[3.P] Advance fort

[RFLS]

Hey, playgroud, I've got a question for you. I, for various, non-contrived reasons, have my party running around in a swamp, and they will, for, again, I can't stress this enough, non-contrived reasons, shortly (probably) be stumbling across a castle in said swamp.
The fort/castle thing contains 40 fighter 1/barbarian 1 ogres, 20 barbarian 4 hill giants, a coven of hags, and 40-ish slaves. The fort is set atop a hill, is built of stone, and has cleared the surrounding trees so that all approaches are visible.

Keeping in mind that this is the advance base for an invasion, but intended as a permanent stronghold in the area, what buildings, resources, and weapons would be acquired as quickly as possible? Assume a cunning commander is in charge.
So far I've got this for a list of things to acquire-
Casters
Casters
A smithy
Casters
And finally, more casters

[BowStreetRunner]

In fortified positions post guards with good Spot/Listen skills as well as Darkvision/Low-Light vision at night time. Guard dogs or other creatures with Scent ability should be placed near potential approaches. Magical alarms and mundane traps can be placed in blind spots.
If you are expecting to withstand a siege, plenty of storage for food and a source of fresh water. Magical food creation is certainly an option. Otherwise, secure lines of supply are essential. Wayfarer Guides or a Portal of some sort are alternatives to land/air/sea/underdark supply routes. Storehouses and barracks should be sufficient to hold all their needs.
This is a fantasy world, so air-superiority tactics may apply. If so, get some flying 'scouts' to run combat air patrols and a few battle-ready 'interceptors' on standby to take down any approaching threats. Barring that, you should at least have surface-to-air weaponry available, whether bows and crossbows, ballistae, or ranged spells, you need to be prepared to take down aerial units.
Along with your casters you should have some counter-spellers mixed in to thwart the most likely spells that might be used against your fortification. Usr ranged combatants with the ability to identify enemies attempting to cast a spell and readied attacks to interrupt casting.

[RFLS]

In fortified positions post guards with good Spot/Listen skills as well as Darkvision/Low-Light vision at night time. Guard dogs or other creatures with Scent ability should be placed near potential approaches. Magical alarms and mundane traps can be placed in blind spots.
If you are expecting to withstand a siege, plenty of storage for food and a source of fresh water. Magical food creation is certainly an option. Otherwise, secure lines of supply are essential. Wayfarer Guides or a Portal of some sort are alternatives to land/air/sea/underdark supply routes. Storehouses and barracks should be sufficient to hold all their needs.
This is a fantasy world, so air-superiority tactics may apply. If so, get some flying 'scouts' to run combat air patrols and a few battle-ready 'interceptors' on standby to take down any approaching threats. Barring that, you should at least have surface-to-air weaponry available, whether bows and crossbows, ballistae, or ranged spells, you need to be prepared to take down aerial units.
Along with your casters you should have some counter-spellers mixed in to thwart the most likely spells that might be used against your fortification. Usr ranged combatants with the ability to identify enemies attempting to cast a spell and readied attacks to interrupt casting.


Hmm....well, the ogres definitely have the darkvision covered, and they're in well fortified towers. Guard dogs don't really seem applicable here; can you recommend another critter with scent? I'm drawing a blank.

Supplies are taken care of; they're being magically produced.

Hm....what would you recommend for flying creatures? It's reasonable to assume access to evil magical beasts and giant and ogre kin. I'm working in the CR 4 to 10 range. Dragons are off the table, btw. I'm thinking chimerae or manticore.

[BowStreetRunner]

Hmm....well, the ogres definitely have the darkvision covered, and they're in well fortified towers. Guard dogs don't really seem applicable here; can you recommend another critter with scent? I'm drawing a blank.

Supplies are taken care of; they're being magically produced.

Hm....what would you recommend for flying creatures? It's reasonable to assume access to evil magical beasts and giant and ogre kin. I'm working in the CR 4 to 10 range. Dragons are off the table, btw. I'm thinking chimerae or manticore.

Worgs (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/worg.htm) can certainly work as guard dogs if you want. They don't have to be all that tough, you are just using them as detectors in case a stealthy approach is used.

