Building a wizard's tower with 4th level spells and lower

[Yogibear41]

How would you build a Wizard's tower for yourself with only 4th level and lower Wizard spells. Assuming a pretty good understanding of how construction works (+15 or more knowledge: Arch and Eng)

Planned on using Stone Shape and Shrink Item on big rocks(to move them) to do the majority of the work, but talked it over a bit with my DM and he said it would be very difficult to complete the task using stone-shape. (or maybe it was just the way I said I planned on doing it) So seeing if anyone else has any ideas that could potentially help me out.

Any low level spells I could use to smooth/sand/polish potential stone pieces with?

[Baroknik]

Look into the Fuse Sand spell from Sandstorm. If sand is readily available, it is a much faster (materials wise). Make the walls from the 10x10x10ft blocks and you don't have to carve them even. Since the spell makes 2 of those blocks per CL, we're looking at a minimum of 14,000 cf of construction material per casting...

And plus, sand castles are cool!

[_felagund]

i think best approach would be dominating a rich person for building & financial issues. then you can focus on permanent protections on tower.

[Regissoma]

Well idk if you knew but trapsmiths get fabricate as a 3rd level spell and there is a way to be able to cast it on your spell list as a 3rd if your DM accepts them. These methods require you to have a trapsmith make the item for you or for you to have access to the dragonshards from eberon or runestaffs.

Otherwise you can always use soften earth and stone, a druid 2nd level spell, to turn dry earth into loose sand and use the method Baronik suggested to get a readily availble source of sand.

[Aquillion]

Your best bet, aside from the spells you mentioned, is to use magical or magically-bound servants.

Animate Dead can produce undead for hauling things; Lesser Geas can bind various people or creatures to help you construct your tower. Charm Monster and Charm Person can also help you recruit builders. Unseen Servant may also be useful, and can probably do basic stuff like polishing stones.

You can Polymorph these servants (or existing hirelings) into forms more suited for the work you need done; Enlarge Person (and / or the mass version) will also help, as might Bull's Strength (although the duration is a bit short.)

Floating Disk, Dimension Door and Levitate can help you move stones and materials yourself.

Phantom Steed and Mount can be used to help your workers transport materials.

Prestidigitation may or may not be useful. Most DMs would probably allow polishing to fall under the description of "cleaning".

While they won't strictly help you build the basic structure of your tower itself, there are several spells that can enhance it with permanent magical effects, including Illusory Wall, Arcane Lock, Continual Flame, Phantom Trap, and Arcane Mark; these are important to end up with a "wizard's tower", rather than just a generic tower!


While you specified level 4 spells and below, it is worth pointing out that at 5th level you get Wall of Stone, Teleport, Lesser Planar Binding, Dominate Person, Fabricate and Permanency, all of which would be exceptionally useful for this task, so you might consider leaving some parts for later if possible.