Was thinking a bit on the typical medieval town or city, and how the fortifications are generally set up to repel ground forces, which works well with conventional armies but not so well with dragon attacks.
Then I thought about empires and merchant consortiums and exactly what they might think about dragon attacks, and the loss of profits therefrom.
Then I thought about unlikely bands of heroes taking out dragons with remarkable frequency, and I was wondering how much trouble it would be for gnomish, dwarvish or just plain human bankers to curse their vaults such that whoever plunders them will be killed by adventurers in rather short order.
Admittedly, this doesn't recover the money, but it does get rid of a large trouble of having a financial institution with a central vault.
Ditto with possibly having a city cursed so that it destroys whoever burns it down. Good for dragons and invading conquerors as well.
What would it take? Contingency + Wish? A Miracle? Bestow Greater Curse set up as a trap?
Was thinking a bit on the typical medieval town or city, and how the fortifications are generally set up to repel ground forces, which works well with conventional armies but not so well with dragon attacks.
Then I thought about empires and merchant consortiums and exactly what they might think about dragon attacks, and the loss of profits therefrom.
Then I thought about unlikely bands of heroes taking out dragons with remarkable frequency, and I was wondering how much trouble it would be for gnomish, dwarvish or just plain human bankers to curse their vaults such that whoever plunders them will be killed by adventurers in rather short order.
Admittedly, this doesn't recover the money, but it does get rid of a large trouble of having a financial institution with a central vault.
Ditto with possibly having a city cursed so that it destroys whoever burns it down. Good for dragons and invading conquerors as well.
What would it take? Contingency + Wish? A Miracle? Bestow Greater Curse set up as a trap?
Here's a question. Are dragons worth planning for? They are so huge and can kill so many people, yet so few and far between. Ditto wizards with meteor swarm. It's a little like planning for an atomic bomb to hit. Can you?
That said, I agree that some magical defenses are likely for fantasty cities, and particularly for certain areas. Vaults might well get put underground, or better yet in a pocket dimension where they can be easily hidden.
It would be cool to have a cursed city. I think the majority of places would still sink the gold into defense to prevent the sack, but I can see a one-of-a-kind metropolis. One where the rulers have that "if we go down, you're going with us" mentality. Wish or miracle could create a contigency on that basis, I would think. I would also allow a massive magical ritual that doesn't depend on spell slots.
Here's a question. Are dragons worth planning for? They are so huge and can kill so many people, yet so few and far between. Ditto wizards with meteor swarm. It's a little like planning for an atomic bomb to hit. Can you?
That said, I agree that some magical defenses are likely for fantasty cities, and particularly for certain areas. Vaults might well get put underground, or better yet in a pocket dimension where they can be easily hidden.
It would be cool to have a cursed city. I think the majority of places would still sink the gold into defense to prevent the sack, but I can see a one-of-a-kind metropolis. One where the rulers have that "if we go down, you're going with us" mentality. Wish or miracle could create a contigency on that basis, I would think. I would also allow a massive magical ritual that doesn't depend on spell slots.
Well, I think the trouble is that dragons, super-villain evil wizards and similar perils that blackmail entire cities would swiftly lead to decentralized banking. That and merchants guilds putting out bounties on particular dragons that cross them.
Of course that's a matter of doing a curse in a particularly non-magical way. Other options would be things like high level clerics putting a Fatwah on Smaug, offering everything including seventy-two houri to whoever bumps him off.
And then there are wizards universities. Dragons are not the only ones who have nukes.
I guess it would depend on the level on magic in your game. High level magic would render most attacks by even a dragon only a major disturbance - not outright destruction. A lower level magic setting may see hugr ballistae mounted atop the battlements with domed/spired roofs to deter swoop attacks. I think there is some info in a splt somewhere for just this type of thing.
*checking PDF's now*
~shocked and sad look on my face~ Why would you want to Dragon Proof your village/town/city? We are very harmless! Honest!
