Magical Sanctums and Towers in 5e Dungeons & Dragons and TTRPG

Рет қаралды 137,794

5 жыл бұрын

A place of magical power is one of the BEST places for a dungeon master to let their imagination run wild. Here's a sanctum-sized shot of inspiration for the next puzzling, magical tower, library, demiplane, or castle for your campaign's most powerful magic users.
This episode is brought to you by WORLD ANVIL! www.worldanvil.com/ The Ultimate Worldbuilding Platform for Gamemasters and Fiction Writers. Use the voucher code WEBDM for 15% off any 6 or 12 months membership (LIMITED TIME OFFER 2/13/19 - 2/23/19) or 10% off any 6 or 12 months membership which can be used in conjunction with any other offer.
ANNOUNCING THE TOWER OF POWER COMPETITION! We're teaming up with WORLD ANVIL for a contest! Create your arcane sanctum on World Anvil, and the writer of our favourite will win awesome prizes including loot straight from us! This contest starts today, 2/13/19 and will close on 2/23/19. LINK: www.worldanvil.com/community/...
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Пікірлер: 260

@WebDM 5 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching! Want more Web DM in your life? Check out our Patreon for our podcast, bonus vids, and more! Patreon.com/webdm Or our Twitch channel for live streamed ttrpgs every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday! Twitch.tv/webdm Or our live play archive on KZfaq: KZfaq.com/webdmplays

@aarondavis7391 5 жыл бұрын

Hey Jim and Pruitt, wanted to ask you about your oppinions of 3.5 vs 5e. Pros and cons...? Thank you, Aaron Davis

@stevenmichaelcunningham244 5 жыл бұрын

"Never gets old..." Pruitt blares over an already of...some...sorrrr..t..

@SkyTheBlessed 5 жыл бұрын

I think that at this point you owe us all a compilation of all the intros. Great episode as always and amazingly, it was just the type of discussion I needed to hear as I am making a wannabe lich's lair.

@cosmoreverb3943 5 жыл бұрын

I, for one, would love a compilation of Pruitt's puns. I'm surprised no-ones done one yet

@kirkcannon4704 5 жыл бұрын

Rusty Drone That would be awesome!!

@ROYBGP 5 жыл бұрын

Rusty Drone I (at this time) seventieth this

@saintmatthew956 5 жыл бұрын

This opening looked like it was made using a green screen. 🤔

@emophobe 5 жыл бұрын

Pruitt's Moving Castle

@dorkseid5874 5 жыл бұрын

I have an NPC in my homebrew, a Dwarven Wizard who's built his tower in a gigantic stalactite overlooking a river of magma. He's attended by constructs, with faces lovingly sculpted to look like those he's known who've gone before him. He's an abjurer who's dedicated his existence to protecting the last vestiges of his forgotten clan.

@tentavision5019 5 жыл бұрын

Dorkseid so cool

@kaleidoslug7777 5 жыл бұрын

Two words: Bad. Ass.

@das_ttv3411 5 жыл бұрын

*steals concept* lol

@some_hippies 5 жыл бұрын

Yoink

@dorkseid5874 5 жыл бұрын

I'm adding it to WorldAnvil, called Spire of Mourning. The TLDR: The NPC in question was part of a group of adventurers who thwarted "the Dark Lord" a couple hundred years ago. He returned home to the mountains where he barely stopped a cabal of cultists intent on harnessing the power of Ignus, the Elemental Lord of Fire. In the process however, the city below was destroyed in sacrifice to the ritual by the now constant flow of lava. He's been here all this time looking for a way to staunch the flow and return his people. OR Is he the high priest looking to finish his work and summon Ignus? That should be enough to get the gears going.

@zacharyharwell351 5 жыл бұрын

During a tangent, you mentioned a God of Knowledge and I had an idea: A God who has all the knowledge of the many worlds but doesn't REALIZE that that is the case, so he is constantly searching for that LAST bit of lore that doesn't actually exist. For me, this would probably cause him to be hyperactive, perhaps manic, due to his obsessive pursuit of knowledge, and all of the lore and such that he has obtained has warped the way he processes things, so when mortals or even other gods interact with him they often leave frustrated and confused because his logical leaps make no sense. Unable to find that last piece of data he NEEDS would also probably make him irritable (if you like the sort of ancient Greek model of Gods being "human-like"). Oh, and the ONE thing he absolutely HATES is the infamous Vecna, the Ascended, known at least in some circles as the "patron saint of dark, coveted secrets"

@DerekVerLee 5 жыл бұрын

random concept; the first time wizard summons a tower, it's already decorated and decked out, as if just for them, but not quite, some stuff is strange.. because it is what their future self would want, or because it is shared with alternate reality versions of themselves (edit less worse spelling and grammer)

@Mywhiteslave 5 жыл бұрын

Grammar*

@EvelynNdenial 4 жыл бұрын

literal plot point in the book series magic 2.0. one of the "wizards" goes back in time to find Atlantis, she finds it but it was actually just made by herself from the future who is an absolute dick to her younger self.

