Transforming a castle into a City

[Sloshman997]

So the party consists of a Sorcerer, Druid, Crusader, Warblade(Me), and Artificer(craftbot played by me). The DM threw the Deck of Many things at us and we all willing drew a few cards. That resulted in us getting a decent amount of wealth and one of the characters got the Throne card so we now possess a castle. We are starting the process of transforming the castle into a city of its own and possibly absorbing a nearby city into it.

We have a blacksmith, a "Random Magic Shop" run by a friendly NPC that we sold the DoMT to, an Inn/Tavern, temple, gambling house. The generic NPC's we have are clerics, farmers, builders, guards and "workers" to cover misc. minor services.

I can think of some things we need but I'm also seeking outside opinions we can afford pretty much any mundane service/building but magic is limited because we plan on spending most of our money via the craftbot.

[Gildedragon]

Well you need to attract people.

The easiest way is probably to turn the area into a trade hub as people who journey there for goods might bring along folk that want to settle and the like.

For that make a trading fair, go all over the place and advertise it.
To sweeten the pot: make it a planar trade fair: portals into other realms will open up and allow merchants from the elemental planes, trading modrons, and the like to come through.

Sweeten it further: make it relatively easy to teleport to the fairgrounds even if not a spellcaster. Ask about researching an incantation that makes a sort of temporary teleportation circle to the fairgrounds, but only works for a brief period of the year.
Let the incantation become very well known. You will now get travelers from other continents.
Spellcasters (who will no doubt show up) can make a buck by organizing trips back home.

Also: buy back the DoMT and hide it in an antimagic vault. You do not want that running amok in your city

----

Other options:
Start a University.
hire a number of powerful spellcasters and sages, research a number of unique spells and cantrips, offer all sorts of learning: bards, artificers, wizards, soulbinders...
around this center of learning things will start cropping up

Make it an agricultural bonanza and start selling land
with spells the ground is always fertile, the weather mild, monsters and dangerous things are kept at bay, plants mature quickly and exotic magical plants are encouraged to grow and bought at great prices.
after some time of making your farmlands famous for their yields and exotic goods traders will start setting up shop and you'll have a city.

Note: make the city infrastructure magical. prestidigitation traps that keep the streets clean, continuous flame or daylight spells to make the streets navegable at night, cheap to buy porcelain boxes of devouring for garbage and waste disposal.

To prevent the magictech from being stolen and copied: make them into Devices (Ravenloft: legacy of blood) that use electricity (generated via magic) to function. You set up iron cables (wall of iron + fabricate) to carry the electricity along the city floor... Thus the devices only work when plugged into your city's architecture. When taken out the are mundane contraptions

[Sloshman997]

Well you need to attract people.

So there appears to be more I should have mentioned.

The party is level 7/8 and the Artificer is level 14 due to some draws from the deck. I'm the only player who has played before(this is our 7th session) and the DM is moderately experienced. I warned him that the DoMT would either imbalance the party or just kill characters some people had just started to get the hang of mechanically and roleplaying. So while the party went along with it I decided selling the Book back to the the DM was the best course of action. My character ended up getting 6 wishes which I used weakly just to not supercharge my own PC. We ended up selling the deck for 200k, a 10% discount with the shopkeeper (unneeded), and her moving her shop to our town, part of the agreement was that no living or undead being could use the book within the city limits. The NPC is roleplayed as a collector of magic items and mid-teens level caster. We play a mostly good campaign in name but in practice our characters probably closer to Neutral we are very by-any-means focused.

We like the University idea but spellcasters we think will be very expensive and the backstory of the campaign is a war between the followers of Baccob and Heronious and we are avoiding taking sides because we want to make our own "side". We plan on spreading the word of the town but we didn't have any interesting means or methods. Our DM is very anti-magic mart and we haven't found a spellcaster that can cast 9th lvl spells. So we are going to start a Warblade college I'm going to take leadership and have the cohort Co-lead the college while my PC is gone.

We've essentially paid to relocate the people we have gotten to move to the town (~40) by offering higher wages.

[Clistenes]

1.-Provide protection. That will attract all kinds of settlers.
>>1.a.-Build a nice, strong wall.
>>1.b.-Hire soldiers.
>>1.c.-Provide healing and magical services for free.
>>1.d.-Provide what magical protections you can afford: Simulacrums, Golems...etc.
>>>>1.d.1.-Create a custom Weirstone or several custom Weirstones that creates protective effects like Forbiddance, Consecrate, Hallow, Repulsion and Death Ward around the city.

