[3.5] How have you defended/protected your stronghold?

[FelineArchmage]

Hello everyone!

In one of the campaigns I am playing in, we have a stronghold and we are... not so nice people. Have made enemies, and will make more. And when your enemies want to take you down, they will come knocking at your door.

Problem is, we get pulled away from our base of operations a lot, and are not there to protect it. So I want to know...

How have you guys protected YOUR strongholds in the past, and what kind of suggestions do you have for a first-time keep-holder?

I have browsed the Stronghold Builder's Guidebook, but I've unfortunately haven't had a chance to actually sit down and read it. I will refer to it when I can, but I'm looking for creative suggestions that aren't in there as well!

Some background:

Our keep is located in a wooded/forested/swampy area in southern Thrane (Eberron).
We just got a flesh golem manual and will be using that for protection
Party consists of: crazy-OP magic user (major multiclassing), Dread Necromancer/minionmancer/all things undead necropolitan, wizard/barbarian aberration... thing, and (occasionally when real life allows) a cloistered cleric/psion/thrallherd/sovereign speaker. All are gestalt.
We all essentially have Leadership, but only 2 players that consistently make it to games have a high enough CHA to actually get followers. I also have a 3 person long Leadership train, so we have a lot of followers to help with construction and such.
My cohort just took the Landlord feat, so now we have some $$$$
The thrallherd PC just turned some (wyrmling) dragons and some living spells (don't remember the spells). They haven't come up in game yet, but I'm hoping we can use them for defense in the future (my idea is to use True Polymorph when I'm high enough level on the wyrmlings and get some young adult dragons up in here).
One of the cohorts is an artificer, if that will help


Thanks a bunch!

Edit: Right now, we are all about level 10-11

[Oracle71]

Mundane things include concentric rings of alternating moats, broken ground, and low stone walls, making the approach to your castle so difficult that any army would be decimated by your catapults, mangonels, ballistas, and archers.

As for magical defenses, I love the shambler spell. You get shambling mounds to guard your perimeter for months at a time with one spell. Unfortunately, it is a 9th level druid spell, but if you can get a druid cohort or hireling of high enough level, or if your artificer cohort is of high enough level, it isn't a bad investment.

Your necromancer should probably create some undead specifically tasked to scouting and defensive purposes, as well. If your spellcasters have the fell animate feat, or wands with spells that have been enhanced with the fell animate feat, that can go a very long way to protecting a castle from any army.

[flappeercraft]

You didn't state level which would be useful but considering what you have mentioned it seems like it is a high level game so I will treat it as that.

My reccomendations would be the following assuming high level:
1. Get a Formian Queen or a Simulacrum of one to work for you and use DCFS to change any of it's feats for Mindsight. Now place her in a well guarded chamber by the center of the stronghold. This means that should any intelligent creature come within 50 miles of the stronghold, she will know, it's basically impossible to avoid mindsight. Should any creature get in, have her alert all the guards via her telepathy where they are, how many of them there are, what creature type they are and what intelligence scores they have. This means that not only do you detect them but it allows some small preparations against attackers as you can deduce what they are from the information you get.
2. Use counter intuitive traps and systems to guard places. For example have the traps have a visual trigger where it triggers if you don't have your left eye closed while near it and make the guards say a fake password out loud when passing near them. Everyone getting in will think they are safe by saying the password just to be surprised by noticing it's not by password but it's by whether or not your left eye is closed. Make it something random like that.
3. Make safe places look dangerous and dangerous ones look safe. Any attackers will get their minds messed with terribly and take the wrong decisions
4. Have a simulacrum of yourself there at all times who you have a permanent telepathic bond with. If the stronghold is being attacked you will be instantly notified and if they get in and kill the simulacrum they will think it's you (of course for the thinking it's you part you do need to solve the melt into nothingness when killed but that can be solved easily enough).
5. Pit Traps with voidstone spikes are surprisingly good at taking out masses of enemies and spellcasters who are not flying. Of course if you are going to try that you should at least make sure the spikes are levitating slightly over the bottom to avoid them destroying the ground
6. Make the ceilings of hallways not be held by the building itself but instead be separate sections of big stone slabs with Immovable rods holding them up, of course have the immovable rods be painted over to make it not noticeable. Also, make it so that the ceiling is exactly 9ft 11 inches high, not higher or lower than that. Should anyone try use an AMF to deactivate any magic traps, they will sure get a surprise when the ceiling falls on top of them, for good measure make the ceiling have invisible spikes to do more damage. If you want to calculate the damage that would do, complete warrior has rules for damage from heavier objects such as this.

[denthor]

Clear cut 300 feet in all directions.

Gaurd post towers two gate.

If you have a natural lake use that on one side.

Make industry a tavern, slaver pen, charge entry fees.

Inside a church to an evil god. So more can control undead. Bury undead one inch below the surface. I personally had a giant skeleton. The paladin loved it when he attacked. Inside the church have undead and keep a 2nd level spell running at all times. If you have the one that last a year do it twice. It burns dispel magic attempts.

Orcs work cheap. Allow the rift raff to stay around the fort with the understanding if they want help they will give help. I used to roll them on my way to my church. How dare they say human sacrifice is not something they want to participate in. I was not the Lord in charge just one of two clerics with a church.

[Talverin]

We seeded 'witnesses' into the nearby towns talking about all kinds of awful, horrible, and mildly improbable acts of magic that we used to defend ourselves; the uncertainty of our defenses chased off more people from the attempt than it brought. Wizards don't like taking on magic they don't understand.

Also, the area around us was filled with 'feral' undead, and we had pens of them in nearby caves. By 'feral', I mean summoned by the Necromancer and turned loose. They did not dissolve, but instead just... roamed. And for the most part stayed nearby. It made a good casual deterrent and early warning both. Combat is loud.

Also the early parts of the tunnels were populated by goblins in our employ. Those, too, are noisy and good distractions/warnings. Plus, they would get bored and we got free traps!

We learned to have alternate means of exit though. Sometimes they forgot to warn us about the traps.

[ExLibrisMortis]

+1 to the Formian Queen. Very good security, just keep it loyal (with mind control, none of that unreliable Diplomacy).

I'm a big fan of mythals as magical fortresses, because they're so much simpler (and potentially cheaper) than SBG magical architecture. Downside: they're epic spells. Still, ask your DM if you can a low-powered variant of the same mechanics to create a large set of magical wards. Make it clear that it's not going to be a mythal in-universe, just a way to have a couple of magical gates and invisibility purge in the keep, for example.

[The Insanity]

A pair of unique Void Yai guarded the main gate, among other things.

[Heliomance]

Get an abberation, dragon, fey, magical beast, monstrous humanoid, outsider, or undead creature as one of your cohorts (or a goblinoid or kobold). Appoint it castellan and leave it at your fortress 24/7. give it levels in the Dungeon Lord prestige class. Makes all your defenders better.