Beyond guards and guard dogs

[Balor01]

I am prepping a short subquest for my group. The goal for them will be to steal a crate full of looted silver items. This crate is stored in a large complex of warehouses, owned by the city.

Guards are not guarding The Ring of Mordekainen or some other epic stuff. All in all, this place is a number of warehouse, meant to storage semi-valuable stuff on its way to the city. In one, there may be an obsidian gargoyle, in other, a bunch of papers from High office of city Magistrate.

So ... I would like to set up some decent, a tad munchkinish guard system for this place.

This is low-magic setting, so no permanent spells, no spells above lvl 3 and similar stuff. Party is lvl 4 so in order to make this a bit more intimidating, I planned out a large wall around warehouses, manned by armed guards (lvl 4 fighters) and guard dogs (Scent is a nasty skill).

But - playground may have an additional practical idea that I could incorporate in warehouse system defenses. Things DO disappear from these warehouses occasional, but metagame-wise, highest lvl opponent that still deals with such loot are lvl 6 rogues. Document forgery is also common when people try to illegally obtain stuff from guarded warehouses, so their' Experts have maxed out Forgery check and appropriate feats for it.

So guys - any other idea how to "Pimp my warehouse"?

thanks

[Yora]

Alarm spells would be the obvious choice for areas where very high value objects are stored and maybe also at the primary entrances to sections of the complex. Since they need to be recast every day, the mages of the security team probably won't be able to cover every single opening in the buildings but for example a grate that connects to the canalization would probably have one, in case someone tries to break it and get inside that way.

Another very entertaining thing is the weight of the chest they are going to steal. Silver is a quite heavy element and while it doesn't make much difference for a ring or a cup, a full chest of it can get amazingly heavy very quickly. Unless it's all cups and candle holders which take up a lot of space, I think a good approximation would be that half the volume of the chest is silver and the other half is air. Silver is 10 times as heavy as water, and if half of the chest is air, you get 5 times the weight of a chest filled with water. Even a shoebox filled with silver coins and jewelry would easily weight 10 kg. A chest with 100 kg of silver wouldn't be very large but still quite difficult to get out of the building without being seen or heard. And still only be worth 1,000 gp. If it's jewlry with a few gemstones instead of unworked silver bars the value of the treasure could easily double or tripple.
In any case, if paying someone to break into a magically guarded high security storehouse, it's going to be a very heavy treasure to make it worth the effort.

If you make it gold, the weight doubles, but the value increases by ten times, giving you 20% of the weight for the same value.

[Fyermind]

Alarm style traps are important. Even if they aren't magical, traps that alert people in the surrounding area of the presence of intruders are good. Also consider replacing fighter with barbarian. I know it sounds weird for guards to be barbarians, but the get better skills, fast movement, (or pounce with splatbooks) and rage (or whirling frenzy with splatbooks). They won't likely need to fight more than once per day, so being a nova based melee class isn't likely to detract from their overall usefulness.

Tome of Battle classes are also often thought of as being like fighters only better.

If you are going fighter, look at maximizing attacks of opportunity and lock down effects with poll arms. Trip might also be right up your alley (and the dogs will have it for free). Alchemical items like Tanglefoot bags, Thunderstones, and alchemist's fire also might make a lot of sense.

I believe there may be an item that makes targets stinky (and easier to track with scent because the hounds will all recognize it even in the town full of scents) but my mind may be playing tricks with me.

[Waker]

Some simple traps could be used as alarm systems. Floorboards designed to squeak when stepped upon, pressure plates in areas where goods are stored, bells on the doors, gaps in the floorboards that allow light to shine through and be seen on different floors, coating stone floors with a fine layer of gravel to make noise when stepped on.
Those are all the ideas I could think of while having a 5-year-old climbing on me, if I think of something else later I'll post it.

[JaronK]

Fighters make terrible guards (due to having no perceptive abilities, no sense motive, no forgery... anyone can fool or sneak past them). Consider the Urban Ranger class, which even comes with animal companions that can be dogs. Likewise, you'll want one person with the Forgery skill to detect other forgeries... an Expert who's a bureaucrat can do the job, as can a Factotum.

Traps that make noise are always nice. Also, consider making it so that the room you enter to gain access to the rest of the facility has lockable doors on both sides with a barred window that the bureaucrat talks to you from (to check credentials). Both doors are locked while orders are being processed.

Remember that walls can be knocked down. Regular patrols (two guards with dogs) should walk around the inside and outside of the building. Perhaps some of the guards should have small climbing animal companions that can observe from above.

JaronK

[Laserlight]

Traps can be used to damage / incapacitate the thief; to alert guards; to make escape more difficult; or make it easier to catch the thief. Examples of the latter two would be a trap which drops a portcullis (or similar) across the entrance, and a trap which covers the victim with indelible ink / paint.