Floating Castle

i suggest using stronghold builders guidebook. it has rules for enchanting large scale buildings complete with cost breaks for spellcasters who can do the work themselves, and other considerations. make it submersible, flying, plane hopping, earthgliding, and more. lots of fun stuff there.
 

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On a giant turtle!

The zaratan was my first thought, as well.
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Though if you want to go with something a bit less fantastical, you might look to the Jungle of Lost Ships for inspiration. The PCs in my game are currently at that locale, though I made it a bit more realistic by making it a floating island overgrown with vegetation partially provided by drift seeds and situated over a seamount .
 


Stronghold Builder's Guidebook has gotcha covered. Except, well, it's now an out-of-print official 3e D&D supplement, from Wizards of the Coast back in 2002. You might be able to find a used copy somewhere online like Amazon or E-Bay or whatnot, I dunno, or in a used bookstore perhaps.

I could do the calculations and whatnot for you, but it'd take awhile and I'd need very specific details on the size and number/type/quality of rooms in the castle and how many guards, how many nobles, and how many other people it contains (plus how many and what quality of guest-rooms, if any), etc. Materials, magical properties, etc.

Mobile strongholds come in 12 types: Astral (move stronghold back and forth between the Astral Plane, stationary unless you pay for a movement speed), Burrowing (stronghold moves through the ground like an earth elemental, requires paying for a movement speed), Crawling (stronghold crawls or slides along the ground, requires paying for a movement speed), Ethereal (move stronghold back and forth between the Ethereal Plane, stationary unless you pay for a movement speed), Flying (stronghold floats in midair at a fixed height and position unless paying for a movement speed), Inner Plane-Linked (move stronghold back and forth between a particular place in a particular Inner Plane, protects against the plane's environment, stationary unless you pay for a movement speed), Outer Plane-Linked (move stronghold back and forth between a particular place in a particular Outer Plane, stationary unless you pay for a movement speed), Plane-Shiftnig (allows the entire stronghold to Plane Shift as per the spell to other planes, stationary unless you pay for a movement speed), Sailing (stronghold floats on water but can be moved by currents, otherwise stationary unless you pay for a movement speed), Shadow-Shifting (move stronghold back and forth between Plane of Shadow, stationary, must pay for a particular number of hours per day that it can remain in the Plane of Shadow), Submersing (stronghold withstands pressures of up to 20 miles underwater, stationary on the seafloor unless paying for a movement speed to let it move like a submarine), or Teleporting (stronghold may Teleport Without Error (or Greater Teleport in 3.5 rules) one or more times per day based on how much you pay). The Shifting mobility effects are limited to 5 shifts per day and require paying an appropriate amount for each shift the stronghold is able to perform per day.

Of course, as the DM you don't need to worry about the cost of the stronghold. The costs and prerequisites in the book are there for PCs who want to make their own strongholds. But each form of stronghold mobility does require enchanting the entire stronghold like a magic item, using the Craft Wondrous Item feat and certain spells and paying a certain cost, with the cost based on just how big the stronghold is. Stronghold locomotion is measured in the book by miles per hour or a fraction thereof, which determines the price of any given locomotion for the stronghold (based on size, again). Mobility forms like Crawling or Sailing are relatively cheap (1,000 or 3,000 GP per "stronghold space," respectively; stronghold spaces are roughly 20x20 feet with a 10-foot ceiling) and can be infused in a stronghold by a low-level mage or priest (Sailing requires the Water Walk spell, while Crawling requires Augment Object, a spell from the SBG itself, available to most primary spellcasters in the core rules).
 

If you want an official suggestion, Stronghold Builder's Guide has the Sailing property for making a stronghold buoyant. It requires an individual with a caster level 11, Craft Wondrous Item, Water Walk spell, costs 3,000 gp per Stronghold space.

You'd also apply the locomotion speed. Slowest speed is 1/4 a mile per day, at an additional 5000gp per Stronghold space, all the way to 10 miles and hour at the cost of 25,000gp per Stronghold space.

the SBG suggests tying the control of the mobility to touching a specific object and using a command word, a specific room that you stand in and speak the command word, or a single creature who can utter the command word from anywhere within the stronghold. You'd probably want the first or second option, unless you wanted a guardian construct or something to be the controller, and players need to use some diplomacy to get it to cooperate.

Now, here's the rub. You're talking about an entire Island, not simply a castle. A stronghold space is the equivalent of 4,000 cubic feet, or a 20'x20'x10' space (Expected to be an interior room) You are taking this to epic levels. If it doesn't matter to you how the island castle was constructed, you can just assume somebody spent a bazillion gold at some undetermined point in the past.


Is the best way mechanically to do this.
 

Originally constructed in 2003.... Powered by a huge crystal...

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...Or you can go with the flying village... The wizard's tower costs extra...

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Except the crystal screams "HIT THE WEAK SPOT FOR MASSIVE DAMAGE" its a big fat obvious target if its exposed like that.
 

Except the crystal screams "HIT THE WEAK SPOT FOR MASSIVE DAMAGE" its a big fat obvious target if its exposed like that.
A smart Evil Overlord™ would have the real power source hidden. The big glowing crystal only does one thing: reflect energy blasts back at the points of origin. :devil:
 


Stronghold Builder's Guidebook has gotcha covered. Except, well, it's now an out-of-print official 3e D&D supplement, from Wizards of the Coast back in 2002. You might be able to find a used copy somewhere online like Amazon or E-Bay or whatno.

figment
 
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Except the crystal screams "HIT THE WEAK SPOT FOR MASSIVE DAMAGE" its a big fat obvious target if its exposed like that.

...hrmm??? Indeed. For some very good reasons...

From the ground the crystal is difficult to target as most of the solid stone castle is in the way.

Attacking from the air would at first seem to be the easier option. Note however, the four spacious archery/wizardry platforms located both fore and aft to the port and starboard. Also, the crystal is overshadowed immediately fore and aft by two SOLID STONE TOWERS... which also happen to feature battlements for archers and wizards intent on defending this stronghold.

To first get close to the crystal, you have to get even closer to the defenders protecting that crystal.

Good luck with that...

The archery platforms port and starboard are quite useful for sweeping the surface of the ground during a low altitude flyover as well. This stronghold does egregious and wanton damage when sieging traditional ground based fortresses as it can hover directly over walls and defenses and overlooking the castle walls from the defenders side can rapidly clear those pesky defenders who are intent on raining rocks, arrows, and flaming objects down on your hapless ground based castle assault group.

Even if you could bring it down, it's probably not the best idea to wipe out the magic that is sustaining flight, while the flying stronghold is directly over your castle walls, or the Royal palaces... Nothing says loving like tons of rock suddenly falling directly down on you....
 
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