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Bastions are bases of operations for players inDungeons & Dragons, making them the ones in control of everything that happens within it. While random events can still put the denizens of the bastion in danger, the facilities within it can help players be better prepared for their adventures.
As a barbarian, you don’t need to be on the road all the time; sometimes, staying at home and resting can make the next time you rage all the better. If you want to build the perfect bastion for your barbarian, keep the following special facilities in mind.
Bastion Level Five
Level five is when youfinally gain your bastion, the small piece of land that you can call your own. You candesign the bastion however you want, and add as many simple facilities as you can afford, but sincethey add no gameplay changes, we won’t cover them.
Your bastion could be just a house, or it could bea place that reflects the desires and goals of your character.A path of the world tree barbarian might have a viking-style house with decorative runes, while a path of the zealot barbarian might be living in a temple dedicated to their deity.
In terms of gameplay functions,the most important areas of your bastion are the special facilities.You can addtwo at level five, chosen from a limited pool of facilities; these options expand at levels nine, 13 and 17.
Special Facilities
One of the most useful facilities at this stage of play isthe garden, giving youa free way of earning rations, poisons or potions of healing.The garden makesone item every seven days, and you need to be there to pick it up, but it is still for free.
As a barbarian, however, you might value having yourown personal smith more.The smithy is the facility for you then, letting youcraft items made with smith’s tools, although you still have to pay the crafting costs (usually half the item’s price).
Finally,the barracksis another facility to consider, since it isthe only source of bastion defenders.If youaren’t at your bastionto issue orders, thenthere is a chance that the place will be attacked, and having bastion defenders is the only way to ensure that your facilities remain functional.
Bastion Level Nine
At level nine, not only can you addtwo more special facilitiesto your bastions, you alsogain new optionsas well asold ones gaining new features.The smithy, for example, can nowmake magical armaments of common and uncommon rarity, giving you a simple and cheap way to earn all sorts of magical weapons.
If you have boththe barracks and the smithy, thenthe armory is a great fit.It lets youuse gold to arm your bastion defenders, making them better prepared the next time your bastion is attacked, andthe smithy makes the gold you need to spend be reduced by half.
The workshopis a facility that was available since level five, but it wasn’t all that useful for barbarians at that stage. At level nine, though, the facility lets you craft common and uncommon magical implements, something you may combine with the smithy to be very well equipped.
If most of the campaign happensin the vicinity of your bastion, theninvesting in a training areacan make your character more effective in various scenarios. You need tospend a week in your bastionfor the benefits to manifest, and they only do so for seven days, but you’re able to gain abilities likereducing damage from attacksorgaining proficiency in skillsyou may lack.
On the other hand,if you’re spending most of your time awayfrom your bastion, then investing inways to better travel back to itwould be to your benefit.The teleportation circlecan work if the setting you are playing in utilizes them, otherwise,the stable is a safer choice.
Replacing Facilities
If you regret one of your facility choices,you can swap them each time you gain a level.This opens up experimentation, since you may want a workshop for only a short while until all the items you need are crafted, then swap it for whatever else you desire.
If you choose to havea garden at level five, then this is an ideal moment toreplace it with a greenhouse.If you used the garden mostlyto gain potions of healing, then now you can use the greenhouse to gain the same benefit butwith potions of greater healing.
Bastion Level 13
A few more facilities get unlocked at level 13, butyou can only add one of theminstead of two. You may also considerreplacing some old facilities with new ones, depending on what might catch your eye among the new options.
One of the better level 13 facilities isthe meditation chamber, since it lets youroll twice when choosing a bastion event, making the odds of an attack quite low. It also lets youmeditate for a weekto earnadvantage on two kinds of saving throws, somethingyou can stack with the benefit of the training area.
You may also considerhaving a pub, a great place togather information about the surroundings of your bastion.You can alsodrink from a special brewing recipeto gain all kinds ofbenefits for 24 hours, like darkvision or spider climb.
Bastion Level 17
If your campaign is still going at this stage of the game, then you’ll earn access to a series of facilities madeto bring it to a close.They all have a series of prerequisites, with all character classes allowing you to at least access one of them, if not more.
The final facility meant for barbarians isthe war room, a place where you canhire lieutenants and form armies.The lieutenants are loyal to you, sharing your alignment, and whilethey don’t count as bastion defenders, they doreduce how many are lostwhen the bastion is attacked.
The real use of your lieutenants is for them toraise an army in your name.While you need to pay for their food, this makes for a great storytelling device when it is time to face the army of the BBEG; you no longer need to beg for the aid of a kingdom, you can justface the evil yourself.
If you are in charge of defending several bastions, then the war room is a must-have even if you never use the feature for forming an army.
The other interesting facility at this stage isthe guildhall, although youneed to have expertise in a skillfor this option to be available. There areseveral feats that allow you to gain this expertisethough, so you’re able to easily work towards gaining the feature before level 17.
The point of the guildhall is to senda group of specialized individuals to serve a specific purpose.This can be an adventurer’s guild that tackles simple yet important missionsfor you, or amason’s guild that makes protective wallsin your name free of charge.
