Every character gets a Bastion: a home, workshop or stronghold in or near the Free City of Greyhawk that works for you between adventures. The rules are in chapter 8 of the 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide. This page is the short version.
At 11th level, your Bastion has been under way for years, so it’s already built and staffed when the campaign starts.
Your to-do list
Each player:
- What and where. Decide what your Bastion is (a tower, a shrine, a shop, a hideout, a manor on the Plain of Greyhawk) and where it is. This is the property question on the homework.
- Two basic facilities, free. One is Cramped and one is Roomy. See “Basic facilities” below.
- Four special facilities, free. Choose from the level 5 and level 9 lists below, and check the prerequisites. Each one can be picked only once.
- Optional extras, paid from your starting gold: more basic facilities, bigger rooms, defensive walls. See “What money buys.”
- Optional flavor: name your hirelings, and sketch a rough floor plan.
All together:
- Shared or separate? You can combine your Bastions into one building, such as a guildhall with everyone’s wings, or keep them apart. If you combine, everyone keeps their own facilities, hirelings and orders. The one thing you share is defenders: if an attack costs one of you defenders, a partner can take some of the losses instead.
- Coordinate. Some facilities help each other. A Smithy halves the cost of stocking an Armory, and a Trophy Room or Menagerie can use what a Guildhall’s adventurers bring back. Avoid five Libraries unless that’s the plan.
- Send your choices to the GM before Session 0.
How it works in play
- Every 7 days of game time is a Bastion turn.
- Your Bastion counts as a sanctuary for Long Rests, unless it’s under attack. A night there gets the full sanctuary benefits.
- When you’re at your Bastion, you give each special facility an order:
- Craft: make something.
- Harvest: gather something.
- Research: learn something.
- Trade: buy and sell.
- Recruit: bring people or creatures in.
- Empower: gain a temporary benefit.
- When you’re away, or don’t give orders, your Bastion runs on Maintain. The GM then rolls a Bastion event, which can be good news, a visitor, or trouble.
- Hirelings pay for themselves. Each special facility’s income covers its staff.
- Defenders (recruited through a Barrack, or creatures in a Menagerie) protect the Bastion if it’s ever attacked.
- When you level up, you can swap one special facility for another you qualify for. At 13th level you gain a fifth facility.
Basic facilities (pick two: one Cramped, one Roomy)
Bedroom, Dining Room, Parlor, Courtyard, Kitchen, Storage. They’re furnished, but they have no game effect. They’re where scenes happen.
Space: Cramped = 4 squares (5-ft squares), Roomy = 16, Vast = 36. Rooms can span several floors.
Special facilities you can pick at 11th level
Level 5 facilities
| Facility | What it does (short version) | Prerequisite | Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arcane Study | A free Identify each week. Crafts arcane foci, books, and common or uncommon arcane magic items | Can use an arcane focus or a tool as a spellcasting focus | Roomy |
| Armory | Stock it and your defenders are much harder to kill | none | Roomy |
| Barrack | Recruits Bastion defenders, up to 4 per order | none | Roomy |
| Garden | Harvests food, decorative goods, healing herbs (potions or healer’s kits) or poisons and antitoxin | none | Roomy |
| Library | Researches a topic and turns up three new facts | none | Roomy |
| Sanctuary | A free Healing Word each week. Crafts holy symbols and druidic foci | Can use a holy symbol or druidic focus as a spellcasting focus | Roomy |
| Smithy | Crafts smith’s-tools items, and common or uncommon magic weapons and armor | none | Roomy |
| Storehouse | Buys trade goods and sells them at a profit | none | Roomy |
| Workshop | Heroic Inspiration after a Short Rest there. Crafts tool items and common or uncommon magic implements | none | Roomy |
Level 9 facilities
| Facility | What it does (short version) | Prerequisite | Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gaming Hall | A week of gambling brings in a share of the house’s winnings | none | Vast |
| Greenhouse | Three fruits a day that each act as Lesser Restoration. Harvests greater healing potions or rare poisons | none | Roomy |
| Laboratory | Crafts alchemist’s-supplies items and certain poisons | none (some orders have one) | Roomy |
| Sacristy | Recover one spell slot (up to 5th level) after a Short Rest there. Crafts holy water and common or uncommon relics | Can use a holy symbol or druidic focus as a spellcasting focus | Roomy |
| Scriptorium | Copies books, writes cleric or wizard spell scrolls (up to 3rd level), prints and spreads pamphlets | none (some orders have one) | Roomy |
| Stable | Comes with mounts. Buys and sells animals at a profit | none | Roomy |
| Teleportation Circle | A permanent circle. Can invite a friendly spellcaster to cast a wizard spell (up to 4th level) for you | none | Roomy |
| Theater | Stage a production; contributors who pull it off each gain a bonus die for a d20 roll | none | Vast |
| Training Area | A trainer gives you a combat or skill benefit for a week | none | Vast |
| Trophy Room | Researches lore from your trophies, or turns up a minor magic trinket | none | Roomy |
Levels 13 and 17 add more options (Archive, Pub, Observatory, Guildhall, War Room and others) as you advance.
What money buys
Starting gold is 5,000 gp + 1d10 × 250 gp (see House Rules). In Bastion terms:
| Purchase | Cost | Time |
|---|---|---|
| New basic facility, Cramped | 500 gp | 20 days |
| New basic facility, Roomy | 1,000 gp | 45 days |
| New basic facility, Vast | 3,000 gp | 125 days |
| Enlarge a basic facility, Cramped → Roomy | 500 gp | 25 days |
| Enlarge a basic facility, Roomy → Vast | 2,000 gp | 80 days |
| Enlarge some special facilities to Vast for a bigger benefit (Barrack, Garden, Stable, Workshop and others) | 2,000 gp | — |
| Defensive wall, per 5-ft section (20 ft high) | 250 gp | 10 days |
A Bastion fully enclosed by walls loses fewer defenders when attacked. Corridors, stairs, doors, windows and closets are free.
Anything bought before the campaign starts is already finished.