Ogrork the Mighty
Explorer
If he's a quality summoner, let him have multiple planar ally deals in place in which the extraplanar creatures only show up if the summoner's lair is attacked. Then they come en masse to fulfill their part of the deal.
Wizard's tower - defenses
- Thread starter danir
- Start date
genshou
First Post
merelycompetent
First Post
One of the tricks an old PC of mine used was to fill an entire level of the tower with multiple, permanent Walls of Force. It served a two-fold purpose:
1. They're Walls of Force. How do you get through without accidentally teleporting or dimension dooring into another one?
2. They served as the support structure for the (thick and heavy) ceiling. Take down a Wall, and that entire section of ceiling collapses on the intruder. Several tons of rock worth of ceiling.
You can adapt this in a number of ways: Shape the walls into pillars placed so that they block the doors and stairs. Disintegrate or anti-magic the wall, and the ceiling section drops in to crush & block entry/exit. Or you can shape them into cyliners, with the ends capped. This way they serve not only as ceiling supports described above, but also as air-tight prisons that intruders get teleported into. (Put in a few Magic Mouth spells: "Attention, you have only 30 seconds or air remaining... Attention, you have only 20 seconds of air remaining..." Of course, the Magic Mouths are off by 10-15 seconds...)
(Side note: This was originally in a cut-throat 1E game, where the PCs were often trying to off each other. One of the other PCs, also a wizard, Shapechanged into a beholder and tunneled his way into the tower... right up until he used his anti-magic center eye on this floor. My character was scraping beholder bits out of his tower for weeks...)
Another trick/trap I used was the Random Teleport Puzzle. Each floor had two or more "teleport pads" that allowed access to different floors. Unless you took them in the right order, they'd randomly teleport you to another location (half a continent away) after a certain number of tries. I had mine set to a list of active volcanoes, sub-oceanic rifts, the cloud island of a particularly annoying dragon, a rotting wooden bridge over a chasm (any section of the bridge could only support 20 lbs of weight - had a limited Mending spell that kept repairing the bridge to that particular point, so sometimes this effect would count as "nothing happens" because there was nothing to teleport to), and so forth.
Being a powerful wizard, there were also strategically placed Prismatic Walls covered by permanent illusions (and a few Programmed Illusions) so that they looked like arched exits, part of a research library, the kitchen, and so forth. The illusion of an ordinary floor covering an open spiked pit trap was also pretty funny (mainly because it worked - the shapechanging wizard brought some of his mooks with him). I even covered entire sections with a permanent illusion of exactly what was there... really messed with ye olde Detect Magic and True Sight. (Yep, you see through the illusion and... see exactly the same thing. Must be a trap.)
My character mainly used Phase Doors to travel between sections of his own tower. He'd also created a teleport ward that blocked all but those with the correct pass phrase (or who used the teleport pads). There was also an unwarded "Teleport Room" ... loaded with golems that would immediately attack anyone not my character, and loaded with magical & mechanical traps. (Let's not talk about the time my PC pulled an emergency teleport to that room... after the BBEG used Polymorph Other to turn my character into a halfling. Nothing like have a pair of Iron Golems and a pair of Stone Golems playing stomp-the-hobbit when you're the hobbit - with single digit hit points. Big Whoops.) Hopefully, this will provide you with some ideas you can use.
Permanent Unseen Servants can add some flavor, as they endlessly clean up any mess. The PCs may very well stare horrified as the Unseen Servants mop up any spilled blood, broken furnishings, even muddy bootprints from the PCs themselves.
A fire elemental in the fireplace/wood stove may regard PCs as potential fuel to help make his life a little easier (or he may be just annoyed and looking for someone to take it out on).
A few Night Hags or Green Hags as kitchen staff can also be fun. And there's nothing quite like an Annis cleaning staff.
Hope this helps.
1. They're Walls of Force. How do you get through without accidentally teleporting or dimension dooring into another one?
2. They served as the support structure for the (thick and heavy) ceiling. Take down a Wall, and that entire section of ceiling collapses on the intruder. Several tons of rock worth of ceiling.
