Realms of Chaos
2009-10-09, 06:19 AM
One thing that I keep noticing is that too many castles in DnD resemble Medieval castles far more than makes sense. Although such castles were good at dealing with traditional siege weaponry, they would crumple like toilet paper before most common monsters or even a single disgruntled mage.
For an example of how things stop working, think of servants. In Medieval times, having a bunch of servants to help you was just plain common sense. However, in DnD, where such servants may end up being dragons, vampires, phasms, doppelgangers, or enchanters, having any number of servants means taking a great deal of risk, something that at least some rulers would try to avoid (while real life servants could be nearly as dangerous, all of these risks can be avoided in DnD by people with wealth, like kings, so they are more inclined to do so).
Likewise, why would a king sleep in a bedroom (where they could be poisoned, cursed, or stabbed in the throat) when their great wealth could let them sleep in extradimensional space.
I'm asking you of the playground if any of you have thought up of relatively sensible castles for a DnD setting, stuff that actually takes into account the dangers that a high level aristocrat may end up dealing with in the long run?
Below is an example of a castle that I just threw together right now. There aren't any teleportation circles in it but I did pretty much everything else that you would expect from a DnD castle.
Castle of Barralia
Surrounding the castle of Barralia are three concentric stone walls, each of which is 20 feet tall and 10 feet wide. Crenellation runs along the top of these walls, as do a few pieces of siege equipment. The siege weaponry is built into the walls such that they can’t be turned fully around if it falls into enemy hands. The walls are scaled via rope ladders (on the interior of the walls), ladders that can be pulled up if needed.
Built into each wall are 8 gates, spaced equally along the wall. The gates are large and formed from iron, iron that has been treated by a hardening spell (From the spell compendium, CL 12). Furthermore, each gateway bears a permanent audio alarm. The alarms, rather than random (and annoying) ringing, are regal and elegant, such as a procession of trumpets, a violin quintet, the sound of wind chimes, and a flurry of bird calls. As such, guards can normally tell what gates are being used (although there are occasional false alarms).
In the two rings of space between these three walls are the only living servants of the castle. Weaker and newer guards live in the outer ring, along with a blacksmith and the stables. The Inner ring is occupied by stronger and more loyal guards and knights, supplies that the castle is saving (mostly food) along with guests that aren’t important enough to keep in the castle itself (or that can’t be fit inside during busier times). Rather than trusting outsiders in the long-term or forming contracts with them, there are many summon monster traps installed in strategically important locations. If an intruder doesn’t trip them off, a guard is chosen to set it off and run for his life, using the logic that he’ll hopefully know more about the castle layout (such as where to hide) than the summoned creatures or intruders. Because of these traps, most guests are accompanied by a guard as they wander through the rings.
One more person of note is kept in the rings, a level 1 illusionist named Trevil. Whenever the king needs to make a proclamation, Trevil casts disguise self and announces it himself from atop the wall, wearing royal clothing and using a disguise kit to improve the disguise. A number of measures have been put into place to keep Trevil under the king’s control. First, he has ten guards guarding (read: watching) him at all times. Secondly, his spellbook is being held “for safe keeping” by another guard unless Trevil needs it to prepare spells while his familiar is being kept in the stable “for sanitary reasons”. Third, he is being paid triple what he would be making for just selling his spells. Lastly, Trevil receives endless requests for minor scrolls from the king (often for things like mending or detect poison), something that he can’t really refuse politely but that keeps him drained of energy and thus prevents him from becoming a direct threat.
The castle itself is 10 stories high and about 200 feet in diameter. One the ground floor, there are eight gates into the castle, each of which has a permanent alarm like the outer gates. Entering the castle, there is a winding hallway surrounding a room with 8 more doors. In the hallway are 4 stairways leading up to the next level and a total of 16 golems. Each door is guarded by a force golem (MM V) ordered to attack suspicious people and a stone golem ordered to follow the force golem’s orders.
The central room is the king’s bed chamber. It is 60 x 60 feet and a mere 10 feet tall, putting the ceiling within reach of the 18 stone golems (2 guarding each door, all ordered to kill anyone other than the king that enters the room). In the center of the room is a single magical pillar with the power to use Mage’s Magnificent Mansion 1/day (where the king actually eats and sleeps). This room is safe from aerial attacks due to the lack of windows and the nine other floors that an attacker would need to pass through. To stop burrowing creatures, the floor of this room is coated with one foot of adamantine. Also, this entire room is filled with a permanent Mage’s Private Sanctum (CL 9). Lastly, there are 8 wall sections (one for each gate leading out of the castle) that are permanently invisible (although Mage’s Private Sanctum keeps people outside from peeping in).
