Guards for a Stronghold

[Techcaliber]

Hello everybody. So, my friend has been planning a campaign for a while. This campaign is a 3e/3.5e combo, using 3e core rulebooks and using 3.5 supplements. So far anything is allowed. As well as this, our PCs are considered evil. My character is going to be a Dread Necromancer/ Pale Master multi class, and eventually, I do plan on creating a stronghold of my own. What would the best guards be for a fortress that:
a. Wouldn’t betray me
b. Would be easy to obtain, but strong enough to defend, and
c. Aren’t so crazy a DM would just say no.

I know this request is subject to discussion, but I’m just trying to get an idea, since even though I have been playing 5e for a while, this will be my first time playing 3e.

Thanks for advance, and sorry that this request may be poorly worded.

[Saintheart]

Formians. Make a deal with one of their Queens, make your fortress the entrance to their nest, hire Myrmarchs. Lawful Neutral, which means they can't be appealed to on a moral basis that your rule is either good or evil, and their lawful neutrality means they'll stay loyal. Outsiders, so no Hold Person or Dominate Person against them. They speak Common. They also have clairaudience so you don't have to be around to instruct them necessarily. Dictum, Order's Wrath, Greater Teleport, Detect Thoughts. Spell Resistance 25, Resistance to elements. As Outsiders, they're proficient with all armors and all martial weapons, so you don't have to stick with their stings or bites. Don't need to eat or sleep, so they can always be on watch.

[Techcaliber]

Alright then. I hadn't heard of Formians before, but after searching them up and reading stats, I definitely understand your point, and if possible, I'm going to look into "hiring" them.

Do you have any suggestions for the type of deal to make with the Queen?

Thanks for your help, it's really appreciated.

[Saintheart]

Alright then. I hadn't heard of Formians before, but after searching them up and reading stats, I definitely understand your point, and if possible, I'm going to look into "hiring" them.

Do you have any suggestions for the type of deal to make with the Queen?

Thanks for your help, it's really appreciated.

I have no idea how to make the deal, but Formians when you take a look at the Pathfinder Wiki and the Forgotten Realms wiki are basically concerned with expansion and concealing the entrances to their nests. The deal you might make with the Queen is that the Formians seriously augment your defences when you're attacked (and you assist them when they're threatened by some other force), and in return you keep the fact you're harbouring an entrance to one of their nests secret. Bonus points, you assist them by helping them transport eggs or colonist groups of Formians to other places when they ask you. This is a symbiotic relationship, which an insectoid creature like a Formian Queen ought to get intuitively and hopefully appreciate.

[Karl Aegis]

Get a few Human Dragonslayers from the Archfiends (March 2004) set. Their sword is bigger than they are.

[jintoya]

Honestly, I usually just use goblins, they are cunning enough to defend, train, scout, hunt, craft and are fun.
Don't get goblins that were formerly a warband it you will get backstabbed, making a deal is easy, just "defend my camp, belongings and loved ones, and I will claim you as my own should a pesky adventurer come to slay you, as I grow stronger, so do we both" other than that you might toss some coin at them occasionally for good work...a properly motivated goblin tribe can build just about anything.
you want a wall? Done.
You want a tunnel? Done.
Stone work? Easy.

Most DM don't do a goblin horde Justice, my players generally try bargaining with goblins before picking a fight with them.
So... Many ... Traps

If you play goblins right, everything is poisoned, everything is trapped, everything is hidden.

[Feantar]

Honestly, I usually just use goblins, they are cunning enough to defend, train, scout, hunt, craft and are fun.
Don't get goblins that were formerly a warband it you will get backstabbed, making a deal is easy, just "defend my camp, belongings and loved ones, and I will claim you as my own should a pesky adventurer come to slay you, as I grow stronger, so do we both" other than that you might toss some coin at them occasionally for good work...a properly motivated goblin tribe can build just about anything.
you want a wall? Done.
You want a tunnel? Done.
Stone work? Easy.

Most DM don't do a goblin horde Justice, my players generally try bargaining with goblins before picking a fight with them.
So... Many ... Traps

If you play goblins right, everything is poisoned, everything is trapped, everything is hidden.

Wouldn't Kobolds be much better at this than goblins? (especially of the Tucker variety)

[jintoya]

Wouldn't Kobolds be much better at this than goblins? (especially of the Tucker variety)

I suppose it depends on what they are to you within the setting, but in mine, most of them worship evil dragons, are vindictive, greedy and lack principals when it comes to loyalty (outside the queen)
The tunnel making ability does not make up for those shortcomings and having them be cold blooded limits base locations to warmer areas, or well insulated areas.
My players see them as an unrelenting swarm, the ability to lay eggs gives them a reproductive edge over goblins and allows for greater numbers, they rely on traps and poison less, more on ambushes from hidden tunnels.
They have the numbers to ambush you non-stop.

On the other hand goblins reproduce more slowly and while prone to revenge, they risk their own numbers FAR less and instead tame anything they can to increase their survivability.
Goblins prefer to make you work for every inch of progress and quickly advancing on them will see you at the bottom of a spike pit or worse as they lob poison down on you.

As for heirarchy, kobolds are more like insects than anything, having a queen who gets the final say, and first choice of best of the males.
She has secondary females who breed common kobolds and tend to eggs.

Goblins work as a standard tribe do, no need to explain that.

So in my campaigns, kobold function like a**hole pocket dragons, fighting them is like fighting cat sized ants, if you kill the queen and Royal consorts, you often send the kobolds into a power vacuum and they just kill each other

We've been over goblins, but fighting them is a war of attrition, and they will wittle you down or drop you into a cave fill of Balhanoth or worse... But I play monsters how I think they should be, it's more fun at the table.
(I think most DM play them like they are incompetent level fodder)

[Malphegor]

Undead are handy for this, except if you live in a world with a lot of clerics. Since you’re already a necromancer, have you considered persuading the Formians others have mentioned to let you reanimate their dead? I imagine an insectoid populace would be pleased with workers who never stop following instructions and need no resources to maintain. They might be mere skeletons but they can help the hive?

[Maat Mons]

I guess you can remake kobolds into whatever you want for your campaigns. But there exists lore in official D&D products. And in that lore, kobolds are the unrivaled masters of traps.

A lot of the other stuff you wrote about your kobolds drastically contradicts official lore too.

[jintoya]

I guess you can remake kobolds into whatever you want for your campaigns. But there exists lore in official D&D products. And in that lore, kobolds are the unrivaled masters of traps.

A lot of the other stuff you wrote about your kobolds drastically contradicts official lore too.

I had to remake them a bit, as they are written they were far too boring. (As it is vanilla, they are nothing special) for a campaign to be fun, it's components must be engaging and fun also.
As it stands in the books kobolds generally like dragons and behave a bit like them.
I don't know about you, but leaving a creature who worships creatures who love hoarding loot, guard my treasure.... Sounds like a bad move.

Also, the reptile reproductive cycle favors numbers, having them not be great in number would seem... Well, I hate to use the word "unrealistic" for a fantasy game,
So.... Un-immersive.

I like the things in my universes to make sense, unfortunately I know too many biologists to let the abominable "bugbear" remain a boring thing the DM grabs when he's tired of orcs... That isn't fun, and if I did that, I'd be accepting mediocre monsters... Sorry for the rant, I'm just kinda passionate about quality villains/monsters.