Updated Bastion Special Facilities, Part Three (Patreon)

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.