D&D: Building Your Bastion? Take a Tour of Some of Our Favorite Buildings
When building a Bastion, you’ll only ever have 8 special facilities (and a whole lot of closets), so make ’em count.
Perhaps the worst thing about the new Bastion system introduced in Unearthed Arcana 8 is that the vast majority of the Bastion advancement is tied to your level. At level 5 you get two special facilities and then at level 9 you get two more. And while your party can fill in the spots so you’ve got everything, four levels is a long time to wait.
Especially when some of the choices are wilted lettuce that’s been in the fridge longer than Liz Truss was Prime Minister. Like the Armory, which not only requires a Barracks to do anything (taking away both of your level 5 options), but all it really does is provide you a minor benefit at something with a 1-in-20 chance of happening.
But we’re not here to talk about what buildings are bad. We’re here to talk about which ones we like!
Theater
My personal favorite special facility in the Bastion system, the Theater is exactly what the name suggests. However it does make one wonder about the quality of the plays they put on, since Rehearsals only take a scant 14 days followed by 7 days of performances, and that’s not a ton of time. But hey, when the play’s the thing, your character can get involved as either a Composer/Writer, Conductor/Director, or a Performer.
Those who successfully help earn a Theater die, which works a lot like Bardic inspiration. Though if you’re wondering if your production might produce anything else, we need only look to the description of the Entertainers’ Guild to find out what WotC thinks of theater kids (aka a good chunk of their audience).
There isn’t an oof big enough.
Sacristy
Unlike Theaters, Sacristies are level 9 facilities that actually have more useful gameplay effects. For starters, you can use the Sacristy to craft a temporary magic item, including:
- Pearl of Power
- Periapt of Wound Closure
- Ring of Water Walking
- Sending Stones
- Staff of the Adder
- Staff of the Python
- Wand of Magic detection
And all this for a scant 200gp. However, you can also use it to brew potent Holy Water, either acquiring the base version for free or spending 100gp (up to a max of 500) to add an extra 1d6 to the damage of the Holy Water, which is pretty cool.
Training Area
The level 9 facilities are where the Bastion System starts to really come alive. Which is why so many are on this list. The Training Area requires either Expertise, a Fighting Style, or Unarmored Defense, and can help you have a 7-day-long training montage. At the end of your montage, you get a benefit that lasts 7 days, most of which are extremely good:
Pub
Pubs are a great facility to have, but also one of the ones that really breaks the immersion of the level-dependent Bastion system. After all, only a level 13 character has the wherewithal to build and run a Pub, which can be a bar, coffee shop, tea room, or the like.
Your Pub, which requires you to be a literal fantasy superhero verging on demigod to create, gives you access to two benefits: a special magical beverage, seen below…
…or a network of spies, that can provide you the location of any creature familiar to you as long as they’re within 50 miles of your Bastion. As well as information about anything important happening within 10 miles of your Bastion just for the heck of it.
Garden
Of all the level 5 facilities, this one is probably the nicest. You get a garden, which can be decorative or vegetable-filled in which case it can produce goods and make you about 50 gp every 7 days, which isn’t too bad. Or you can have an Herb Garden that can get you a Potion of Healing every week, or a Poison Garden that can produce a couple of Antitoxins or a vial of Basic Poison.
Which is about what you’d hope all level 5 facilities start at as a baseline. Sadly, not all of them do. But the Humble Garden is a ton of fun no matter who your character is.