@Greatermememan 5 жыл бұрын

Sauron and Saurman have some dope towers.

@WebDM 5 жыл бұрын

Yes they do!

@gasmonkey1000 5 жыл бұрын

Memeboi Thatwitchcraft Google Nagashizzar. You'll thank me

@johnstuartkeller5244 5 жыл бұрын

Quality content and delivery, all the way through, as always, but your intros are the best in the business, bar none.

@WebDM 5 жыл бұрын

Thank you!

@johnstuartkeller5244 5 жыл бұрын

Daud A. : Bar pun? Sure, join right inn!

@zacharyharwell351 5 жыл бұрын

@@johnstuartkeller5244 That was so bad I think I got a headache; you could almost say it was un-bar-able

@fletcherdevery2891 5 жыл бұрын

So the Tower of Babel was really a Wizards tower. Where the confluence of power needed was really high up nice.

@cecilhawks2191 5 жыл бұрын

Literally creating a Mage Tower with some crazy shit all around it for next weeks game. PERFECT THANK YOU, GUYS!

@drakeford4860 5 жыл бұрын

Out of all the caster abodes that I've made, my favorite by far is the Millennium Tower. From the outside it looks like a worn-down half rotten shack. There's even an open window that you can climb into to reach the vacant, musty interior. Going in through the door however, leads you inside a massive and sprawling marble tower, with no external windows and wide floors and wings branching off from the main staircase, and numerous doors leading to identical shacks all over the Prime Material Plane. A hub and guildhall for associates Wizards, Sorcerers, Bards, Artificers, and even a few Druids (though certainly not Warlocks), the tower itself significantly predates its residents, and as much time goes into studying it as anything else- with at least a few overreaching spellcasters accidentally dying each year. Even on a quiet day, one will most certainly find some amount of explosions, chemical fires, indoor weather patterns, or the odd apprentice accidentally polymorph into a parrot. Curiously, the Tower itself seems to break many of the fundamental laws of magic- it's mere existence alone has been speculated to require magical upkeep well beyond 9th level, and there are numerous examples of extra-dimensional spaces nestled within extra-dimensional spaces nestled within yet more extra-dimensional spaces. There's even a rumor that Ao himself maintains an office in the building which can freely move between the uncountable levels and doors at his discretion.

@jimmystyles670 5 жыл бұрын

This sounds absolutely perfect, i am shamelessly stealing this for my own campaign world. Ill probably have my players get lost or stuck in there, with random role tables to determine the next segment of the "tower" they encounter. Getting lost in there would cause extraneous issues for the party, such as ending up many miles away from where they started. I'm kind of thinking it as the labyrinth from the Percy Jackson series, of from the movie labyrinth (the one with David Bowie).

@filthyoldman 5 жыл бұрын

MrRhexx did video about 10th and 11th level spells. It's really cool

@MiningwithPudding 4 жыл бұрын

*YOINK*

@xSharkNinjax 5 жыл бұрын

25:09 Mordenkainen’s Home for Conjured Friends

@AmigoRoberto 5 жыл бұрын

My favorite I've ever run I think was a wizards tower condo complex. Just 6 towers that had been magically and transdimensionally shoved into the same place of power. Imagine a 55 plus community with magic and dementia

@cattrucker8257 5 жыл бұрын

This channel is a place of power. Gotta be.

@WebDM 5 жыл бұрын

Constructed on the strongest lines that channel the great Algorithm!

@DarkWanderer149 4 жыл бұрын

Cat Trucker, how long will my Sign boost be if I meditate here.

@ashu21 3 жыл бұрын

@@DarkWanderer149 oof, that's a deep cut right there, fellow Witcher

@Bluecho4 5 жыл бұрын

I think the idea of wizards being in towers can be traced back to medieval Hermeticism, which heavily involved Astrology. Zodiacal and Planetary magics, where the position of the constellations and classical planets (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) needed to be accounted for during rituals. And that certain celestial alignments were conducive to different kinds of ritual work. As such, it's entirely appropriate for a wizard in the Hermetic tradition to want their sanctum to have a high, unobstructed view of the night sky. Hence, a tower from which the wizard can study the stars. I could easily see a Diviner or Conjurer having the top of their tower be an observatory of sorts. Smaller towers or less wealthy wizards might just have open windows or balconies with portable telescopes on them. Whereas a dedicated tower to an experienced, wealthy specialist could have this giant telescope, complete with an array of mechanisms that allow the wizard to move it around. Given that Diviners are of great value to merchants or nobility, such a project is not implausible from a wealth standpoint. (Plus, in DnD, some of the best Wizards are Gnomes, and Rock Gnomes are proficient with Tinker's Tools).

