FavouredEnemy wrote: By all means let them have access to one, as long as you're prepared to do the DMing around it. 'Castle', however, should not just feature on their inventory sheet. If they're inhabiting a castle, then they're challenging you. As DM, you should react with all the composure such a situation demands - namely, dragons.
Dragons against a castle? ! ?
And in fact
honor-bound to send dragons against a castle?
Why?
Most of the time I have my players build a stronghold, a castle, a manor etc. While I have once or twice sent dragons against them, I
NEVER felt challenged or intimidated by the thought that my PCs built a castle.
We had many memorable sessions in the castle/tower/stronghold of the PCs. Interaction with common servants, that look to the PCs as heroes/protectors etc. Interaction with the footmen that looked to the PCs as ideals/employers etc.
For a player of 9th level to have a castle is to have a microworld, a haven where he/she can relax in comfort, hear the everyday problems of people that work for him, and generally be in touch with the world. While I may threaten the haven once in a while it is never something as devastating as dragons.
It may be someone steeling from the servants, something killing the animals, a vampire stalking the countryside (remember it
cannot enter the Fort uninvited) or recently . . .
Shadow fey. Yes, I use shadow fey in other worlds.
In my last campaign, we had a whole non-combat session of 8-9 hours with the Tower-owner trying to explain to the fey living in his house the rules. Another very memorable session was when he had to
protect these fey from angry mages that happened to visit him.
On another campaign we had . . . intrigue. How a very minor lord used bluff and manipulation to slowly rise in power without challenging the wrong people and when to move against them to take their lands.
He started with 2 villages under his rule and ended up . . . With an astounding population of 6000, being the most important and powerful man in a minor barony after the baron himself. Yeah, I know but it seemed much more important back then. . .
FavouredEnemy wrote:Don't forget that the Stronghold Builder's Guidebook is not going to designed for realism. It's going to be balanced for how much money you're supposed to get for dungeon crawling. A quarter of a million gold pieces by ordinary D&D standards means that by level 8 or so, a party pooling their resources could probably get one, if they were sufficiently determined. That is about the level that normal D&D characters would have their own castle built, and so it is built around that.
An important note: I agree with this! When I said
realistic I meant D&D way of realism.
Also if your players want a castle, get them prepared to loose
a lot of money. Usually I advise my players to re-opperate a castle they seize or a tower.
In fact I did this to my recent campaign with my sister, where the reward for getting rid of the ghost in that old manor . . . was the manor itself. A manor that needed about 20000 gold in repairs and furniture however.
