After ten days, I finally got around to watching the Bastions video released by the official Dungeons and Dragons YouTube channel. After seeing an entire CHAPTER dedicated to bastions in One Dnd, all I can say is that I am slowly becoming more and more of a fan of the next edition of the best roleplaying game ever.
As I mentioned, there is going to be an entire chapter dedicated to bastions in 5.5e and the Unearthed Arcana had 23 pages for players to look at and playtest. Let’s do a bit of a deep dive into what we are going to be offered.
Players are part of the narrative that they are helping to sculpt the story of the campaign and bastions are a way for them to kind of double down and become invested in the setting by saying this piece of the setting is mine
– CHRIS perkins
What exactly is a Bastion?
A Bastion is a stronghold. It is a base where players to gather in safety and don’t have to worry especially hard about incoming danger.
It is funny that Bastions are just now officially being introduced into the game. I know that I, and many other Dungeons and Dragons players, naturally create or find locations that we visit and rest at in between. These new rules provide a way that allows the bastion to promote spending time thinking about your base, encourage social encounters, and even passively earn you income.
How to Receive a Bastion in One DnD?
When a player character turns level 5, they gain access to the Bastion section of the DMG and they will work with you to create their home. These Bastions look like they can be rewarded individually or players can choose to combine it into one structure. There are several ways for players to receive this and it just depends on the narrative and the DM’s discretion. Here are just some examples:
- Reward: After saving the city once again, the king offers them a plot of land to do with what they want.
- Built: Skip the legwork and start laying bricks! Perhaps a noble in your party has the funds and decided to build one for the party.
- Captured: Defeated that wicked hard party of thieves in the woods? Looks like they won’t need this stronghold anymore.
- Rebuilt: Perhaps you get a steal of a deal from someone selling a run-down manor on the edge of the city.
Building and or Renovating your Bastion
Facility Space
Facility spaces come in three sizes: Cramped (4 squares), Roomy (16 squares), and Vast (36 squares), with areas that can span multiple floors. Characters can expand Cramped and Roomy facilities by investing their hard-earned coin.
Special Facilities
Special facilities offer mechanical benefits, such as crafting, research, or other unique functions. These make me as a DM so excited as I feel as if this will allow me to craft the worldbuilding with my players. Characters receive two special facilities at level 5 and unlock more at higher levels. These facilities will not require time or gold to build.
Special Facility Rewards
Hirelings at special facilities can be assigned orders to activate various benefits, such as temporary hit points or magical effects. Some facilities, like the Pub or Demiplane, provide ongoing advantages that enhance gameplay and character abilities.
While these seem very interesting, I am afraid of tracking all of this information might be too much for the players involved and might even add too much to the game. One example, like the pub, can allow a magical effect be given to the players just for being level 13 and unlocking it. This mechanic is called Bigby’s Burden and I can see this being taken advantage of in 20 different ways off the top of my head.
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Hirelings
Every time a player creates a new special facility, it will automatically come with trained hirelings that don’t need to be paid, since it is supposedly assumed that the facility would automatically pay them.
Bastion Events
Bastion Events will come from a table of a mix of harmful or beneficial events that happen directly to the Bastion. Davyd, a moderator for D&D Beyond gave the following example for one.
- REQUEST FOR AID: Your Bastion is called on to help a local leader. Perhaps there’s a search for a missing person, or brigands are plaguing the area. If you help, you must dispatch one or more Bastion Defenders. Roll 1d6 for each Bastion Defender you send. If the total is 10 or higher, the problem is solved and you earn a reward of 1d6 x 100 GP. If the total is less than 10, the problem is still solved, but the reward is halved and one of your Bastion Defenders is killed. Remove that Bastion Defender from your Bastion Roster.
Just a simple roll of the dice could add some interesting narrative elements that I wouldn’t have thought of. This gives me the vibe that hirelings are meant to be viewed more as “numbers”, rather than people. When I run this, I would make sure to have a list of notable NPCs near-by to pull at my character’s heartstrings in case something wrong happens.
Bastion Turns
Once per in-game week, you will be able to take what DnD is calling a Bastion Order, which is the Bastion’s Turn that is dictated by the character player. Here are the options that we know for sure:
Craft: Hirelings in the special facility begin crafting an item that can be made in that facility. You can also do the work yourself, but if you do so, the work is suspended when you leave the Bastion until you return. During the time required to Craft an item, the facility can’t be used to craft anything else, even if a special ability allows the facility to carry out two orders at once
Empower: The special facility confers temporary empowerment to the player character or someone else.
Harvest: A resource is produced in the special facility, and hirelings gather it. You can also do the gathering yourself, but if you do so, the work is suspended when you leave the Bastion until you return. During the time required to Harvest a resource, the facility can’t be used to Harvest anything else, even if a special ability allows the facility to carry out two orders at once.
Maintain: All the Bastion’s hirelings focus on maintaining the Bastion rather than executing orders in special facilities. Issuing this order prohibits other orders from being issued to the Bastion on the current Bastion turn. Each time the Maintain order is issued, the character who issued the order gains 1d4 Bastion Points for each special facility in their Bastion and the DM rolls on the Bastion Events table. Bastion events are resolved before the next Bastion turn.
Recruit: Hirelings recruit creatures to your Bastion.
Research: Hirelings in the special facility gather information. You can also do the research yourself, but if you do so, the work is suspended when you leave the Bastion until you return.
Trade: Hirelings buy and sell goods or services stored or produced in this special facility.
In Conclusion
The introduction of the Bastion mechanic in the new edition of Dungeons and Dragons will be very exciting and create opportunities for deeper player engagement and world-building by allowing players to create personal strongholds within the game, something we already do without much benefit. However, the complexity of these new rules may overwhelm players and reduce hirelings to a numbers game, potentially detracting from the overall experience of immersion in a fantasy world. Overall though, I find myself very excited to waste my hours away over my game table trying to build the best stronghold in the city.
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