Resource Availability

Another important aspect that must be considered is that of construction resources and supplies. If a castle is being built in the arctic, then stone and food must be imported from far away. Read through this section and determine which category best describes the conditions that a specific castle will be built under.

Primary Settlement

Some strongholds guard lonely mountain passes many days’ travel from the nearest city. Other strongholds have settlements grow up around them, the communities thriving under the protection the stronghold provides.

Regardless of location, your stronghold must have a settlement it relies on for any goods it can’t make itself—everything from necessities such as food to luxuries such as platinum candlestick holders. Other smaller or larger settlements may be near your stronghold, but the inhabitants of your stronghold travel to this primary settlement to hire new staff members and purchase needed supplies.

For your stronghold, identify which settlement serves as its primary link to civilization. Your decision affects the price of your stronghold in two ways: availability of materials and labor, and price of real estate. If you build your stronghold far away from sources of labor and materials, your stronghold costs more. Conversely, real estate tends to be more expensive near larger settlements. Even though labor and materials are readily available, it’s expensive to build a new castle inside the metropolis of Greyhawk because of high land prices and limited availability. You must balance these two factors when selecting your stronghold site.

The presence (or absence) of thorps, hamlets, and villages doesn’t change the price of your stronghold.

The Importance of Primary Settlements

Since your primary settlement serves as the place where you purchase and requisition everything you need for your stronghold, you have to respect its limits. For example, you can’t buy adamantine walls in a small town. They can’t afford to make them, much less sell them to you. Alongside each settlement size, the table notes the gold piece (gp) limit for purchasing components, walls, and wondrous architecture. Refer to Generating Towns in Chapter 4 of the DUNGEON MASTER’s Guide to review the limits of communities.

As a result, most castle builders eventually decide to rely on a large city or metropolis. Builders of especially large, lavish, or expensive strongholds don’t have any choice, but builders of smaller castles may be able to find a price break by selecting a site that allows them to take advantage of less populated communities.