Author Topic: Breaking the Dungeon  (Read 10214 times)

Offline nijineko

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 2408
  • two strange quarks short of a graviton....
    • View Profile
    • TwinSeraphim
Breaking the Dungeon
« on: November 30, 2017, 10:00:21 PM »
With the glut of chinese, japanese, and korean light novels and comics being translated these days, more and more stories about main characters who get reincarnated as a dungeon or are otherwise somehow put in charge of one have become more common.

Turns out you can actually replicate this in D&D pretty much using straight canon and very minor tweaking.

Per the DMG section on Intelligent items: "intelligent items are treated as constructs"
Per the table in the same section: gives various costs to enchant an item with intelligence.
Per the Stronghold Builder's Guidebook: a stronghold space is a unit of measurement of a cottage, tower, castle, keep, dungeon, and more, approximately 20'x20'x10'.
Per the SBG on Wondrous Architecture: an item which can take up (fountain, statue, etc) or even be an entire stronghold space (a closet or room or even a hall).
Per the SBG if you want an magical effect to take up more than one space (for really big rooms, halls, or even the entire structure) you simply pay the listed cost for the effect times the number of spaces you want the effect to affect.

Ergo, you can enchant rooms to be intelligent.
Ergo, you can enchant your entire dungeon to be intelligent.
Ergo, once your room and/or dungeon is intelligent, it is now officially a construct.

Per the MM1 and Savage Species, creatures need to have an INT of 3 or more in order to take class levels instead of HD when advancing.
Per the MM1 and Savage Species creatures can take either HD for advancement, or levels for advancement, and according to the SS, you can also take templates for advancement when leveling up.

So not only is your dungeon an intelligent construct, it can take levels, gain construct HD, gain feats (leadership for minions, landlord for bonus funds every level to expand), gain skills, and of course, summon monsters and manifest powers. (or spells, if you really insist... sigh.)

I suggest levels in Spell to Power Erudite, Dungeon Lord, and maybe psi-Artificer.

It's not so much that this concept itself is inherently broken, but rather, once you've gotten this far, it becomes a foundation whereupon the potential for seriously advanced breakage becomes swiftly apparent.

In any case, I think I know where my next bag of devouring is going to lead to....
« Last Edit: November 30, 2017, 10:26:24 PM by nijineko »

Offline Jackinthegreen

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 6176
  • I like green.
    • View Profile
Re: Breaking the Dungeon
« Reply #1 on: November 30, 2017, 10:51:13 PM »
I'm suddenly thinking of that one giant walking construct dungeon in Final Fantasy 4.

Offline SorO_Lost

  • Epic Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 7197
  • Banned
    • View Profile
Re: Breaking the Dungeon
« Reply #2 on: December 01, 2017, 10:22:57 AM »
You don't really need to dig around too much. Core's Animate Object allows you to animate Colossal sized objects which allows you to effectively animate entire houses. There just isn't much in the rules to handle exploring the inside of a living creature Fantastic Voyage style.

If you like listening to people talk, Spencer of the Harmontown podcast ran a dungeoncrawl through a multiversal Infinifish which you may find helpful.

Offline nijineko

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 2408
  • two strange quarks short of a graviton....
    • View Profile
    • TwinSeraphim
Re: Breaking the Dungeon
« Reply #3 on: December 01, 2017, 08:14:33 PM »
I'm suddenly thinking of that one giant walking construct dungeon in Final Fantasy 4.

You don't really need to dig around too much. Core's Animate Object allows you to animate Colossal sized objects which allows you to effectively animate entire houses. There just isn't much in the rules to handle exploring the inside of a living creature Fantastic Voyage style.

If you like listening to people talk, Spencer of the Harmontown podcast ran a dungeoncrawl through a multiversal Infinifish which you may find helpful.

Hmmm, so in other words a size titanic (found in savage species, iirc) StP Erudite Dungeon Lord dungeon complex wandering around animating and using Leadership on the structures and buildings in every village, town, and city it passes to attack the locals... sounds like a rocking epic adventure... ^^


Offline altpersona

  • Legendary Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 2000
  • #78
    • View Profile
    • You are here
Re: Breaking the Dungeon
« Reply #5 on: December 02, 2017, 02:19:56 PM »
so, an intelligent 'cave' that cant really adventure because its attached to a mountain... but tends to kill the creatures that find it... thus gaining xp and becoming more deadly. nice
The goal of power is power. - 1984
We are not descended from fearful men. - Murrow
The Final Countdown is now stuck in your head.

Anim-manga still sux.

Offline awaken_D_M_golem

  • Epic Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 7639
  • classique style , invisible tail
    • View Profile
Re: Breaking the Dungeon
« Reply #6 on: December 02, 2017, 03:24:32 PM »
How many HD does the Dungeon have, right before Awakening?


This is basically the Planar Vanguard PrC capstone, just better
and 10+ levels earlier (ho hum).
 :clap
Your codpiece is a mimic.

Offline Nytemare3701

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 1650
  • 50% Cripple, 50% Awesome. Flip a coin.
    • View Profile
Re: Breaking the Dungeon
« Reply #7 on: December 02, 2017, 05:16:06 PM »
so, an intelligent 'cave' that cant really adventure because its attached to a mountain... but tends to kill the creatures that find it... thus gaining xp and becoming more deadly. nice

Any structure can be a dungeon.

They told me I could be anything I wanted, so I became a boat.

Offline altpersona

  • Legendary Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 2000
  • #78
    • View Profile
    • You are here
Re: Breaking the Dungeon
« Reply #8 on: December 02, 2017, 06:14:06 PM »
so, an intelligent 'cave' that cant really adventure because its attached to a mountain... but tends to kill the creatures that find it... thus gaining xp and becoming more deadly. nice

Any structure can be a dungeon.

