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| Cloud Castles | - | - | - | - |
THE FORUM
Given the focus on castles
in issue #145, I
would like to present what
may be a somewhat
unusual perspective on the
place of castles in an
AD&D
game fantasy world. The central idea of
this perspective is that
medieval-style castles
and the AD&D game
are in many ways incompatible.
Castles evolved as methods
of defense in our
nonmagical world because,
until the advent of
gunpowder, they were virtually
impenetrable.
Unlike what is seen in movies,
on TV, or in
fantasy novels, castles almost
never fell to
assault. Prolonged sieges
and starvation or an
internal traitor who opened
the gates were
required for them to fall.
This was the only
justification for the outrageous
expenditures in
money, time, and manpower
the average castle
required. Large castles could
take as long as five
years to build, if not longer,
and only greater
nobility and royalty could
muster the funds
necessary (often through
oppressive taxes).
Castles were impenetrable
simply because
their walls were impossible
to pass. Walls could
not be climbed without the
use of ladders or
other siege equipment; a
very small number of
men could easily repel 10
times their number
attempting to go up and over
a wall. Sapping
(tunneling under a wall to
remove its support)
was the most effective means
of assaulting a
medieval castle but was extremely
hazardous to
the attacker and not very
reliable, especially if
the castle?s foundation was
deep in the ground.
Catapults and trebuchets
had little effect against
well-designed and well-maintained
walls. And,
obviously, no one could fly
over the top.
In an AD&D game world,
all of these advantages
are abrogated. A 1st-level
thief has a
reasonable chance of climbing
any wall, and his
skill increases to almost
certain success as he
increases in levels. No such
ability existed or
exists in our world. Granted,
a thief can not
climb a wall carefully guarded
by vigilant men,
but an invisibility spell
is a quicker answer. All
of this does not mention
the second-level mage
spell, spider climb, making
success at climbing
an actual certainty. A small
squad of invisible
thieves could easily climb
a castle wall in the
dark of night and open the
gates?and once the
gates are open, the citadel
is virtually destined
to fall. The whole idea of
a castle is to defend
with fewer men than are necessary
for attack.
But why bother to climb the
wall when flight
over it is so easy? Pegasi,
dragons, spells, flying
brooms?the list of possibilities
available in the
AD&D game is far too
long for delineation here.
It takes little imagination
to conjure myriad
forms of misery to inflict
upon those foolish
enough to guard a castle.
A squad of pegasimounted
men might easily hold a gate
long
enough for the main army
to punch through to
victory. A mage could fly
over the castle dumping
fireballs, cloudkills, and
other forms of pain
on the castle?s inhabitants.
The magic-user need
not even fly over the castle
to gain attack lanes
for his spells; a second-level
levitate spell should
easily raise him high enough
to gain direct line
of sight to the castle?s
interior. The walls become
less of a value as an enemy
simply ignores them
in the launching of attacks.
Perhaps flight is not possible
in your world, or
pegasi are far too rare for
this to be an option.
Still, the castle is not
spared. If we cannot go
over, we can go through.
A knock spell could
easily open the gates without
internal assistance.
The mage simply moves to
the gate under
the cover of an attack or
invisibility. If the gate
is wizard locked, use dispel
magic or find a
mage four levels higher than
the caster of the
wizard lock. Disintegration
could easily open a
hole or gate, or contribute
to the undermining
of a weak wall (the fifth-level
spell passwall is
designed for this exact purpose).
Perhaps summoning
aid is best; an earth elemental
will make
short work of most castle
walls. But who needs
to summon aid? Find an umber
hulk and charm
it (using the fifth-level
spell charm monster).
And this goes without mentioning
the possibilities
of the really powerful magic.
May your DM
never conceive of the idea
of making your castle
a target of a holy crusade
with the services of a
high-level cleric. Trot out
an earthquake spell
and scratch one castle. Five
years of money and
work are destroyed for almost
nothing except
the 10 hours the cleric spent
to memorize the
spell (oops, forgot the pinch
of dirt, piece of
rock, and lump of clay?material
components).
In case you have not read
the earthquake spell
description lately, that?s
5d12 of structural
damage, folks. The area of
effect is probably not
big enough to take out the
entire castle, but it
will make a very big hole
in the wall.
And still we are not finished.
Tunneling under
the castle is now much easier.
Both dwarves and
orcs are more skilled miners
than men, not to
mention the charmed umber
hulk or any other
of the numerous underground
tunnelers out
and about in the AD&D
game. Disintegrate and
passwall work here as well.
Granted, most of the attacks
I have mentioned
have potential defenses:
archers for the flying
units, dispel magic on the
passwall or charm, oil
on the walls for climbers,
etc. That defenses
exist is not the issue. The
key element is that the
initiative lies with the
attacker, and the defender
must know the form of the
attack to prevent
and counter it. This means
your castle is only as
good as your intelligence
about the enemy. Your
enemy also has another advantage
in that he
can simply hold his most
devastating attack and
force you to waste your resources
defending
against skirmishes. That
3rd-level mage trying
to knock your gate may be
only a nuisance, but
you must stop him or the
gate is open and your
throat is slit. When you
are out of dispel magic
spells, your castle is history.
