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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FoxWander" data-source="post: 73833" data-attributes="member: 1356">Interesting thread. I see alot of good points but one thing keeps bugging me. Dispel Magic vs. an enchanted CASTLE! Castle's are BIG and one little dispel magic isn't going to bring it all crashing down. Unless you can include the ENTIRE fortress in the AoE it shouldn't do squat! Same thing with an Anti-Magic Field. Sure the AMF will temporarily deactivate a small section of wall, but it certainly won't shut down the whole castle. At any rate a truly Enchanted Castle will still be a rarity in most campaign worlds. Limited probably to major Capitol defense and the occasional eccentric with money to burn. I see magic having the greatest impact on the logistics of seige warfare. Big castles that house a chapel (as many did in medieval times) means easy access to clerics meaning hundreds of scrolls of Create Food & Water and Create Water. No more surrounding the castle and waiting till they starve. And any Lord worthy of the position would cultivate good relations with a powerful mage and his entourage of apprentices. With Scribe scroll and then Craft Wand at 3rd level you'd have an incradible reserve arsenal. I imagine every squad of soldiers would have at least one fellow trained to at least 1st level wizard or to a high skill in Use Magic Device to use the squad Wands of Magic Missile, True Strike, Bull's Strength, Bless and Cure Light Wounds! All of these, and many more, are easily created by 1-3rd level wizards and clerics. And with the incredible ability of True Strike to overcome range penalties, ballista snipers would be a serious problem. You better make sure your key combantants stay out of sight or at least never go without their Prot. from Normal Missiles and a Shield spell. And this doesn't even touch on how you'd have to BUILD a castle in such a world. Even without mage-heavy battlefields there are still evil dragons, bullettes and purple worms. So you have to defend against attacks from above AND below. Towers and walls would have to have roofs to protect against air attacks. And domed castles would be better than large open courtyards. Maybe some clever architect might engineer some sort of retractible roof so you could have both. In the old Dragon magaizine someone mentioned they presented defense from below as the reason why castles have extensive dungeon tunnels filled with horrible monsters. Would you want to be the sapper who was supposed to dig under the castle reputed to have dungeons filled with ghouls and trolls under it. In the article they said that undead, especially ghouls, would be the perfect weapon for such a defense. One thing I particularly liked was their idea that condemned criminals wouldn't be merely executed, they would be sent down a one-way slide to "join the guard!"<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />Now that your castle is 'impregnable' you have to defend against those who figure its easier to infiltrate it than to storm it. So in addition to clerics and mages, get friendly with the local druid a well. A vine-covered keep is probably the easiest defense against astral and ethereal visitors, but you need the druid to keep them from becoming waht the enemies druid uses to beat you. Also I'd keep visitors on a short leash. You don't want people to have a good description of the interior of your castle to guard against teleport. Either conduct court in another, unimportant building or be ready to fill those areas that are open to the public with something to keep mages from blipping in. And permanent Anti-Scrying spells would be a must. Also at the first sign of invasion, lock up all the servants. They know the place inside and out, so either zap them with Forget spells or find some place to keep them for the duration. If you're evil, the 'Guard' just got a little stronger. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> Anyway, I could go on and on. I love thinking up crap like this!<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f60e.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":cool:" title="Cool    :cool:"  data-smilie="6"data-shortname=":cool:" /></blockquote>

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