The 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide introduces a whole chapter dedicated to Bastions, which allow your players to build and run their own home base with the help of NPC hirelings. By interacting with their Bastion, players can gain rewards, buff their character, and build a retinue of followers—but how do you incorporate this system into your D&D campaign?

Here, we’ll look at some homebrewed hooks that can act as inspiration for building adventures around your players’ Bastion.

• Give Their Bastion Some Class
• Getting on the Property Ladder
• A Series of Adventurous Events
• Sidequests for Sidekicks
• Home Is Where the Plot Is

Give Their Bastion Some Class

Artist: Noor Rahman

A Bastion can be any structure or locale that the players could use as a base of operations. If you're looking to seed potential Bastions that your players' characters could acquire, here are some suggestions for each class.

Keep in mind that the Bastion should still contain the appropriate number of facilities and special facilities for the character's level. There are also ideas in the examples below for how the Bastion can be expanded as the character levels up!

Getting on the Property Ladder

Artist: Noor Rahman

The Bastion system makes Bastions available to your players at or after level 5, but how do you go about giving them a Bastion in a way that is satisfying and exciting? Here are some homebrewed ideas to provide inspiration for situations in which your party has agreed to share a connected Bastion.

Tiers of Play

As described in chapter 4 of the 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide, tiers of play are four-level ranges that describe the broad scope of adventure situations based on the capabilities of players within that range.

While more information can be found in the Adventure Situations by Level section in chapter 4, here is a brief summary of the four tiers of play:

1. Levels 1-4: Local Heroes. Adventuring to save local towns and villages, fighting cultists, beasts, and bandits.
2. Levels 5-10: Heroes of the Realm. The fate of an entire region rests in the character's hands as they encounter giants, golems, and demons.
3. Levels 11-16: Masters of the Realm. The nation, or even the world, depends on the players as they face off against purple worms, beholders, and even adult dragons.
4. Levels 17-20: Masters of the World. Millions of lives depend on the heroes as they cross the world and even the planes fighting balors, titans, ancient dragons, and arch-devils.

Bastions as a Reward - Earning a Bastion

Finder’s, Keepers - Capturing a Bastion

Planning Permission - Building a Bastion

A Series of Adventurous Events

Artist: Craig J Spearing

Whenever a character in command of a Bastion issues the Maintain order, there is the possibility of a Bastion event occurring. These events can be positive or negative and are usually handled by the hirelings present in the Bastion, rather than the player's characters.

While there aren't normally any lasting outcomes from Bastion events other than potentially losing a Bastion defender or access to a special facility for a short period of time, you can mix it up to up the stakes!

Here are some homebrew suggestions to tweak events so they have lingering consequences that can lead to situations in which the players will have to get involved.

There’s No I In Team

Bastions are awarded on a per-character basis, but the players can combine them into a single structure. In cases where the character's Bastions aren't connected, introducing story hooks that center around one player's Bastion may leave the other party members feeling left out or disinterested.

Try to avoid spending too much time focusing on the drama surrounding a single player's Bastion, limiting such quests to a session or two. In such a quest, present it as an opportunity for the other players to possibly play as hirelings using the sidekick rules from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything or even make brand new player characters that are recruited to assist the player whose Bastion is the focus.

This can be a great opportunity for players to try out different classes and character options.

Alternatively, you can save Bastion-centric adventuring for times when your full group isn’t available, and you’re unable to proceed with the main campaign. Running Bastion-based one-shots is a great way to keep playing within the world of the campaign without having any player feel left out of the main story. Adventures that center around a Bastion's hirelings work exceptionally well for this.

Attack Event

In this event, your player character's Bastion is attacked, but the Bastion Defenders manage to turn aside the invading force.

Criminal Hireling Event

In this event, it's revealed that one of your Bastion's hirelings has a criminal past, and officials or bounty hunters seek the hireling's arrest.

Request for Aid

In this event, the player character's Bastion is called upon to aid a nearby faction or community.

Sidequests for Sidekicks

While the players' characters are the stars of the show when it comes to your campaign, sometimes you’ll want to shift the focus elsewhere in order to build out your world.

Hirelings are excellent for this, as you can turn them into playable characters for one-shots in order to build out the world and let your players explore side quests and different game options without derailing the main campaign.

These homebrewed suggestions can serve as a springboard for hireling one-shots, whether you make hirelings into full-blown player characters or use the sidekick rules from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything.

Each of these hooks is tied to a specific special facility to give you a jumping-off point.

Home Is Where the Plot Is

Artist: David Auden Nash

Often, the very act of owning one can bring all sorts of exciting opportunities to the player's doorstep, both figuratively and literally. Here is a selection of homebrewed ideas to inspire adventures that center around the trouble that can befall a Bastion:

Lord Hoa and the Bastion Owners Alliance (Tier 2-3). Lord Nimby Hoa, a bothersome gnomish noble whose rule includes the lands of the party’s Bastion, leads the Bastion Owners Alliance and has sent down a series of ridiculous edicts. All moats must have a minimum of 10 feet of fresh water and no more than four alligators. Portcullises must be oiled and polished bi-weekly (it's never clarified if this means twice a week or once every two weeks). Sieges must be scheduled in advance, and no catapults may be fired between sunset and sunrise. The list doesn’t end. If the adventurers don’t wish to be mired in never-ending work keeping their Bastion compliant, they must infiltrate the Bastion Owners Alliance and wrest control from Lord Hoa.

The Haunted Bastion (Tier 2). An Undead creature roams the halls and corridors of the player's Bastion, terrorizing hirelings and guests alike; the party must find the spirit and help lay it to rest. However, if that is not possible, they must find some other way to end its reign of terror. What the party must do might depend on the type of Undead. Here are some suggestions:

• Ghost: The spirit of someone who was murdered within the walls of the Bastion roams the halls, forever trapped here until their bones are given a proper burial. The players must explore previously unknown ruins below the Bastion and solve the ghosts' cryptic clues in order to find their earthly remains.
• Vampire: A blood drinker has infiltrated the Bastion as a guest or even a hireling, and preys on its victims as they sleep. Using deception and subterfuge to go undetected, the players need to figure out who the interloper is before it’s too late.
• Revenant: A damned soul seeking vengeance has come knocking at the doors and will not be refused, and any who stand in its way will surely die. The players must find some way of stopping the unstoppable before more die as this spirit of revenge roams the Bastion.

Bastion Murder Mystery (Tier 2). It is the grand opening of a new special facility within the Bastion, and the party is entertaining guests with a party when suddenly a noble is found murdered in a side room. A classic whodunit! If the players can’t figure out who committed the crime before the carriages arrive at sunrise to take the guests home, the killer will escape, and the party will lose no small amount of trust in the eyes of their neighbors. Was it one of the guests? Was it a hireling? Or maybe some other unknown third party has infiltrated the Bastion. The finger of suspicion even turns towards the party as paranoia rises.

Plot Hook, Line, and Sinker

Bastions in the 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide provide not just fun mechanical benefits to your players but also a great way to bring the adventure to them. A stronghold, keep, or safehouse will naturally attract attention, and with that attention comes opportunities for excitement, drama, and adventure.

The homebrewed plot hooks I’ve shared with you here will hopefully provide inspiration and jumping-off points for you to write your own sidequests and one-shots revolving around your players' Bastions!

Davyd is a moderator for D&D Beyond. A Dungeon Master of over fifteen years, he enjoys Marvel movies, writing, and of course running D&D for his friends and family, including his daughter Willow (well, one day). The three of them live with their two cats Asker and Khatleesi in south of England.