Stronghold Builder's Guidebook

Kirowan · Jan 16, 2004

I'm interested in this book just to give my PCs something to do with their money. I've read the review here and it sounds good, I was just hoping to get some other opinions. Is it worth owning? Do you think I would have to do a lot of updating to work with 3.5?

Thanks,

Nick

Olive · Jan 16, 2004

Despite popular opinion here on ENWorld, I think it's an ok book. It's got some cool magic item/wonderous architechure ideas, but the prices are expensive.

Just keep in mind that that's how much it would cost if you were paying for everything straight up, and that no one would have done that as they would have used their standing in the community, etc. An adventurer plonking down some cash to buy a castle isn't mobilising the community in the same way a church or the king would...

edit: oh yeah, i suspect it would require little to none in the way of 3.5 updates. there's nothing in the way of feats (except one), classes, spells and the like. it's mostly some maic items and a building sytem. Isn't funny how people complain when every book has feats, PrCs etc and then everyone hates the book that doesn't have those...

Al'Kelhar · Jan 16, 2004

Kirowan said:
I'm interested in this book just to give my PCs something to do with their money. I've read the review here and it sounds good, I was just hoping to get some other opinions. Is it worth owning? Do you think I would have to do a lot of updating to work with 3.5?

Thanks,

Nick

Bought it as soon as it came out ("cool" factor), read it, now sitting at the bottom of the moderately large pile of all my D&D books hopefully being eaten by weevils. Editorial quality so appalling I didn't get past it to properly digest or tinker with the rules. Unless there's been a re-print which fixes all the quality problems, I'd have a hard time recommending this book to anyone. The book introduces some "interesting" substances to make castles out of, including ones stronger than adamantite, which I have not seen reproduced in any other D&D product since. The high-magic, no historical accuracy, premise of the book also threw me - no building Krak des Chevalier with this baby. Personally, I think the 2E Castle Guide (which I also have) is a better book, if considerably less "rules heavy" (i.e. a lot more is left to the DM to adjudicate what's possible, what characteristics any feature has, what it costs, and how long it takes to build).

Cheers, Al'Kelhar

johnsemlak · Jan 16, 2004

Ugh, posted in wrong thread! Sorry

Derulbaskul · Jan 16, 2004

My players really like it and have enjoyed designing and pricing their stronghold. Personally, I haven't paid much attention to it.

Emiricol · Jan 16, 2004

A few minor glitches, but generally fun way to tincker with a castle.

Li Shenron · Jan 16, 2004

I have read it long ago, at that time my impression was that the book was well done and had very interesting idea, but the prices were so high that it seemed prohibitive to have castles at all in the world. It also could have had smaller examples and instead expand castles to fortified citadels.

Alzrius · Jan 16, 2004

Usually, I'm all for rules governing situations, but a guide to exactly how much it costs to build a castle, done to every detail, seemed like a bit much to me.

On the other hand, since you have PCs who want to spend money, it sounds like it may be exactly what you need.

Overall, I thought the book was good, if somewhat dry, due to the long lists of materials, prices, etc. If your PCs have a lot of money, to the point where they're thinking about building castles, I would recommend this book. As a DM, I know how tempting it can be to just say that PCs can find whatever resources they need (sometimes instantly) for an arbitrary cost, and that that can come back to seriously cause you some problems. This book fixes that.

In regards to translating the book from 3E to 3.5E...it shouldn't be much work at all, really. The pricing system for things is mostly done unto itself (that is, you don't see it in any other D&D products) so it wasn't affected much by the revision. The one thing to watch out for is magic items. I can't quite recall how much magic item formulas got revamped in the revision, but this book has a lot of them. That's the only thing you'd have to watch out for.

Dogbrain · Jan 16, 2004

Li Shenron said:
I have read it long ago, at that time my impression was that the book was well done and had very interesting idea, but the prices were so high that it seemed prohibitive to have castles at all in the world. It also could have had smaller examples and instead expand castles to fortified citadels.

Actually, the daffy-high prices were very close to our own world's history. Fortifications were monumentally expensive. However, this was a period in our own world where the incomes of the ruling class were identical to the income of a government--the ruling class wasn't "in" the government, the government was their private property--even in countries we are indoctrinated to see as "good".

Psion · Jan 16, 2004

It's essentially a big shopping list. I was underwhelmed. After I bought it, I was put off of WotC products for a while (which was a mistake, because the excellent Book of Challenges was next, but I didn't realize I had passed up a great book until later.)