As for flying creatures I would recommend Gargoyles (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/gargoyle.htm) as your scouts, particularly if you give them some class levels. Hold the bigger flying creatures in reserve ready to deal with an actual aerial attack.

[Feralventas]

Clearing trees prevents mundane approaches, but you're playing 3.p.

Xorn Movement and burrow-speeds will need to be mitigated. Grave-dirt golems, or bound earth elementals and necromentals should help put a damper on that.

Kill a few slaves or bring victims back to the keep for slaughter in violent ways, then bind their ghosts to the walls to fight off incorporeal assaults.

Get some evil druids, rangers, and or morally-corrupt arborists to grow Ironwood trees into and along the walls, while using acid or acid spells to keep them from over-growing the wall itself. This will re-enforce the walls with something harder than stone which will re-grow after any damage provided your gardeners are still alive. Make sure to cultivate it on the Outside of the wall only; this will allow you to cast Entangle on anyone trying to scale the walls, but prevent them from using it against you as easily.

Permanent wall of dispelling would be good, but seems like I'm already getting ahead of myself.

Moats are simple enough to build, and putting some leeches in it to start cultivating swarms should be a nice touch, as well as providing material components for necromancy spells and medieval medical supplies.

Invisibility is readily available to the type of people that can raise an army against you, and may be cheaper for them. Consider getting your troops together and making a devil-deal of some sort to get them all one level of Warlock and the invocation See the Unseen, and try to get a discount for buying in bulk. Now your troops have a free, range 60 attack at will (touch AC) and can see in the dark And catch invisible interlopers.

[RFLS]

Worgs (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/worg.htm) can certainly work as guard dogs if you want. They don't have to be all that tough, you are just using them as detectors in case a stealthy approach is used.

As for flying creatures I would recommend Gargoyles (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/gargoyle.htm) as your scouts, particularly if you give them some class levels. Hold the bigger flying creatures in reserve ready to deal with an actual aerial attack.

I think I'll be passing on the Worgs; they don't quite fit. Thank you for the suggestion, though, I had completely blanked on them. As for the gargoyles, those area godsend. I'll be using them as messengers/harassment/scouts, and I've settled on half a dozen manticores for the big aerial guns.


Clearing trees prevents mundane approaches, but you're playing 3.p.

Xorn Movement and burrow-speeds will need to be mitigated. Grave-dirt golems, or bound earth elementals and necromentals should help put a damper on that.

Kill a few slaves or bring victims back to the keep for slaughter in violent ways, then bind their ghosts to the walls to fight off incorporeal assaults.

Get some evil druids, rangers, and or morally-corrupt arborists to grow Ironwood trees into and along the walls, while using acid or acid spells to keep them from over-growing the wall itself. This will re-enforce the walls with something harder than stone which will re-grow after any damage provided your gardeners are still alive. Make sure to cultivate it on the Outside of the wall only; this will allow you to cast Entangle on anyone trying to scale the walls, but prevent them from using it against you as easily.

Permanent wall of dispelling would be good, but seems like I'm already getting ahead of myself.

Moats are simple enough to build, and putting some leeches in it to start cultivating swarms should be a nice touch, as well as providing material components for necromancy spells and medieval medical supplies.

Invisibility is readily available to the type of people that can raise an army against you, and may be cheaper for them. Consider getting your troops together and making a devil-deal of some sort to get them all one level of Warlock and the invocation See the Unseen, and try to get a discount for buying in bulk. Now your troops have a free, range 60 attack at will (touch AC) and can see in the dark And catch invisible interlopers.

The party I'm building this against is not the most rules-savvy bunch; I'm not worried about incorporeal assault. I'm also deliberately leaving an underground approach open; I'd like to get a little creative thinking out of them.

The fort is on a large island in the middle of a fast-moving river, with two bridges on and off, both of which are guarded.

I added 8 humans to the mixup. It's a pair of level 3 druids and 6 level 3 warlocks. That should most definitely even up the caster inequality.

[BowStreetRunner]

I think I'll be passing on the Worgs; they don't quite fit. Thank you for the suggestion, though, I had completely blanked on them.

I had almost forgotten, but Trolls (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/troll.htm)have Scent.