On the second floor is another hallway spiraling around a similarly large room, this one with only 4 entrances. One force golem with a stone golem guards each of the stairways leading downstairs and 4 more stairways lead upstairs.
The new central room is an audience chamber. The room is 90x90 feet and is 50 feet high (taking the remaining height of the 30-foot cubes below and using 4 more cubes of Mage’s Private Sanctum’s area). A throne sits near the center of the room. Mirrors are placed strategically on the walls and the throne can pivot, making it hard to sneak up on the king. Also, two greater stone golems stand near the throne at all times. Lastly, hidden in the throne itself is a compartment with a ring of feather falling and there is a secret trap door so that the king can drop into his bed chamber in an emergency.
The third through tenth floors are smaller hallways heading in a circle with 6 rooms lining the circle’s exterior. Each floor (other than the tenth) has four stairways leading to the next floor and each floor has a single force golem guarding each stairway heading downwards and a single stone golem (ordered to follow the instructions of force golems). The tenth floor has an adamantine ceiling approximately 6 inches thick.
Each of the private rooms is nearly identical, although they get fancier as you approach ground level. Each room has a barred window with an arcane lock active upon it and a permanent alarm on the area outside of the window. Furthermore, a force golem is placed in each room to guard (and observe) its occupant. Lastly, each room’s bed a masterwork scimitar hidden beneath and has a compartment under the mattress that can be hidden in (DC 25 search check reveals). All rooms have excellent locks, the only copy of which is given to that room’s current occupant.
There is, however, one additional area of note found in the third floor. The interior of the circular hallway is actually a room, although it’s solitary entrance is difficult to find (DC 30 search check reveals). The room is 30x30x30 feet (using the last cube of Mage’s Private Sanctum’s area). From a few hooks on walls hang a total of 10 rings of feather falling and a trap door rests in the room, leading down into the audience chamber. This hidden room is guarded by 6 force golems. This room also has a false ceiling 20 feet up (DC 30 spot check reveals), above which over a hundred bags of holding hang from hooks, in which is the vast majority of King Barralia’s wealth.
Feel free to tell me what you think and give your own castle ideas. :smallbiggrin:
For an example of how things stop working, think of servants. In Medieval times, having a bunch of servants to help you was just plain common sense. However, in DnD, where such servants may end up being dragons, vampires, phasms, doppelgangers, or enchanters, having any number of servants means taking a great deal of risk, something that at least some rulers would try to avoid (while real life servants could be nearly as dangerous, all of these risks can be avoided in DnD by people with wealth, like kings, so they are more inclined to do so).
Likewise, why would a king sleep in a bedroom (where they could be poisoned, cursed, or stabbed in the throat) when their great wealth could let them sleep in extradimensional space.
I'm asking you of the playground if any of you have thought up of relatively sensible castles for a DnD setting, stuff that actually takes into account the dangers that a high level aristocrat may end up dealing with in the long run?
Below is an example of a castle that I just threw together right now. There aren't any teleportation circles in it but I did pretty much everything else that you would expect from a DnD castle.
Castle of Barralia
Surrounding the castle of Barralia are three concentric stone walls, each of which is 20 feet tall and 10 feet wide. Crenellation runs along the top of these walls, as do a few pieces of siege equipment. The siege weaponry is built into the walls such that they can’t be turned fully around if it falls into enemy hands. The walls are scaled via rope ladders (on the interior of the walls), ladders that can be pulled up if needed.
Built into each wall are 8 gates, spaced equally along the wall. The gates are large and formed from iron, iron that has been treated by a hardening spell (From the spell compendium, CL 12). Furthermore, each gateway bears a permanent audio alarm. The alarms, rather than random (and annoying) ringing, are regal and elegant, such as a procession of trumpets, a violin quintet, the sound of wind chimes, and a flurry of bird calls. As such, guards can normally tell what gates are being used (although there are occasional false alarms).
