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.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

1st level: 1 facility
3rd level: 2 facilities
5th level: 3 facilities
9th+: as normal

all facilities should have 5 tiers, but some can only start at high tier.
Bar should be 1st level facility. even if it's a runty 2by2 meter kiosk with cheap ale and watered down wine.

Yep. Literally the hole in the wall a customer walks up to, orders and pays for a drink, and the server passes the drink to them through the window from inside their little closet space.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

Hrm…suppose a player wants to sell their bastion. How do you value it?

 

[Hussar]

Hrm…suppose a player wants to sell their bastion. How do you value it?

Zero.

Who would want to buy it?

Maybe the land is worth something.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I wonder if Sigil project could allow a solo-mode minigame where a player builts a bastion. And playing sieges like a tower defense videogame style "orcs must die: unchained" or "Fortnite: Save the World".

A question is if players could add more PCs to add more rooms and facilities to a shared bastion. And what about the rooms when a PC dies?

 

[Chaosmancer]

I can't speak to the main complaints. My complaint about Bastions was something which didn't seem to bother too many other posters, probably because it was a problem I had with the narrative, not the mechanics:

The Bastion system uses game mechanics which, to me, seem disassociated from the names the designers have assigned to them. For example, the word "Pub" is now codified to mean a particular special facility with very specific, narrowly-defined rules. Those rules reflect the designers' narrative about the role pubs play in the world, but they provide almost no flexibility.

The new background rules do the same thing when they attach a limited selection of ability scores to each background. The word "Farmer" now means someone who farms and also gains one of a few specific, narrowly-defined ability score increases as a result of farming. Those rules reflect the designers' narrative about the farming lifestyle, and they provide little room for other narratives.

I understand that some amount of this has to be grandfathered in, since, for example, the word "Fighter" has always referred to a narrowly-defined package of class features. But modern classes tend to be at least somewhat flexible; each of them supports multiple character narratives (through subclasses, for example). To me, Bastions and the new backgrounds feel inflexible, by comparison.

I can understand you feeling that way, but it feels a bit to me like spiting yourself. After all, I don't think anyone has serious concerns that now a basket is defined in the rules as being exactly 2 cubic feet and capable of holding 40 pounds of goods, or that a mirror is defined as hand-held and steel, and therefore cannot be used to describe a hanging silver or glass reflective surface.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Very tired and only skimmed the article, but they look mostly the same, minus Bastion Points. Which is a shame

 

[Milieu]

Very tired and only skimmed the article, but they look mostly the same, minus Bastion Points. Which is a shame

Detailed differences between the dndbeyond article and UA:

• The UA says players get bastions at level 5, period. Talk about the narrative justification with the group. The article says, we assume you get them at level 5, but you could do it later if you want, or give it as a quest reward or something.
• Bastion points still completely absent, almost certainly gone completely.
• As mentioned in the video, characters can now issue orders to the bastion without being physically present, as long as they "can communicate with their hirelings in some capacity".
• Demiplane:
  • is no longer scry-proof.
  • They have given the empowerment effect a Capitalized Name.
  • The items you fabricate from it now have a monetary value cap of 5 GP (vs. no explict cap before).
  • The fabrication ability is no longer limited to once per long rest.
  • (The UA explicitly listed out the "certain mundane materials" as wood, stone, clay, porcelain, glass, paper, nonprecious crystal and noprecious metal, presumably just omitted for brevity here.)
  • The UA also included 2 paragraphs talking about the door to the demiplane and how only you and your hirelings can open the door, and it can't be dispelled, and it's some special material as resiliant as stone, etc.
• Meditation Chamber:
  • Like the Demiplane, the empowerment effect now has a Capitalized Name.
  • In the UA, this allowed you to immediately issue an order to another facility, even if you had already done so this turn.
  • Instead of that, it now lets you roll twice for your next Bastion event and choice which to use.
• Pub:
  • Now specifies that it might actually be an inn, tavern, or coffeehouse.
• Map of the Bastion:
  • They claim the map shown would cost 6500 GP to build. Using the values in the UA, I get 5000 GP, but it would be 6500 if you ignore the rule that you get 2 basic facilities for free. (The article confirms this rule still exists, so it's probably just an oversight and the costs are the same.)
• Attack on the bastion:
  • The UA said to roll 6d6 but the article says "a number of d6s"
    • There is a rule in the UA that building defensive walls reduces the number of dice by 2, so maybe the wording is taking this into account and not actually a change?
  • In the UA, an attack always shuts down one random facility until after next turn, and shuts down a second if you run out of defenders or never had any to begin with. Now, you no longer shut one automatically.

I think that's it. There are some other minor wording differences, but they mean the same thing, just phrased a little clearer.

In summary, yeah, it's the same as UA, except with bastion points completely excised and a few details tweaked.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

That article still mentions "Vast" as being a maximum of 36 squares, yet the Dining Room shown in the Project Sigil map, which is not a special facility is larger than "Vast" it's 40 squares in size.

 

[Epic Meepo]

I can understand you feeling that way, but it feels a bit to me like spiting yourself. After all, I don't think anyone has serious concerns that now a basket is defined in the rules as being exactly 2 cubic feet and capable of holding 40 pounds of goods, or that a mirror is defined as hand-held and steel, and therefore cannot be used to describe a hanging silver or glass reflective surface.

Baskets and mirrors have no agency in the game world; they don't perform actions of narrative consequence on behalf of players. In the 2024 rules we've seen so far, only player characters, their pets (familiars, etc.), and their Bastions can do that.

When a rules element is a means players use to perform actions in the game world, my preference is for that element to support as many narratives as possible. The game rules for inanimate objects aren't relevant to this particular preference.

 

[bedir than]

That article still mentions "Vast" as being a maximum of 36 squares, yet the Dining Room shown in the Project Sigil map, which is not a special facility is larger than "Vast" it's 40 squares in size.

Considering the sheer quantity of rooms the map as displayed is certainly an example of combined Bastions