D&D (2024) Dungeon Master's Guide Bastion System Lets You Build A Stronghold

The Dungeon Master's Guide's brand new Bastion System has been previewed in a new video from Wizards of the Coast.

Characters can acquire a bastion at 5th-level. Each week, the bastion takes a turn, with actions including crafting, recruiting, research, trade, and more.

A bastion also contains a number of special facilties, starting with two at 5th-level up to 6 at 17th-level. These facilities include things like armories, workshops, laboratories, stables, menageries, and more. In total there are nearly thirty such facilities to choose from.

 

[Micah Sweet]

That's why the have started to capitalize game terms now. A Pub-with-a-capital-P is a particular game version. A pub-without-a-captal-p is a normal, everyday pub with no specific game definition. Same with any other term that gets a specific, capitalized definition.

Seems awkward and more gamey than I'd prefer, but a natural result of the games' development avenue.

 

[Yaarel]

Leaving it out of the PHB is the right move, IMO, because most groups won't use it. Players often assume that everything in the PHB is fair game, and there really wasn't any room to add a whole bastion chapter anyway. Keeping in the DMG clearly telegraphs to new players that it's an optional thing.

Besides, magic items are mostly player-facing options in practice, and they've been in the DMG for awhile.

A bastion is a kind of magic item, especially in the sense that it has options to create magic items.

 

[Micah Sweet]

A bastion is a kind of magic item, especially in the sense that it has options to create magic items.

Which is odd to me, in that the rules seem sharply delineated between what it is the setting and what it is in the rulebook.

 

[Yaarel]

Which is odd to me, in that the rules seem sharply delineated between what it is the setting and what it is in the rulebook.

I need to see exactly what the 2024 DMs Guide says about the bastion system. One of the main criticisms of the playtest bastion was its divorce from the normal economy that the Players Handbook describes. As far as I can tell, the official bastion will be moreso part of the normal economy − acquiring or building real estate, including an unlimited number of walls, kitchens, bedrooms, storage rooms. This normal stuff can be done at any level. Then the "special facilities" are the stuff that comes from leveling, not from economy. The special facilities are the part that can generate magic items and so on. So it would be possible for a character to have some kind of homebase even without special rules in the DMs Guide. Figure out the cost of constructing a wall, or buying a home or business.

Generally, the DM plays the setting, while the players play the heroes in the setting. The players decide how to build their characters, and these characters are "off limits to the DM". However, there are places where the authority overlaps, when something about the character has wider setting implications. For example, a background implies somewhere in the setting there exists a circumstance that makes it possible for the background to happen. In this context, both the player (for the character concept) and the DM (for the setting concept) need to agree.

The rules for the bastion seem to expand the definition of a "character" to include the home and business venture of the character. In the same way a player decides what kind of player character to create, the player also decides what kind of nonplayer characters populate the bastion. They might be family relatives, or hirelings, apparently even "recruited" monsters are possible. The player decides how to build and populate the bastion as part of the character concept.

When a player creates a character, the player often chooses aspects of the build that interest the player. So it is a good idea for the DM to riff of the character details for adventure hooks and resonant encounters that will be fun for the player. Likewise, when the players create bastions, the DM can see the kinds of things that the players find interesting, and to "bake" these interests into the wider setting, so as to entertain and keep the interests of the players.

 

[Yaarel]

From the DnDBeyond description: "Players can elect to build their own Bastion from scratch. This should usually be initiated at an earlier level, so it’s ready to go when their characters hit level 5."

The bastion can start at levels lower than 5. This means it is a normal part of the economy, even building it at level 1, or having it be part of ones background. The level 5 refers to the "special facilities".

 

[MarkB]

From the DnDBeyond description: "Players can elect to build their own Bastion from scratch. This should usually be initiated at an earlier level, so it’s ready to go when their characters hit level 5."

The bastion can start at levels lower than 5. This means it is a normal part of the economy, even building it at level 1, or having it be part of ones background. The level 5 refers to the "special facilities".

I think the idea is that it takes time to construct, and will become built and habitable at level 5, rather than that the mundane parts will be useable before then.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I need to see exactly what the 2024 DMs Guide says about the bastion system. One of the main criticisms of the playtest bastion was its divorce from the normal economy that the Players Handbook describes. As far as I can tell, the official bastion will be moreso part of the normal economy − acquiring or building real estate, including an unlimited number of walls, kitchens, bedrooms, storage rooms. This normal stuff can be done at any level. Then the "special facilities" are the stuff that comes from leveling, not from economy. The special facilities are the part that can generate magic items and so on. So it would be possible for a character to have some kind of homebase even without special rules in the DMs Guide. Figure out the cost of constructing a wall, or buying a home or business.

Generally, the DM plays the setting, while the players play the heroes in the setting. The players decide how to build their characters, and these characters are "off limits to the DM". However, there are places where the authority overlaps, when something about the character has wider setting implications. For example, a background implies somewhere in the setting there exists a circumstance that makes it possible for the background to happen. In this context, both the player (for the character concept) and the DM (for the setting concept) need to agree.

The rules for the bastion seem to expand the definition of a "character" to include the home and business venture of the character. In the same way a player decides what kind of player character to create, the player also decides what kind of nonplayer characters populate the bastion. They might be family relatives, or hirelings, apparently even "recruited" monsters are possible. The player decides how to build and populate the bastion as part of the character concept.

When a player creates a character, the player often chooses aspects of the build that interest the player. So it is a good idea for the DM to riff of the character details for adventure hooks and resonant encounters that will be fun for the player. Likewise, when the players create bastions, the DM can see the kinds of things that the players find interesting, and to "bake" these interests into the wider setting, so as to entertain and keep the interests of the players.

I would say the players play characters in the setting rather than the heroes of the setting, but otherwise yeah, that's how it works.

 

[Yaarel]

I think the idea is that it takes time to construct, and will become built and habitable at level 5, rather than that the mundane parts will be useable before then.

I take it to mean, the concept of a "bastion" has much flexibility, can come about in various ways, and a player can "trick out" their bastion if they get into it.

 

[MarkB]

I take it to mean, the concept of a "bastion" has much flexibility, can come about in various ways, and a player can "trick out" their bastion if they get into it.

To me, it's just a way of not having to justify the bastion popping into being instantly at level 5 if they're going with building it rather than acquiring an existing structure, using the "you were actually building it all along" rationale.

 

[Yaarel]

Not sure how the official rules will relate to following.

I want a "bastion" that is multigenerational, an estate that can be inherited by future characters. Even when the founder of a bastion is still alive, I want the other characters to grow up there an be part of it.

I want to merge the bastion with a permanent Mordenkainens Magnificent Mansion.

I want the bastion to be plane-hopping, perhaps teleporting.

I prefer an "army of wizards" and other mages be the defenders.

To me, it's just a way of not having to justify the bastion popping into being instantly at level 5 if they're going with building it rather than acquiring an existing structure, using the "you were actually building it all along" rationale.

In my campaigns, levels 1 thru 4 are brief, so there isnt much difference between building it at level 1, or it appearing out of nowhere at level 5.

But sometimes, the bastion can originate from a background, like taking over the family business of an inn or a shop, or some estate of a noble family. In these cases, the bastion exists before level 5 when the special facilities come online.