How to approach guarding a location?

[Balor01]

So in my campaign, there is Fountain of youth, my PCs will visit soon. It is a fountain that extends life and pretty much no one in its right mind would want do do something funny to it.

Still, there are some cults and other evildoers who would like to corrupt the fountain, etc ...

I am thinking how to approach protection of this fountain? Let's say that strongest spell that can be used in its protection is lvl 5. Its guardians are city-funded (thats maybe ... 50.000 gp a year?). I guess they should be able to deal with invisible, spiderwalking, maybe even teleporting enemies.
I am thinking a group of NPC adventures is good mechanically but people just sticking around the darn fountain will eventually lose their edge ... while constructs, undead, etc will not.

Tltr: How would you protect the fountain, but still not place a lvl 20 undead batman on top of it?

[Keegan__D]

Why would you make Batman undead?

[Balor01]

Well, that is quite besides the point but undead creature can guard this fountain indefinitely. Thats the point. Undead. Or Immortal. Or whichever undying option that lasts.

[Yora]

I would say casting a hallow spell on it would be a good first step. You get a permanent 40 ft. radius magic circle against evil and can also add another spell to it, like invisibility purge, death ward, or dimensional anchor.
Maybe also crate a magic item that makes a permanent Mages Private Sanctum on the area.

[00dlez]

Guarding the fountain seems like a campaign priority, I wouldn't worry too much about the "maximum" gp limit you place on yourself.

Have a bunch of animated automatons waiting to bash the faces of folks messing with the fountain (maybe statues of ancient lords, deity avatars... maybe there's 1 live guardian/groundskeeper, and rather than die, they just become one of the stone guardians and are replaced by the next guardian/groundskeeper.)

Then one the fountain itself, or a statue in the middle of it, whatever, just keep piling on permanent enchantments until you are satisfied.

[deuxhero]

Forbidance isn't cheep, but based on a yearly budget, workable.

Stronghold builders guide gives a deep discount to any magic item that is immobile.

[Tyndmyr]

Personally, I'm a fan of Shadesteel golems(MM3).

[Daftendirekt]

You could always put a mythal over the area, to prevent any shenanigans. For more information on mythals, refer to Lost Empires of Faerûn, page 45. In case you don't know, mythals are essentially magical fields that either deny certain spells/magical effects from working/being cast, or automatically grant certain effects to anybody within them. The first part is probably the part relevant to your needs here.

[Alefiend]

Protecting this Fountain of Youth from evil will be easy. How will you protect it from everybody else?


Druids and other natural-order types will see exploiting the fountain as a violation of the birth-growth-death cycle.

If there's a fee to use the fountain, the poor (and people who like to manipulate them) will besiege the city because of the unfairness.

Governments will quake in fear at the possibility of permanent overpopulation, unemployment, and food shortages, and will want the thing eradicated.

The gods themselves will be rather dismayed at the lack of fresh souls coming to the outer planes.


Congratulations. You have united the world in harmony over one cause: destruction of the Fountain of Youth.