And if you?re
loaded up with dispel magics,
how are you to
counter the ruin your enemy
will cause with his
fireballs?
Castles were never meant to
be assaulted,
because there was no successful
attack form
against them. If you had
a castle, your enemy
had to starve you to death
to defeat you, and
that required time?time he
would have to
spend looking over his shoulder
watching for a
relief force. If a relief
force caught him by
surprise, he could find himself
trapped, especially
if there was a sortie from
the formerly
besieged force in the castle.
It is not my purpose to say
no AD&D game
world should have castles.
Rather, I would like
to suggest DMs think carefully
about including
castles in their worlds.
Given the medieval level
of physical technology in
most campaign worlds,
castles would still require
huge expenditures in
time and money but would
offer far fewer
advantages. They are easily
assaulted with lowpowered
spells and individuals; a
team of 3rdlevel
thieves and magic-users will
wreak havoc
with the average castle.
In many ways, the price
is not worth it. Indeed,
given the problems
involved, it?s possible that
walls and castles as
defensive structures might
never have developed
in many AD&D game
worlds. The inhabitants
of these worlds would spend
their
resources on training their
armies and recruiting
and training spell-casters.
With the addition
of BATTLESYSTEM rules,
peasant levies become
unattractive in an AD&D
world. Morale is
critical to absorb magical
and unusual attacks,
and peasants have little
morale. Standing professional
armies, however, are extremely
expensive
(just ask your Congressman).
Castles are not built today
because the technology
of our world has advanced
far enough to
render the stone wall useless
as a defensive
measure. I suggest the magic
of the AD&D
world renders them equally
useless:
No name given
(Dragon #151)
After reading about castles
in issue #151, I
wish to debate the incompatibility
of medievalstyle
castles in the AD&D
game setting. While
I?ll agree that authentic
medieval-style castles
are no match for the sheer
magical power of
thieves and mages, fantasy
castles are a necessary
part of an AD&D
game. Below are examples
of castles that are more
suitable for an
AD&D game assault.
The first example was suggested
by a friend
of mine who played a high-level,
lawful-evil
mage/ninja.
His character required a headquarters
that was well hidden, defendable,
and
easily accessible to him
but not others. His idea
involved using several passwall
spells through a
side of a mountain, then
disintegrating the
inside of the mountain. When
the passwalls
disappeared, he was left
with a cave with no
passageways connecting the
inside from the
outside. Teleportation without
error or several
passwall spells was the only
way to enter or exit
his ?castle,? assuming the
spell-caster knew that
the castle was hidden in
the mountain.
The second example was suggested
by a
module. I was DMing an assault
on a stormgiant
castle. Like most storm-giant
castles, this
one was built on the top
of a cloud. The assault
was to prevent the spinning
castle from crashing
into a human city. After
correcting the
problem, the characters realized
that they were
the new owners of a cloud
castle. This had some
strange possibilities. For
one thing, this castle
was mobile and could attack
other cities. They
soon learned that cities
are too tough to attack
and almost lost their new
castle.
The third example was my own
design. It was
a ?standard? castle but had
a magical enchantment
placed on it that imbued
the castle with
intelligence. Once this was
done, my character
(a high-level chaotic-good
mage) further enchanted
it to have spell storage
(not unlike the
ring) of 12 spells. Thereafter
he stored seven
fireball, two wall of stone,
two dispel magic, and
one succor spell therein.
The succor spell summoned
my character back to the
castle and was
used only as a last resort
tit?s a very expensive
spell). The castle had infravision
as well as
normal vision in case of
night attackers.
The last example was the most
expensive in
terms of magic. One of my
friends suggested
putting a castle on another
plane of existence.
This required nothing less
than the power of a
demigod character (a character
beyond most
AD&D campaigns,
but not the one he was in).
This made the castle almost
completely invulnerable
to attack except by creatures
with
extradimensional traveling
abilities. However,
these creatures could destroy
the castle effortlessly,
so his demigod character
created a plane
of existence that was just
bigger than the castle
itself and a portal that
was small enough that
only human-size creatures
could fit through.
Thus, this castle was safe
as long as no human
size being with extradimensional
abilities found
the portal.
As one can see, the best defense
from magic
is, of course, better magic.
Although these are
not classic castles that
just sit on top of mountains,
they still function as their
classic counterparts
for protection and defense.
Also, these
castles provide great role-playing
opportunities
and should not be considered
useless. These
castles were not without
their flaws, however.
The ninja cave was attacked
by an earth elemental
and other underground creatures.
