Last post, we started looking at the new gameplay system: Bastions, which is essentially a system for player housing and downtime activities. As you level up, you can add new Special Facilities that have various actions they can take when your Bastion gets a turn (more or less every 7 days). These do two things: they accrue Bastion Points, which can be spent to get magic items or other bonuses, and they each do unique things like creating items or researching information.
Special Facilities can be added when you hit certain level thresholds, and you get access to more facilities as you get to higher levels.
We did all the special facilities available when you first get your Bastion at level 5 in the last post, but now we'll look at the more "advanced" facilities you get at level 9 and possibly beyond.
Gaming Hall:
No prerequisite. Lets you Trade to turn the gaming hall into a gambling den. You roll a d100 to determine the house's winnings at the end of seven days, ranging from 3d6 gold (33% chance), 1d6x10 (15%), 2d6x10 (15%), 4d6x10 (10%) and 10d6x10 (5%). So... I guess on average that means 50.715 gold per week, with a fair amount of variation.
Greenhouse:
No prerequisite. Lets you Harvest to create a Greater Potion of Healing or among the following poisons: Midnight Tears, Pale Tincture, Torpor, or Truth Serum. Both take 7 days and cost nothing. There's also a plant there that grows three magical fruits once a day (and which last a day) that you can eat to benefit from the Lesser Restoration spell. (As a note, the ability to get special poisons is so exciting to me, because they're far too expensive to make via the previous crafting rules).
Laboratory:
No prerequisite (though some actions require some things). Lets you Craft to create a vial of Acid, flask of Alchemist's Fire, or a bottle of Ink, which takes 7 days at no cost. You can craft a vial of Basic Poison or you can spend the cost of a rare poison to craft it, including Burnt Othur Fumes, Carrion Crawler Mucus, Essence of Ether, or Malice. You can also craft magic potions if you have the ability to use a spellcasting focus. The rarity of the potion you can craft is based on your level, and your hireling counts as half your level rounded up if you're having them craft it. Common potions cost 50 g, Uncommon requires 5th level and costs 200 g, Rare requires level 9 and costs 2000g, Very Rare requires 13th level and costs 20,000g. Legendary requires level 17 and costs 100,000 gold.
Sacristy:
Requires the ability to use a Holy Symbol or Druidic Focus as a spellcasting focus. Lets you Craft a flask of Holy Water, for free after 7 days, or you can spend gold, to a maximum of 500g, and for each 100g you spend, the damage of the Holy Water is increased by 1d6 (so up to 6d6 if you spend 500 gold on it). You can also craft a temporary magic item that lasts 7 days, which works as a Pearl of Power, Periapt of Wound Closure, Ring of Water Walking, Sending Stones (a pair of them), Staff of the Adder, Staff of the Python, or Wand of Magic Detection. These take 7 days to craft and 200g. Additionally, if you spend a Short Rest in your Bastion, once per long rest, you gan regain one expended spell slot of 5th level or lower.
Scriptorium:
No prerequisite. Lets you Craft a replica of a nonmagical book over 7 days. You can also craft Paperwork, which creates broadsheets, pamphlets, or other looseleaf paper products for 1g per copy (up to 50). Your hirelings can distribute the paperwork to locations within 10 miles. You can also craft a magic scroll over 7 days. These require a minimum level (and if your hireling does it, they count as half your level rounded up). The costs and level requirements are the same as the potions in the Laboratory section above. (As a reminder, spell scrolls of different levels have different rarities).
Stable:
No prerequisite. Lets you Trade to buy or sell one or more mounts at normal cost over 7 days. When you sell a mount, you get a 20% profit, which increases to 50% at level 13 and 100% at level 17. The stables come with one Riding Horse or Camel and two Ponies or Mules, and can house three Large creatures (two medium creatures occupy the same space as one Large creature, so you can have twice as many Medium ones). For 2000g, you can expand the facility to double its animal capacity. If a beast spends 14 days or more in the facility, all Animal Handling checks made to handle said beasts are made with advantage (as they're basically domesticated).
Teleportation Circle:
No prerequisite. Lets you Recruit to invite a Mage (or Archmage if you're 17th level or higher) to come and aid you. There's a 50% chance that they accept the invitation, and if they do, they teleport via the teleportation circle. They will not defend the bastion if it's attacked, but you can ask the visitor to cast a Wizard spell - up to 4th level for a Mage or 8th level for an Archmage. You must provide costly material components for spells that require them. And, of course, the Teleportation Circle counts as a location for the spell of the same name.
Theater:
No prerequisite. Lets you Empower to begin work on a theatrical production or concert. Rehearsals take 14 days and the performance that follows goes for 7 days or longer (they can continue indefinitely). A player character can be a Composer or Writer, taking 14 days prior to the rehearsals to prepare the material. As a Conductor or Director, they must remain in the Bastion for the entirety of the production. Likewise, if they are a performer, they must remain there for the whole performance. At the end of the rehearsal period, each character that contributed to the production makes a DC 15 Charisma (Performance) check, and if more succeed than fail, each character that contributed gets a Theater die, which is a d6, or a d8 at level 13 or higher, or a d10 at 17 or higher. The Theater Die can be rolled and added to one ability check, attack roll, or saving throw (you can only hold on to one at a time).
Training Area:
Requires either Expertise in a skill, Fighting Style, or Unarmored Defense. Lets you Empower, and spend 8 hours a day for 7 days to get a bonus based on the type of training, which lasts for 7 days. The training comes from different kinds of experts. Battle Experts lets you reduce incoming damage from an Unarmed Strike or weapon by 1d4 once per turn if you're not incapacitated. Skills Experts give you proficiency in Acrobatics, Athletics, Performance, Sleight of Hand, or Stealth. Tools Experts give you proficiency in one Musical Instrument or Tool of your choice. Unarmed Combat Expert lets you deal 1d4 extra bludgeoning damage when you use an Unarmed Strike to damage a target. Weapon Expert gives you proficiency in one Simple or Martial weapon, and if you're already proficient, you can use its Weapon Mastery.
Trophy Room:
No prerequisite. Lets you Research to gain up to three accurate pieces of information about a legend, kind of creature, or famous object. You can also research a Trinket Trophy, which has the hireling search for a trinket that might be useful. There's a 50% chance that they find a trinket that lets you cast your choice of Clairvoyance, Death Ward, Find Traps, Locate Creature, Magic Weapon, Remove Curse, or Speak with Dead once without material components or a spell slot.
So, that's the 9th level facilities. I definitely think some need refinement. The Greenhouse, for example, seems fantastic while the Trophy Room really relies on the DM having good lore to share with you for it to feel worth it (well, ok, the trinket could come in handy). The bonuses from the Training Area could be very strong - I can imagine a Monk would benefit grandly from the Unarmed Combat Expert, though of course you need as much time to get the bonus as it lasts, so you can't really exploit this to always have it up unless you have a lot of downtime.
Still, I'm very happy to see the variety of options to choose from here. Really the big question will be if players have the mental real estate to track of all of this. I really hope we see updated character sheets that have room to track Bastion elements like these. Adding any new system to the game can be tricky, as I've found with Renown in my Ravnica campaign (which has kind of fallen by the wayside). We still have the level 13 and level 17 facilities to go through, so again: lots of stuff to look at here. Indeed, some of the later facilities are actually pretty fun.
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