February has been very demanding so far, but we just finished the first Citadel event of Season Two, so I’m taking time to remember that this blog exists and its readers are delightful people who deserve content. Thanks for reading, y’all. I’m about halfway through the list of Special Facilities in this rework of Bastions from the 2024 DMG.
Improving Bastions | Updated Special Facilities pt 1 | Updated Special Facilities pt 2 | Updated Special Facilities pt 3
Stable
Bastion Facility
Prerequisite: None
Space: Roomy
Hirelings: 1
Order: Maintain (1d10), Trade, Empower
Friendly Beasts and Monstrosities (and the more animal-like Fey) may need the housing accommodation of a Stable. A Bastion can have multiple Stables, and each one can support three Large creatures. Two Medium creatures occupy the same amount of space as one Large creature. The facility’s hireling looks after the creatures while you’re away.
If the animals kept in the Stable are working animals and you are proficient in Animal Handling, you can add your proficiency bonus to the Bastion points this facility grants with Maintain actions.
Trade. Beasts and more animalistic Monstrosities can be bought and sold with seven days of work by the facility’s hireling. The DM decides what kinds of Beasts and Monstrosities are available for sale. A place that sells Fey is not a place you want to associate with; even the most animalistic Fey is an independent and thinking creature.
Empower. With seven days of work, you or your hireling can make a Wisdom (Animal Handling) check against a DC of 10 + the target creature’s CR. If your hireling is doing this work, they roll with a +3 bonus. On a success, one creature housed in the Stable gains one Hit Die, and its maximum Hit Points increase accordingly. On a failure, the DC to grant this benefit to that creature decreases by 2. A creature can gain this benefit up to twice.
Upgrades
You can expand the Stable to Vast. It can house six Large creatures, and you gain Advantage on Wisdom (Animal Handling) checks rolled for this facility’s Empower action.
Teleportation Circle
Level 9 Bastion Facility (congratulations, something that I actually agree should have a level req)
Prerequisite: Level 9+
Space: Roomy
Hirelings: 1
Order: Maintain 1d10, Special
Commentary: Okay, before I get into this one, I think I don’t like it as a Bastion feature, because we do know how you create a permanent Teleportation Circle. Maybe there does need to be a way to make one in less than a year? I don’t know. The additional function assigned to it in the DMG is one I’m not sure I like – it essentially gives you a single casting of a single wizard spell, with its maximum level based on your level. It’s wild that so many other special facilities require you to be a spellcaster, but not this one.
A permanent Teleportation Circle is inscribed on the floor of this room, you have its glyph sequence, and you can choose to share its glyph sequence with others.
Special Action: Re-key. With seven days of work, you or your hireling can change the glyph sequence of this facility’s Teleportation Circle. Its prior glyph sequence doesn’t work and presumably does not lead to any existing Teleportation Circle.
Upgrade
At level 13+, a Teleportation Circle using this facility can stay open for up to 10 minutes at a time, allowing you to transport much larger groups of creatures or materials at a time. You become aware whenever this Teleportation Circle is used and learn the name of the spellcaster.
Training Area
Bastion Facility (this is one of the worst possible candidates for level prereqs)
Prerequisite: None
Space: Vast
Hirelings: 4
Order: Maintain (1d6), Empower, Recruit
A Training Hall is a space for practicing and improving any of a character’s capabilities: skills, ability scores, combat readiness, and more. This might be a fencing school, a music school, a spellcasting range, or a gymnasium. One of the hirelings is an expert trainer, and you or the DM should create a name and personality for them even if most of your hirelings don’t receive this level of detail. In general, an expert trainer can train you in three different types of D20 Tests, such as spell attack rolls, Intelligence saving throws, and Intelligence (History) checks, and with one tool set.
Recruit. You can expend 7 days of work and 100 Gold Pieces to attract an additional expert trainer that can train you with three more types of D20 Tests, or to expand the types of D20 Tests one expert trainer can train you with by one.
Empower. You can expend 7 days of work for your expert trainer to aid you with one type of D20 Test, such as attack rolls with one weapon, Initiative rolls, or Strength saving throws. For the next 14 days, when you roll a D20 Test of that type, you can add 1d6 to the roll. If the d6 result is a 5 or 6, you instead add a d4 to your rolls with that skill for the remaining duration. Alternately, you can gain proficiency with one tool set the expert trainer knows how to use for 14 days.
Up to 8 creatures can receive the benefit of this Empower action in a 7-day period.
Upgrade
You can expend 5,000 Gold Pieces to improve your Training Area with new learning techniques. A creature that uses the Empower action in this Training Area gains 1d8 Temporary Hit Points when they finish a Long Rest. This benefit lasts for 14 days.
Archive
Bastion Facility
Prerequisite: None
Space: Roomy
Hirelings: 1-4
Order: Maintain (1d6), Research
An archive resembles a library, but holds curated collections of both published and unpublished manuscripts, letters, artwork, textiles, and more. If you already have a Library, you might use an attached Archive to hold more manuscripts of more pernicious nature, not for public consumption. It offers major improvements for Arcane Studies, Libraries, and Scriptoriums.
Research: Lore Inquiry. You expend 10 BP to commission the hirelings to research a topic, possibly with your participation. After 7 days of work, the hirelings make an Intelligence check with a relevant skill. Unless they are NPCs with their own capabilities, their bonus to this roll is +2. For every 5 additional BP you expend on this roll, you add +1 to their roll total. If you participate directly, you can use your Intelligence modifier and proficiency bonus in place of theirs. On a success against a DC set by the DM, you gain three new accurate pieces of information, or cryptic clues about where to search for more information. The DM determines what you learn.
This duplicates the Lore Inquiry feature of the Library. If you also have a Library, the hirelings’ initial bonus to the roll is +6, and if the roll fails, they can continue working for an additional 7 days, at no further BP cost, to roll again with Advantage.
Design Notes
This time out, I’ve had to put a few list items off for a later post in the series. Mostly from post-LARP-event fatigue and lack of focus, I’m struggling with how to rework the Theater’s playwrighting minigame. The Theater is one of the most interesting special facilities in the DMG, but I’d like to figure out how to make it some kind of cultural center as well. That is, what does it get you for your Bastion to be a major part of public life, not just a self-sufficient fortress in the wilds? Sure, you may have heard about a play performed at Elsinore/Kronborg, but maybe you want a Bastion that’s more like the Paris Opera House. Just keep your hand at the level of your eyes and you’ll be fine.
On which note, I really think the Bastions could get a lot more interesting with a Complications table, as an ongoing source of adventures centered on your Bastion. Maybe that will be my next post.
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This continues to be an excellent series.
The Stable seems fine, though I think it would benefit from an additional action to Train animals kept there. Let players train that griffon or owlbear that they hatched to serve as a mount. It might also be a good idea to put a variant Kennel in as an option for keeping and training dogs or similar creatures. I think a Kennel could take the mechanical place of the Menagerie as presented in the DMG, allowing the Menagerie to follow similar lines to what has been discussed before.
I agree that the Teleportation Circle (TC) should probably be level-locked, but it could also be locked behind cost. This is where things like the difference in hirelings for different facilities start to show through, because the TC facility shouldn’t change the requirements of the actual spell it is emulating. The hireling for the facility should be a mage with a high enough level spell slot to maintain the circle in the PCs’ absence. This should obviously cost more, either as an upfront cost for the facility or as a weekly / Bastion Turn cost.
Perhaps characters can spend BP to cast Teleportation Circle connected to their bastion’s circle, maybe with the number of points required going up depending on distance. Additionally, every use of the circle from within their Bastion should either require BP (simulating the hireling casting the spell) or for a PC to actually cast it. The Re-Key action should probably also take BP.
I like the Training Area. Part of me wants it to be broken up into a few different facilities, either by theme (magic, physical, social, etc) or ability score. This would allow for facility actions that are a little more specialized and focused. As it stands, this is a good all-round solution, though I feel like BP should be expended in the use of its actions.
I really like the Archive as well. I assume having a single Archive facility in your bastion unlocks all the various cross-facility synergies, you aren’t required to have a separate facility for each. The Research action is a very nice way for the DM to give some lore exposition in a more organic way.
Regarding the eventual Theater, would it be worth the time to have 3 or 4 levels of upgrades for the facility? Perhaps going from open-air amphitheater to a closed playhouse to a minor concert hall to a something like an opera house? Similar to the Gaming Hall, this could come with opportunities to attract higher-status patrons and gain better results from special actions. Also similar to the Gaming Hall, I would recommend adding in some fairly serious failure mechanics. When you have the local Marquis at your concert hall and the lead actor gets sick (ie you flub your Performance roll) then that should be a big hit to your reputation.
If you are looking for some inspiration for this system, Kobold Press just released their own version of the Bastion System in their Tales of the Valiant Player’s Guide 2. It is pretty comprehensive and hooks into downtime and other features of ToV, but overall they are doing a lot of the same things that you are.
Looking forward to the next article.
Thank you so much!
I like the idea of training Beasts and Monstrosities, though I think it can be clunky to turn that into a mechanical expression more involved than “they are now an ally that uses their baseline stat block.” That is, balancing a new move for them to use, if you take them out on an adventure, isn’t a one-and-done deal unless I have a great idea for a Bonus Action or Reaction of some kind. Your point about Menagerie -> Kennel was in my head as I was working on this.
I think introducing a distinction between Basic Hirelings and Expert Hirelings is going to be necessary in the course of this project. That idea has, of course, a rich pedigree in D&D – the hireling/retainer/follower distinction of AD&D 2e was my first experience of D&D. I think putting some extra sauce into the Recruit and wage rules can cover a lot, but I’ll get to that once I’m done with the first pass of all of the facilities.
I like your thoughts about the Teleportation Circle and Bastion Points – though I mostly don’t want to tinker with the core rules of TC.
Breaking up Training Area into different skill categories would add something like School (probably covering most wizard/priest training, Training Yard (martial and martial-adjacent)… honestly bards should be able to use Theaters for training with no changes, IMO. I think going back to fold in BP expenditures, maybe in the form of extra options, would be good.
I’m not sure that I can come to grips with different styles of theaters being a definite upgrade track. Including upgrades, absolutely, but I think I want to save as much description of its look and style as possible for the PC and GM. Beyond that, I like your point about having it parallel the Gaming Hall as a place of entertainment – and social climbing.
Thanks again!
Maybe the Training action could be limited to a few fairly specific things to limit balance issues, with a note that says “the DM may allow other things to be trained”.
Mount Training: With seven days work you or the facility’s hireling may train one appropriate Beast or Monstrosity to serve as a mount. At the end of the training period the trainer must make a Wisdom (Animal Handling) check with a DC equal to 10 + 1/2 the creature’s CR (or some other CR calculation). On a success the creature will serve as a mount, on a failure the creature stubbornly refuses. Trainers have advantage on Mount Training checks with previously failed creatures if the training takes place within 14 days of the failure.
Skill Training: With seven days work you or the facility’s hireling may train one appropriate Beast or Monstrosity to be proficient with one skill that the creature is not already proficient in. The trainer must be proficient in the skill being trained. (Requires an Animal Handling check & a skill check with the skill you are trying to train). No creature may become proficient in more than one skill from the training at a time. If this training is done with a creature that has already received it, the new skill replaces the old one. Some direction on how an animal might use certain skills could be provided in a sidebar. Maybe a wolf trained in Arcana can use Wisdom (Arcana) to sniff out recent magic or identify spellcasters.
Those two options seem reasonably simple and shouldn’t really be unbalanced. The biggest advantage is that neither of them requires a serious change to the creature’s stat block while still being a flavorful way to personalize your animal friend.
I don’t have much to add to this fantastic post – these are great!
I think my favorite is the Training Area, the function works really well.
Would it make sense to be able to have more than one Training Area in a Bastion, provided that they focus on different skills and are themed differently? (Only one spellcasting range and one music school, for example)
A random thought about the Archive – perhaps it could gain a bonus to the Lore Inquiry roll if the PCs donate a Rare or better magical item to the collection (willingly sacrifice some of the powerful items they carry on quests to increase abilities back at the base)
I am so glad you like them!
I think multiple Training Areas hurts exactly nothing and goes a long way toward supporting the Academy of Heroes fantasy that probably a lot of people want to see. Maybe there’s some mileage in using facilities to improve your hirelings, too?
I like that idea bout the Archive, and I think adding that kind of option to more special facilities will be worth a look down the line.
I really appreciate this series you’re working on. In fact, the system you’ve come up with inspired me so much I devoted way too many hours expanding it to the rest of the default rooms for my own group to use. I’d love to share it with you to get your thoughts on the changes I made, if there’s a way to send / link it to you?
I can email you, maybe?
Yeah, that would work! Can you access it from these comments?