Building a wizard's tower on the cheap

[Jeph]

So, I'm currently playing a 9th level wizard (specializes in divination, summoning, and blasting magic, barred school of Necromancy) who's fixin' to get a Wizard's Tower, hopefully somewhere in a place where a river flows out of a rocky mountain. I'd like it to be at least a dozen stories, rooms 15 to 20 feet across, with a nice curtain wall if possible.

But I don't want to shill out more than 10-20 thousand gold for it. I can learn all of the basic 5th level Conjurations and Transmutations for construction for a few thousand, but even with Transmute Rock to Mud, Wall of Stone, and Stone Shape, the project would take a frighteningly long time to complete. Months and months. And there are 6 months' worth of magic items that I'm looking to forge.

So, any suggestions on building a tower into the side of a stone mountain on the cheap?

Thanks,
--Jeff

 

[Len]

Convince your DM to run this adventure:
[sblock]http://wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/oa/20011005a and let you live in the lighthouse after you save the village.[/sblock]
That's how our wizard got his tower.

 

[domino]

Tell your DM you're planning on trying to get one. He might drop one down the way that an old magic user used, but died/got killed/whatever, and left abandoned.

I'd also like to point out that from everything I've seen in DnD, a 12 story tower is HUGE with a capital BIG.

 

[Victim]

Just start small and expand gradually. Make a 2 story using Wall of Stone, then furnish it. Work out a deal with an Earth Elemental or some other outside that you bind - it'll cost you though. Then live in your fnished area and make magic items while the elemental does the hard work over a period of time.

Also consider a Lyre of Building.

 

[Aust Diamondew]

Just take about a year of down time. The world (or even a small area) doesn't constantly need saving.

 

[Psychic Warrior]

Just start small and expand gradually. Make a 2 story using Wall of Stone, then furnish it. Work out a deal with an Earth Elemental or some other outside that you bind - it'll cost you though. Then live in your fnished area and make magic items while the elemental does the hard work over a period of time.

Also consider a Lyre of Building.

Excellent advice! I don't know about the Lyre of Building though - you need a good perform and if you have to hire a Bard to do it then there is more gold spent (in addition to the Lyre) that could be used getting peasents to work for you.

Too bad you are barred from Necromancy. Undead would be good workhorse/packmule type workers.

12 stories is very big by medieval standards. But hey this is D&D if you can get eh $$$ I say go for it!

 

[Jeph]

Thanks for the advice, all. A few things:

• My GM knows of my intention, and is working with me.
• We don't use adventure modules.
• Some other dead dude's tower won't cut it. It must be MINE! MWAHAHAHAHA!

The suggestion of binding an outsider is an obvious choice that I had not considered. Any suggestions on outsiders able to mold the earth who might reasonably be contained by a summoning spell and won't demand too high a price? Elementals may seem like the obvious choice, but they don't look like they can do anything to stone except for move through it...

--Jeff

 

[Slife]

I suppose making some of the tower underground is out of the question.

Shame you can't use move earth yourself.


Hire someone to use it to make a really big hill. Since the spell can't do anything to stone, maybe you could make some guiding walls of stone to try to cut the cost (it's worth a try). Wet them down somehow (water elementals?). Transmute mud to rock, but say you are only transmuting a circle 120 feet deep. There you go, a tower. Windowless, and filled with mud, yes, but now you can put a hole in the bottom, let the mud pour out, and stone-shape in floors, roofs, windows, etc. It's probably faster, but I'm still using 2e, so I'm not sure.

 

[Hurtfultater]

What you need is the eternal gratitude of a clan full of dwarves. This is a single, reasonable, large thing that you want and presumably will benefit the rest of your party. It begs for an adventure or two to aquire it, and the first will likely be the aquisition of labor via doing a huge favor for someone. Seriously, good old fashioned cheap-ass miners and stonemasons are likely your best chance. Manual labor costs, but adventurers cause hyperinflation for a reason.

If you're lucky, you then get the fun of dealing with construction, making floor plans, and generally having a bit of an arc in which you're proactive and the GM throws things at you for you and the other players to figure out. Lucky you, those tend to be good games.

EDIT: If you can get away with it, golems and the undead are great for excavation work. A few months sussing out the local bandits and monsters while making local friends provide adventuring fodder while mindless minions do the shovel work.

 

[azmodean]

Hate to be a stick in the mud, but if your character is doing the designing, how many ranks in knowledge: Archatecture and Engineering does he have?

Call me mean if you will, but if one of my players tried to throw together a tower using spells without having any applicable skills, they'd get about half way through it before the thing fell apart under its own weight.

Use your magic to acquire the raw materials if you must, but leave the construction to some professionals (like Hurtfultater suggested). It's going to cost a mint, especially for a tower that big, but there's really no way around it.

(also, are you planning on leaving anything valuable there? My party is currently trying to outfit their place to defend itself against minor attacks while they are gone, and notify them if intruders get past a certain area.)

Oh, and check out your neighbors too, my partys dungeon is currently occupied by some local giants that decided to move in while the party was off on a diplomatic mission.