You can adapt this in a number of ways: Shape the walls into pillars placed so that they block the doors and stairs. Disintegrate or anti-magic the wall, and the ceiling section drops in to crush & block entry/exit. Or you can shape them into cyliners, with the ends capped. This way they serve not only as ceiling supports described above, but also as air-tight prisons that intruders get teleported into. (Put in a few Magic Mouth spells: "Attention, you have only 30 seconds or air remaining... Attention, you have only 20 seconds of air remaining..." Of course, the Magic Mouths are off by 10-15 seconds...)
(Side note: This was originally in a cut-throat 1E game, where the PCs were often trying to off each other. One of the other PCs, also a wizard, Shapechanged into a beholder and tunneled his way into the tower... right up until he used his anti-magic center eye on this floor. My character was scraping beholder bits out of his tower for weeks...)
Another trick/trap I used was the Random Teleport Puzzle. Each floor had two or more "teleport pads" that allowed access to different floors. Unless you took them in the right order, they'd randomly teleport you to another location (half a continent away) after a certain number of tries. I had mine set to a list of active volcanoes, sub-oceanic rifts, the cloud island of a particularly annoying dragon, a rotting wooden bridge over a chasm (any section of the bridge could only support 20 lbs of weight - had a limited Mending spell that kept repairing the bridge to that particular point, so sometimes this effect would count as "nothing happens" because there was nothing to teleport to), and so forth.
Being a powerful wizard, there were also strategically placed Prismatic Walls covered by permanent illusions (and a few Programmed Illusions) so that they looked like arched exits, part of a research library, the kitchen, and so forth. The illusion of an ordinary floor covering an open spiked pit trap was also pretty funny (mainly because it worked - the shapechanging wizard brought some of his mooks with him). I even covered entire sections with a permanent illusion of exactly what was there... really messed with ye olde Detect Magic and True Sight. (Yep, you see through the illusion and... see exactly the same thing. Must be a trap.)
My character mainly used Phase Doors to travel between sections of his own tower. He'd also created a teleport ward that blocked all but those with the correct pass phrase (or who used the teleport pads). There was also an unwarded "Teleport Room" ... loaded with golems that would immediately attack anyone not my character, and loaded with magical & mechanical traps. (Let's not talk about the time my PC pulled an emergency teleport to that room... after the BBEG used Polymorph Other to turn my character into a halfling. Nothing like have a pair of Iron Golems and a pair of Stone Golems playing stomp-the-hobbit when you're the hobbit - with single digit hit points. Big Whoops.) Hopefully, this will provide you with some ideas you can use.
Permanent Unseen Servants can add some flavor, as they endlessly clean up any mess. The PCs may very well stare horrified as the Unseen Servants mop up any spilled blood, broken furnishings, even muddy bootprints from the PCs themselves.
A fire elemental in the fireplace/wood stove may regard PCs as potential fuel to help make his life a little easier (or he may be just annoyed and looking for someone to take it out on).
A few Night Hags or Green Hags as kitchen staff can also be fun. And there's nothing quite like an Annis cleaning staff.
Hope this helps.
Elder-Basilisk
First Post
Defenses? It depends very heavily upon the wizard. Obviously, there are many different levels of defenses, both active and passive and their usability will depend upon the desires of the wizard. Guards and Wards? It's great if you don't mind walking through fog to get to the restroom, tearing through webs to get downstairs for breakfast, and casting gust of wind to get rid of the stinking cloud in your entryway when you want to go outside. However, if you prefer a few more comforts, you probably won't be using guards and wards while you're at home.
So, what are the basics. A lot of detect spells are blocked by lead or gold so you're probably going to have a lot of one or the other. Gold for classy and ostentatious wizards, and lead for wizards with darker or more spartan tastes. Those who prefer security without ostentation may opt for lead and then paint it. A thin sheet of gold or lead works so you're probably talking gold or lead leaf in any event.
