Brainstorming - town defense

[Quietus]

In the interest of expanding beyond my own imagination, I'd like to know what thoughts you guys have on this.

In the setting I'm about to be running a game in, things will center largely around two cities, opposed to one another in a currently cold-war-esque political clime. They sit on opposite sides of a river, were once part of a single dragon's fiefdom, but split on ideological lines when the dragon was felled. One side is a theocracy, following their deity Saros, who is similar to Heironeous with the Sun domain and strong crusader tendencies. They are powerfully anti-Arcane, due to its ties with dragons, which have historically been a major antagonist in the setting.

The other is technically under martial law, with the upper ranks traditionally advised by a council of priests of Arctus Suluna, who bears some similarity to Hextor's Lawful side with a storm theme. The city relies heavily on its Wizard presence for defense against anything bigger than the usual day-to-day policing, and since dragon attacks are a very real threat, they tend to be on guard fairly frequently.

But the two cities... I can see them building up defenses against each other, particularly in the river separating them. So, my question to the Playground is this : If you had to defend your city from another city which could turn antagonistic at any time, what sorts of defenses would you use? The setting is fairly low-level where it comes to NPCs, such that the highest level NPCs might be 13th at best - many of the more powerful NPCs are closer to 9th, and 5th level is still exceptional. Anything relying on spells above fifth level would be difficult, but not impossible, to pull off, and any spells over third level would be fairly rare.

[smasher0404]

Alarm spells all over the place would be helpful, allowing notice of an invasion while sparing men for the day to day policing, placing caltrops along the river at places not being watched by soldiers to be a general nuisance to any soldiers trying to sneak across. Of course have some patrols along the river as well as a way of communicating is a must. Also to keep outside assassins from coming into the city, put at every entrance a couple of level 1 wizards to cast detect weaponry from Cityscape, and have the guards remove all the weapons on that person this is more effective for the city under martial law because the other city is Anti-Arcane so shouldn't have too many willing arcane casters to cast the spell.

[Quietus]

I was actually considering the Alarm spell option - if part of membership in the Mage's Guild is promising to assist in times of need, then the token that a member carries showing his membership (badge, or whatever) could have an enchantment on it based off the Alarm spell. The defending mage on duty could trigger the badges to set off the mental ping on every Wizard's badge in the city, which would be their signal to get ready for defense. I also was thinking about using Symbol-type spells in the water, but I'm unsure how precisely that would work. It's a neat mental idea though, if merchant and fishing ships could get in and out of harbor.

[TurtleKing]

Do you have DMGII? Because if you do I have a perfect item for the arcane side and divine side. Say hello to the Spell Turret trap on page 45. With a True Seeing at 120ft visual range as the trigger set against certain creatures by type, race, or specific individuals such as dragons. It can store four different spells casting one each round then repairing on the fifth before starting the cycle all over again. Note all stored spells have to be same level and different schools.

Edit: Since you seem to know about them but say them none the less. IN Races of Destiny there are four spells that when cast affect all with long range that wear a particular badge. The four effect from those spells are alarm, healing, blessing, and warding. The divine side would monopolize that better since clerics get all of them but I think Bards get one or two of them.

[Red_Dog]

First I suppuse, comes the "stock answer". Heroes of Battle, if allowed, give a lot of stuff for lower level engagements/environment.

Now couple question would be => what is the "saturation levels" of wizardry/clergy in these cities? is it 1 to 10? to 100?

Now here come the "not-so-stock answers" ^^=>

Consider having for the "Hextory" city, a chain watchmen system. As in => Making a wand of whispering wind(say that 3 times fast!) isn't difficult, and teaching 1 in 10 people how to use one isn't either. Even if city is 30 miles across, a strategic grid of people carrying these devices will allow nearly instant data "transfer" to HQ about potential intruders.

Think of it as Lighting warning lights, without any visual or auditory warning.

Alarm spells can be useful, but might prove to difficult to handle en mass for a large city. Doesn't mean, key points won't be "alarmed".

Also consider signs of sealing (4th level spell?) in very important exits/entrances and etc. Any other sealing/warding spells could be just as helpful as most allow passwords.

P.S. From non magical means, things could be as simple as NPC experts with trained forgery and sense motive, accompanying an armed squad. Remember only forgery counteracts forgery ^^

[Ravens_cry]

Dogs. Have important officials give a handkerchief they have rubbed over their body. Have the dogs compare the scent of the particular handkerchief to the person claiming to be important official.

[Quietus]

The wands of whispering wind are a fantastic idea.. a little bit expensive, but the cost could be cut down by only sending the message to a specific place (target already picked, essentially), and would certainly allow for quick response times. Good idea!

As far as the dogs go.. that, I'm not entirely certain on. The cities are large enough that you'd need a bank's safety deposit box style room to hold specimens of all the important people, depending on how you define important. Besides that, both cities have means of magical detection - Detect Magic showing an Illusion aura on a person tends to set off a few warning bells. Mundane disguises would be more effective, and there are ways to fool scent that way.

Saturation level... 1 in 100 might be some sort of apprentice to a spellcaster, but that doesn't always mean they're going to actually fully pick up magic. They might learn a few cantrips, but becoming a fully fledged mage or priest is difficult and rare. Both cities are large enough, however, that even such a small percentage of their population translates into a fairly significant number of individuals.

Also, thanks for the heads up about Heroes of Battle; I'll have to take a look at that, hopefully it'll have something I can use.