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Fortress building...

Pheonix Eldron

First Post
My character in one of my adventures is a very high level and is looking to settle down and build a fortress/castle. I am wondering i you have any tips on making the ultimate fortress for battle and asthetics at the same time. I am very wealthy so there is no price limitations so say whatever you think would make it better no matter the price. I am also wondering, what is the strongest material in the game so i can build my walls out of it- doesn't matter the price, just how good it is - .
 

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Sigurd

First Post
Starting from scratch gives you no unknown influences but I would definitely take over\modify some place in need of guidance.

1. Ready population - if you can convince them of your lordship. Getting a working population can be difficult.
2. Building supplies - Find a good site your DM has something invested in. Its more likely to be used and more fun.
3. Live in whatever is there while you get the new castle built.

Get something with river access for floating stone unless you're simply going to cast 'wall of stone' for your materials. You and your DM should read the Stronghold Builders Guidebook.


Don't build a castle to be safe. Staying in one place in D&D is suicide if you have magic wielding enemies. (Not much safer to move but then....) Castle Walls simply don't offer much sercurity or defence in a high magic setting.
 

Pheonix Eldron

First Post
I figure if I can hire out some powerful magic wielders of my own I can stay in one place, and besides, wheres the fun in moving around, I've been doing that my whole adventuring career. I wanna test my luck. I'll have escape routes though. Thanks for the tips, and any idea of super strong alloys or something to make my walls out of? I'm trying to get away from enchanting my walls and just making them out of super ultra materials so i can survive antimagic field attack by enemy spell casters.
 

moritheil

First Post
If there's one thing the epic level handbook had to say, it's that price limitations are always a factor.

How about making your own demiplane and situating your fortress there? You can populate it with races you yourself create (via the creation seed.)

Adamantine is the strongest material in the game, but if invaders have their own mages, they'll be packing spells to soften it, disintegrate it, or turn it into other materials.
 

javcs

First Post
If there's one thing the epic level handbook had to say, it's that price limitations are always a factor.

How about making your own demiplane and situating your fortress there? You can populate it with races you yourself create (via the creation seed.)

Adamantine is the strongest material in the game, but if invaders have their own mages, they'll be packing spells to soften it, disintegrate it, or turn it into other materials.
First two paragraphs I agree with.
The last, well, Adamantine gets outclassed by 'obdurium'(Hardness 30) from Stronghold Builder's Guide. But, just about any attacker at high levels will pack the magic necessary to neutralize the strength of walls. Even if you use walls of force.
Which is why you get an anti-magic field emanating around the exterior walls.
Lead-line every wall and door you can afford to.

OP - What class is your character? Get Forbiddance, Mage's Private Sanctum (that's what the SRD calls it), Teleport and Dimension Door blocking magics, use permanent invisibility effects on a wall or walls of force for all the windows - for areas where you have exterior openings, ie loopholes, have them in self-contained rooms, requiring a specific key to pass through the passwall effect. Airtight the structure, have the 'back door' be a teleport or dimension door pad/trap to outside the fortress. Prismatic Walls on the exterior, with illusions over them such that they appear to be normal walls.

And remember, if someone finds the Angelwing Razor, your walls, no matter what they are, are shafted.

Basically, you need the SBG, check out Heroes of Battle for some siege weapons.

If you want the place to be more or less impossible to take, have the primary fortress consist of a demi-plane, as suggested before, over the entire demiplane, seal it against magical insertion, except for one spot - that one spot should be where almost all the defenses on the demiplane are located; ideally you'd have the primary way onto the plane being a permanent gate or portal of some kind - treat it like a stargate, default is that you have the iris closed.
On the material plane, you want a relatively unassuming (from the outside) facility that is likewise warded against magic, and internally fortified and otherwise defended as though it contained the self-destruct button for the multiverse, or at least, as close as you can manage it. This facility should contain the other end of the portal/gate to the demiplane - and it should contain a mechanism to contact the demiplane's end, in such a way that the entry chamber is sealed off and the demiplane can see all of it.

How high a level are we talking here? That too will affect things.
 

Sigurd

First Post
The issue of course it that we're talking about a work of _Fiction_. Nothing will make it safe from a really cool story that begins with your defenses failing. No rule, mechanic, or game element will remove it from play and danger.

I don't recommend building an impenetrable fortress unless you want to play a game where the perfect safe meets a perfect safe cracker.

I like the demi-plane approach for all sorts of reasons but not because its safer. Don't agonize over every possible defense unless you really enjoy that.

If your character is honestly retiring how do you expect him\her to influence the game world or the life of your future characters?
Is there a life goal he\she might accomplish with all this wealth? Can the character be a rich thread in the game world tapestry?
Frank talk with your DM on subjects like this will give you an Idea of what you can accomplish and what sort of acceptable risks you will inherit. I still think the Stronghold Builder's Guide is a great book for you but not because it will help you close every loophole for ultimate safety - there's no such thing.

Raiding marauders from the astral plane, Dhouls that enter any room where there is a corner, betrayal and rebellion, there is always some plot that wrests your character's security away. You are better off to find a harmonious relationship with the game world and give it a hefty push with your gathered riches. Then make new characters or begin a new type of game or whatever.


Sigurd.

Feel free to ignore me if that's not the sort of advice you want to hear.
 



Pheonix Eldron

First Post
Wow these are some really great tips. Thank you all. For the person who was asking, i have been adventuring for a long time with the same character, I have battled gods, planned world domination, made a fortune, done most things any character could want. That is why I want to build the perfect fortress, one reason is a way to spend the half trillion gold I have, the other is to celebrate my character reaching his 100th level (Rogue 68/ Bard 32 [I like the core 3.5 classes, keepin' it old school]). I just want to settle down... and make my GM think of what to send at me next.
 

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