If your campaign world allows people to stop teleportation, etc with things like gorgon's blood mixed into the mortar of a castle, odds are good that wizards will generally do such things. Arcane lock is cheap (no more expensive than a regular lock and a good deal cheaper than a good one) and permanent, so it will probably see extensive use. If the wizard employs servants who need to use doors, it is likely that there may be a password for the arcane locks in the common areas.
Alarm is also likely to be a common spell for protecting areas that are not in common use, and mordenkeinen's private sanctum and dimensional lock are also quite likely.
The use of things like sepia snake sigils, explosive runes, magic mouths, etc will most likely depend upon the number and nature of the wizards' servants as well as the wizard's attitude. The kind of wizard who casts guards and wards while he's at home would have everything warded, the kind of wizard who prefers servants and luxury would use a bit more restraint.
Active defenses would likewise reflect the style of the wizard who created them. One kind of wizard will go for golems and shield guardians. Another kind will go for undead. Yet another kind will go for summoned demons or devils, and still others will go for bound elementals. Still another kind of wizard would use dominated or charmed monsters. Invisible Stalkers might be a possibility for the kind of wizard who keeps human guards for show but has mysteriously effective defenses anyway.
Also in the section of active defenses, you might want to consider amenities. Unseen servants are mentioned above, but what about dominated dignitaries and/or enemies serving as scullery maids because it amuses the enchanter to see his proud enemies doing humiliating tasks. If they have other abilities, they can also figure into active defenses. (The guy with the mop was once the best swordsman in the land but he insulted the wizard and now rather than advising and championing the king of a distant land, he scrubs floors in the wizard's tower... oh, and he is also commanded to attack intruders--should he see any). Summoned lillends could provide music--or a defender. A cruel wizard with a taste for gladiatorial matches might have a menagerie of dangerous beasts that he pits against each other for his pleasure--and that can be released upon intruders. A perverse wizard might keep a succubus or an erynies in his bedchamber. The possibilities are endless.
However, the essential thing is going to be this: consider the personality and character of the wizard. One wizard might have an imposing windowless tower of granite in the wilderness. Another might have an ostentatious and luxurious manor in a city. Yet another might live in a humble farmhouse... with an interior that belies its humble exterior. Another mage might well live a double life--ordinary, if eccentric, merchant to the outside world, but with a secret lair under his manor where he does his wizardry rather like the bat cave. A final kind of wizard might live in an actual hovel--some kind of run-down building filled with trinkets, odds and ends like the woman in the new Pirates of the Carribean movie. (If she needed defenses, a shield guardian standing in the corner like a clothes horse would not have been out of place).
The important thing is not just that defenses be effective; it is also essential that they be in keeping with the character of the wizard who uses them.
So, what are the basics. A lot of detect spells are blocked by lead or gold so you're probably going to have a lot of one or the other. Gold for classy and ostentatious wizards, and lead for wizards with darker or more spartan tastes. Those who prefer security without ostentation may opt for lead and then paint it. A thin sheet of gold or lead works so you're probably talking gold or lead leaf in any event.
If your campaign world allows people to stop teleportation, etc with things like gorgon's blood mixed into the mortar of a castle, odds are good that wizards will generally do such things. Arcane lock is cheap (no more expensive than a regular lock and a good deal cheaper than a good one) and permanent, so it will probably see extensive use. If the wizard employs servants who need to use doors, it is likely that there may be a password for the arcane locks in the common areas.
Alarm is also likely to be a common spell for protecting areas that are not in common use, and mordenkeinen's private sanctum and dimensional lock are also quite likely.
The use of things like sepia snake sigils, explosive runes, magic mouths, etc will most likely depend upon the number and nature of the wizards' servants as well as the wizard's attitude. The kind of wizard who casts guards and wards while he's at home would have everything warded, the kind of wizard who prefers servants and luxury would use a bit more restraint.
Active defenses would likewise reflect the style of the wizard who created them. One kind of wizard will go for golems and shield guardians. Another kind will go for undead. Yet another kind will go for summoned demons or devils, and still others will go for bound elementals. Still another kind of wizard would use dominated or charmed monsters. Invisible Stalkers might be a possibility for the kind of wizard who keeps human guards for show but has mysteriously effective defenses anyway.
Also in the section of active defenses, you might want to consider amenities. Unseen servants are mentioned above, but what about dominated dignitaries and/or enemies serving as scullery maids because it amuses the enchanter to see his proud enemies doing humiliating tasks. If they have other abilities, they can also figure into active defenses. (The guy with the mop was once the best swordsman in the land but he insulted the wizard and now rather than advising and championing the king of a distant land, he scrubs floors in the wizard's tower... oh, and he is also commanded to attack intruders--should he see any). Summoned lillends could provide music--or a defender. A cruel wizard with a taste for gladiatorial matches might have a menagerie of dangerous beasts that he pits against each other for his pleasure--and that can be released upon intruders. A perverse wizard might keep a succubus or an erynies in his bedchamber. The possibilities are endless.
However, the essential thing is going to be this: consider the personality and character of the wizard. One wizard might have an imposing windowless tower of granite in the wilderness. Another might have an ostentatious and luxurious manor in a city. Yet another might live in a humble farmhouse... with an interior that belies its humble exterior. Another mage might well live a double life--ordinary, if eccentric, merchant to the outside world, but with a secret lair under his manor where he does his wizardry rather like the bat cave. A final kind of wizard might live in an actual hovel--some kind of run-down building filled with trinkets, odds and ends like the woman in the new Pirates of the Carribean movie. (If she needed defenses, a shield guardian standing in the corner like a clothes horse would not have been out of place).
The important thing is not just that defenses be effective; it is also essential that they be in keeping with the character of the wizard who uses them.
Last edited:
Gez
First Post
A variant of the "load-bearing spell" is the caryatid column.
Have her in the center of a small room. Or even a corridor. She doesn't move a lot and stay in her same 5-foot square during all the fight, relying on her massive natural armor and hardness rather than on mobility to endure blows. She has enough reach to prevent anyone to pass through the room. When defeated, she breaks down... And the ceiling collapses on the victorious heroes.
Have her in the center of a small room. Or even a corridor. She doesn't move a lot and stay in her same 5-foot square during all the fight, relying on her massive natural armor and hardness rather than on mobility to endure blows. She has enough reach to prevent anyone to pass through the room. When defeated, she breaks down... And the ceiling collapses on the victorious heroes.
merelycompetent
First Post
Gez said:
Yoinked. My current group of players are going to hate you in their next dungeon crawl.
![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
Another one that I used in a previous campaign is the Golem Door. It won't open for anyone but the creator (obeys only his/her/its orders). Plus it's Arcane Locked. Stick a Symbol of Stunning on it (covered by a shield/embossing and revealed whenever someone gives the incorrect orders), and then have it attack. An amusing variant is also the Golem Portcullis.
A charmed/dominated/summoned killer mimic as a hallway carpet or throw rug is useful in combination with any of the tricks/traps mentioned so far. One DM I played under had a covered pit trap - where the pit cover was a killer mimic. Almost netted him several character deaths due to player panic and ill-planned area of effect spells.
Make sure the wizard has taken the time to ward his tower against various elemental effects. It would probably annoy him greatly if someone cast Rock to Mud on it and then just searched through the rubble for raw coinage and magic that survived the collapse.
The thought that occurs immediately (if you've read a lot of fairytales) is to make it an invisible tower, or disguise it in some other way. For example, if the party have already seen the tower, make it a solid column of stone with a fake door fitted. And hide the real tower in a tree, with the way in preferably through a woodpecker's nest or badger's lair in the roots.
Just remember that not only is a 16th-level wizard incredibly intelligent, he'll know all the tricks of the trade and will be able to predict and counter just about any plan that the party can think of. Don't forget, your summoner also once started as a 1st-level character trying to find his way round traps and tricks.
Just remember that not only is a 16th-level wizard incredibly intelligent, he'll know all the tricks of the trade and will be able to predict and counter just about any plan that the party can think of. Don't forget, your summoner also once started as a 1st-level character trying to find his way round traps and tricks.
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