They told me I could be anything I wanted, so I became a boat.

We're gonna need a bigger shark
The goal of power is power. - 1984
We are not descended from fearful men. - Murrow
The Final Countdown is now stuck in your head.

Anim-manga still sux.

Offline altpersona

  • Legendary Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 2000
  • #78
    • View Profile
    • You are here
Re: Breaking the Dungeon
« Reply #9 on: December 02, 2017, 06:15:05 PM »
the shark is a druid, the boat is the monster attacking the coast.
The goal of power is power. - 1984
We are not descended from fearful men. - Murrow
The Final Countdown is now stuck in your head.

Anim-manga still sux.

Offline nijineko

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 2408
  • two strange quarks short of a graviton....
    • View Profile
    • TwinSeraphim
Re: Breaking the Dungeon
« Reply #10 on: December 03, 2017, 05:01:04 PM »
the shark is a druid, the boat is the monster attacking the coast.

a Psion Shark so it can shoot Energy Ray... Laser sharks anyone?

I have a Folding Boat (Pinnance in Stormwrack) which is conveniently just the size of a single Stronghold Space, enchanted with multiple Magnificent Mansions fireproof, teleports, planeshifts, regenerates itself, and has a huge number of other effects I'll skip unless anyone wants details.

It also occurs to me that with this trick one could duplicate that giant fortress from the movie Krull, should there be any fans.

Offline altpersona

  • Legendary Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 2000
  • #78
    • View Profile
    • You are here
Re: Breaking the Dungeon
« Reply #11 on: December 03, 2017, 05:14:28 PM »
yup lasers for the win
The goal of power is power. - 1984
We are not descended from fearful men. - Murrow
The Final Countdown is now stuck in your head.

Anim-manga still sux.

Offline phaedrusxy

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 10708
  • The iconic spambot
    • View Profile
Re: Breaking the Dungeon
« Reply #12 on: December 03, 2017, 07:44:22 PM »
I played something like this in a game on here once... except I was an airship, instead of an immobile dungeon.
I don't pee messages into the snow often , but when I do , it's in Cyrillic with Fake Viagra.  Stay frosty my friends.

Offline KellKheraptis

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ***
  • Posts: 438
  • Temporal Dissonance Technician
    • View Profile
Re: Breaking the Dungeon
« Reply #13 on: December 09, 2017, 12:47:31 AM »
Do you want Trypticon?  Because this is how you get Trypticon...

Seriously though, having this as a centerpiece of a truly monster dungeon would be absolutely amazing if you then had it transform into humanoid shape for the final series of battles a la Unicron.  Make it big enough and see about having Dungeon Lord affecting chunks of the planet its on :D

Offline awaken_D_M_golem

  • Epic Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 7639
  • classique style , invisible tail
    • View Profile
Re: Breaking the Dungeon
« Reply #14 on: December 09, 2017, 02:42:01 PM »
hmm ...


At the end of 2e , Orcus dies and his body is something ginormous out on the astral.
Maybe what he (it?) did was make a dungeon that looked like him
plus do this trick to it + Mind Switch (or somethin' like that).
Your codpiece is a mimic.

Offline altpersona

  • Legendary Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 2000
  • #78
    • View Profile
    • You are here
Re: Breaking the Dungeon
« Reply #15 on: December 09, 2017, 05:07:33 PM »
now i thinking a carriage instead of a boat. ruby red 'eye' in front, w. high charisma cohort 'driver' probably a bard 'knight' who hums their theme song.
The goal of power is power. - 1984
We are not descended from fearful men. - Murrow
The Final Countdown is now stuck in your head.

Anim-manga still sux.

Offline nijineko

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 2408
  • two strange quarks short of a graviton....
    • View Profile
    • TwinSeraphim
Re: Breaking the Dungeon
« Reply #16 on: December 09, 2017, 07:35:36 PM »
now i thinking a carriage instead of a boat. ruby red 'eye' in front, w. high charisma cohort 'driver' probably a bard 'knight' who hums their theme song.

You mean humming his own theme song like this? ;D

Maybe wields this:



Maybe a bard paladin who smites with a power chord?

(I did get the actual reference, btw)
« Last Edit: December 09, 2017, 07:38:20 PM by nijineko »

Offline nijineko

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 2408
  • two strange quarks short of a graviton....
    • View Profile
    • TwinSeraphim
Re: Breaking the Dungeon
« Reply #17 on: December 09, 2017, 07:46:21 PM »
Do you want Trypticon?  Because this is how you get Trypticon...

Seriously though, having this as a centerpiece of a truly monster dungeon would be absolutely amazing if you then had it transform into humanoid shape for the final series of battles a la Unicron.  Make it big enough and see about having Dungeon Lord affecting chunks of the planet its on :D

You know, if you could manage to enchant with intelligence every stronghold space on the planet, you'd probably wind up with something like this:




or this:


Offline SorO_Lost

  • Epic Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 7197
  • Banned
    • View Profile
Re: Breaking the Dungeon
« Reply #18 on: December 10, 2017, 08:52:48 PM »
A living planet casts Simulacrum and names his clone Ego?

Offline nijineko

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 2408
  • two strange quarks short of a graviton....
    • View Profile
    • TwinSeraphim
Re: Breaking the Dungeon
« Reply #19 on: December 11, 2017, 04:18:30 PM »
A living planet casts Simulacrum and names his clone Ego?

Getting the caster level to 1/2 of the HD of a planet seems somewhat difficult to pull off, but would certainly be interesting. ^^

nice counter-reference, btw.