Free and Unusual Labor

Depending on your ongoing campaign, the characters might have access to free or reduced-rate labor. Maybe a grateful queen assigns laborers to your effort, or your home village starts constructing a manor house in your honor.

You and the DM must work together to decide what discount you receive for free labor on a case-by-case basis. As a guideline, assume that labor costs represent roughly 30% of your stronghold cost thus far. If the queen provides you with half your workers, that represents a 15% discount (half of 30%).

What if your workers are zombies that never grow tired or sleep? Perhaps they’re incredibly strong stone giants or master dwarven stonemasons. In most cases, unusual laborers don’t affect the cost of stronghold, because particularly efficient workers charge correspondingly more for their services. Fifty dwarven stonemasons might do the work of a hundred human masons, but they know they’re better and they’ll demand higher wages as a result. Zombies may be cheap and efficient, but they require constant supervision from expensive evil clerics. If you have unusually efficient workers construct your stronghold, use the build time rules above to get the job done faster. For example, dwarven stonemasons can build your stronghold in half the time, but they’ll charge 50% more.

Unusually efficient workers can save you money if you somehow convince them to work for free, however. Perhaps you have charmed some ettins into “helping” move massive stones around. Maybe the dwarven lord owes you a favor after your last adventure, and he’s willing to assign some architects and artisans. Treat this as any other kind of free labor.