How to build a dungeon?

[Orm]

Hire a bard with a lyre of building and a high perform (string instruments) bonus. 30 minutes of playing equals the work of 100 men working for three days. Making a perform (string instruments) check DC18 after 30 minutes lets your bard play another half hour. So, lots of work can be done until he fails the check.

 

[werk]

Not in the core rules. You can hire people with Profession: Miner and have them make skill checks each week, but the SRD doesn't have any prices for the traditional 10 foot square room with a locked door, orc, and pie.
Wha, wha, wha-wha-wh-a, wha-wha...

mmm...pie...

 

[Magitron]

Burrowing is the way!

You could summon/hire/trick/force a burrowing monster to carve your hallways for you. Some monster can burrow into solid rock at a standard movement rate.

 

[Nail]

Oh come on, guys.....

You've just discovered the reason why CR 3 monsters don't have finely crafted dungeons! They use the natural caves they find, and add a few doors where convenient.

.....and hope the cave is not a lair of an actual monster.

 

[yennico]

Hire a bard with a lyre of building and a high perform (string instruments) bonus. 30 minutes of playing equals the work of 100 men working for three days. Making a perform (string instruments) check DC18 after 30 minutes lets your bard play another half hour. So, lots of work can be done until he fails the check.

A lyre of building costs only 13.000 gp. That is over the NPC gear value of a bard 9. Now you can imagine how much money the PC must pay this bard?

I totally agree with Nail and intelligent CR 3 monsters add also traps to their lair.

 

[Fieari]

Get those diplomacy skills out. One of your PCs should be a tricked out diplomacy master who makes deals with local goblin tribes and such... instant cannon fodder! Pitch your plan to them... lure in adventures... adventurers who carry loot... kill the adventurers, or at the very least steal their loot. Split the loot with the goblins, keep some as capital. Remember: the larger your hoard, the higher level PCs you'll attract, meaning the more you can gain! A dungeon like this is like an investment portfolio, always with the slight risk that you'll lose it all...

And like any buisness, there are different plans you can use. You can try to attract the quality customers by pooling the wealth in one big location (with one big guardian!)... or you could scatter smaller pools of wealth throughout a larger complex, which I'll call the "WalMart" strategy. You'll attract a weaker adventurer, who'll have less gold, but hopefully there'll be more of them...

You should consider the effects of frightening off potential "customers" as well. If no one ever returns from the cavern of doom, either you'll be getting adventurers WAY more powerful than you're ready to handle just yet, or if you're too successful AND you don't have much loot to offer, you won't get anyone showing up AT ALL! So consider letting some leave with some trinkets... part of the investment. Consider it advertising cost.

Sounds like a fun game...

 

[Stalker0]

Of course once players realize how expensive traps are for a dungeon...they will come screaming back to the dm.

"Your telling me that the trap that killed Kinny the kind was 30,000 gp and was guarding a 5k item!!"

 

[Uvenelei]

So it's sounding like, if there are actual rules for this, they'd be in the Stronghold Builder's Guide. I'll have to keep an eye out for a used copy of it somewhere. The magical solutions are interesting, but may not be feasible yet.

You've just discovered the reason why CR 3 monsters don't have finely crafted dungeons! They use the natural caves they find, and add a few doors where convenient.

Yeah, but that's the boring answer. Plus, when the Illithid says, 'build me a dungeon', you don't say, 'no, squidface'. I for one like keeping my brains in my skull.

instant cannon fodder! Pitch your plan to them... lure in adventures... adventurers who carry loot... kill the adventurers, or at the very least steal their loot. Split the loot with the goblins, keep some as capital. Remember: the larger your hoard, the higher level PCs you'll attract, meaning the more you can gain! A dungeon like this is like an investment portfolio, always with the slight risk that you'll lose it all...

This is exactly the point of the game. Kill adventurers, take their stuff, spend it ont things to kill more adventurers with. It's an entertainingly vicious, viciously entertaining cycle.

Of course once players realize how expensive traps are for a dungeon...they will come screaming back to the dm.

We've already spent 1/3 or so of our resources on traps, we know they aren't cheap. One of the characters is working to become a trapsmith, but that's a long term plan. Plus, a dungeon without traps is embarrasing, so they're worth the cost.

Then three 3rd level characters with only 30K gold between the two of them have no business actually making a dungeon.

Thank you for answering my question in a timely fashion.

 

[nak9788]

I'm curious on how you plan to attract people into your dungeon. I mean if you've been building this thing with local help, everyone around is going to know that you don't have much money.

Do you plan to hang a sign outside the cave that reads: "Certain death" or "Come and get it!"
Or maybe sell tickets to "The Gauntlet" and have a prize at the end to the first person who survives.

Just kidding. But I am curious.

 

[Uvenelei]

I'm curious on how you plan to attract people into your dungeon. I mean if you've been building this thing with local help, everyone around is going to know that you don't have much money.

Do you plan to hang a sign outside the cave that reads: "Certain death" or "Come and get it!"
Or maybe sell tickets to "The Gauntlet" and have a prize at the end to the first person who survives.

Just kidding. But I am curious.

If we build it, they will come.