DEFENSIVE FORTIFICATIONS

A city is often defined by its defenses—or lack thereof. Traditional defenses take the form of fences, walls, moats, and similar obstacles. In a fantasy setting, however, these measures are less effective than they were historically. A moat can stop an advancing army, but a dragon or a wizard can fl y right over it. A wall might be high enough to impede a 6-foot-tall human, but what about a 26-foot-tall giant? Nonetheless, such features remain the most common forms of city defense—something, after all, is better than nothing.

In most walls stronger than simple wood fences, the gates are equivalent to either strong wooden doors or iron doors (DMG 60), depending on construction. Treat gates in a fence as good wooden doors. In all cases given below, hit points are per 10-foot section of wall. (If you’re interested in more detailed rules for defensive fortifications, see Chapter 2: Building Adventures in the Heroes of Battle supplement.)

None: Surprising though it seems, given the frequency of wars and the presence of so many monsters, many communities—even some great cities—have no defenses at all. The reasons for this deficiency could include insufficient wealth, a recent attack that obliterated previous fortifi cations, or being located in a peaceful region that makes defenses unnecessary.

Wood Fence: Hardness 5, 15 hp, break DC 18. Simple wooden barriers are most common around towns and villages, but some larger communities can afford no better. A fence is usually 5 to 10 feet in height.

Wooden Bulwark: Hardness 5, 45 hp, break DC 28. This is a heavy wall of logs or thick lumber. Wooden bulwarks are cheaper and easier to put up than stone walls, but they do not offer the same level of protection. (They are also, of course, vulnerable to fi re.) These walls are usually 8 to 15 feet in height.

Rammed Earth Wall: Hardness 6, 60 hp, break DC 28. These structures are heaps of earth, piled up and packed. Rammed earth walls are quick to build but are not hard to break through, nor are they diffi cult to climb. (Treat a rammed earth wall as a rough surface for the purpose of Climb checks.) As well, heavy rain can severely weaken or wash out such structures. Rammed earth walls stand only 5 to 10 feet tall—much higher and they risk collapse.

Stone Wall: Hardness 8, 180 hit points, break DC 45. Consisting of slabs of granite or similar stone, these walls are difficult to construct but more effective than anything made of wood or dirt. They are roughly 1 foot thick on average and stand 8 to 15 feet tall.

Layered Wall: Hardness 8, 450 hp, break DC 55; or hardness 8, 1,170 hp, break DC 70. Resembling the popular image of a castle wall, a layered wall is many feet thick, consisting of two layers of stone with earth packed in the space between. Such fortifications are exceedingly difficult to break through. Typical layered walls stand from 20 to 30 feet tall and are 10 feet thick. Larger examples are up to 40 feet in height and 15 feet thick.

Magical Defenses: Many magical fortifi cations aren’t innately more effective than mundane ones. Barriers created with wall of iron and wall of stone differ only slightly from standard walls—and the expense of surrounding a city with such magical constructions would be substantial. Instead, some communities hire spellcasters to respond to breaches in a wall during battle: A spell patches the hole far more swiftly than mundane workers could manage.

The most effective magical barrier might be a permanent wall of force combined with a dimensional lock effect, which can withstand almost any sort of attack. But casting enough of these spells to protect an entire city is prohibitively expensive. Only the very wealthiest cities, or those ruled by arcane practitioners powerful enough to do the job themselves, could even consider using such methods. A slightly more common practice, though still an expensive one, is to protect only important structures or districts with such spells. In this case, mundane defenses protect the bulk of the city.

Moat: Most people think of moats as surrounding individual castles, but one can also encircle an entire city. A moat need be nothing more than a deep ditch, but it could be fi lled with water, spikes, or more horrifi c substances such as acid or poisonous thorns. Treat such barriers as pit traps, water obstacles, or heavy rubble, depending on the contents. The sides of moats are steep slopes (DMG 89).