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View Full Version : Wondrous architecture and cool strongholds?



Ormur
2010-10-25, 07:23 PM
I have the landlord feat on my 15th level wizard and I'm upgrading my stronghold with the newly acquired wealth of a level up.

It's pretty much a tower with 14 stronghold spaces including a big library, suits and rooms for servants, a trophy room and some common area.

I have almost 100.000 gp to spend and I'm trying to think of some fun options, spells, rooms, wondrous architecture, even traps. I was going to spend a lot of money on magic to ward from divinations but by now my character is pretty much walking around with a permanent mindblank.

The plan is to eventually transport it to a demiplane so I don't think defences will be very practical. Static defences are also seem pretty ineffective since we're a party of two fullcasters. Unless there are some particularly good ideas that would help us.

Logalmier
2010-10-25, 08:29 PM
I have the landlord feat on my 15th level wizard and I'm upgrading my stronghold with the newly acquired wealth of a level up.

It's pretty much a tower with 14 stronghold spaces including a big library, suits and rooms for servants, a trophy room and some common area.

I have almost 100.000 gp to spend and I'm trying to think of some fun options, spells, rooms, wondrous architecture, even traps. I was going to spend a lot of money on magic to ward from divinations but by now my character is pretty much walking around with a permanent mindblank.

The plan is to eventually transport it to a demiplane so I don't think defences will be very practical. Static defences are also seem pretty ineffective since we're a party of two fullcasters. Unless there are some particularly good ideas that would help us.

Ooh, I love these things!

Ok, let's see. You could make the top level a planetarium, using illusion magic to imitate the movement of stars. And you could have magic tables in the dinning room that create hero's feasts whenever you sit down and clap your hands twice. You could have one room that focuses on the planes, with a planar dial at the center, to be adjusted to whichever plane you wish to observe. And a conjury of course, with a permanent pentacle that is inlaid with silver on the floor for summoning critters. A vault in the basement for treasure. An underground secure house to contain dangerous monsters that you've captured to study and catalog. There could be a room at the very top filled with mirrors that show different places on the material plane, and by walking through them you get one way transportation to that place. It depends on what you're capable of. Remember, traps can be used in ways that are not just traps.

A few ideas there that you could work off of.

Noircat
2010-10-25, 08:50 PM
1. Never aging storage room. Items in here wouldn't spoil or deteriorate. Good for food storage and storage of old crusty books. Even a big chest of this would be handy. Maybe a cold room instead.

2. Emergency force field wards with low defenses and high hp. Seal a threat inside a room. Trigger with passwords.

3. Scry proofing. For when you are hiding guests. Just don't let enemies hide their stuff here, kind of an obvious subversion.

4. Guest rooms for housing a large number of guests/assisstants as needed.

5. Hot springs/bath house. May not be entirely useful but if you can multipurpose it as two rooms- one for this and another as a heat trap room- then it is cool.

6. Healing center. Totally decked out super masterwork healing tool/room for a big mundane bonus plus some kind of stationary magic healing beds.

Work with your DM to go outside the box with this stuff for more fun.

Ormur
2010-10-26, 01:12 AM
Terrific suggestions. I was wondering whether I should add some sort of an audience chamber that could double as something useful. Filling it with divination magic items/wondrous architecture and illusions is a good solution. I also have a sort of a situation room in the basement that can be stacked with those ideas.

A friend of mine suggested I refluff a scrying pool or a crystal ball as a throne, like Hliðarskjálf (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hlidskjalf). I already have a raven familiar to go with it.

I already designed a prestidigitation and mage hand powered plumbing for the bath and kitchen.

Amiel
2010-10-26, 01:20 AM
Restrooms (or their medieval equivalent) with functioning one-way portals (for number one and twos) to the paraelemental planes, specifically Ooze.

A vivarium within the castle proper or its immediate area that can house a menagerie; whether this is open range or encased within glass-quariums is up to you. In effect, your characters will be having their own zoo to admire and experiment with.

Defensive towers that funnel and store the power of the sun; these can be used to fire bolts of raw energy at enemies.

If you want to get traditional, a moat (filled with piranhas and barracudas, crocodiles and sharks) and a drawbridge; which is in actuality a road of force.

Morithias
2010-10-26, 03:37 AM
You're kidding me right....someone besides me actually took that feat.

