Stonghold for a Dread Necromancer!

[Chester]

Soooooooooooooo......

I have been granted permission from our DM (well,co-DM; we alternate) to design a stronghold for my Dread Necromancer.

By "stronghold", I mean nothing monstrous size. Perhaps a tower or something that gives me a safe, solitary place to "research". A typical tower with a library, workroom, and charnel. :smallamused:

I was thinking that I'd have the library, workroom, and charnel hidden away in a basement level; the rest of the residence would be above ground.

Any advice on designing this? What makes the most sense? Have any of you created one before?

[Optimator]

An animated skeletal Soarwhale (AEG 89) with a keep built in it.

[Deophaun]

I've always wanted to make a Dread Necro stronghold in a compound that is inaccessible except through a strategically placed animated dragon's head and door of decay.

[VoxRationis]

A lone tower, built at the edge of a glacier. The dungeons and storerooms of the tower are carved into the glacier (presumably the necromancer is either here for the short-term or digs things out quickly enough to account for drift), which provides an interesting "back-door" for characters who go through a side adventure to find it.

[Gavinfoxx]

http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=2733


"Undead Fortresses
Ok, so you’ve decided to build a base of operations. There’s a few things to remember. First, despite what everyone tells you, you are not going to have walls made out of bone or permanently desecrated hallways or pools of blood or any of that dramatic and expensive accessory items of out of The Sims, Necromantic Style. You are going to build it along a few practical lines.

You will have “dead-man rooms”, which are rooms full of masses of uncontrolled undead, and you’ll have taken a feat or spell like Lich-loved so that you don’t have to worry about being eaten when you restock the rooms. Then, when heroes come to bust up your tea-party your “Hive” breaks open and destroys the heroes, and perhaps the nearest city as well despite the number of turning attempts or Command Undead spells they might have.

For your intelligent undead, which are most likely incorporeal, you’ll have deep stone floors and walls so that have space to pop in and out as needed, and even 5’ deep walls for “ghost doors” usable by incorporeal guys. (This takes advantage of the fact that incorporeal creatures can only move 5' through objects).

If your DM is using the optional rules on how masses of undead creates ambient Turn Resistance, then you can abuse the Haunting Presence rules by taking a large number of low-HD skeles and turning them into para-ghosts that mass the area, putting enough necromantic mojo into the air to clot the holy artery of any cheeky bastard with Turning (even you, unfortunately).

That’s about it. Add in a few summoning rooms and a hospital ward to inflict dudes which ghoul fever and/or harvest liquid pain, and you are the Martha Stewart of the necromantic world."

[Silva Stormrage]

An animated skeletal Soarwhale (AEG 89) with a keep built in it.

No no it needs to be a zombie so that it can still fly! Also you can ignore the HD cap on that by using plague of undead (UMD it if need be) on the thing.

[jguy]

Automatic resetting traps of Inflict X wounds or Harm in key places will keep you and your minions healed while hurting the enemies. Have a spectral doorman to your important abodes that operates a door that can only be opened from inside the wall. Poison gas traps work wonders as does flooding.

[OldTrees1]

A tower build on the ocean floor (some rooms are airproofed for materials that can get water damage) at an apparently random location. (So the location can be described but is improbable to find otherwise)

Location I chose:
Take 3 notable cities in an irregular triangle. Take the trade routes from city A (one to each other city). Point 1 is 1/3rd of the way from city A to city B. Point 2 is 1/3rd of the way from city C to city A. The tower is 1/3rd of the way from point 1 to point 2. (12 unique locations depending on city order)

(Obviously this is designed for a Lich, a Necropolitian or a *shudder* living creature would be inconvenienced by this design)