Has anyone created a D&D dungeon based off hogwarts?

[Traab]

Bear with me on this, I was reading some fanfiction, and it had a super evil dumbledoore who had total control over the school and all its devices. Imagine fighting your way through this.

Every portrait, elf, and ghost in the building instantly passes on what it sees to him, he has gone through rituals that allow him to process this huge flow of information. This allows him to organize his attacks and there is NO hope for sneaking up on him. There is no magical travel inside the wards. Once you are inside, you can only leave by physical efforts, no portals or teleportation, even short range stuff is blocked. The castle is surrounded by a forest full of all sorts of powerful creatures. Giant spiders, werewolves, centaurs, unicorns, various fairy creatures that are VERY fond of mischief, toss in various other D&D related monsters as well.

Once you get inside, we can ignore that it was meant to be a school, and go with each of the teachers are officers that work for dumbledoore. Each has their own area of expertise as you fight your way through floor after floor. You have one teacher that specializes in plant life, with intelligent and vicious flora all over the place, (there HAS to be some of these in D&D right?) Another that can create golems of all shapes and sizes, transforming random garbage into new monsters. Make the ancient runes teachers floor full of traps and riddles that have to be solved in order to progress. The Hagrid analog would be surrounded by nasty animals from weaker ones all the way up to young dragons and similar levels of painful encounters. Im sure you could create a D&D style analog for each of the canon teachers skills.

And no, you wouldnt have to actually name them all after their canon equivalent, I just thought that could actually make for one hell of an interesting dungeon. :p Feel free to flame the hell out of me for mentioning harry potter if you like.

[SamsDisciple]

No flame from me about Harry Potter but I do have to say that it sounds like a good plan for a one time run... not a full campaign. In my experience most games based off a movie or such tend to get pretty lame after the first session. If seems like you have a completely different set up than the books though so just don't mention Harry Potter to your players and the plan would work great.

[RaggedAngel]

Hm. As a fan, I approve. However, Hagrid would be on the grounds, not inside. Here are my questions/ideas:

1. Would there be any students inside? Either held captive, or to fight against the party?

2. Would Madam Pomfrey, the nurse/healer, be an antagonist or a way to get healing? Would she simply heal any 'teachers' that are able to escape the party?

3. Would you have all of the teachers be wizards, or would some of them be sorcerers, clerics, or druids, depending on thier specialty?

4. What level of encounter would this place be? Would you want to start with lower CR's and have the party level up throughout the castle?

5. Finally, would you include the various items from the series, such as Gryffindor's sword (which has to be at least +3), the Invisibility Cloak, and lots of wands?

[Lord.Sorasen]

Something I think would be really cool would be those staircases.

I will flat out say that I loved all those books. So kill me. Whatever. One thing that bothered me about them though are those staircases. They move on their own, with no real discernible pattern. There's no way around it: In a school, a pathway you can't rely on is dumb.

However, in a dungeon, these stairs make total sense. A dungeon that moves around on its own, perhaps via the roll of a dice. The party could never quite rely on the stairs to actually be there. A worse party will bumble around until they find one that works. A better party will find new ways to get around. The best parties will find ways to work such things to their advantage.

Another thing is that Hogwarts is absolutely filled with paintings and ghosts: Not being seen would be nearly impossible through mundane means. However, 2 things might make this change: For one, in the book, none of the portraits had senses beyond those of ordinary people. Which means eliminating light would essentially blind them, and magical concealment would be guaranteed to work. What's more is that not all the portraits are on the same side. While some work work for evil dumbledore, a great many might actually assist the party, should they be willing to take such a risk.

Of course, that map.. I can't remember its name, but that map would reveal everybody's location within the dungeon. Such a tracking device would more than even out the odds, if one was willing to search for it.

Remember that teleporting cannot be done within the castle, and certainly could not be done to get in or out.

A last note... In the books, the train is a primary way of getting into the castle.. But not the only way. If trying to make things more sinister in nature, however, forcing a single passageway into the dungeon could be interesting. This could explain why enemies of the wizard would be within the grounds: they would be unable to leave. Centaurs, arachnoids, giants... Whatever lives in the forest could be trapped resistance, laying inactive due to fear.

Maybe..

[Tvtyrant]

Hmmm, the idea of having a massive school based dungeon intrigues me. The real question here is what are your immediate and long term goals? Are you trying to escape, or get a magic weapon, or free the other students, or take over the school?

You might even do all of the above; your initially trying to escape, but once you get outside and close to the exit a bunch of people get captured and you have to rescue them. When you kill the teacher that captured them and free them the Headmaster kills some of them (insert love interest here) and you go looking for a way to destroy him. The librarian battles you over a magical book that will let you cast a Life Drain spell (Like energy drain but it converts the levels to you) and after destroying him/her the library is on fire and you have the book. You go after the Master, and fight him in his den. After defeating him you discover that the school is cursed, and that the one who killed the last Headmaster is bound to the school for eternity unless they can capture a large number of young people and drain their souls. Hence why the last Headmaster made it a school to begin with.

[Traab]

The basic storyline I was thinking of is this. The Dumbledoore of the school is the big bad. Your party has to travel through the forbidden forest, across the grounds of hogwarts, (which is where you run into Hagrids menagrie of creatures of all types.) Then into the "school" proper, which basically has a floor each dedicated to 1 teacher. So say the first floor is full of evil plant creatures, the second floor is full of traps and riddles, third floor is full of whatever the closest equivalent to a transfiguration mistress would be using, etc etc.

Final battle involves breaking through the headmasters gargoyle defended stairs and fighting him in his magically expanded office. (He has had time to prepare, being able to follow your movements through the paintings and such) I love the idea of moving staircases. I wasnt intending it to be harry potter versus evil dumbledoore, just a dungeon map based off the characters and skills of hogwarts set in a D&D world.

[Hanuman]

Wizarding is easy! Watch! *Latin* Hahahaha!

[hamishspence]

You have one teacher that specializes in plant life, with intelligent and vicious flora all over the place, (there HAS to be some of these in D&D right?)

There's lots of vicious flora- but intelligent flora tend to be templates or humanoid- though there are exceptions
The Greenvise in MM2 is Int 3, one of the brighter non-template ones- and looks like The Plant from Little Shop of Horrors.

[Coidzor]

Or, heck, a druid. Can turn into plant.

But, yes, nothing new under the sun and all that jazz, so someone has to have done so.

[Totally Guy]

I ran a Dungeon crawl for a well known Blogger called Chatty DM. The situation was basically this: the bullies and their head of house has captured your head of house. Get him back before the tomorrow's grand ball!

I didn't realise it was Chatty until after he had updated his blog. Imagine my surprise.



Basically the obstacles set you on a different path when you fail them. You end up seeing the same rooms from a different perspective.

[Kesnit]

Don't forget Potions. Perhaps poison traps with the Potions Master as an Assassin (or the like).

[ArcanistSupreme]

Something I think would be really cool would be those staircases.

...They move on their own, with no real discernible pattern. There's no way around it: In a school, a pathway you can't rely on is dumb.

Actually, the stairs moved in a pattern. It was never explicitly defined, so some could move every hour, every third day, or whatever floats your boat.

Of course, that map.. I can't remember its name, but that map would reveal everybody's location within the dungeon. Such a tracking device would more than even out the odds, if one was willing to search for it.

The Marauders' Map. Such a tool would be even better for the players to get their hands on, and it could show them some of the many secret passages, which would allow for a little stealth. To make it more interesting, maybe ghosts and golems don't show up on the map (even if ghosts did show up in the books; I don't remember if it was ever brought up), so the PCs can't just evade everyone with complete ease.

Don't forget that many of the doors have passwords, and capturing enemies/eavesdropping/solving riddles to figure out what they are could be fun. If you don't give the PCs the map, then secret passages could be used in the same way; the PCs need to be clever to figure out how the enemy is moving around so easily.

This could easily be an entire mini-campaign. From start to finish, you could have dozens of encounters, and Hogwarts provides pretty much everything a party needs to survive for months (maybe they have to raid the kitchens).

[Kesnit]

(maybe they have to raid the kitchens).

Would they have to fight the house elves?

Edit: Actually, that could be the plot hook. The house elves really are slaves (like Hermione thought they were) and somehow contacted the party to defeat the BBEG and free them.

[ArcanistSupreme]

Would they have to fight the house elves?

Heck yes. And that could be hilarious; just make goblin swordsages using shadow jaunt and you have house elves.

EDIT: And freeing them could be a great side quest. Raid on the laundry room (which is conveniently located on the opposite side of the castle) anyone?

[Holocron Coder]

Could even have the house elves be a "neutral" party that can be recruited to your side (via freeing them, or similar) or turned against you (by attacking them). If they're turned against, that provides opportunities for teleport-ambushes that the PCs wouldn't expect

[mangosta71]

Actually, the stairs moved in a pattern. It was never explicitly defined, so some could move every hour, every third day, or whatever floats your boat.

Deciphering the pattern would require extended observation, and until you figure it out navigating the place would be a nightmare. Besides, weren't there several occasions in which students were late to classes because of the moving stairs? That suggests to me that they're unpredictable.

Also, the pattern could be that each set of stairs moves in a particular circuit. It's not necessarily a timing pattern.

[ArcanistSupreme]

Could even have the house elves be a "neutral" party that can be recruited to your side (via freeing them, or similar) or turned against you (by attacking them). If they're turned against, that provides opportunities for teleport-ambushes that the PCs wouldn't expect

This would be fun, but I would think that they would start out on the side of the owners of the castles. They're supposed to be servants after all, and what's a house elf without someone to serve?

Deciphering the pattern would require extended observation, and until you figure it out navigating the place would be a nightmare. Besides, weren't there several occasions in which students were late to classes because of the moving stairs? That suggests to me that they're unpredictable.

Also, the pattern could be that each set of stairs moves in a particular circuit. It's not necessarily a timing pattern.

The only times they ever got lost on the way to class was in the first book (trust me, I'm a huge HP nerd), suggesting that they figured out the pattern after that. And isn't it being a nightmare the idea?

The circuit idea is also fine. I just think it's important that they don't all have the same pattern. There don't have to be dozens of these staircases, but four or five with their own quirks (trick step, Ref save or get stuck?) and systems would be interesting and fun.

[Keinnicht]

5. Finally, would you include the various items from the series, such as Gryffindor's sword (which has to be at least +3), the Invisibility Cloak, and lots of wands?

If you could find a way to make mechanics for the Sword of Gryffindor's little "take in only what makes it stronger" thing, it would be the most awesome weapon ever.

"Yeah, this was pretty cool when I found it. Now it's a +14 Outsider Bane Giant Bane Goblinoid Bane Orc Bane Flaming Shocking Burst Frost Holy Brilliant Energy Longsword of Speed that delivers Black Lotus Extract on every hit."

[mangosta71]

And isn't it being a nightmare the idea?

That depends on the kind of game.

[Dr.Epic]

Why not? Hogwarts is a place filled with large vicious monster, evil scheming wizards posing as teachers, and borders an evil forest with terrors unkown. It's more a dungeon crawl than an actual school of any kind.

[Hanuman]

When it comes down to it, those are not wizards. They are sorcerers with wizard flavor.

[Dusk Eclipse]

If this dungeon ever comes to being designed I demand* this to be run as pbp!!



*Which by "demand" I mean politely request

[ArcanistSupreme]

When it comes down to it, those are not wizards. They are sorcerers with wizard flavor.

I'd say more like the NPC version of Warlocks. They can spam the same thing over and over again all day long, but most of the effects are pretty similar (single target bullrush and/or disarm effect, usually with stun). They kinda suck against anything with a decent Reflex save or with a shield spell.

EDIT: At the above, we could create a new thread in the Homebrew forum and build it as a collaborative effort.

[Dusk Eclipse]

Would try to collaborate in that case

[Traab]

You know, it wouldnt surprise me in the slightest if there were players who actually do this stuff. They take scenarios from popular book, movie or tv themes, and translate them into D&D dungeon maps, or even campaigns. Resident evil 1 and 2 would make for a pretty kickass set of dungeon maps. Already has puzzles, ambushes, and creatures of all types roaming around.

Even things like Konoha from the Naruto anime could make for an interesting map. Bust in, fight your way through the village, including things like the torture and interrogation chambers, ANBU headquarters, and eventually make your way to the hokage tower. Technically it would be a bit boring, enemy selection wise, but that could easily be altered by fudging facts. The ninja in that series do various things that would make them act like, in D&D terms, rogues, warriors, spellcasters, healers, uh, whatever class that can summon monsters of all shapes and sizes to fight with them, monks, and probably a few other class types as well.

[DragonOfUndeath]

interested in the pbp and Homebrew stuff.
The stairs are definitely in a pattern. The only people who get lost are Neville and first-graders.
In the 4th book (I think) Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville all walk along a stairway chatting and casually step over a missing step (except Neville cause he failed his Knowledge(Hogwarts) check).

[Myth]

I'd obtain an adamantite weapon and just hack trough the walls until I get to where I'm going. Perhaps under a Silence spell. Bye bye floating stairs.

[ArcanistSupreme]

I'd obtain an adamantite weapon and just hack trough the walls until I get to where I'm going. Perhaps under a Silence spell. Bye bye floating stairs.

Well, good luck doing it before you're spotted by a portrait or ghost, or covering it up afterwards if you're trying to be sneaky.

Anywho, I made this thread for those interested in helping to homebrew up Hogwarts.