WONDROUS ARCHITECTURE

Chapter 3: Strongholds in the Campaign discusses how best to use existing magic items—as described in the DUNGEON MASTER’s Guide—in a stronghold. In this section, we introduce a number of new magic items of special interest to the builder or owner of a stronghold. Wondrous architecture are essentially immobile (or largely immobile) magic items, and follow all the normal rules for using such items.

Remember that dungeons are a form of stronghold. Even when you’re not building strongholds for characters, you can use the wondrous architecture presented here to spice up your dungeons.

Add some surprises to your next dungeon-crawl adventure.

If you want to have a continuing magic effect in use in your stronghold, and it’s not something you can find in the Player’s Handbook or the DUNGEON MASTER’s Guide, then you should build it yourself. For this, use the rules on creating magic items in Chapter 8 of the DUNGEON MASTER’s Guide.

Creating Wondrous Architecture

To create wondrous architecture (stationary or bulky versions of wondrous items), the character needs the proper tools and equipment to work on the item in question, whatever it may be. She also needs a supply of certain materials. The first and foremost of these is the item to be enchanted.

Unlike with other magic items, the cost of an architectural item is not subsumed into the cost of creating the item. Any other materials needed are covered in this basic cost, but the item itself must be purchased or obtained separately.

If the item has a permanent spell effect, the costs are simple to determine. They depend only on one factor: whether the item in question is removable or an embedded part of the stronghold.

If the item is bulky but technically removable—like a statue, a tapestry, or a rug—the cost to imbue it with a permanent spell effect is 1,000 gp × the spell level × the caster level.

For example, a guardian statue is a normal statue that has had the alarm spell permanently infused into it. Since alarm is a 1st-level spell and can be cast by a 1stlevel caster, the cost for giving the statue this ability is (1,000 ×1 ×1) = 1,000 gp. The cost of the statue is entirely separate. In this way, the character can give this magic ability to any statue that she likes, no matter how artistic or mundane, and pay the original cost.

If the item is not movable at all—if it’s actually a part of the stronghold and would be damaged or destroyed if removed—then the cost is 500 gp × the spell level × the caster level.

For example, an ambassador’s chamber is a room in which everyone inside is affected by friendship, as listed under the emotion spell. Since emotion is a 3rd-level bard spell and can be cast by a 7th-level bard, the cost for giving the room this ability is (500 ×3 ×7 =) 10,500 gp. Building the room, of course, is paid for normally.

If the prerequisites for making the item include one or more spells, the creator must have the spells prepared ahead of time or, in the case of a sorcerer or a bard, at least know the spells. She does not have to provide any material components or focuses the spell requires, nor are any XP costs inherent in any of these spells incurred in the creation of the item. The act of working on the spell triggers the prepared spells, making them unavailable for casting on any of the days that the creator is working on the item. Those spell slots are expended from the creator’s currently prepared or known spells, just as if they had been cast in the course of an adventure.

Creating some items may involve meeting other prerequisites than simply being able and available to cast the spells in question. See the individual descriptions of the various magic items for full details.

Crafting wondrous architecture requires one day for each 1,000 gp of the worth of the created item. Creating the ambassador ’s chamber described above, for instance, would require eleven days of work on the part of the creator.

Table 2–22: Wondrous Architecture

Wondrous Architecture	Market Price
Chamber of guidance	750 gp
Room of reading	750 gp
Brazier of aura revealing (undead)	1,000 gp
Chamber of climbing	1,500 gp
Chamber of courage	1,500 gp
Invisible helper	1,500 gp
Sanctum sanctorum	1,500 gp
Summoning stone (I)	1,500 gp
Table of safe meals	1,500 gp
Touchstone of faith (I)	1,500 gp
Vegetative trap	1,500 gp
Well of falling	1,500 gp
Brazier of aura revealing (chaos)	3,000 gp
Brazier of aura revealing (evil)	3,000 gp
Brazier of aura revealing (good)	3,000 gp
Brazier of aura revealing (law)	3,000 gp
Chamber of hidden character	3,000 gp
Consecrated chapel	3,000 gp
Desecrated shrine	3,000 gp
Dishonest chamber	3,000 gp
Ghastly chamber	3,000 gp
Guardian statue	3,000 gp
Hall of silence	3,000 gp
Hall of truth	3,000 gp
Hole of hiding	3,000 gp
Jester’s theater	3,000 gp
Pantry of preservation	3,000 gp
Stable of understanding	3,000 gp
Summoning stone (II)	3,000 gp
Table of freshness	3,000 gp
Touchstone of faith (II)	3,000 gp
Touchstone of safety (I)	3,000 gp
Wondrous absence	3,000 gp
Wondrous whisperer	3,000 gp
Hall of speech	4,000 gp
Everful basin	4,500 gp
Summoning stone (III)	4,500 gp
Touchstone of safety (II)	5,000 gp
Bed of restoration, lesser	6,000 gp
Black luminary	6,000 gp
Brazier of bright bursts	6,000 gp
Bright luminary	6,000 gp
Platform of levitation (lesser)	6,000 gp
Touchstone of faith (III)	6,000 gp
Warding bell	7,200 gp
Bier of inquisition	7,500 gp
Chamber of comfort	7,500 gp
Chamber of seeing	7,500 gp
Chamber of sloth	7,500 gp
Engraved circle of protection(chaos)	7,500 gp
Engraved circle of protection(evil)	7,500 gp
Engraved circle of protection(good)	7,500 gp
Engraved circle of protection(law)	7,500 gp
Garden of understanding	7,500 gp
Hall of babble	7,500 gp
Leomund’s temperate hut	7,500 gp
Missing chamber	7,500 gp
Path of watery solidity	7,500 gp
Well of flying	7,500 gp
Summoning stone (IV)	8,400 gp
Chamber of airy water	8,500 gp
Chamber of safety	9,000 gp
Touchstone of faith (IV)	9,000 gp
Frightful tapestry	10,000 gp
Touchstone of safety (III)	10,000 gp
Zone of elemental immunity	10,000 gp
Ambassador’s chamber	10,500 gp
Hall of despair	10,500 gp
Hall of fear	10,500 gp
Hall of hope	10,500 gp
Hall of strife	10,500 gp
Pool of scrying	12,000 gp

