Im designing a castle dungeon crawl. However it is not a haunted castle, or in ruins, and is very much populated. PCs would very likely be going through it during a time of conflict, so it would be on heightened security, and having some defenses active within the castle, with the objective being to assassinate the Lord of the castle. On top of guard patrols and stuff, what kinds of traps, puzzles, and the like would you suggest for making this more interesting? Or defenses to protect the Lord?
Some questions: What level are the PCs? How high is the magic level? How rich is the castle owner? Is it reasonable that someone has been casting Mordenkainen’s Private Sanctum, or Guards and Wards or other similar spells in the area?
After that, if I’m a guard at that castle and see the intruders, I’m going to start yelling for help and bring the entire castle worth of resources down on the party. Similar reaction if I hear fighting I’m not involved in.
What I’m getting at here is, this feels like a stealth mission, and D&D doesn’t usually work very well with stealth missions, unless there’s a very specific party composition. On one hand, I’m very much of the school of: design the defenses and let the party figure out how to break through them. But depending on level, this kind of thing could really set things up for failure.
Considering that it populated there probably wouldn't be anything non-guard activated considering a civilian could get lost and trip a wire so any traps would probably be activated via leaver/button. This could probably be used to the PCs advantage by luring guards over traps for a quick and silent kill. Other than that, I would add some sort of sewer system or catacombs to allow the PCs to actually get into the castle.
This is honestly a pretty hard stealth section to pull off cus if you have one paladin or barbarian or fighter that's not good at stealth than the whole party's goanna have a hard time or will have to split the party to have the non-stealthy PCs go and cause a distraction or something. While stealth is important, turning a whole dungeon into a stealth section is a hard ask and your goanna need some more professional advice than mine if you want to pull this off correctly, especially if your whole party isn't rouges/rangers.
PCs will be probably at least lvl 11 by then, if not a couple levels higher. Magic level is fairly high in all of my campaigns. Castle owner is the Lord Commander of a small unit of knights that have access to magic. Basically, the Lord has deemed the citys leaders to be too weak and has instigated an insurrection. So the castle will be on alert, but many of his units will be out in the city trying to take over.
And thats one thing I am trying to avoid, is having one fight be a "all hell break loose" moment.
Im not familiar with Moredenkainens Private Scantum.
I appreciate the honesty. And thats exactly what I want to avoid. I just replied to someone else, but the Lord of the castle has incited an insurrection in the city, and many of his guards will be out in the city trying to take over/establish a (new world) order. So yes, the castle will be on high alert, but shouldnt be terribly crawling with guards either. But that other point, of having traps so the guards wouldnt stumble into them, was another hang up I was running into.
Private sanctum is a 4th level spell that can prevent scrying, divination and teleporting into an area (100’ cube), among other things. In a high magic world, I’d expect most well-resourced types to have it up in their castle/home base. If you cast it in the same place for a year it’s permanent and there’s no reason he might not have a couple adjacent to each other if he’s got a big space.
Trying to kill a guy in his own castle is really going to be tough. At level 11, they should likely be able to handle a couple waves of low-level guards. That could work, actually, you let the guards drain some character resources do the final boss fight is a bit harder.
Or, if you want to be nice, use a distraction. Maybe the PCs have allies who volunteer to raise a ruckus in a different part of town, which draws some of the soldiers away. Or the allies start an assault on the castle, so there will already be sounds of battle, which could provide some cover for the PCs.
antypathy/sympathy. the guards have magic items that let them ignore this.
a small creature with an extremely fast climb speed and some kind of flyby trait runs around on the walls and activates the traps before running away
ghosts.
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About Me: Godless monster in human form bent on extending their natural life to unnatural extremes /general of the goose horde /Moderator of Vinstreb School for the Gifted /holder of the evil storyteller badge of no honor /king of madness /The FBI/ The Archmage of I CAST...!
Alignment: Lawful Evil
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Gotcha. Ill definitely add in some of those defenses. And they will by that point definitely have allies to assist with things like distractions or cover their entrance to the castle. Since the Lords unit is relatively small (albeit highly specialized) by this point he will have been stocking up on much lower level clockwork and warforge guards, and some weaker knights. Probably only a few of his elite unit will remain in the castle.
