuals iirc) that includes wizards of greater than 16th level.
RAW, level 17+ wizards exist.
Leaving that aside, you can create a teleportation circle with a level 13 warlock. Ignoring that, you can achieve the exact same end effect with an automatic resetting trap of Greater Teleport.
I know the demographic table is extended in the ELH, I'm also certain it's not in MotP, but I can't remember one way or the other if it's in PLH.
The one in ELH even changes the community modifiers so that you actually can find up to a 20th level wizard even in a metropolis of 25,000.
The resetting trap does of course obviate the need for this expansion, but it's definitely part of RAW just like ET^ here says.
......... I never realized that would be the initials for emporer tippy, before now. :smalltongue:
You could also do all of this with a 15th level Artificer if you really want to. Not even requiring the Epic level handbook... But as you stated a Warlock 13 could set up the TV without much effort... Love how you're like Beetlejuice in that if you say "Tippy" 3 times you're automatically summoned into the thread :smallsmile: