Bastion Rules Overview

Bastions

D&D Dungeon Master's Guide 2024

A Bastion is a location that belongs to a player character: a home, a stronghold, and a place of power that the character develops over the course of a campaign. A Bastion offers a character temporary refuge from the dangerous world of adventuring, and it provides opportunities for a character to craft magic items, conduct research, harvest poisons, build ships, and carry out a range of other activities.
There’s no need to choose between going on adventures and commanding a Bastion; a character can do both at once. A Bastion has special facilities that generate benefits, and these facilities can also undertake projects while the character is otherwise occupied.

Gaining a Bastion

If you allow Bastions in your campaign, characters acquire their Bastions when they reach level 5. You and the players can decide together how these Bastions come into being. A character might inherit or receive a parcel of land on which to build their Bastion (see “Marks of Prestige” in chapter 3), or they might take a preexisting structure and refurbish it. It’s fair to assume that work has been going on behind the scenes of the campaign during a character’s early adventuring career, so the Bastion is ready when the character reaches level 5.
The shape, style, and function of a character’s Bastion are up to the player to determine. For example, a Wizard might build a tower, a Cleric might establish a shrine, a Fighter might build a fortified keep or similar stronghold, and a Rogue might establish a guildhall or lodge. Characters of other classes might choose one of these forms or combine them—a Paladin’s Bastion might be similar to a Cleric’s shrine but as fortified as a Fighter’s stronghold. And multiple characters can combine their Bastions to form a single large structure (see “Bastion Map”).
Every Bastion has facilities that serve basic needs as well as special ones, such as libraries, menageries, and workshops (see “Basic Facilities” and “Special Facilities”).
House Rules: The characters can buy and improve property at any level. If a character has a property of some sort, and reaches at least 5th level, they can use that property as a Bastion, which no gains two 5th-level Special Facilities per the Bastion Rules. The Buying Property rules are a replacement for Bastion Basic Facilities.

Bastion Turns

As time passes in the campaign, players take Bastion turns to reflect the activity occurring in their Bastions, whether or not the characters are present. On a Bastion turn, a character can issue orders to the special facilities in their Bastion or issue the Maintain order to the entire Bastion (see “Orders”).

Frequency of Bastion Turns

By default, a Bastion turn occurs every 7 days of in-game time. Here are common examples of players taking one or more Bastion turns:

• The characters are on a long journey away from their Bastions. After the characters have been away for 7 days, you might say, “Time for a Bastion turn. Since you’re not there, we’ll assume you issue the Maintain order for your Bastions.” Then roll for events as described in the “Bastion Events” section in this chapter.

• The characters spend 7 days or more in their Bastions between adventures. You might say, “You have six weeks to spend in your Bastions. Go ahead and resolve six Bastion turns.”

• The characters return to their Bastions in the midst of an adventure. You might say, “You have just enough time to take a Bastion turn before you leave again in the morning.”

• The characters are adventuring near their Bastions and resting in their Bastions at night. You might say, “It’s been a week since your last Bastion turn, so you can take one now.”

You can slow the frequency of Bastion turns to better serve the needs of your players and your campaign. For example, if the characters have months between adventures, you can call for a Bastion turn every month instead of every 7 days, so the characters aren’t issuing so many orders or reaping too many benefits at once.
Bastion Turns are another type of Downtime Activity.

Special Facilities

Special facilities are Bastion locations where certain activities yield game benefits. A character’s Bastion initially has two special facilities of the character’s choice for which they qualify. Each special facility can be chosen only once unless its description says otherwise.
Unlike basic facilities, special facilities can’t be bought; a character gains them through level advancement. At level 9, a character gains two additional special facilities of their choice for which they qualify; they gain one additional facility at level 13 and another at level 17. The Special Facility Acquisition table shows the total number of special facilities in a character’s Bastion. Each new special facility immediately becomes part of the character’s Bastion when the character reaches the level.
Each time a character gains a level, that character can replace one of their Bastion’s special facilities with another for which the character qualifies.

Special Facility Acquisition

Level (Special Facilities)

• 5 (2)

• 9 (4)

• 13 (5)

• 17 (6)

Requirements

Each special facility has a level. A character must be that level or higher to gain that facility. A special facility might also have a prerequisite the character must meet to gain that facility. For example, only a character who can use an Arcane Focus or a tool as a Spellcasting Focus can have an Arcane Study. Space
A special facility occupies a certain amount of space (see “Facility Space”). A player can configure the squares of a special facility as desired on the Bastion’s map. A special facility can be enlarged to grant additional benefits if its description says so.

Hirelings

A special facility comes with one or more hirelings who work in the facility, maintain it, and execute Bastion orders there, as described in the next section. A player can assign names and personalities to hirelings in their character’s Bastion using the same tools DMs use to create NPCs (see chapter 3).
Each special facility in a Bastion generates enough income to pay the salary of its hirelings. Hirelings follow the orders they’re given and are loyal to the Bastion’s owner.
To generate a stablock for your hirelings, start with a commoner statblock and use the following parameters when creating Hirelings.

• Abilities: Choose three abilities. One raises to a 14, one raises to a 12, and one reduces to an 8.

• Skills/Tools/Professions: Choose three skills, tools or professions that the hireling is trained in.

Orders

On a Bastion turn, a character in their Bastion can issue special orders—called Bastion orders—to one or more of their Bastion’s special facilities. A character needn’t issue orders to all the special facilities in their Bastion on a given Bastion turn.
The Maintain order is unusual; it is issued to the whole Bastion rather than to one or more special facilities. If a character isn’t in their Bastion on a given Bastion turn, the Bastion acts as though it were issued the Maintain order on that turn unless the owner can communicate with the Bastion hirelings using the Sending spell or similar magic.
The orders are as follows:

Craft

Hirelings in the special facility craft an item that can be made in that facility. 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. The hirelings have proficiencies with Artisan’s Tools as specified in the facility’s description.

Empower

The special facility confers a temporary empowerment to you or someone else.

Harvest

Hirelings gather a resource produced in the special facility. 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 DM rolls once on the Bastion Events table at the end of this chapter. Bastion events are resolved before the next Bastion turn.

Recruit

Hirelings recruit creatures to the Bastion. These creatures might include one or more Bastion Defenders, whose main purpose is to defend the Bastion if it is attacked (see “Bastion Events” at the end of this chapter). The Bastion generates enough income to provide for the needs of its Bastion Defenders.

Research

Hirelings in the special facility gather information.

Trade

Hirelings buy and sell goods or services stored or produced in this special facility.

Special Facility Lists

Special facilities are presented in alphabetical order. The Special Facilities table lists all the special facilities presented in this section, along with their prerequisites and orders. Some facilities confer additional benefits, specified in their descriptions.

Special Facilities (5th Level)

• Level: Special Facility (Prerequisite, Order)

• 5: Arcane Study (Ability to use an Arcane Focus or a tool as a Spellcasting Focus, Craft)

• 5: Armory (None, Trade)

• 5: Barrack (None, Recruit)

• 5: Garden (None, Harvest)

• 5: Library (None, Research)

• 5: Sanctuary (Ability to use a Holy Symbol or Druidic Focus as a Spellcasting Focus, Craft)

• 5: Smithy (None, Craft)

• 5: Storehouse (None, Trade)

• 5: Workshop (None, Craft)

Special Facilities (9th Level)

• Level: Special Facility (Prerequisite, Order)

• 9: Gaming Hall (None, Trade)

• 9: Greenhouse (None, Harvest)

• 9: Laboratory (None*, Craft)

• 9: Sacristy (Ability to use a Holy Symbol or Druidic Focus as a Spellcasting Focus, Craft)

• 9: Scriptorium (None*, Craft)

• 9: Stable (None, Trade)

• 9: Teleportation Circle (None**, Recruit)

• 9: Theater (None, Empower)

• 9: Training Area (None, Empower)

• 9: Trophy Room (None, Research)

Special Facilities (13th Level)

• Level: Special Facility (Prerequisite, Order)

• 13: Archive (None, Research)

• 13: Meditation Chamber (None, Empower)

• 13: Menagerie (None, Recruit)

• 13: Observatory (Ability to use a Spellcasting Focus, Empower)

• 13: Pub (None, Research)

• 13: Reliquary (Ability to use a Holy Symbol or Druidic Focus as a Spellcasting Focus, Harvest)

Special Facilities (17th Level)

• Level: Special Facility (Prerequisite, Order)

• 17: Demiplane (Ability to use an Arcane Focus or a tool as a Spellcasting Focus, Empower)

• 17: Guildhall (Expertise in a skill, Recruit)

• 17: Sanctum (Ability to use a Holy Symbol or Druidic Focus as a Spellcasting Focus, Empower)

• 17: War Room (Fighting Style feature or Unarmored Defense feature, Recruit)

*Certain orders that can be issued to these facilities have additional prerequisites.
**Teleportation Circles can be created using the rules in the spell description and also as an item of Wondrous Architecture, magic items that are added to a character's stronghold or base of operations. In either case, the character would not get the same advantages as installing the Bastion Version.

Bastion Events

Bastion events occur when a Bastion is operating under the Maintain order, which often means that the Bastion’s owner isn’t present in the Bastion at the time. That means these events can be opportunities for the player to take on the role of the Bastion’s hirelings and roleplay their reactions to these events.