The
cloud castle was attacked
by dragons and other
flying creatures. My mage
had problems arguing
with an intelligent castle.
The demigod?s
castle still had creatures
that could attack
through the portal without
entering. But I hope
these ideas help make your
castles unique and
stronger than the originals.
Timothy Sallume
San Diego CA
(Dragon
#156)
The first thing I check out
when I receive my
DRAGON Magazine is
"Forum." In issue #151,
the "Forum" letter by the
anonymous person
pertaining to the relative
uselessness of castles
in the AD&D game
sparked me to write my first
letter. While I found the
letter very interesting
and with some merit, I also
found many errors.
First, a response to that
3rd-level mage trying
to knock at your gate. The
knock spell cannot
accomplish such a feat. ?It
does not raise barred
gates or similar impediments
(such as a
portcullis)??as stated in
the AD&D 2nd Edition
Player's Handbook.
Knock is useless against a
castle.
What about those 3rd-level
thieves trying to
get into the castle under
invisibility? Some
simple suggestions: Use some
dogs or other alert
animals who rely on sounds
and smells as alarm
triggers. A dozen bats befriended
by a druid
could easily detect invisible
intruders by echolocation.
If animal guards are rendered
useless by
an invisibility to animals
spell (assuming the
thieves had a 10th level
druid?of which there
aren?t many?cast the spell
on them), they have
20 rounds to approach the
castle, climb its
walls, and infiltrate a ?safe?
part of the castle so
as not to be found. This
infiltration is possible?
even probable. But now the
thieves have to find
the correct rooms to raise
portcullises or lower
drawbridges. Such rooms will,
of course, be
guarded around the clock,
especially in times of
war. When the guard room
door opens, the 3rdlevel
thieves might find themselves
outmatched
by a like number of 3rd-level
fighters. Even if
the guards are dealt with
and the thieves open
the castle?s front door,
then a precautionary lock
switch could be thrown to
disable the opening
mechanism. In either case,
the thieves are on a
suicide mission, because
an alert will go up and
they won?t live to rejoice.
In short, it would take
a large number of powerful
thieves to cover
every possible angle of opening
the gates.
Then there is the point of
flight over walls.
What sane 10th-level mage
would hover within
bow distance (flaunting his
30 hp) so he could
toss a spell? Protection
from normal missiles
spells would prove useful,
but a well-used dispel
magic spell can cause the
mage to plummet to
the ground. And there are
more directly damaging
spells that a floating mage
will attract. The
same goes for any flying
creature. Whatever is
in the air while attacking
a castle might as well
put a bulls-eye target on
its head. There are a
few truly awesome flying
beasts (e.g., rocs and
dragons) that are extremely
rare, but if the
besieging army employs such
beasts, then it
deserves the havoc they will
cause.
The use of a disintegrate
spell not only opens
up a mage to attack while
he casts it, but the
less than 10? square hole
in the wall is hardly
worth the time it takes a
12th-level mage to
memorize the spell.
The fifth-level passwall spell
must be cast
within 90? of the wall, causing
a 5?-wide passage
to open into the castle.
A hole that size won?t be
difficult to block or defend.
Charming an umber hulk is
no easy feat, for
not only are they rare, but
one would have a
75% chance of breaking the
charm monster
spell each week. Personally,
I believe it would be
hard to communicate to a
?friend? if merely
looking it in the eyes will
cause confusion. The
umber hulk would become suspicious
at the
least. I doubt the umber
hulk would take kindly
to the suggestion that it
must tunnel under a
castle, for that seems life
threatening; after all,
the castle is not attacking
the mage. Killing a
few humans is just everyday
food gathering, but
infiltrating a castle is
kind of stupid. In effect, I
believe that charming an
umber hulk is basically
impractical, for utilization
of it is thwarted by
its own abilities and the
restrictions of the spell.
Then there is the most destructive
attack
mentioned, the earthquake
spell. Your castle
must indeed stand before
a formidable force for
a 16th-level cleric with
18 wisdom to lead its
ranks. Welcome to the world
of fantasy and
magic, where the whims of
the most powerful
people of the continent shape
the outcome of
history. But let me assure
you that there
shouldn?t be many such characters.
Using the
WORLD
OF GREYHAWK® boxed set setting as a
model, I present the fact
that out of 59 of the
worlds leaders mentioned
therein, only one is a
16th-level cleric (Xargun,
of the Caliphate of
Ekbir) and one other (Hazen,
the Archleric of
Veluna) is a 19th-level cleric.
So if you can?t seem
to keep earthquakes from
ruining your castles, I
suggest a more balanced campaign
world where
the elite are truly elite.
I hope I have not only proven
simple castle
defenses do exist to overcome
great obstacles
effectively and at no great
cost, but more importantly
have disproved the suggestion
that magic
renders castles useless.
Darrell C. Donald
Millersville MD
(Dragon
#156)