Another question to ask is "Does centralized banking exist?" It didn't in actual medieval cultures, so even if there had been dragons, there would have been no need to dragon-proof vaults. I would tend to nominate dwarves, with their vaults, to stand in for bankers in the standard D&D setting (didn't Eberron do this?). Since their lairs are underground, in mountains, the threat is quite a bit lessened. It's lessened even more, because those dragons which make it to the vault aren't likely to be able to fly around in the chamber. At least not easily.
Dragon proofing a village is like making a soldier missile proof. A great thing but not really possible (due to cost and feasibility).
The best way (cheapest) to dragon proof a city is have a hundred or so wands of magic missile set up (each with 10 or so charges) around the city. In a pinch you have a massive anti-air defense.
Yeah, till the dragon casts "shield"...
Forget it. Not cost-effective. Would make more sense breeding virgins.
A curse that the dragon is slain by adventurers? Cannot be done. You can wish for that he's being attacked by adventurers. Actually wishing someone dead (withtout them getting a save - which, you know, the dragon will succeed in) isn't possible.
I suppose you could construct an elaborate set of defenses for a powerful city, but it simply is not cost effective to protect a village. For any settlement smaller than 10,000 people, your best bet is to attract some sort of powerful creature or organization to settle down in your little village so that if and when bad things happen, someone is there to defend you. If you are lucky, this means you have some PCs living in the town, or a friendly dragon, or some fool who pulled out the wrong Harrow card and married into a Djinn family. If you are unlucky, then you are probably paying tribute to your own monstrous overlord, at which point, you are economically compromised just as surely as if the dragon robbed your bank.
I seem to recall that there was a lengthy discussion of dragons and banking systems over on the ENWorld boards some time ago. The highlight of the thread was the suggestion that you give up trying to keep the gold from the dragons and let the metallics run the banks. Let the local dragon keep all the town's gold and gems in his horde, and switch over to paper currency backed by the gold or silver standard. That way, the dragon gets to lounge around on a huge horde, and simultaneously protects the economic stability of the town and discourages smaller dragons from engaging in "hostile takeovers".
Of course, if your dragons are more concerned with the apparent value of a thing than just having a pile of shiny metal, this won't work out very well, as they start to covet little pieces of paper.
As many have suggested, Dwarves also make excellent bankers. A crampt, unlit adamantine vault deep underground, accessible only by a narrow shaft extending straight down over fifty feet beneath the earth would be a relatively safe place to keep one's valuables. Doubly so if the vault were in fact just a convenient place to hide an extradimensional space in a secret compartment. Granted, magic can get around all of this, but anyone capable of doing it is capable of doing far worse.
While we're on the topic of fantasy banking, I am currently playing in a campaign where the DM has established that there is a god of banking who invented the Bag of Holding, and that each such bag is in fact a vault within his divine realm (itself a demiplane attached to the "Sigil" of the setting). As a result, no one can access the extradimensional space without his blessing, ensuring that any bank that does business using a bag of holding is relatively safe.
-C. Robert Brown
This is, of course, something that every campaign setting has to deal with: Why don't powerful creatures (e.g. high level wizards, dragons, devils, armies of giants) dominate the world?
I think there are two basic answers:
a) Powerful creatures are few and/or far between, so it's easy enough to avoid the areas they dominate (i.e. the Eberron approach).
b) Powerful creatures are relatively plentiful, but there are enough powerful creatures that there's some kind of balance of power that keeps any one group from acting too openly (i.e. the Forgotten Realms approach).
I like (a) better than (b), because having too many powerful entities around can make the PCs feel like powerless chumps (relatively speaking). I.e., "Why should we try to save the world when Elminster could do it on his coffee break?"
This is, of course, something that every campaign setting has to deal with: Why don't powerful creatures (e.g. high level wizards, dragons, devils, armies of giants) dominate the world?
I think there are two basic answers:
a) Powerful creatures are few and/or far between, so it's easy enough to avoid the areas they dominate (i.e. the Eberron approach).
b) Powerful creatures are relatively plentiful, but there are enough powerful creatures that there's some kind of balance of power that keeps any one group from acting too openly (i.e. the Forgotten Realms approach).
There's also a combination of a and b. Powerful creatures are relatively few and far between, but they still don't want to act openly because, even if there are few, being too obvious makes them a target for the others. In fact, if there are relatively few, they all might have a pretty strong interest in keeping their influence quiet because, while powerful, the weight of numbers is against them and the last thing you want to do is rile up everybody against you.
This thread is a great explanation for why "paying your tribute on time and with a respectful attitude" is the most cost-effective way to dragon-proof your town.
This is, of course, something that every campaign setting has to deal with: Why don't powerful creatures (e.g. high level wizards, dragons, devils, armies of giants) dominate the world?
I think there are two basic answers:
a) Powerful creatures are few and/or far between, so it's easy enough to avoid the areas they dominate (i.e. the Eberron approach).
b) Powerful creatures are relatively plentiful, but there are enough powerful creatures that there's some kind of balance of power that keeps any one group from acting too openly (i.e. the Forgotten Realms approach).
There's also a combination of a and b. Powerful creatures are relatively few and far between, but they still don't want to act openly because, even if there are few, being too obvious makes them a target for the others. In fact, if there are relatively few, they all might have a pretty strong interest in keeping their influence quiet because, while powerful, the weight of numbers is against them and the last thing you want to do is rile up everybody against you.
To me, that all falls under case "a". Maybe I should have said "areas they dominate (if any)".
Hmm, I can see that some gnomish craftsman might decide that Arrow of Slaying + Launch Bolt + True Strike + Alarm + weathervane = win.
Probably sensible to add in Undetectable Aura as well so the towns rogues don't go around disabling the town's protection system for short term profit.
Leads to wonderful situations:
DRAGON: Greetings, townsfolk! I am Vornithias the Red, and you will bring me all your gold and five delectable virgins or--
WEATHERVANE: CockadoodleDOOM!
DRAGON: WTF? Urk!
MAYOR: Did the city hall weathervane just kill the dragon?
OLD TIMER: Ayep. That's what it looks like. There was a big scandal back seventy years ago, when your great-grandaddy bought that weathervane from a gnomish merchant. People thought he was nuts to spend that much on a decoration, but he said the town would thank him one day. Looks like he was right.
CITY TREASURER: Does anyone else know how much a huge red dragon corpse is worth on the open market? Because I do and the old timer is right--we're rich!
CITY CLERIC: "Gentle Repose"
So your idea of a dragonproof village is to rely on something that probably has but a 5% chance of working (since the dragon is likely to make that save)? Furnish me with your addresses, I'll send something your way.
How about including a gem of Trap the Soul in the tribute that is paid. If I recall correctly, if the target accepts the gem of their own free will (such as demanding the populace pay him some gems), there is no save, and maybe no spell resistance. You would need a pretty expensive gem (1000 gp per HD), but for a large sized town, that might be doable. Especially since the town guard can now loot the lair of the trapped dragon, so they can buy another defense-against-the-dragons soul gem.
Cool idea. Carries a little bit of risk. The dragon's name and the final word need to be inscribed on the gem. If the dragon spots that, it might be suspicious. If you can afford the trap the soul, might as well toss a sympathy spell on it as well.
Oh, I'm certain the gnome would bother to crunch the numbers as to what save DC is necessary and whether its more cost-effective to go for a Greater Arrow of Slaying for DC of 23 rather than a 20, or use other effects to raise the DC, or simply chain together a series of weathervanes (for example, those atop all the houses facing a city square where the dragon is liable to land) and have them go off in unison.
The Trap the Soul gambit, OTOH, is genius, and the gems inscription is easily disguised by a competent jeweler simply hiding it under the setting.