2.-Provide trade and business.
>>2.a.-Start by creating your own fields, herds and workshops; your employees and their families will be your first settlers, and trade will attract others.
>>2.b.-Build roads to other population centers.
>>2.c.-Patrol those roads and expel or kill all bandits and monsters.
>>2.d.-Use spells like Iron Wall, Wall of Salt, Metal to Wood, Magecraft, Unseen Crafter...etc., to create your own high-quality wares and offer them at low prices (but be careful not ruining all the local merchants).
>>2.e.-Use Teleportation Spells, Boots of Teleportation and Portable Holes or Enveloping Pits to export and import wares. That will attract merchants, farmers and artisans.
>>>>2.e.1.-You can later use Plane Shift spells or an Amulet of the Planes or a Cubic Gate to visit other planes and trade with them.
>>2.f.-Create permanent Teleportation Circles, so your merchants can use them to trade with other places in the world.
>>>>2.f.1.-You can later create Portals to Mandible (Arcadia-Abellio), Melodia (Arcadia-Buxenus), Heart's Faith (Celestia-Lunia),Empyrea (Celestia-Mertion), Rempha (Celestia-Mertion), Soqued Qezi (Celestia-Mertion), Yeomen (Bytopia-Dothion), Quarry (Bytopia-Shurrock), Release From Care (Elysium-Amoria), Portico (Elysium-Amoria), Mount Clangeddin-Realm (Arcadia-Abellio), Marduk of Marduk - Realm (Arcadia-Abellio), Gizekhtet of Heliopolis-Realm (Arcadia-Buxenus), Thekele-re of Heliopolis (Arcadia-Buxenus), Nectar of Faith-Realm (Celestia-Lunia), Goldfire-Realm (Celestia-Mercuria), Candlewoods de Green Fields-Realm (Celestia-Venya), Rift de Erackinor-Realm (Celestia-Solania), The Golden Hills-Realm (Bythopia-Dothion), Ston-khat de Windwrath -Realm (Bytopia-Shurrock), Pax Benefice of Principality (Elysium-Amoria), The Fortress of the Sun - Realm (Elysium-Thalasia), The City of the Star- Realm (Elysium-Amoria), The Great Mother's Garden -Realm (Elysium-Eronia)...etc., so your merchants can go there to trade AND pilgrims from the Prime can visit there too.

3.-Create a big temple or temples, so people can come to worship.
4.-Built a keep and donate it as chapterhouse to an order of paladins.
5.-Build a school of wizardry.

[JusticeZero]

Yeah, a DoMT is generally considered a death trap, because the good stuff is so often laced with "And you can draw another card!" I've heard it described as "the DM's way of saying the campaign is over", which seems to generally hold true.

[atemu1234]

Step one: First viable opportunity, take the Leadership feat. All of you. Tell the DM you want your cohorts to be mostly experts, with blacksmiths, traders, bankers and the like. Also some warriors for the guards, your highest level cohorts being captains of the guards. Then, eventually, you'll be able to get cohorts of sixth level, have them take leadership too. Get your cohorts to reproduce (It is crudely true that if man's caloric intake is sufficient, he will somehow stagger to maturity, and he will reproduce). You'll have a small city in no time!

[Sloshman997]

Step one: First viable opportunity, take the Leadership feat. All of you. Tell the DM you want your cohorts to be mostly experts, with blacksmiths, traders, bankers and the like. Also some warriors for the guards, your highest level cohorts being captains of the guards. Then, eventually, you'll be able to get cohorts of sixth level, have them take leadership too. Get your cohorts to reproduce (It is crudely true that if man's caloric intake is sufficient, he will somehow stagger to maturity, and he will reproduce). You'll have a small city in no time!

A city completely comprised of people loyal to us or loyal to the people loyal to us ad nausuam. Best idea ever.

I didn't consider us all taking it but that is a solid idea that I will bring up to them. At this point in time the artificer could take Leadership and get a cohort that is a higher level than anyone in the party lol.

[JusticeZero]

Strictly speaking, cities will form anywhere there is paying work and places to build houses with families in them. Build roads, offer land, and find something to hire people to do that will actually make money instead of just draining yours. The nearby city is going to be an issue, because people aren't going to want to walk between the two, and the other city already has infrastructure for the higher order functions. Your attempts to usurp those will fail so long as the other city stands.

[Gildedragon]

Note that the university need not be magical. Also the martial training of warblades isn't perhaps best for upwardly mobile merchants' children or third children of nobles or knights...
Having a martial training area for the city guard is great. You get an army. But you want reknown, thinkers and lawyers that will spread fame but not... You know, be part of an attacking army
Medieval curriculum can be emulated in D&D
Trivium
Logic: Apraise
Rhetoric: Diplomacy
Grammar: Decipher Script or Truespeaking
Quadrivium
Arithmetic/Geometry: Kn Arcana + Kn Architecture and Engineering
Astronomy: Kn Nature
Music: Craft (Composition) or Perform (any)
Theology: Kn Religion
Philosophy: Kn Planes
More practical things:
Law: Kn Local + Kn Nobility + Kn History
History: Kn History + Kn Nobility + Martial Lore (optional)
Medicine: Heal + Craft (Alchemy) + Kn Local + Kn Nature
Architecture: Kn Architecture and Engineering
Natural Science: Kn Architecture, Craft Alchemy, Kn Nature, Kn Arcana, Kn Planes
Politics: Kn Local, History, Nobility, Diplomacy, Bluff, Intimidate

Teachers are experts for the most part, savants and factotums too

Avoid commoners, retrain them into other things: magewrights and experts

Set up and encourage cheap and safe houses of healing and dens of pleasure from which you harvest ambrosia for city wondrous architecture crafting xp

[atemu1234]

A city completely comprised of people loyal to us or loyal to the people loyal to us ad nausuam. Best idea ever.

I didn't consider us all taking it but that is a solid idea that I will bring up to them. At this point in time the artificer could take Leadership and get a cohort that is a higher level than anyone in the party lol.

Ooh, I missed the bit about the artificer. Get the DM to use un-errata'd versions of the efficient item creation lines of feats from ECS, then get him to OK the use of a template from Advanced Bestiary that would let him craft construct versions of things with PC classes. Then you've got him creating essentially people loyal to him en masse, and if he uses the un-errata'd versions he can then theoretically build one a day for free. Of course, this requires twelve feats, so unlikely to say the least. But if he can build them at sixth level or higher (he was what, lvl 14?) he could have them have the leadership feat too.

I CALL THIS PLAN PLAN ROBOT OVERLORD!