Keep for a dwarf druid

[Spuddles]

A dwarf druid draws the king of diamonds from a deck of many things. He gets a keep. What does it look like?

[Scow2]

Hmm... it would be some sort of Dwarf Fortress.

[hymer]

In my DMG king of diamonds gives you a wondrous item and a boatload of XP.

[ericgrau]

I think this is a holdover from 2e where everyone basically got leadership and a base of operations at high level. A druid would get an analogous base of operations to a keep.

I'd say some kind of wood fort in the wilderness. He should take the leadership feat and stock it with rangers and druids. They are ready to defend the region from invaders. They have stores of dried produce and meat and they restock it themselves from hunting & gathering. Many of the rangers are archers to fire from keep walls, and many of the druids like bird forms to connect them with nearby forest and urban allies via communication and trade.

A regular keep costs 150,000 gp, so if you have a stronghold builder's guide or something similar, a little less than that ("small keep") could be a good budget to work with. Or without such a guide for reference a small house is 1,000 gp, a grand house is 5,000 gp and a siege tower 2,000 gp. So that could give you a rough idea how large the fort is, how many store houses it has, how many wooden towers it might have, etc. Or in addition to the fort itself he might control substantial land outside the fort with people stationed in treetop constructions.

As a dwarf he might instead control a natural cave system with similar constructions and stealthy melee rangers plus bear or burrowing animal druids.

IMO the construction should appear out of thin air in a strategic location useful to the druid, and the druid should get a mental imprint of its location. But it's up to him to hurry up and get there to claim it. It could be interesting if some wanderers or looters disagree with his claim.

[Spuddles]

I am thinking two upper levels of a large granitic spire that serve as a look out. Basically a two story tower from stronghold builder's guide.

The spire sits on a barren hill. In the hill would basically be the rest of the stronghold rooms for a simple keep.


In my DMG king of diamonds gives you a wondrous item and a boatload of XP.

Must be king of hearts then. The one with +6 diplomacy & a keep.

[hymer]

Okay, minor point anyway.
I guess, since you can choose the location freely, it adapts to its environment. So I guess it depends where he chooses to put it. So if the druid chooses a forest he knows, ericgrau's suggestion on what it looks like sounds fine. His suggestion on the quest, though, isn't quite RAW as far as I can tell.