Just rap the pot to be sure, not much point taking any extra risk for the sake of 5 min work.
The 3 plants will be fine depending. If you are not veging very long they will fill the pot and then act like a single plant that has been topped 'ish. You'd need to do a little trimming of lower leaves in the middle but essentially you are starting with 3 medium size colas instead of one big one. With a little separation you could do good from there. But then you'd have to selectively top if one is bigger than the others (if indoor). If the later runner is more than two weeks I wouldn't do it personally. Thing is, if you harvest the others, their roots will begin to decay. I can't see this being good for the remaining plant, 2 weeks is just a guess though.
Multiple plants per pot is something I am considering doing for faster veg times. If done right it's not much differant to a high count sog type of deal. But much easier to manually feed, due to less/bigger pots. Great way to easily fill in the canopy with only some selective topping too.