I don't know if this is important to your campaign or not. If you are facing stealthy characters who will be using Hide & Move Silently checks, Invisibility, or similar tactics it would be worth having at least a couple of these types around. If the party doesn't employ stealth tactics or if their stealthy characters are already invested in the Darkstalker feat, then it probably isn't even an issue.

[ericgrau]

Archers, arrow slits (also good for casters).
Debris for difficult terrain all around the castle. Possibly a ditch or stone pile in a ring to stop siege engines except for a single narrow cart path.
Everburning torches 150 feet away on all sides so casters can use them as pyrotechnics (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/pyrotechnics.htm) targets.
Catapults and/or ballistas (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/wilderness.htm#siegeEngines) for destroying attacking siege towers and the like. Less useful against PCs but let's not meta. Also good for flinging oil (in a tied up bag of flasks or custom larger blown glass containers with stopper) which you can follow up with lit arrows or fire spells. Don't use semi-infinite stacking cheese ("on fire" is still only 1d6) but the advantage of so much oil is that it hits a large area and can start fires on wooden attack structures.
At least one watchman, if not 4, should be a caster with see invisibility up 24 hours. Rotate on shifts and use lesser rods of extend. Pick a race with low light vision (darkvision is only 60 feet) and set up some lights. If you have enough casters you could surround the fort with alarm spells, otherwise you can only get the entrances. Meta for the PCs: glitterdust is close range so an invisible assault isn't entirely pointless.

[RFLS]

I had almost forgotten, but Trolls (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/troll.htm)have Scent.

I don't know if this is important to your campaign or not. If you are facing stealthy characters who will be using Hide & Move Silently checks, Invisibility, or similar tactics it would be worth having at least a couple of these types around. If the party doesn't employ stealth tactics or if their stealthy characters are already invested in the Darkstalker feat, then it probably isn't even an issue.

There are, surprisingly, no sneakers in the party. It's 3 full casters, a Batman-type character (he's not so good at sneaking), and a charge-and-kill barbarian. I think I'll include a few trolls lairing around the island, they don't strike me as buddy-buddy type.



Archers, arrow slits (also good for casters).
Debris for difficult terrain all around the castle. Possibly a ditch or stone pile in a ring to stop siege engines except for a single narrow cart path.
Everburning torches 150 feet away on all sides so casters can use them as pyrotechnics (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/pyrotechnics.htm) targets.
Catapults and/or ballistas (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/wilderness.htm#siegeEngines) for destroying attacking siege towers and the like. Less useful against PCs but let's not meta. Also good for flinging oil (in a tied up bag of flasks or custom larger blown glass containers with stopper) which you can follow up with lit arrows or fire spells. Don't use semi-infinite stacking cheese ("on fire" is still only 1d6) but the advantage of so much oil is that it hits a large area and can start fires on wooden attack structures.
At least one watchman, if not 4, should be a caster with see invisibility up 24 hours. Rotate on shifts and use lesser rods of extend. Pick a race with low light vision (darkvision is only 60 feet) and set up some lights. If you have enough casters you could surround the fort with alarm spells, otherwise you can only get the entrances. Meta for the PCs: glitterdust is close range so an invisible assault isn't entirely pointless.


The walls have battlements, and the corner towers have arrow and ballistae slits. It's a 4-walled fort, one tower in each corner, 2 ballistae per tower. It's got a natural defense in the form of the river, but I think you're right- I'll add a trench with some spikes around the outer walls.
As for the torches, given that almost every single person in the fort has low-light and/or darkvision, I think I'll refrain from putting torches out. I have, however, armed the hill giants with oil soaked rocks to throw. That should...make things interesting. The ballistaes, likewise, will be launching flaming bolts. I don't have any catapults in the design yet, but I'm considering mounting 2 to the top of each tower and having them throw a variety of entertaining things at people. As for the see invisibility, like I said, there are 6 warlocks, all with the See the Unseen invocation, with half of them on patrol at all times.

[BowStreetRunner]

Sounds like you have everything well in hand. Of course, the smart play is to assume that sooner or later the PCs will overpower the fort's defenses and free the slaves. So plan for that.

