Bastion building is a neat new feature of theDungeons & Dragons2024Dungeon Master’s Guide, which allows players to make and customize their own bases. The book includes tons of rules and mechanics around how these Bastion work, and how dungeon masters can build encounters around them.A core part of these Bastions is their facilities, which come in basic and special varieties. These are the rooms that players or hirelings can use to create new items, empower the party, and gather resources.
Every Bastion has several basic facilities it needs to include, butthere are 30 different special facilities that the players can choose to invest in. They range from arcane study halls to taverns that the player characters can tend to, and provide parties with the opportunity to make their base into a full-blown community hub. Certain Bastion facilities have level and ability prerequisites, and some will be more helpful for certain character builds than others. But of the 30 options, these 10 are the most exciting that every party should at least consider.
10A Workshop Lets Players Craft Their Own Adventuring Gear
Getting Equipment And Inspiration
First up is the workshop, which is available at level five for any kind of party or character. As far as facilities go, this one is pretty straightforward:the workshop allows for the creation of various magical and non-magical pieces of adventuring gearthat the party might need. Players choose six kinds of Artisan’s Tools when they add this facility, and those six tools can be used to craft any of the items they are associated with. This lets the party’s hirelings make a ton of new gear for them before each adventure.
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The facility can only craft common or uncommon magic items past level nine, and even then, the people working need certain proficiencies in order to do so. Still, this potentially allows for the mass production of magic ammo and the like. Plus,spending a short rest in the facility grants Heroic Inspiration, which is a nice bonus feature on top of the workshop’s primary use.
9Gardens Allow For The Creation Of Important Potions And Poisons
Never Run Out Of Healing Potions Again
Gardening can be quite useful in the world ofDnD, and having a garden in the party’s Bastion lets them access all kinds of important resources. Namely, the garden can be used to grow ingredients for certainpotions and poisons. But that’s not all;there are technically four kinds of gardens, which can each grow certain kinds of crops. One is used to make flowers for the players to sell, another to prepare rations, and the other two for potions and poisons.
Potions are much more useful mid-combat with the2024 rule changes to potions, so bringing a bunch of them with the party is always a good call.
A Bastion can house multiple gardens, so players can have several of these projects going at once. Much like the workshop, the garden is available at level five. Harvesting it costs no money, but does take seven days, meaningit can keep the party supplied without breaking the bank or the game’s balance.And at higher levels, players can look into getting a greenhouse, which can make more powerful potions and elixirs in the same time frame.
8Gaming Halls Are Great For Making Money
Keep Your Party Well Funded Through Gambling
The gaming hall is available at level nine, and providesa consistent way for players to earn some side income.It effectively functions like a gambling den, allowing NPCs to come in and test their luck. Much like in real-world gambling, the house always wins, and the players are guaranteed at least some money each week from this venture. The exact amount, however, is up to chance.
Depending on what players roll concerning their gaming room,they can win anywhere from ten to six hundred gold pieces in seven days, just by giving an order, making it a great way toget rich inDnD. It’s a pretty lucrative room to include in a Bastion that is quite simple and requires little oversight. Plus, if the players themselves want to unwind after an adventure, they always have access to dice or a deck of cards.
7Meditation Chambers Make The Rest Of The Bastion Better
Empower Your Hirelings With This Facility
The Bastion itself can benefit from the effects of certain rooms, most notably a meditation chamber. This facility is available at level 13, and gives better odds that Bastion events will go in the player’s favor. Mechanically,it allows players to roll twice for their next event and take the better result.
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But that’s not all, because players themselves also gain some benefits from using the chamber. Meditating within it providesa week of advantage on two kinds of saving throws. The choice of which is up to the player, meaning that mages can choose constitution and wisdom to verify they don’t lose concentration on their spells or fall victim to those of their enemies.
6A Pub Is Great For Making A Bastion Part Of A Community
Create A Tavern Of Your Own
For interacting with the community outside their Bastion, players could choose to own and operate a pub. It’s a neat option, given how manyDnDgames start in a tavern, since it puts control of that facility into the party’s hands. It can be used to gain information on people in the area, sincethe bartender can employ spies to learn what’s going on in a 50-mile radius.
Many of the Bastion facilities take around seven days to complete their tasks, which can make them more or less useful depending on the time frame of a given campaign.
But beyond that, the pub can be used to brew special drinks that can power up the party. There arefive drink types to choose from, most of which provide a day-long bufffor player characters. They range from providing darkvision to giving characters a climbing speed, to providing resistance to necrotic damage. Since these drinks are available on tap, party members can keep going back for refills while the facility is in use. It’s a fun way to gather information and gain access to some helpful perks.
5Sanctums Are Amazing At High Levels
Empower Your Party With This Power Room
Getting to one of the most powerful options, the sanctum is a facility only available to players past 17th level. Players have access to ninth-level spells at that point, which means facilities need to be pretty powerful to keep up, but the sanctum manages to do so.It does require at least one party member with a holy symbol or druidic focusas a spellcasting focus, but it can benefit the party at large once it’s built.
The sanctum has three main benefits: it grants access to a special charm that allows players to cast the heal spell without components or a slot, it gives one character temporary HP equal to the player’s level each day for seven days, and makes the spell word of recall always prepared. Those aretwo different sixth-level spells that this one room grants to the party, which is pretty significant, even at higher levels.
4Scriptoriums Allow Characters To Create Their Own Scrolls
A Room Ideal For Wizards And Arcane Enthusiasts
Another facility for crafting,the scriptorium is great for characters with spellcasting abilities. It allows for the creation of spell scrolls at a faster pace than players could normally keep up with, though it is limited to spells of 3rd level or lower. Still, the scriptorium lets hirelings make a scroll for any spell on the wizard or cleric list below that level, meaning it can be used to duplicate some of the best spells in the game.
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The Scriptorium has some other uses, as well. It can be used to duplicate any non-magical book or to mass produce a small publication, which can be important for disseminating information in certain campaigns.There are a lot of creative ways to use a facility like this,which compensates for how expensive it is to run consistently.
3Teleportation Circle Is A Fun Way To Introduce New NPCs
Random Wizards Will Fulfill Your Requests
The teleportation circle may be the strangest facility players can build in their Bastions. Aside from its obvious use as a permanent teleportation circle that players can use to return to their base,this facility can be used to invite powerful wizards to come and pay a visit.Granted, there’s a good chance the wizard could decline, but this makes it so random spellcasters may come to meet and help the party past level nine.
After this, the spellcaster simply hangs out in the Bastion for up to two weeks. The rules specify they won’t help to defend it and will leave if threatened, but while they are there,players can request them to cast one wizard spell of fourth level or lower. This brings a ton of versatility to the teleportation circle room, especially for parties that don’t have a wizard already. Plus, at 17th level, players can have the wizard cast one spell of eighth level or lower, which brings some really exciting options into the fold.
2A Sacristy Can Make Your Party More Magical
Replenish Spell Slots And Make New Gear
Much like the sanctum, the sacristy is only available for characters with a druid focus or holy symbol. Butthis facility can be made at level nine, and arguably can be used to greater effect. Its most basic function is to craft holy water, a pretty niche but potentially powerful substance in the right campaign. But the room’s much better use is to make magic items from the relics table.
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Much like the workshop, it can only make common or uncommon items, but this can still be super helpful for making some basic adventuring gear for mid-level parties. Perhaps more importantly, taking a short rest in the sacristyrestores one spell slot of fifth level or lower.Spell restoration is a pretty powerful ability, and this place can do it once per day.
1A Training Area Can Give Party Members Important New Skills
Make Up For Any Areas Of Expertise Your Party Is Short On
Finally, the training area is a great way to round out a party’s strengths. Much like the garden, there are multiple types of training areas, and one Bastion can have multiple of them. What the area does is allow the party to hirea trainer for either battle, skills, tools, unarmed combat, or weapons,who can teach a party member certain techniques over a week.
These trainers provide some pretty powerful skills. One can give players an extra d4 to add to their unarmed damage, while another can grant proficiency in certain ability checks. The trainer in a given area can be swapped out from week to week in order to let players experiment with these different buffs.They last for a week, and can really make a differenceat early and mid-levels ofDungeons & Dragons.
Dungeons and Dragons
Dungeons and Dragons is a popular tabletop game originally invented in 1974 by Ernest Gary Gygax and David Arneson. The fantasy role-playing game brings together players for a campaign with various components, including abilities, races, character classes, monsters, and treasures. The game has drastically expanded since the ’70s, with numerous updated box sets and expansions.