@williamozier918 5 жыл бұрын

This reminded me of how I had in the past wanted to do a campaign baed on using real life archaeological sites like Stonehenge and Giza, and work in their stellar alignments. The actual idea I had was that Comet Encke was coming, which was actually an apocalyptic god, and the characters would have to use the henges to teleport around the world and activate each henge to fire a magical beam that destroys Encke.

@99zxk 2 жыл бұрын

I've been listening to these guys for a year. I don't understand how they're not the biggest dnd channel on KZfaq. Great discussions everytime.

@jemm113 5 жыл бұрын

We procured a dwarven fortress outside of Waterdeep in our campaign. It has 4 floors exposed out the top of a hill and another 5 in the hill itself. Our Deep Gnome Wizard (arcanist) decided to make the forge double as his workshop and our clerics have Hallowed its grounds. We even found and hatched a Bronze dragon egg when we slayed a recently settled ancient blue dragon. Best part is that the bottom floor acts as a docks where we were able to keep the gg incubated and our druid is helping to parent it.

@KarmaKeyenore 5 жыл бұрын

I just finished a campaign (as a DM) with a giant tower as the main-problem. The tower originates from hell and was "summoned" by a wanna-be-Wizard named Klaus, who wants to harness the power of it. The tower is 100 stories tall and it's basement reaches down into the underworld. At the 100th floor was a big purple crystal that was emitting pulses of dark energy. The Tower brought dead things back to life (skeletons, ghouls, etc.) as it's guards. These Creatures were causing problems to nearby villages and cities, due to the creatures destroying everything in sight, to maximize the tower's safety. Klaus eventually managed to escape the party and absorb the crystal's power. The party had interesting plans to get into the tower. Plan #1: Just go through the front door (many monsters were guarding the door) Plan #2: Climb the side of the tower (they feared falling off and dying) Plan #3: Blow up a wall (...yeah...) At one point in the story, there was a blood moon which announced the inevitable apocalypse. It "activated" the crystal in the tower, turning it red which caused the undead to turn into demons, the ground getting very hot, the earth splitting into multiple pieces and giant black tentacles from hell shooting out of the ground. The party was kind of running out of time. They executed Plan #3 and went into the 50th. They found their gunpowder storage room. They were thinking about blowing it up, but they thought that it wouldn't fix the problem. So they went up to the 100th story and accidentally created a hole that goes aaaaall the way down to the base. Whoops. They found the crystal, but not Klaus, so they decided to use an Item which I called the "Inferno-Bomb" (basically a handheld bomb which makes 10 times more fire than a napalm). They blew up the crystal, but forgot about the hole they made. I said that it goes all the way down to the first floor... and on the way from the 100th to the first floor... there's the 50th floor... ...the gunpowder storage. ==To be continued=>

@MN-cr5jh 5 жыл бұрын

There’s some good inspiration for an evil wizard tower in the new Darth Vader comics - Fortress Vader by Soule and Camuncoli. An evil sith architect tries to funnel evil force energy through building design to make a gateway beyond death. Hell, the campaign writes itself!

@paulcoy9060 5 жыл бұрын

Combine it with the movie "Event Horizon", and I'm on board.

@MN-cr5jh 5 жыл бұрын

@@paulcoy9060 perfect

@criticalsuccess9926 5 жыл бұрын

Awesome information as always! I’ve never finished one if your videos and not felt the need to go furiously scribble some campaign notes.

@WebDM 5 жыл бұрын

That's awesome

@lord6617 5 жыл бұрын

If you play baldur's gate 2, Irenicus' sanctum where you start the game is an amazing wizard's structure.

@the_rose_garden01 5 жыл бұрын

Ars Magica does wonders with the wizards tower. Even if you don't play it, you should still check out the Covenent rules if you really want to design a badass wizard's lair

@Geeko170 5 жыл бұрын

I love the idea from the Adjustment Bureau, that if you have a certain item, and open a door a certain way, it takes you to this extra planer space that can only be accessed by oping a door with this item. Also, I love the ideas that a wizard living in a lords castle, will have several doors that lead to their personal demi planes. And the idea of spaces inside structures being bigger than the structure itself.

@meltingskeleton2082 5 жыл бұрын

best breakfast time you-tubing ever.

@WebDM 5 жыл бұрын

Good morning!

@meltingskeleton2082 5 жыл бұрын

Good morning! @@WebDM

@thelittleredhairedgirlfrom6527 5 жыл бұрын

That point you made about the lay lines/magic sources is a lot like how in real life countries fight over oil. That could actually be used as the background for a really good setting or campaign, with different factions fighting each other over limited sources of magic. Could be a bit of a problem if your players aren’t super into bringing real world issues into the game or if the GM starts to infect the whole campaign with their political views (factions based in people they agree with are Mary Sues, factions based on those they don’t like are cartoonish villains), but if handled responsibly you could make some good stuff.

@jnbaker7422 5 жыл бұрын

there could be a magic energy crisis later and they need to find "renewable magic" (for which there may not be a solution)

@alienplatypus7712 5 жыл бұрын

The little red haired girl from across the street Easiest way to fix a campaign where people the dm agrees with are perfectly good and disagrees with are super evil is just help the bad guys. Obviously won’t work with every dm but some may even really like it and may have to think about the positives of the other side. (Obviously the dm could just get angry and ruin it but that’d possibly be a good sign you wouldn’t have had much fun anyway)

@kylestanley7843 5 жыл бұрын

I had an idea like this for an archipelago close to an arctic pole which is filled with civil war, having an advanced navy and being quite adept at raiding but simply not sustainable enough to fuel their magnificent navies, and thus boil down to infighting over resources. One island could be a magnificent seafaring ally, but allying with two islands could create serious enemies with both.

@jnbaker7422 5 жыл бұрын

@OrangeManBad point #1 - chill point #2 - I wasn't trying to insert my politics into it at all. I agree that irl politics should be left out of D&D too. But there are only so many ideas to put out there. The campaign I'm currently running started with a napoleon style coup, and a deus ex machina prison break. The campaign I'm currently playing started with a skyrim style carriage ride. Everything is a rehash of what has been previously done. point #3 - OP was literally comparing magic to oil fields. I think my extension of the analogy was justified point #4 - Magic energy crises in media has already been done. watch just about any pixar movie or play Runescape if you don't believe me.

@cyberneticraven358 5 жыл бұрын

Maybe an ancient abandoned building full of magic also changes the layout on a whim, or the physics don't work quite the way they should. Like a door might disappear or you end up on the ceiling.

@musicman24X 4 жыл бұрын

I need to make a wizard's tower for my game next week, and I came right here to your back catalogue for inspiration.

@dylancox631 3 жыл бұрын

Can I just say that not only does your content absolutely rock, your constant references to the Dresden Files keeps me scouring every video you've ever made for more!

@milesmatheson1142 5 жыл бұрын

The dice in the background; 1, 2, 3, 5, 5, Please. It's bugging the fudge out of me! Towers are for scrubs. A *real* Wizard uses magic to create a pocket dimension that he can take with him, wherever he goes. In Pathfinder, there's a spell that conjures multiple Unseen Servants who are limited to working on a ship. I'd build a literal ship, and just have it in the middle of a forest somewhere, and keep the unseen staff on-hand, permanently. And the sails, catching magical energy from the layline, rather than wind. "Stay with the Wizard as a friend" i.e the Fire Elemental is sleeping on my couch while he and his wife work stuff out.

@Kyle120212XD 5 жыл бұрын

I mapped out 'ley lines' in my world, The lore that I use is that these lines are the surface of The Weave, they intersect at many points, multiple intersections at some points. All of the locations with an intersection are places of powerful and unstable magic. "Rituals" need to be done at one of these locations (like the litch ritual not ritual spells) but these locations are usually ripe with Wild Magic and typically magical wonders.

@jordanwilliams8994 5 жыл бұрын

I had a city where gentrification of certain neighborhoods was degrading the architectural spellwork used to imprison demons at key cites, literally degrading the souls of the people who lived there. I jive with this vid.

@lord6617 5 жыл бұрын

I loved growing up with the forgotten realms for stuff like this. From Elminster's rickety old short tower with so much more and bigger within, to the arcane laboratories, dungeons of the Red Wizards, to Candlekeep, Blackstaff Tower, Heck even undermountain. You could find inspiration for just about anything you could dream of in the Realms, it was one of the things it did well.

@ComicSams48 5 жыл бұрын

Great timing! Just bought MCDM's Strongholds & Followers, and have been on a bit of a base-building kick, with the arcane classes being my next target

@geoffdewitt6845 5 жыл бұрын

Guys, I love this episode! I had a few things to add, if that's cool. One might be that if arcane sites are like holy sites (that is, if what happened ages ago has permeated into the land to create the arcane equivalent of holy ground), might this create a whole new branch of arcane research? What if there are arcane hagiographers dedicated to finding these places and documenting what happened there and who did it? What if one of those guys shows up at the PC's tower to let them know that on the solar eclipse that will happen in two days, the arcane site they occupy will suddenly turn into an antimagic field and summon Graz'zt? Second, let's assume ley lines are sort of like either rivers or electrical currents, and that they flow between points. What happens if someone diverts those flows? Or "dams" the ley line? That might be an interesting adventure. What if it's not even other wizards doing it, but just peasants who built a road in a bad spot, cutting across the line? Now your characters might have an adventure hook with the local lord: "Look, if you have your peasants re-route that road, we'll take care of that bandit gang/owlbear den/dragon, etc." Also (and I apologize for writing a screed here), White Wolf Games had a great supplement for "domain-building" in their Dark Ages line called "Right of Princes." They had another one called "Spoils of War," but I don't know if that's as useful for this topic. Just wanted to mention it - thanks!!!

@mosselliadelt 5 жыл бұрын

There's a large ancient tower in my setting, where the landscape around it, pulls in energy from the Astral sea, causing the tower and its occupents to cease aging and needing biological support. Great episode guys.

@FelineElaj 5 жыл бұрын

Combine Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion and Mighty Fortress spells, and get a wizard's stronghold filled with all manner of luxuries and conjured servants.

@ChristnThms 5 жыл бұрын

I love the idea of the Wizard's sanctum is a Demiplane. A small, unassuming shack on the outside, and an entire laboratory, library and palace on the inside. Maybe it's even nested, like a set of Russian dolls.

@PenDragonx 5 жыл бұрын

In the Sword of Truth, the people's palace dampens all other casters except for those of the bloodline of the royalty which boosts them. The whole castle is a massive spellform and even though the people's palace belongs to an authoritarian power the invite an anyone to walk its public halls. The spell gets power by the presents of people walking through it. In universe blood magic has a shelf life because the blood degrades. So having a living source of fuel walking through the spell that won't quickly degrade is vital

@theyonlycomeoutwhenitsquiet 5 жыл бұрын

I’ve debated creating a wizards tower where he has grown so familiar with every room that he doesn’t need the hallways. Whenever he exits one room, he immediately enters the threshold of the room he wishes to go to, as though they teleported him. This works fine for him, but the problem is that he has forgotten about looking after the hallways and connecting passages. The hallways are overrun with vermin and monsters, but since they can’t enter the rooms, it’s just the halls. He never notices because he never uses the hallways anymore. All his rooms are pristine, the halls are a mess of filth. Adventurers would get this weird mix of split personality in trying to figure out the type of person who lived there. Also, if they were chasing him, the moment he crossed a threshold they would have no idea where he went because he wouldn’t be in the hallway.

@ajmeyers5661 5 жыл бұрын

The TARDIS would make a great sanctum

@RealPhuggly 5 жыл бұрын

Sword of Truth series, the house of Rahl in the D’Haran Empire is a palace built as a huge spell glyph to empower the wizards of the Rahl line. In the Amber series, there was also The Keep of the Four Worlds. A place, by the description, that was built on the nexus of the four elemental planes convergence. My personal note, my halfling cerebremancer was in the process of putting a door to a permanent magnificent mansion inside his war wagon. Sanctum Sanctorum on the go!

@isaacfalk7680 5 жыл бұрын

Panda fact #5: The giant panda's scientific name in english is 'Ailuropoda melanoleuca' which means 'black and white cat-foot'. In Chinese, the literal translation (dà xióng māo) is 'large bear cat'. The word 'panda' however, is said to come from the Nepalese word 'ponya' which comes from the phrase 'nigalya ponya', meaning 'eater of bamboo'

@DrMayhemDoD 5 жыл бұрын

Castle Heterodyne from the Girl Genius comic is a great example, even if it's powered by mad science instead of magic.

@jasonniebuhr8607 5 жыл бұрын

There’s this one Sanctum Sanctorum that I just love the idea of, from the Defenders of Magic trilogy of the Dragonlance Saga; it’s for 3 mages, one white, one red, one black, and it was made in 3 dimensions on the Prime Material and then changed to 2 dimensions and put on the dimension that is the Horizon

@wynnefox 5 жыл бұрын

21st centry Mage Tower: The caster in question sneaks it into the core of a sky scraper. No one notices how the building never seems to go to the middle .

@eliparker4114 5 жыл бұрын

One wizard’s university I created while DMing included an infinite hallway of rooms for students and guests to live in. As you keep walking, new rooms would pop into existence in this extra dimensional space.

@zacharyharwell351 5 жыл бұрын

I can't help but wish that they had put Jim's face over the Dark Souls' "Praise the Sun" emote. Can this be a thing?

@WebDM 5 жыл бұрын

Make it and show it to us on social!

@zacharyharwell351 5 жыл бұрын

@@WebDM I shall! I have NO editing/mark-up experience though so realistic expectations y'all ^_^ Also, in case it wasn't clear, I LOVE y'all's videos; I'm currently a player in a campaign and I'm getting my own campaign started up soon! You guys (you too Trav) have been a big help and great entertainment!

@kylestanley7843 5 жыл бұрын

I had the idea of a wizard tower while watching the latter part of the video, to make a wizard tower made by a wizard who very strongly believed in law. Disgusted by normal politics(and general society), he turned to cosmic law and started slowly working his way towards an alliance with Primus and the plane of Mechanus. My idea for his tower was a mechanical tower that had large gears connecting each floor of the tower to each other. Each floor of the tower has at least two staircases which go up and/or down... but lead nowhere until you find a way to connect the floor you're on to another. The staircases would all be aligned in a fashion where there's never a straight shot up and down the castle, however the wizard, having lived there for decades and probably having flawless memory ala the keen mind trait, would know these twisting verticle paths by heart and probably utilizes spelled to arrange the gears from where he is, rather than flipping switches or pressing buttons manually. Thinking more on this, this doesn't feel like a very original idea, but i still like it. Thoughts?

@aureliomanalo 5 жыл бұрын

Spoilers about land between two rivers around 11 minutes! Guys, I wasn't that far into the campaign yet!

@BlueSwitchStudios 5 жыл бұрын

You guys are awesome! Thanks for all you do def has been a huge inspiration to start our own channel and stream our Sunday adventures. Keep up the amazing work we will be sure to keep tuning in 😎.

@thefreshman07 5 жыл бұрын

I'm putting one together as a dungeon for my home group. A meteorite crashed, which drew lots of curious creatures (including more than a few Earth Elementals), and a powerful mage constructed a school of sorts to study it. Named it the Auger. Equal parts a magical research facility and halfway house for all these Elementals, who would otherwise run amok in the Prime Material. The mage eventually died, and now, an ambitious Dao vies for control over the Auger against a Duergar clan, both of which claim rightful ownership of the meteor. An Ogre tribe have taken up residence on the ground level, which suits those below, since they tend to keep out more inquisitive folk, along with the scattered remnants of the last group of adventurers to have delved those once-proud halls.

@WallyDM 5 жыл бұрын

Hmmm.... a couple of Stella Artois, I am guessing? Cheers to that!

@WebDM 5 жыл бұрын

Loves us a Stella!

@Otaconsps 5 жыл бұрын

I believe it's pronounced Ar-toes

@Technogirlfreak95 5 жыл бұрын

@@Otaconsps Written Artois and pronounced Artwa

@Otaconsps 5 жыл бұрын

@@Technogirlfreak95 It's a joke referencing "The Dude's" Stella commercial.

@IndorilNerevar-MoonandStar 5 жыл бұрын

So much inspiration, I get like 12 campaign ideas out of every single one of your videos.

@lua-nya 3 жыл бұрын

Ah, the start of this reminds me when I made an obsidian Galder's Tower on a hill by a capital city, since we traveled there to protect it against an attack. I made the tower itself (I'm a bard) and then the barbarian and monk went on top of it. The monk used magic items for hallucinatory terrain and major illusion, making the eye of Sauron styled. The barbarian used his fire gauntlets to make his axe covered in fire. Then they both started shouting in guttural, rare languages no commoner on such city would understand. They scared the crap out of the city all throughout the night.

@MarcusForsbergGM 5 жыл бұрын

What I did one time, was to have a wizard buy a shitty small tower only 2x2 feet. HOWEVER the doorframe was infact the magnificant mansion so the tower would it self seem magical and impossibly small but big. The good thing is that he could do whatever he wanted in his mansion and also be safe, letting only people he wanted in. Also conjuring a spectral butler was something party found lovely

@oscarjack1756 5 жыл бұрын

My players found amongst a tombs loot a green jewelled door knob. When they attached it to a door, any door, it would open up into a bare stone tower, surrounded by endless rolling green hills. They were able to rid a town of their foxfolk problem (basically Kobolds reskinned as fantastic Mr Fox), by offering them sanctuary in the hills of the sanctum. When the owner of the door knob, a warlock, made his pact with his Elder God he took a piece of bark from an ancient wood connect to his God and burnt it in the towers fire place. He left the sanctum and when he came back the tower had turned into a tree, the rolling hills into endless woods. They later discovered that the Fox Folk that were left here had experienced a Millenia, they had grown their own societies that had risen and fallen, they all regarded the monolith tree as sacred and out of bounds to all. He had a direct connection with his God here, it craved for knowledge and would give him great boons for bringing it to him. He could mould the tree at his will, making rooms and defences. He would carry around a miniature door on him so that if need be he could open it and allow the trees roots to spill out like an Eldrich Horror dragging a new specimen in for the God to study and give the warlock a key insight into, like absorbing an orc finding out his battalions plans and the language he spoke. Eventually the warlock would have become the big bad as he tried to unleash his God onto the world. Still might happen.

@vesperschake6241 5 жыл бұрын

In my home brew world there is an organization called TOWR (the overseeing wardens registry) basically a Better business bureau for guilds run by wizard's and Clerics who specialize in divination.

@TheAsyouwysh 5 жыл бұрын

Is your avi max stirner?

@vesperschake6241 5 жыл бұрын

The Spooky boi himself

@BlazinMurphy 5 жыл бұрын

OH fuck World Anvil is up and running now? Thanks for the reminder guys!

@CtHuIHuSpAwN 5 жыл бұрын

I have Sanctum in our Final Fantasy D20 game, being the only mage (Blue Mage btw) in the party I was in need of someplace were I could study magics, magical beasts, and of course guard powerful yet dangerous artifacts like The Masamune which I became the sole wielder. I love my Sanctum cause it allows my Character to study, experiment, and of course get away from the rest of my Clan.

@marlesimms 5 жыл бұрын

Really cool suggestions. Got a ton of ideas for a homebrew that I'm continuing to work on. Thanks, as always, for your wisdom and enthusiasm

@hughsmith7504 5 жыл бұрын

My idea for a tower was one that a high lvl. envoker had built to truly master elemental power. His most famous spell was called " Crash's ring of fire" a 5th lvl spell that at first glance appears to be a normal fireball, however the spell also turns the radius of the impact into a short term gate to the element of fire for 1D4 rounds. Each round there is a 50% chance that a random fire elemental wanders in... Idea #2 was a sort of self aware tower of an ancient necromancer that has been causing problems for the surrounding kingdoms. The kicker comes from the fact that the necromancer has long been dead, stabbed thru the heart with a sentient blade that rips the soul out of it's victims. Due to a mixture of factors, when the blade passed thru the mage and into his throne, it instead transferred his soul into the tower. The resulting mix of the corrupted soul/blade mix is both cruel, and highly manipulative. Able to posses and manipulate the entire tower, in a very similar way to how a sentient blade is controlled, it uses the body of the necromancer as an arcane conduit, pulling vast amounts of energy from the negative plane to power the many spell the tower uses. At the top of the tower is a sort of shrine around the necromancers body formed from the corpses of the hero powerful enough to reach the top, serving as both another source of arcane might, but also a ready source of defense as the tower raises mighty heroes to defend itself. If a party is able to best all of these challenges, the last is both the hardest and simplest. If one can simply remove the blade from the throne, the connection will be broken, and the tower will return to "normal" of course, none have yet had the mental fortitude to withstand the blades power....

@Leivve 5 жыл бұрын

Wizard creates an imposing fortress to hid his knowledge away. Many an army have tried to seize the power for themselves, but should one finally break through, they'ed find it empty, for the wizard actually hides his books and craft in an underground dungeon across the mountains.

@kingduckie9135 3 жыл бұрын

I think a sentient tower that changes and warps to fit the wants of whoever touches the crystal at the peak of it. You want to go to the bathroom? It's literally one door away. You want to go to the top? A staircase slowly appears that goes all the way up

@dwyerd4532 5 жыл бұрын

I got so excited last week when I signed up to world anvil. Less excited when I opened world anvil two days after entering a bunch of world building goodies only to find all but one single article was lost. Beta woes abound. Great concept, nix that, FANTASTIC concept, but I might wait until the bugs are worked out. Thought I'd let you know since you are promoting them as a sponsor. Users be cautious!

@Draeckon 5 жыл бұрын

This is why you keep a backup copy of your article offline.

@dwyerd4532 5 жыл бұрын

@@Draeckon easier said than done, but thanks for the helpful tip

@wilee.coyote4439 5 жыл бұрын

Who the hell would want to change that epic thumbnail.

@linus4d1 5 жыл бұрын

I turned white plume mountain into a geothermal generator which an Npc then made as a wizard tower. now PC's are making it a strong hold

@Gordyan_Knot 3 жыл бұрын

This recommended was a godsend. I've been wanting to start on University of Arcane Artifacts, and i just couldn't figure out where to start. I should have known that journey would take me back to Web DM.

@josefx1389 3 жыл бұрын

Such great ideas. And so many. Your vids are so inspiring for dming and writing. Thanks again!

@nightwatchman013 5 жыл бұрын

Really brings to mind the Shoikan Grove and the Tower of High Sorcery in Palanthas.

@36shadowboy 5 жыл бұрын

Happy to see you guys getting some sweet looking promotions! Keep grinding my dudes!!!

@casualsleepingdragon8501 2 жыл бұрын

I thought of a fun trap for a wizard tower, a trap door that leads to a long slide that dumps the person at the front door or somewhere outside the tower

@zeroexmachina 3 жыл бұрын

This reminds me I need to start building my sanctum on Beaver Island on Lake Michigan.

@icosaheadroom3289 5 жыл бұрын

Krull, over and over and over: The Black Fortress (hinted at 21:00) , the never seen Jade Temple, the Blind Crystal Seer's cave, the Widow's web... All great examples of the sanctum trope.

@AnthanKrufix 3 жыл бұрын

16:35 This is the plotline of Full Metal Alchemist.

@matthewj2342 5 жыл бұрын

Great video. Always like watching.

@mjreis9997 5 жыл бұрын

In Terry Goodkind’s sword of truth series, the People’s Palace was a spell form drawn on the ground that increased the Rulers spells and decreased any wizards ability who wasn’t a member of the royal family.

@patrickfarrell1769 5 жыл бұрын

Remembering that what you design is meant to be played with and making sure fun is the key feature of your game was a hard lesson for me to learn.

@nhattuyenvodieu3103 5 жыл бұрын

when i think tower of power i think damn good funk music

@casualsleepingdragon8501 2 жыл бұрын

Bind a fire elemental to the basement to keep the tower warm

@nullpoint3346 5 жыл бұрын

Mage in a tower should get increased range, like archers do.

@dorkseid5874 5 жыл бұрын

On second viewing, hearing the part where you talk about the sacred geometry and buildings being designed to create or focus magic, my first thought was: Dana's apartment building in Ghostbusters.

@WebDM 5 жыл бұрын

Yes!!

@JesperAndersen 3 жыл бұрын

Great episode, guys! One of your best :-)

@fakjbf3129 5 жыл бұрын

For a sci-fi spin on the wizards tower, look at the Citadel from the Mass Effect video games. It's an important center of the relay network, it's populated by a mysterious race called the Keepers, the governing races don't quite know how exactly it works but are able to work and build inside of it.

@joshuarichardson6529 5 жыл бұрын

You could easily do something like this in a fantasy game. Have a massive Titan-crafted building, half of it below water, the other half above water, and it's tended to by strange crab people. Mermaids are the original inhabitants of the structure (emulating the Asari), but they cannot go above water. The top half of the place is a meeting place of the various races of the world, which ever ones you want. Unfortunately, the Titans once waged war on the Dragons, so the place is often attacked by Dragons out of spite, and no one (who's still alive) knows why. The structure is built so solid, it's nearly indestructible, so it has become a favorite meeting place of civilized races to negotiate and cooperate despite the dangers. How's that?

@DerEwigeKodex 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you for the inspiration!

@rnggaming8720 5 жыл бұрын

I was really hoping you guys would talk about how each of the different casters would build a sanctum. What spells a druid would keep up, compared to say necromancer.

@Bluecho4 4 жыл бұрын

An idea I just came up with: have an ancient Wizard's tower - a relic of a bygone age - that exists in a mirror dimension. Literally, as in the creator was a master of mirror magic, and of entering reflections, so they built their tower on the mirror side of a location. In a certain valley, a henge of standing stones sits by the bank of a wide lake. When you're in the correct vantage point and the light is just right, you can see the reflection of a mighty tower on the surface of the lake, jutting from where the standing stones are. Crossing over to the mirror world is, itself, a challenge, necessary to access the bygone wizard's magical knowledge and store of items. Of course, the tower itself is full of mirrors, the centerpieces of many traps, and/or the prison for many monsters.

@mbourke7999 5 жыл бұрын

Great idea for an episode, lots to learn and develop. Also a killer intro too. Excited for the Tower of Power- hope everything goes ok with judging and that you like all the entries to some degree. (please be nice to mine XD )

@WebDM 5 жыл бұрын

Woooo, we got an entry y'all!

@jacobrosales5376 5 жыл бұрын

An excellent example of the “nega-dungeon” can be found in Death Frost Doom, an OSR module by Lamentations of the Flame Princess. Potentially world-ending things in there.

@YOOTOOBjase 5 жыл бұрын

What a great way to start the day. Hi from New Zealand!

@WebDM 5 жыл бұрын

Hi!

@derekburge5294 5 жыл бұрын

From the Abominable Intelligence, Omnissiah preserve us!

@D35TR0YM4N 5 жыл бұрын

Boys from Texas and drinkin Stella?! Y’all are alright!

@WebDM 5 жыл бұрын

Cheers!

@leonielson7138 5 жыл бұрын

Start Wizard characters at level 2 if they choose to be associated with the literal college of their School of Magic. They were trained in a confluence of their specialization. Flaw: You believe that your school of magic is the best, and will argue endlessly with the practitioner of a different school of magic.

@umpum3963 5 жыл бұрын

Wow, just in time for me to further refine my megadungeon tower!

@Diditallforthexp 5 жыл бұрын

Another great intro. Better punchline than a monk parade.

@preettygoood7774 3 жыл бұрын

As a wizard with all the possible options, my sanctum is going to be ridiculous. It's going to take me hundreds of sessions just to describe it all. Once you can cast wish every day, your sanctum becomes literally infinitely powerful. First of all, it'll be inside a demiplane.

@SinnerBeta 5 жыл бұрын

How about a video about strongholds for other classes?

@WebDM 5 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the suggestion!

@ANTIMATTERLAZAR 5 жыл бұрын

My Tiny Vampire Wizard Child is getting a bag of demi-plane and I'm building them a mobile respawn point. hell yeah.

@MarkD5678 5 жыл бұрын

Maybe the the wizard tower @8:30 could be treated an oil rig, the antennae at the top siphons the power down into the rest of the sanctum.

@claradumont1538 4 жыл бұрын

OMG THANK YOU i literally forgot I have a paper due for next Tuesday

@nobodyimportant2470 5 жыл бұрын

Another reason for mage towers is to protect others from experiments gone wrong. If you really want to troll your players have them find a mage's underground sanctum in a remote location. After fighting their way down through the automated defenses(traps and constructs) they find the deepest room of the dungeon. In it is a bunch of construction golems waiting for instructions and a dead mage. Died of natural causes while deciding weather it was secure enough to do what he was planning to do.