Disabling Wondrous Architecture

As a stationary magic item, wondrous architecture is essentially identical to a magic trap (even though some have beneficial rather than harmful effects), such items can be discovered by a rogue (or other character capable of finding traps) and deactivated with a Disable Device skill check. The DC for both Search and Disable Device checks is equal to 25 + the spell level of the highest-level spell used in the construction of the wondrous architecture.

A successful Disable Device check against an item of wondrous architecture suppresses its magic properties for 1d4 rounds (just as if you had successfully cast dispel magic against the item). If you beat the check by 10 or more, you suppress its magic properties for 1d4 minutes instead.

Table 2–22: continued

Wondrous Architecture	Market Price
Summoning stone (V)	13,500 gp
Cacophonous chamber	14,000 gp
Chamber of the earthbound	14,000 gp
Illusory landscape	14,000 gp
Inscriptions of privacy	14,000 gp
Leomund’s lasting shelter	14,000 gp
Platform of jaunting	14,000 gp
Prison of fire	14,000 gp
Prison of ice	14,000 gp
Proof against vermin	14,000 gp
Sigils of suppression, lesser	14,000 gp
Bed of wellness (remove blindness/deafness)	15,000 gp
Bed of wellness (remove curse)	15,000 gp
Bed of wellness (remove disease)	15,000 gp
Black luminary, pitch	15,000 gp
Chamber of speed	15,000 gp
Everful larder	15,000 gp
Touchstone of safety (IV)	15,000 gp
Map of guidance	18,000 gp
Map of tactics	18,000 gp
Summoning stone (VI)	19,800 gp
Platform of telekinesis (lesser)	20,000 gp
Touchstone of safety (V)	20,000 gp
Bier of life	22,500 gp
Chamber of weak-mindedness	22,500 gp
Inscriptions of vacancy	22,500 gp
Prison of the mind	22,500 gp
Prison of thorns	22,500 gp
Tree of jaunting	22,500 gp
Veil of obscurity	25,000 gp
Summoning stone (VII)	27,300 gp
Rainbow tapestry	28,000 gp
Platform of healing	30,000 gp
Chamber of the unliving	33,000 gp
Cloudgathering orb	33,000 gp
Oaken guardian	33,000 gp
Orb of pleasant breezes	33,000 gp
Prison of blades	33,000 gp
Sigils of suppression	33,000 gp
Speaking stones	33,000 gp
Tree of jaunting, greater	33,000 gp
Inscriptions of urgency	35,000 gp
Map of tactics, greater	36,000 gp
Summoning stone (VIII)	36,000 gp
Bed of restoration	38,000 gp
Platform of levitation (greater)	40,000 gp
Table of feasting	43,200 gp
Bier of resurrection	44,500 gp
Inscriptions of concealment	45,500 gp
Inscriptions of falsehood	45,500 gp
Upside-down room	45,500 gp
Summoning stone (IX)	45,900 gp
Chamber of safety, greater	50,000 gp
Pool of scrying, greater	50,000 gp
Hall of chaos	60,000 gp
Hall of friendship	60,000 gp
Hall of holiness	60,000 gp
Hall of law	60,000 gp
Prismatic prison	60,000 gp
Secure chamber	60,000 gp
Unholy hall	60,000 gp
Windstorm’s eye	60,000 gp
Cabinet of stasis	66,000 gp
Sigils of antimagic	66,000 gp
Hurricane’s eye	75,000 gp
Platform of jaunting, greater	75,000 gp
Room of rending	76,500 gp
Tornado’s eye	90,000 gp
Bed of regeneration	91,000 gp
Platform of telekinesis (greater)	100,000 gp