Among the defenders put an NPC infiltrator. Give him ranks in Rogue, Scout, Ranger or something like that, or even a prestige class like Spymaster. When the party finally overwhelms the fort, he takes refuge by blending in among the slaves. His job is to infiltrate behind enemy lines, so he will take the opportunity if possible to learn as much as he can about the PCs and report that information back.

Have a relief column arrive while the PCs are still inside the fort. Give them a chance to set up to defend it for a fun role reversal.

In the papers the PCs find in the fort include instructions telling the commander of the force to send a box of treasure off to a nearby group - maybe a bandit camp, or a village of bugbears, or something like that - as payment to honor an agreement to have them enter the war as allies. The treasure is already gone when the PCs search the fort, with evidence a small party departed to deliver the treasure just before the PCs arrived.

Whatever you do, make sure that you already know what is going to happen after the PCs win and have all of those elements in place before the battle even begins. It can really make the finishing touches great if after the battle someone in the party says "yeah, I actually remember there was an extra guard we never found - or we saw that group leaving the compound and just thought it was another patrol" or some other detail that seemed innocuous during the battle but was part of the next series of events you have lined up.

[RFLS]

Sounds like you have everything well in hand. Of course, the smart play is to assume that sooner or later the PCs will overpower the fort's defenses and free the slaves. So plan for that.

Among the defenders put an NPC infiltrator. Give him ranks in Rogue, Scout, Ranger or something like that, or even a prestige class like Spymaster. When the party finally overwhelms the fort, he takes refuge by blending in among the slaves. His job is to infiltrate behind enemy lines, so he will take the opportunity if possible to learn as much as he can about the PCs and report that information back.

Have a relief column arrive while the PCs are still inside the fort. Give them a chance to set up to defend it for a fun role reversal.

In the papers the PCs find in the fort include instructions telling the commander of the force to send a box of treasure off to a nearby group - maybe a bandit camp, or a village of bugbears, or something like that - as payment to honor an agreement to have them enter the war as allies. The treasure is already gone when the PCs search the fort, with evidence a small party departed to deliver the treasure just before the PCs arrived.

Whatever you do, make sure that you already know what is going to happen after the PCs win and have all of those elements in place before the battle even begins. It can really make the finishing touches great if after the battle someone in the party says "yeah, I actually remember there was an extra guard we never found - or we saw that group leaving the compound and just thought it was another patrol" or some other detail that seemed innocuous during the battle but was part of the next series of events you have lined up.

Hmmmm....*cackles madly* Yeah, they're currently a party of 5 level 5 characters; I don't expect them to take too much longer in cracking the fort open. I've actually been working on a sneaker build, high in bluff/diplomacy....I may throw it in there. Maybe I'll make it two...a sniper/poisoner and a TWFer. No one ever expects the second guy.

[ericgrau]

As for the torches, given that almost every single person in the fort has low-light and/or darkvision, I think I'll refrain from putting torches out.
Pyrotechnics is a large battlefield annihilator. At least put out candles :smalltongue:. But seriously with 240 foot spacing (in both dimensions) you'll only be lighting 3% of the battlefield with 40 foot light diameter everburning torches. And if you go with everburning torches the casters can use them repeatedly to blind 100 people for 2-5 rounds in exchange for only 1 of their actions. I'd consider wands for long fights even with the lower save DC. Less useful when the PCs come but still very useful against them.

[RFLS]

Pyrotechnics is a large battlefield annihilator. At least put out candles :smalltongue:. But seriously with 240 foot spacing (in both dimensions) you'll only be lighting 3% of the battlefield with 40 foot light diameter everburning torches. And if you go with everburning torches the casters can use them repeatedly to blind 100 people for 2-5 rounds in exchange for only 1 of their actions. I'd consider wands for long fights even with the lower save DC. Less useful when the PCs come but still very useful against them.

Oh- that's what the oil-soaked boulders and bolts are for. When they're burning merrily on the battlefield, the casters will hit them with Pyrotechnics. The reason I'm not putting torches/candles out initially is that the people with darkvision aren't going to give away one of their advantages in an assault.

What do you guys think of, instead of having druids/whatever casting Entangle on people climbing the walls, I just set up traps of Entangle?