Dungeon City

[Ryacko]

How would I go about making a self-sufficient underground city?

[goat]

Well, water is fairly easy, so the main problem is probably food. I suppose you'd either live off a supply of fungi and animals fed on them, or you'd establish some sort of artificial lighting. A few items of permanent daylight spending 12 hours out of each 24 in two different chambers should grow a crop.

[crimson77]

It depends....

It depends on the races that live there. If it is a primarily human settlement, then there better be light sources. If it is a drow settlement then they will use Darkvision.

Is this city on a underground trade route? What natural resources do they have that can be traded. The town could be build on top of a silver vein, where silver is mined and traded for food, goods, and other supplies.

If there is not a trade route, then the city has to have some food to support itself. It might have animals and fungi farms.

What is the layout going to be. Will it be in an open cavern and be like a normal city but underground, or will the whole thing but a series of interlocking rooms and hallways much like a traditional dungeon?

It seems like you have lots of questions to think about.

[brian c]

Are there high level clerics involved? Create Food, coming right up!

[Skyserpent]

Don't Dwarves usually do this?

[goat]

Actually, that's a good point. A high level cleric caster wanting to help establish a new community, a few high level (high price) items of food creation and some communal eating facilities and it could work quite well.

[Jack_Simth]

Lots of ways.

Most of them involving Magic.

Sustaining Spoons + Decanturs of Endless Water will do most of it.

If every 15th person is a 5th level or higher Cleric with a Wisdom of at least 13, Create Food and Water will do it directly. Every 34th, if they have the Creation domain. Every 30th if they have Wisdom scores of 16 or better, every 51st if they have both. Adding the Artifice domain as well boosts that to 1 in 54.

Getting a little creative, you can append such things as Daylight to a Hallow/Unhallow effect, and grow stuff in it. Good for a year. Takes a pretty penny, though. Fortunately, Herbs, Oils, and Incense are all stuff you can make from plants. Requires a cleric or Druid of at least 9th level - but only requires one.

If you want to get a bit more creative, plant fruit-bearing trees in Rings of Sustenence (Rings sustain trees, trees sustain people).

Stone to Flesh (Sor/Wiz 6) makes about 70 cubic feet of stone into flesh, which is potentially edible. Requires an 11th level Wizard, or a 12th level Sorcerer (11th level Sorcerer if he's a kobold with the Greater Draconic Rite of Passage).

If you want to house-rule stuff, simply make some edible fungus that grows on a particular mixture of mineable rocks. Doesn't need to be directly edible - if something edible can eat it (or something can eat it that can be eaten by something that is edible, et cetera), it still works (this is the nonmagical method).

If you want to get really interesting, a Permanencied Wall of Fire (requires Sor/Wiz 12+), Prismatic Wall (requires Sor/Wiz 16+) or Prismatic Sphere (requires Sor/Wiz 17+) throws off light, which could potentially be used to grow crops.

Lesser Planar Binding (5th level spell, requires a single Wiz-9) or Lesser Planar Ally (5th level spell, requires a cleric-9) can Call up a Lantern Archon - which has Continual Flame as a spell-like ability, useable at will. Have one spend a day tapping everything in sight, and you've got a lot of light sources. Find edible plants that can grow on tourchlight, and you're golden.

[jjpickar]

Well, using natural (or magical resources other posters suggested) solves the problem for food and water can be supplied by an underground river or perhaps some reservoir from above.

For buildings and dwelling places you have several options, one is for the city to be in the center of a vast cavern with traditional buildings much like on the surface. Alternatively, it could be built on the ceiling from hollowed out giant pointy things (I can't think of the real name, sorry ). Those two are good for Drow cities because most will seem similar to what is described in R.A. Salvatore's and other fine authors' forgotten realms books. Another idea is for the city to be a series of interconnected tunnels which serve as streets and chambers carved to be like buildings. This is especially good for Dwarven cities as they are the best known for making such elaborate tunnel complexes.

Transportation should be different as teleportation is dangerous underground and horses don't like living in dungeons. For caverns, giant bats and lizards with sticky feet seem practical for the ceiling dwellers. Gnomes and Dwarves probably have some steam or magically powered burrowing vehicles that make tunnels faster than a hundred Thri-Keen armed with 4 pickaxes each ever could. Undead creatures like skeleton horses and Zombie ponies should be more common since it is difficult to feed living creatures underground.

[goat]

Constructs and animated objects would probably be more common as pack animals and the like. No need for food and water, and unconcerned with the confined spaces.

[Ryacko]

I meant a fairly normal standard D&D city except it is underground. Let's assume it is completely isolated and human.

Continual flame would would provide light...

[crimson77]

I meant a fairly normal standard D&D city except it is underground. Let's assume it is completely isolated and human.

One of the problem with having an isolated underground settlement is why are these humans here? I know of very few people that would like to live in an isolated underground human settlement.

[de-trick]

if you read races of stone it tells you about underground citys

[Flawless]

I know of very few people that would like to live in an isolated underground human settlement.

Hmmm, Deep Imaskari? They did for a rather long time.

[Falrin]

Big Lake: Water & Fish (Creepy fish, but fish).

Quest: Big monster attacking fishers, fish disappears, ...

Hunters decending into the underdark.

Quest: Party lost, Thoug monsters around, ....