In the two rings of space between these three walls are the only living servants of the castle. Weaker and newer guards live in the outer ring, along with a blacksmith and the stables. The Inner ring is occupied by stronger and more loyal guards and knights, supplies that the castle is saving (mostly food) along with guests that aren’t important enough to keep in the castle itself (or that can’t be fit inside during busier times). Rather than trusting outsiders in the long-term or forming contracts with them, there are many summon monster traps installed in strategically important locations. If an intruder doesn’t trip them off, a guard is chosen to set it off and run for his life, using the logic that he’ll hopefully know more about the castle layout (such as where to hide) than the summoned creatures or intruders. Because of these traps, most guests are accompanied by a guard as they wander through the rings.
One more person of note is kept in the rings, a level 1 illusionist named Trevil. Whenever the king needs to make a proclamation, Trevil casts disguise self and announces it himself from atop the wall, wearing royal clothing and using a disguise kit to improve the disguise. A number of measures have been put into place to keep Trevil under the king’s control. First, he has ten guards guarding (read: watching) him at all times. Secondly, his spellbook is being held “for safe keeping” by another guard unless Trevil needs it to prepare spells while his familiar is being kept in the stable “for sanitary reasons”. Third, he is being paid triple what he would be making for just selling his spells. Lastly, Trevil receives endless requests for minor scrolls from the king (often for things like mending or detect poison), something that he can’t really refuse politely but that keeps him drained of energy and thus prevents him from becoming a direct threat.
The castle itself is 10 stories high and about 200 feet in diameter. One the ground floor, there are eight gates into the castle, each of which has a permanent alarm like the outer gates. Entering the castle, there is a winding hallway surrounding a room with 8 more doors. In the hallway are 4 stairways leading up to the next level and a total of 16 golems. Each door is guarded by a force golem (MM V) ordered to attack suspicious people and a stone golem ordered to follow the force golem’s orders.
The central room is the king’s bed chamber. It is 60 x 60 feet and a mere 10 feet tall, putting the ceiling within reach of the 18 stone golems (2 guarding each door, all ordered to kill anyone other than the king that enters the room). In the center of the room is a single magical pillar with the power to use Mage’s Magnificent Mansion 1/day (where the king actually eats and sleeps). This room is safe from aerial attacks due to the lack of windows and the nine other floors that an attacker would need to pass through. To stop burrowing creatures, the floor of this room is coated with one foot of adamantine. Also, this entire room is filled with a permanent Mage’s Private Sanctum (CL 9). Lastly, there are 8 wall sections (one for each gate leading out of the castle) that are permanently invisible (although Mage’s Private Sanctum keeps people outside from peeping in).
On the second floor is another hallway spiraling around a similarly large room, this one with only 4 entrances. One force golem with a stone golem guards each of the stairways leading downstairs and 4 more stairways lead upstairs.
The new central room is an audience chamber. The room is 90x90 feet and is 50 feet high (taking the remaining height of the 30-foot cubes below and using 4 more cubes of Mage’s Private Sanctum’s area). A throne sits near the center of the room. Mirrors are placed strategically on the walls and the throne can pivot, making it hard to sneak up on the king. Also, two greater stone golems stand near the throne at all times. Lastly, hidden in the throne itself is a compartment with a ring of feather falling and there is a secret trap door so that the king can drop into his bed chamber in an emergency.
The third through tenth floors are smaller hallways heading in a circle with 6 rooms lining the circle’s exterior. Each floor (other than the tenth) has four stairways leading to the next floor and each floor has a single force golem guarding each stairway heading downwards and a single stone golem (ordered to follow the instructions of force golems). The tenth floor has an adamantine ceiling approximately 6 inches thick.
Each of the private rooms is nearly identical, although they get fancier as you approach ground level. Each room has a barred window with an arcane lock active upon it and a permanent alarm on the area outside of the window. Furthermore, a force golem is placed in each room to guard (and observe) its occupant. Lastly, each room’s bed a masterwork scimitar hidden beneath and has a compartment under the mattress that can be hidden in (DC 25 search check reveals). All rooms have excellent locks, the only copy of which is given to that room’s current occupant.
There is, however, one additional area of note found in the third floor. The interior of the circular hallway is actually a room, although it’s solitary entrance is difficult to find (DC 30 search check reveals). The room is 30x30x30 feet (using the last cube of Mage’s Private Sanctum’s area). From a few hooks on walls hang a total of 10 rings of feather falling and a trap door rests in the room, leading down into the audience chamber. This hidden room is guarded by 6 force golems. This room also has a false ceiling 20 feet up (DC 30 spot check reveals), above which over a hundred bags of holding hang from hooks, in which is the vast majority of King Barralia’s wealth.
Feel free to tell me what you think and give your own castle ideas. :smallbiggrin: