Help me build the ultimate defensive city please

[Zhepna]

Hi,

we play 3.5, all books and 3rd party books are allowed. We start lvl 16 with only 120k of equipment.

I want to build a character that will help the poor. I'll build a small city for them Lyre of Building and I'm looking for ways to defend it again anybody that would come to attack or steal from them. Metamagic will not be a problem for my character and I still hesitate between bard, wizard, artificier or cleric.

I'm inclined to build an artificer to build as much as magic items and building for making their life easier.

I'm not high enough to make a new plane but I'm not sure this is what I would like. I never made a new semi-plane or plane so probably I'll be bad at doing so. By leaving the town in the 'real world', it seems it leave it open to my dm to make interesting challenge to attack it and on my side, trying to be creative to defend them.

Thanks for the ideas and have a nice day.

[JNAProductions]

Are infinite wealth loops allowed? Are infinite loops of any kind allowed?

Basically, how much cheese is allowed?

[Zhepna]

A lot of cheese is allowed. By exemple, I can play the metaphysical spell shaper prestige class from book of erotic fantasy without a problem.

However, if we abuse wish and go for infinite, the dm put a stop to it.

Basically we can reach really high numbers but he doesn't want infinite stuff.

[Dominion]

What does "a lot of cheese is allowed" mean?

Can you go ham as Incantatrix?

[Zhepna]

yes, my last character was an incantatrix and it was perfectly fine.

[TalonOfAnathrax]

What do you know about the threats you're defending against? Is the area plagued by undead? Demons? Raiders? Humanoid crime syndicates?

If your overall goal is just to do the maximum amount of good, then I suggest putting some thought into improving food production (plant growth, etc), improving overall local wealth (I once had a diviner help find where to mine, and help predict the weather for farmers) and improving overall health (this could be magical healing, or it could be improved sewers and aqueducts which magically generate/purify water).

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

https://www.d20srd.org/srd/equipment/wealthAndMoney.htm#wealthOtherThanCoins

Buy a cow for 10 gp, the average cow weight across all breeds is 1,390 pounds. Cast Flesh to Salt from Sandstorm on it, turning it into an equal volume of salt. Salt weighs more than flesh, fat, blood, and bone, but we'll assume it turns into an approximately equal weight of salt, which sells for 5 gp per pound, so you make around 7,000 gp profit every time you cast Flesh to Salt on a cow. Be sure you're able to teleport so you can travel around and only do that once per city so you don't flood the local market and bring down the price of salt.

With effectively infinite money, take Craft Construct and start churning out golems.

[Grandmoose91]

Check the stronghold builders guide. Loads of fun defensive stuff in there.

[Maat Mons]

If you go Wizard / Incantatrix or Archivist / Sacred Exorcist, next level you'll be able to use Persistent Spell on Undermaster (SpC). This gives you at-will Wall of Stone, Move Earth, and Stone Shape, which trivializes construction of mundane defenses.

I'm not completely sure how Lyre of Building works. Do you still need the raw materials? Like you do with the prerequisite spell, Fabricate? Wall of Stone gets you all the stone you could ever need. Wall of Iron gets you all the metal you could ever need. If you're an Archivist, Deadfall gets you all the wood you could ever need.

Everfull Larders (SBG) can feed your whole population for free. … As long as everyone lives close-ish to one. Magically created food doesn't keep more than a day. Each Hand of the Oak Father (MIC) you craft lets you keep 600,000 acres of land continuously under the effects of Plant Growth, for +1/3 production. You might wonder what you'd be growing crops for if you're feeding your population via magic. The answer is that you sell the food to other nations, and use the money to increase the standard of living for your own people. … Also non-food crops. Like cotton, linen, and … tobacco, maybe?

A Platform of Healing (Draconomicon) can see to the vast majority of ailments your people could suffer from. Stronghold Builder's Guide also has Bed of Regeneration and Bed of Restoration (Remove Curse), which cover a lot of the others. I still haven't found items for Remove Paralysis or Break Enchantment though.

Make sure to blanket the entire realm in castings of Hallow. Just the basic version, none of the effects that need to be renewed each year. Except in really important places. The baseline version of hallow, which lasts forever without needing to be renewed, means no ongoing mental control (everyone gets Protection from Evil), and nothing rises as an undead. Any undead that come in from outside get a bunch of penalties.

Build a network of Teleportation Circles. If you can feasibly block non-sanctioned teleportation, that will improve security. Anti-scrying measures would be nice too. Put the kibosh on perverted old wizards peeking in on young maidens in the bath. We all know they're doing it.

[Calthropstu]

I'll tell you how I set up my cities in one of my campaigns.

First, make a barrier around the city that bars outsiders, undead and fae. A mythal shoild do the trick.

Next, build miltiple cities. Link them with teleportation circles. Each city can quickly and easily reinforce the other.

Next, employ numerous golems. Use illusions to disguise them as pillars on the outer walls.

Next, build defenses in a manner that funnels land vased enemies into kill zones. Make the kill zones able to be used only one way.

Add one way tunnels that allow for movement of troops behind enemy lines.

Add an illusionist to make walkways that don't actually exist.

Add prismatic walls to everything with permanancy.

[Zhepna]

Thanks a lot! It's exactly the kinds of answers I was looking for! This is awesome!

[ElderDarren]

The Practical Enchanter has Wards Major that are rather what you're looking for, as well as having a lot of fun toys for any 3.5 game. It lets cities grant up to 4 levels of sorcerer or wizard spellcasting. Imagine a populace of Wizard 4's!

[Feldar]

I suggest consulting http://lost.spelljammer.org/bwafer/ironenchant.html for some cool ideas. In my last home game (not the current one) I made finding a copy of this part of the adventure timeline.

This thread on EnWorld http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?466567-Magical-wards-of-a-castle#ixzz45Ah2Aca9should be on point.