Any other ideas for some basic traps in the castle? Inner castle defenses they might have to work around? Only idea I have is certain (quicker, more accessable areas) being sealed off by magic gates and needing to find the power source and destroy it to unlock areas of the castle.
Well, magic gates shouldn't really be a problem, they can just dispel the magic. I'd urge you not to think in video game terms of: here's the "correct" way to overcome a given obstacle. Sure, put in magic gates, just be ready for the players to have resources to let them get past them that aren't what you'd planned.
Traps are kind of odd thing. They're fun to incorporate, but you need to keep them practical. If I were the Lord, why would I put in a pit trap that is just as likely to catch my own people. So for traps in an active, lived in place, it can be better to have things that are manually activated by a guard -- they pull the lever and an explosion goes off. (Which can be cool, it's like giving a fighter a 1-time use of a fireball). Alternatively, a safe path through. Like that pit trap is there, but if you step on squares x,y and z, you can get past it safely.
And this lord, if he's not a complete moron, will have an exit plan. A tunnel he can access, a friend with teleport memorized. If he sees the writing on the wall, he should have a way to retreat, maybe even without fighting. This, btw, can be really fun. it allows the PCs to win since the "defeat" him and chase him away and end his grip on the area. But now, they've got a recurring enemy with a grudge against the party.
Yeah, thats a fair point. I do play a lot of video games, so thats sometimes where my inspiration comes from, but I see your point.
I think I just had a brilliant idea, actually, with the manually activated traps. Something like a sort of security room for each floor. Scrying down hallways like cameras, and watching to manually activate the traps. But if the players find it, they can spy on a floor and start turning the traps against the few guards or automates soldiers that are there. And if the players go with a distraction, then that could explain away some of the alarm, as there is already stuff happening.
I think I now have an idea of how to handle this. I appreciate it!!
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Hello all!
Im designing a castle dungeon crawl. However it is not a haunted castle, or in ruins, and is very much populated. PCs would very likely be going through it during a time of conflict, so it would be on heightened security, and having some defenses active within the castle, with the objective being to assassinate the Lord of the castle. On top of guard patrols and stuff, what kinds of traps, puzzles, and the like would you suggest for making this more interesting? Or defenses to protect the Lord?
Thank you in advance!
Some questions: What level are the PCs? How high is the magic level? How rich is the castle owner? Is it reasonable that someone has been casting Mordenkainen’s Private Sanctum, or Guards and Wards or other similar spells in the area?
After that, if I’m a guard at that castle and see the intruders, I’m going to start yelling for help and bring the entire castle worth of resources down on the party. Similar reaction if I hear fighting I’m not involved in.
What I’m getting at here is, this feels like a stealth mission, and D&D doesn’t usually work very well with stealth missions, unless there’s a very specific party composition. On one hand, I’m very much of the school of: design the defenses and let the party figure out how to break through them. But depending on level, this kind of thing could really set things up for failure.
Hmm
Considering that it populated there probably wouldn't be anything non-guard activated considering a civilian could get lost and trip a wire so any traps would probably be activated via leaver/button. This could probably be used to the PCs advantage by luring guards over traps for a quick and silent kill. Other than that, I would add some sort of sewer system or catacombs to allow the PCs to actually get into the castle.
This is honestly a pretty hard stealth section to pull off cus if you have one paladin or barbarian or fighter that's not good at stealth than the whole party's goanna have a hard time or will have to split the party to have the non-stealthy PCs go and cause a distraction or something. While stealth is important, turning a whole dungeon into a stealth section is a hard ask and your goanna need some more professional advice than mine if you want to pull this off correctly, especially if your whole party isn't rouges/rangers.
PCs will be probably at least lvl 11 by then, if not a couple levels higher. Magic level is fairly high in all of my campaigns. Castle owner is the Lord Commander of a small unit of knights that have access to magic. Basically, the Lord has deemed the citys leaders to be too weak and has instigated an insurrection. So the castle will be on alert, but many of his units will be out in the city trying to take over.
