In a game i played in years ago, we had to get into a castle to retrieve an item, and our druid shapechanged into a bird, then we cast invisability on her and flew over so we could get an idea what we had to face, but when she flew over the wall she was hit with magic missles from the towers. We ended up finding out that he had set the towers up with automatic magic missle launchers that targeted any living thing that crossed the walls, and all 4 towers had overlapping fields of fire, so it works for anti flyer defenses.
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Castle Defenses
- Thread starter Loincloth of Armour
- Start date
Loincloth of Armour
First Post
evilbob said:
If I can think of it, (or has been used in a previous game) the castle defenders should have thought of it, or read about it in the histories of their world's military warfare.
It may be a REALLY GOOD PLAN, but in my worlds' its also, A PLAN THAT'S BEEN DONE BY THE PLAYERS (playing different characters) BEFORE. Familiar tactics (like the shrunken boulder) should be foreseen, and warded against.
pyrex said:
Actually, its not a problem. NPCs in my games have whatever gold and resources they need for making it a good game/story. Price lists and costs are for PCs.
Now having said that, I try not abuse it. Nothing is so completely warded that it is effectively impregnable. Lower level spells are used in preference over higher level spells. There comes a point in all my defence building that I simply say, "That's reasonable, and somwhat believable. Any more and its getting silly."
DnD is a story and a game, and I'm willing to bend game mechanics in order to give the players a more enjoyable (read: make them and me think) story/game.
Jack Simth
First Post
"As long as the wall holds" is the flavor you're after?
Well, for scrying, you can just lead everything. A thin sheet of lead stops most divination effects. But False Vision (Sor/Wis 5) is more fun. Especially when combined with Mirage Arcana (also Sor/Wiz 5) somewhere else to attract the Scry/Buff/Teleport crowd. Surely there's a nearby volcano that can be illusoned up to look just like the fake vision that's plastered of the inside of the castle to anyone who checks....
For Teleporation, the lowest Core counter is Forbiddance - which is somewhat pricy. Keeps out Teleporters, though.
If you lead the walls, most Scrying spells fail.
Houseruled material: Perhaps there's a particular stone with some antimagic properties; it's expensive, and so is only really tiled an inch thick on the inside of the building where it's safe from direct assault. The way it works, the stone itself is imbued with an antimagic field (that only applies inside the stone - a Wizard could pick it up and cast a fireball, no problem, but the fireball wouldn't burn the stone). An incorporeal undead, or someone using a spell, spell-like, or Supernatural ability to become something that can go through stone will have severe issues (hand/foot/head turns back to normal inside solid rock) and a single disintigrate won't breach the wall (although it will expose the antimagic tile layer to more mundane attacks, which can breach the antimagic tile).
Remember the Line of Effect rules - unless there's a full square foot of breach in a given 5x5 square, you don't get line of effect. An arrow slit two inches wide and five feet tall is only a 120 square inch breach - and it takes 144 to pass that Charm Person or Lightning Bolt. You can shoot an arrow out through it no problem, though. If it's no more than 2 inches wide, it can be of any height (as there won't be more than 120 square inches open in any given five-foot segment). Fireball and it's inheritors get a partial workaround (it's got a small hole clause), as do certain effects (Demand - which requires a piece of the subject), but almost nothing else does.
You'll also need a cieling (you don't want people flying in) or some way to fake it (towers with See Invisibility and Glitterdust).
Add a little something for the Reduce Item boulder trick, and you're fairly good to go; in order to get through, they have to get through the wall (which can be physically destroyed - either by direct damage such as from seige engines, or by a Disintigrate followed by much less direct damage, or by undermining the walls - you've got defenders actively trying to stop you in the meanwhile, though; a classic siege situation).
Well, for scrying, you can just lead everything. A thin sheet of lead stops most divination effects. But False Vision (Sor/Wis 5) is more fun. Especially when combined with Mirage Arcana (also Sor/Wiz 5) somewhere else to attract the Scry/Buff/Teleport crowd. Surely there's a nearby volcano that can be illusoned up to look just like the fake vision that's plastered of the inside of the castle to anyone who checks....
For Teleporation, the lowest Core counter is Forbiddance - which is somewhat pricy. Keeps out Teleporters, though.
If you lead the walls, most Scrying spells fail.
Houseruled material: Perhaps there's a particular stone with some antimagic properties; it's expensive, and so is only really tiled an inch thick on the inside of the building where it's safe from direct assault. The way it works, the stone itself is imbued with an antimagic field (that only applies inside the stone - a Wizard could pick it up and cast a fireball, no problem, but the fireball wouldn't burn the stone). An incorporeal undead, or someone using a spell, spell-like, or Supernatural ability to become something that can go through stone will have severe issues (hand/foot/head turns back to normal inside solid rock) and a single disintigrate won't breach the wall (although it will expose the antimagic tile layer to more mundane attacks, which can breach the antimagic tile).
Remember the Line of Effect rules - unless there's a full square foot of breach in a given 5x5 square, you don't get line of effect. An arrow slit two inches wide and five feet tall is only a 120 square inch breach - and it takes 144 to pass that Charm Person or Lightning Bolt. You can shoot an arrow out through it no problem, though. If it's no more than 2 inches wide, it can be of any height (as there won't be more than 120 square inches open in any given five-foot segment). Fireball and it's inheritors get a partial workaround (it's got a small hole clause), as do certain effects (Demand - which requires a piece of the subject), but almost nothing else does.
You'll also need a cieling (you don't want people flying in) or some way to fake it (towers with See Invisibility and Glitterdust).
Add a little something for the Reduce Item boulder trick, and you're fairly good to go; in order to get through, they have to get through the wall (which can be physically destroyed - either by direct damage such as from seige engines, or by a Disintigrate followed by much less direct damage, or by undermining the walls - you've got defenders actively trying to stop you in the meanwhile, though; a classic siege situation).
