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White Blade
2010-10-06, 03:34 PM
So, I'm contemplating running an all-wizard game, focused around the great mysteries of the universe (and blowing things up). As the baseline set up, all the players were the apprentices of the greatest wizard of the present age before he died a Mysterious Death (TM) and now they're all on their own, so to speak. He helpfully left them his old tower, which holds his library and his alchemical laboratory.

Most of the more powerful enchantments flatlined after his death and the magic items went to his children, but the tower is theirs. However, besides a library and an alchemy lab, I'm a bit at a loss for what to put into the tower to make it an interesting place to be. I want it to be desirable to own, for one thing, rather than just to be looted and dumped. Thoughts and ideas?

Cyrion
2010-10-06, 03:44 PM
Start with scale- yes, you could loot the library and lab, but there's too much there to get out at once. Much of the stuff won't be sellable because nobody but a wizard would know what to do with it or what it was worth, and the party's got all the "family" wizards- sell it and you're selling to the enemy.

Also, build advantages into the tower. It gives some kind of between adventures bonus, or it allows you to go somewhere that regular spells won't. Don't neglect the tendency of a lot of players to collect cool stuff- build some interesting effect or toy aspect into it, and even if it doesn't really affect play, players will want it just for the sake of wanting it.

Are you starting at low level? If so, the players may very well appreciate having a secure base of operations they can retreat to until they become good enough to have rope tricks and magnificent mansions at their beck and call.

blackjack217
2010-10-06, 03:51 PM
hollowed area or some place that gives significant advantages to planar binding ant the like. A big crystal ball that helps with divination's. A room that supplies cheap expensive material components magically. A room that they cannot access until they get X level spells that holds portions of his spell book. You need more and more powerful spells until you find cloister. :smallbiggrin:

Or you could just make it the center of a telaport network. Also read the stronghold guide.

Lysander
2010-10-06, 04:28 PM
Make the tower bigger on the inside than the outside. Plenty of extra rooms for them to sleep in or use as storage space/offices.

There could be a dungeon filled with powerful demons and monsters the wizard never figured out how to permanently kill, but was able to imprison behind powerful wards. All the more reason not to sell the place, you'd have no idea what the new owner would do with the inmates.

There could be a number of permanent Unseen Servants, say ten, that can roam anywhere in the tower to clean it and fetch things for people.

There could be an antimagic room, useful for examining potentially dangerous magical items or creatures.

A portal chamber, with a permanent gateway leading to/from the basement of a house in the closest major city. They could also inherit the house.

A planetarium, using illusion magic to simulate the stars.

A door to a lush garden in an artificial pocket dimension.

Kami2awa
2010-10-07, 06:02 PM
I can't be the only one who thought this thread would be about some kind of flatpack, self-assembly wizard's tower - "Homebase" is a popular British hardware and furniture shop.

doc*sk
2010-10-07, 06:23 PM
I think that this tower will be most helpful if it is convenient to where your PCs will be doing their work. This way they have a place to come back and rest up.


Riffing off of Lysander:

A portal chamber, with a permanent gateway leading to/from the basement of a house in the closest major city. They could also inherit the house.
Alternately, you might want to provide a way for them to get back there from a distance. Maybe some sort of spell that makes a portal from where they are to the tower. Or perhaps every time they cast a spell like Secure Shelter (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/secureShelter.htm), it sends them back to one room in the tower. Whatever they have stocked that room with will be there.

mobdrazhar
2010-10-07, 06:44 PM
Possibly give the tower the ability to shrink down to pocket sized so they can take it with them wherever they go so they have a mobile base of operation. when it expands it expands to the same size each time so that way they don't abuse it by expanding it in small caves and such.

Benejeseret
2010-10-07, 07:04 PM
As an aside, in a similar situation I would try to treat the whole tower as plot/quest rather then base from my DM perspective. This means that just having a lab or a seers crystal is good - but having it 'unlock' through adventures gives it character.

If this does not derail your storyline they could easily be side-quest like where between each major story advancement they end up stumbling upon a secret door, ghost, demon in the toilet whathaveyou

....

Minions - I highly recommend them in all their Overlord style (maybe without the eeeeeevil.....but still as wacky and destructive in a cute way).

Have them constantly annoy or pester the characters at times (practical jokes etc) but overall could look after the tower, build, excavate, power enchantments and the like.

0Megabyte
2010-10-07, 08:14 PM
Man. You guys are making me want to steal your ideas.

There was a game, Suikoden, where the heroes had to clear out their home-base before getting it. Then, as the heroes ranks grew larger and larger, more and more of the empty spots in the tower were filled up, and new areas were opened up as well.

It was really interesting, and that kind of mechanic can be really fun. Does anybody else know what I mean?

FelixG
2010-10-08, 05:14 AM
Hmm have a bunch of Spell completion doors or spell level X doors in it, that way the players have to figure out what spell is needed to open door X or Y, the answer is hidden in the massed writings of the library, they sell the stuff and they loose out on potential goodies later on.

The spell level X doors would let you keep their interest piqued AND give you time to think up what the heck is hiding behind that door!

perhaps have a land grant with the tower as well, or guests that start there, people from surrounding lands coming to the well known tower to enlist the aid of wizards.

Have some wizard training barracks that can be filled, introduce 3 or 4 NPCs per PC, each with a nifty little back story and potential for great power, give each a little twist though but only have enough room for 2 each...at the start. That way they can collect their minions and apprentices just like their master did with them!

Hope these help!

Shadowleaf
2010-10-08, 05:17 AM
He obviously built his tower on a sort of leyline, where magic flows better. This could take form in a number of ways mechanically - casting certain spells with a bonus to your caster level, having access to certain higher level spells, etc.

He could have left an imprint on the leyline, or the leyline could be a particular type of line - Abjuration, Demonic, etc.

Shenanigans
2010-10-08, 08:41 AM
May I suggest taking a glance at the Stronghold Builders Guide? It has great ideas for and materials for building carious types of strongholds, and actually has a floating tower (presumably owned by a wizard) as an example stronghold. From the sound of what you're describing, the example would be a bit overpowered for what you're thinking, but maybe not. It also provides in-game effects for the library and alchemy lab you're going to include. They're optional, but I like them quite a bit. It also has most anything else you could want in a stronghold, including neat ideas for traps, useful magic and magic items, different stronghold areas (kitchens, forges, training grounds, etc.) that really let you flesh out a place.

Lysander
2010-10-08, 08:43 AM
Could the wizard's own crypt be within the castle? Perhaps under the floor of a chapel with an altar and stained glass windows. They'll be less likely to sell it off if it's their beloved master's resting place.

Diarmuid
2010-10-08, 09:05 AM
Definitely some good ideas in there. Some way to easily get back to it when they need to will keep it relevant when they go off gallavanting. Make it x/day so they cant just hop back and forth tho. Maybe even a couple of attuned stones, one you leave where you are so you can get back there easily.

Then you should also give them some way to account for keeping it safe while they're gone, otherwise they will never want to leave anything there and then they have little impetus to come back.

The idea of areas unlocking/evolving as they get more powerful is indeed a good one and keeps them invested in the tower. If the wizard was perhaps affiliated with another wizardly order or some political body, those factions could also assume that whoever has now taken up residence will fulfill the old guy's agreements, more plot possibilities.