And thats one thing I am trying to avoid, is having one fight be a "all hell break loose" moment.
Im not familiar with Moredenkainens Private Scantum.
I appreciate the honesty. And thats exactly what I want to avoid. I just replied to someone else, but the Lord of the castle has incited an insurrection in the city, and many of his guards will be out in the city trying to take over/establish a (new world) order. So yes, the castle will be on high alert, but shouldnt be terribly crawling with guards either. But that other point, of having traps so the guards wouldnt stumble into them, was another hang up I was running into.
Private sanctum is a 4th level spell that can prevent scrying, divination and teleporting into an area (100’ cube), among other things. In a high magic world, I’d expect most well-resourced types to have it up in their castle/home base. If you cast it in the same place for a year it’s permanent and there’s no reason he might not have a couple adjacent to each other if he’s got a big space.
Trying to kill a guy in his own castle is really going to be tough. At level 11, they should likely be able to handle a couple waves of low-level guards. That could work, actually, you let the guards drain some character resources do the final boss fight is a bit harder.
Or, if you want to be nice, use a distraction. Maybe the PCs have allies who volunteer to raise a ruckus in a different part of town, which draws some of the soldiers away. Or the allies start an assault on the castle, so there will already be sounds of battle, which could provide some cover for the PCs.
antypathy/sympathy. the guards have magic items that let them ignore this.
a small creature with an extremely fast climb speed and some kind of flyby trait runs around on the walls and activates the traps before running away
ghosts.
Pronouns: Any/All
About Me: Godless monster in human form bent on extending their natural life to unnatural extremes /general of the goose horde /Moderator of Vinstreb School for the Gifted /holder of the evil storyteller badge of no honor /king of madness /The FBI/ The Archmage of I CAST...!
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Fun Fact: i gain more power the more you post on my forum threads. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
Gotcha. Ill definitely add in some of those defenses. And they will by that point definitely have allies to assist with things like distractions or cover their entrance to the castle. Since the Lords unit is relatively small (albeit highly specialized) by this point he will have been stocking up on much lower level clockwork and warforge guards, and some weaker knights. Probably only a few of his elite unit will remain in the castle.
Any other ideas for some basic traps in the castle? Inner castle defenses they might have to work around? Only idea I have is certain (quicker, more accessable areas) being sealed off by magic gates and needing to find the power source and destroy it to unlock areas of the castle.
Well, magic gates shouldn't really be a problem, they can just dispel the magic. I'd urge you not to think in video game terms of: here's the "correct" way to overcome a given obstacle. Sure, put in magic gates, just be ready for the players to have resources to let them get past them that aren't what you'd planned.
Traps are kind of odd thing. They're fun to incorporate, but you need to keep them practical. If I were the Lord, why would I put in a pit trap that is just as likely to catch my own people. So for traps in an active, lived in place, it can be better to have things that are manually activated by a guard -- they pull the lever and an explosion goes off. (Which can be cool, it's like giving a fighter a 1-time use of a fireball). Alternatively, a safe path through. Like that pit trap is there, but if you step on squares x,y and z, you can get past it safely.
And this lord, if he's not a complete moron, will have an exit plan. A tunnel he can access, a friend with teleport memorized. If he sees the writing on the wall, he should have a way to retreat, maybe even without fighting. This, btw, can be really fun. it allows the PCs to win since the "defeat" him and chase him away and end his grip on the area. But now, they've got a recurring enemy with a grudge against the party.
Yeah, thats a fair point. I do play a lot of video games, so thats sometimes where my inspiration comes from, but I see your point.
I think I just had a brilliant idea, actually, with the manually activated traps. Something like a sort of security room for each floor. Scrying down hallways like cameras, and watching to manually activate the traps. But if the players find it, they can spy on a floor and start turning the traps against the few guards or automates soldiers that are there. And if the players go with a distraction, then that could explain away some of the alarm, as there is already stuff happening.
I think I now have an idea of how to handle this. I appreciate it!!