Wall of Fire: Taking damage multiple times by using forced movement on a target

Question

This is my first post. I would like to ask: Can a Warlock with repelling blast and grasp of Hadar eldritch blast invocations + a Wizard with the telekinetic feat deal Wall of Fire damage 3 times in one round before the target creature even has its turn? Please do read my description carefully as it is a very specific scenario and I have looked very carefully into the wording and differences between certain words. Thanks a lot. Please ignore T2 in that picture, it has no relevance.

Wall of Fire description:

You create a wall of fire on a solid surface within range. You can make the wall up to 60 feet long, 20 feet high, and 1 foot thick, or a ringed wall up to 20 feet in diameter, 20 feet high, and 1 foot thick. The wall is opaque and lasts for the duration. When the wall appears, each creature within its area must make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 5d8 fire damage, or half as much damage on a successful save. One side of the wall, selected by you when you cast this spell, deals 5d8 fire damage to each creature that ends its turn within 10 feet of that side or inside the wall. A creature takes the same damage when it enters the wall for the first time on a turn or ends its turn there. The other side of the wall deals no damage.

Consider this image as the Wall of Fire. The fire damage effect of that spell points inward into the circle.

Order of initiative:

1. Warlock
2. Wizard
3. Creature T1

Now consider the following scenario:

1. Action: Lvl 11 Sorlock (Warlock/Sorcerer multiclass with metamagic quickened spell and 3 eldritch blast hits) casts Wall of Fire as above:

• T1 makes a Dex saving throw as the wall "appears" and takes full/half damage accordingly.

2. Quicken spell Eldritch Blast into Bonus Action, which at lvl 11 is 3 attacks/3 hits:

• 1st hit with eldritch blast repelling blast (can chose to move, I chose to move) = T1 is moved 10ft into the circle.
• 2nd hit with eldritch blast, this time with grasp of Hadar, which I can do once per turn = T1 is moved 10 feet towards me, and back into the Wall of Fire.

As Wall of Fire says: "A creature takes the same damage when it enters the wall for the first time on a turn or ends its turn there", it would now take another 5d8 fire, because a) there is no saving throw and b) it has "entered" the Wall for the first time on a turn. It has been clarified in other posts that "entering" can be done with forced movement (see moonbeam sage advice). To me there is also a difference between taking damage when the wall "appears" as written in the spell description, and when "entering". Thus, even though it is still my turn (as written in the spell "on a turn" aka "my turn", it is "the first time" it enters by being moved, instead of when the wall "appears", aka when it is formed into existence. This would be supported by the different damage effects specified in the spell as when the wall "appears" there is a saving throw, DEX for trying to evade the flames, but when a creature "enters" there is no saving throw. Hence, it is two different spell effects (appears + enters).

Nota Bene 1: I am aware that most AOE-spells stipulate that there is only damage when a creature enters, not when it appears (such as the Moonbeam Sage Advice clarifies for cloudkill, cloud of daggers, etc). I just want everyone to be one the same page and dont overlook the "when it appears" part of the spell to avoid needless discussions;). So that is already proven and not contested for me.

Nota Bene 2: I am aware that the WoF spell says "when it enters the wall for the first time", but that is why I explained the difference between the two spell effects of "wall appearing" and "damage upon entering".

Now to continue on in the scenario:

• 3rd hit with eldritch blast again with repelling blast: T1 is moved out of the wall again. This time I chose to move it 5 feet out of the wall. As repelling blast allows me to move a target "up to 10ft", so I can obviously choose less.
• T1 ends up 5 ft away from the Wall of Fire inside the circle.

3. The Wizard takes his turn:

• Action: Casts ray of frost and takes 10ft of movement away from the creature T1, which now only has 20ft of movement.
• With his bonus action the Wizard uses his telekinetic feat and moves creature T1 5ft back into the Wall of Fire.
• The creature T1 is back in the Wall of Fire "on a turn", aka the Wizard's turn (remember here please, a round has several turns and the spell specifies that it takes damage every time it first enters on a turn) and takes the 5d8 fire damage a 3rd time.

4. Creature T1 uses 20ft of movement to walk through the Wall of Fire and ends up 20ft away on the outside of the ring. = Nothing happens, cause neither did a WoF "appear" nor did T1 "enter the wall", nor did it "end its turn inside the wall" and we directed the damage effect of the Wall inside the circle.

I tried finding an official ruling on the difference of "appearing" and "entering". Couldn't find. So to me entering requires movement, whether forced or voluntary doesn't matter.

Also logically, I think I make sense, because when you stand there and a wall of fire appears underneath your feet and you cant get away (fail the DEX) then you obviously burn. Then when you are being moved out of the fire and back into the fire then you burn again, so you take damage again.

The point of the post is to see if it is possible for a creature to take the fire damage 3 times before its turn. Please take into consideration the difference between when the wall appears and when T1 enters the Wall, and the different turns in one round.

Answer 1

Your damage theory is correct

The creature is damaged both when the wall of fire is cast (it is within the space of the wall itself) and every first time on a turn it enters the wall. If you manage to move it both out and into the wall on the sorlock's turn, and then out again, and then back into the wall on the wizard's turn, that is three separate sources of damage.

You say that you couldn't find "an official ruling on the difference of 'appearing' and 'entering'", but you also cited the Sage Advice entry on moonbeam. That entry in Sage Advice is the best ruling we have, and says, in part:

Reading the description of any of those spells, you might wonder whether a creature is considered to be entering the spell’s area of effect if the area is created on the creature’s space...Our design intent for such spells is this: a creature enters the area of effect when the creature passes into it. Creating the area of effect on the creature or moving it onto the creature doesn’t count...Entering such an area of effect needn’t be voluntary, unless a spell says otherwise. You can, therefore, hurl a creature into the area with a spell like thunderwave...Keep in mind, however, that a creature is subjected to such an area of effect only the first time it enters the area on a turn. You can’t move a creature in and out of it to damage it over and over again on the same turn.

Targeting will be complicated and may compromise your plan

"The wall is opaque", meaning you cannot see through it. Both eldritch blast and ray of frost target a creature within range, not 'a creature you can see', so they are good choices - but there are still attack rolls to be made, and at the very least whenever the creature is on the other side of the wall the 'attacks on creatures you cannot see' rules will cause disadvantage.

Further, when attacking a creature you cannot see, you must choose the space in which you believe they are in order to attack. Your DM may or may not rule that the sorlock has perfect knowledge of how far their repelling blast pushed the creature so as to know which square to target with grasp of Hadar. Then a separate ruling would be required for whether the wizard can assume knowledge of where the creature is if they haven't seen it since the start of their turn.

Finally, the wizard's telekinetic feat does require that the target be seen so this part of the plan is not open to interpretation; unless the wizard has some means to see through or around the opaque wall, they will not be able to pull the creature telekinetically.