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Here's the idea to explain away why people bother to make castes and such fortifications in a magical world.
where RL castles sites were chosen for their access to underground water and natural defensive location, Pathfinder castles are instead constructed on naturally occurring magical sites that seep into the construction by some otherwise "mundane" means for all kinds of beneficial purposes. Harder to scry as you get closer to the center, difficulty destroying walls with magic, trouble teleporting into the castle heart, etc.
Actually, I like this and think I'll develop some house rules around it.
I'm trying to come up with a simple elegant mechanic for this phenomenon.
The simplest would probably be to give the castle some sort of SR vs anyone casting spells from outside the walls. Perhaps the SR is based on strength of ley line and age if the castle. I'm looking for feedback on how this might work.
Perhaps 3 zones per castle with an increasingly more difficult SR check. The outermost being the outer walls area. The most difficult being the "core" of the castle. Perhaps the throne room type area.
Casting from inside to outside works normally. Casting from outside to inside requires one or more SR rolls. Basically if you cross a boundary with magic from the outside you'd have to roll that SR for that boundary. Cross two boundaries you'd have to roll both, etc. fail the roll and the spell is wasted like normal SR rolls.
What do you think? Would this work? How could it be better? Keeping in mind simple and universal application are the goals.
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How to secure your castle in three easy steps.
1. Forbiddance
Your castle is protected by a high level cleric of a deity of your choice. Nobody gets to teleport into our out of the area. Nobody gets to summon creatures into your castle. Nobody gets to plane shift into your castle. Any intruders suffer enough damage to kill most creatures less than CR 5. Your gate guards know the password, and only honoured guests are trusted to enter.
Your castle is protected by a high level wizard and has a permanent sanctum over the area. No scrying of any form works within the castle's area.
3. Alarm
Entry points to your castle are protected by a permanent alarm. Should an intruder attempt to physically enter your castle, an audible ringing noise will alert your guards to their location.
How to secure your castle in three easy steps.
1. Forbiddance
Your castle is protected by a high level cleric of a deity of your choice. Nobody gets to teleport into our out of the area. Nobody gets to summon creatures into your castle. Nobody gets to plane shift into your castle. Any intruders suffer enough damage to kill most creatures less than CR 5. Your gate guards know the password, and only honoured guests are trusted to enter.
Your castle is protected by a high level wizard and has a permanent sanctum over the area. No scrying of any form works within the castle's area.
3. Alarm
Entry points to your castle are protected by a permanent alarm. Should an intruder attempt to physically enter your castle, an audible ringing noise will alert your guards to their location.
You'll need multiple castings and a lot of permanency castings, but otherwise sure.
If we assume you have enough gold to afford a castle, you probably have enough gold to afford to protect it. Plus, barring nasty, nasty high level adventurers using Dispel Magic, you're only going to have to do it once during the entire history of the castle's construction.
I'm sure somewhere in the family tree of Count Turtle Von Goaway someone managed to earn enough taxes to fund his ultra-secure fortress.
You'll need multiple castings and a lot of permanency castings, but otherwise sure.
Or to piggyback on your idea, by building the castle on the ley line the magical energies of it remove the need for permanency.
If we assume you have enough gold to afford a castle, you probably have enough gold to afford to protect it. Plus, barring nasty, nasty high level adventurers using Dispel Magic, you're only going to have to do it once during the entire history of the castle's construction.
I'm sure somewhere in the family tree of Count Turtle Von Goaway someone managed to earn enough taxes to fund his ultra-secure fortress.
Although, you've prevented scry and fry techniques it doesn't prevent the walls from being pointless after one casting of stone to mud or something similar. I think my idea is more of a universal defense.
Or to piggyback on your idea, by building the castle on the ley line the magical energies of it remove the need for permanency.
You'll need multiple castings and a lot of permanency castings, but otherwise sure.
Maybe some magical mcguffin at the center that does all these things.
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I'm sure somewhere in the family tree of Count Turtle Von Goaway someone managed to earn enough taxes to fund his ultra-secure fortress.
Count Turtle Von Goaway! LMAO!
Maybe there is a simple construction technique that achieve's these effects, like having reinforcing struts inside the walls that are grounded X distance into solid bedrock. Said struts to be made of (cold) iron, copper, silver or whatever the metaphysic of the world requires. The catch is the effects are only strong enough to matter when the structure generating the SR field is massive, say castle sized.
You'd have to be careful with the SR idea. PCs are notorious for finding traits, feats, magic items, etc. that boost caster level. As a result, were you to have a scenario where they might want to use magic against someone or something in the castle, they just end up making up to 3 rolls that they can easily beat.
Maybe there is a simple construction technique that achieve's these effects, like having reinforcing struts inside the walls that are grounded X distance into solid bedrock. Said struts to be made of (cold) iron, copper, silver or whatever the metaphysic of the world requires. The catch is the effects are only strong enough to matter when the structure generating the SR field is massive, say castle sized.
It could be that if you don't build a large enough structure with the right materials that can handle channeling the power of the ley line, the entire structure gets torn to shreds by the magical energies.
Although, you've prevented scry and fry techniques it doesn't prevent the walls from being pointless after one casting of stone to mud or something similar. I think my idea is more of a universal defense.
The walls are protected by permanent walls of force that block line of effect. The stonework is for decoration and privacy, and to protect from embarrassing moments when you walk face first into an invisible wall.
Honestly, I think your best defense for a castle lies in secrecy. You can enchant and plan for attacks, and that's great, but if no one knows it's there, no one would even know where to scry or even how to find it with mundane travel. I would make your fortress in an underground cavern or in the center of a mountain range (you can just teleport anywhere you want to go anyway).
Even if they did scry your location by complete accident, it would come back as an empty or fuzzy reading.
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Depends on your purpose. The rightful ruler of a kingdom doesn't need to hide his fortress in a secret location. It'd be counter-intuitive to do so.
On the other hand, the Cult of the Black Bathrobes probably prefers secrecy for their Most Unholy Rites of Chanting Evilly. That's why they're hiding in the woods behind the hamlet of Pigmuck, annoying the locals enough to cause rumours of their activity to catch the attention of a rag-tag bunch of misfits in the local tavern.
Historically, castles are built as a fortification that protects an area of tactical importance such as river crossings, mountain passes and the like. They're likely in places that intersect regular trade routes, and secrecy isn't likely to be a big feature.
Unless, of course, your noble is a madman that built a castle in a swamp, which sank, then built another, which also sank, then built a third, which burned down, fell over and then sank, until the fourth one finally stayed up.
Even if you have magic,failing to protect from plain old brute force is still dumb.
Like giant stone walls, for example?
Maybe there is a simple construction technique that achieve's these effects, like having reinforcing struts inside the walls that are grounded X distance into solid bedrock. Said struts to be made of (cold) iron, copper, silver or whatever the metaphysic of the world requires. The catch is the effects are only strong enough to matter when the structure generating the SR field is massive, say castle sized.
This is the kind of thing I'm looking for. Great idea. Hidden non-magic construction that channels and creates magic effect.