Well then I am required by vow to link you here.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/software-computers-video-games-d-d-utilities/193480-stronghold-builders-worksheet.html

This contains a spreadsheet for calculating your cost and such. It's not 100% perfect, but it is VERY well done, and will surely be some weight off your mind, when you're constantly updating it.

FelixG
2010-10-26, 04:44 AM
Throne room, have the whole room save your throne be a zone of truth, no one will dare, or even can lie to you about things!:smallbiggrin:

For guest rooms have a door of mages magnificent mansion! they open the door and its almost a castle into and of itself. Huge feast for your guest, plus rooms, very ritzy :smallcool:

Logalmier
2010-10-26, 05:48 PM
Terrific suggestions. I was wondering whether I should add some sort of an audience chamber that could double as something useful. Filling it with divination magic items/wondrous architecture and illusions is a good solution. I also have a sort of a situation room in the basement that can be stacked with those ideas.

A friend of mine suggested I refluff a scrying pool or a crystal ball as a throne, like Hliðarskjálf (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hlidskjalf). I already have a raven familiar to go with it.

I already designed a prestidigitation and mage hand powered plumbing for the bath and kitchen.

Make one of the rooms on the ground floor a reception room, with a throne at the end that you sit in to receive your guests. I also like the idea of a wizard sitting in his throne using scrying magic to watch his bound summoned creatures do his dirty work from afar, while telepathically giving them instructions.

avr
2010-10-26, 08:32 PM
Your anti-scrying protection is here: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/screen.htm

Don't skimp on it because Mind Blank doesn't stop your enemies scrying your butler/guests/whoever else might enter your stronghold without being mind blanked, then buffing themselves and teleporting in.

It also allows your stronghold to be even more fantastic to people scrying on you. Impossibly luxurious, filled with demons and/or angels, or empty and uninviting, or whatever else your imagination favours.

AsteriskAmp
2010-10-26, 09:25 PM
May I ask, How do you use the Stronghold Tool?
Is there a file I'm missing, since I only see an excel worksheet, and I tried several times to follow the instructions to no avail.

Tyndmyr
2010-10-26, 09:32 PM
Just start mapping everything you want. It gets big rapidly. You need throne rooms, a study, a scrying room(the room not screened, obviously), and a teleport room(if the castle isn't mobile, build it in a high energy area, so it's not subject to teleportation. Leave one room outside this zone for obvious reasons.

Jails are nice. Guest bedrooms. Storerooms. Library. Lecture hall, so you can address your minions. Places for your minions to live. Banquet hall. It goes on and on. I generally end out graphing out elaborate multi-level dungeons.

Oh, and obviously, you'll want to trap areas not for visitors extensively. Note that increasing/decreasing magic trap DCs to spot and disarm traps is a major cost factor. Consider that you only ever need one of those DCs to be high. Drop the other one to minimum to mitigate that cost. Make sure to lay both kinds of traps.

Ormur
2010-10-26, 11:43 PM
That stronghold cost calculator looks nice, I'll have to try it out.

I've been having some trouble thinking up enough rooms since my wizard doesn't really have any minions. He's a bit anti-establishment and our current method of teleporting round and about and hiding from the bad guys makes minions sort of liability. I've got exactly two servants of flesh and blood and a lot of the unseen kind. On the other hand throne rooms and accommodations could be more useful later on.

Another problem I have is concerning layout. I've mapped it in google sketch so if you have it you can access it here (http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=99942aec143902c0692f9b7090f2a26a). It's basically a single tower with a base. The tower itself is now five stories tall but it's a bit narrow so I'd have trouble adding something more substantial, like a throne room on top of it. I can always expand the base and expand the basement but I was thinking of perhaps adding another tower. I'm just not sure where and whether that would ruin the picture.

avr
2010-10-27, 10:16 PM
If you're not worried about siege engines, two towers connected by a gallery would give you space for a big room. Or, you know, you could build down and put something underground. That too is traditional for wizards towers.

If you just want to use up space - swimming pool/spa is a nice luxury. Games rooms, with or without giant animated or illusory chessmen. A sealable/undamageable room for practicing destructive spells or storing destructive artifacts. Map rooms and trophy rooms. Extra guest versions of anything.