Anyone else have trouble creating anything bigger than a Large Town settlement? I don't know; maybe its just me and the way I make the settlements that's messed up.
I've been using just the GMG and some random rolls for a while now. I figured a way to randomize the alignment, qualities and disadvantages (if any). Once I have the general setting (forest, hills, cold or temperate region, etc) and these random bits generated everything else slides into place story wise.
At least, when designing smaller locales.
But I've been struggling with a Small City for example for days. I got the crem de la crem of random rolls with the qualities. This small city has Academic, Magically Attuned, Prosperous and Tourist Attraction. I figured: easy; since the city's alignment is Neutral I'll just make the place one big temple of Nethys and call it a day. Right in the middle of the city is a hole with arcane sigils shooting out fireworks.
But I want this place to be kind of unique so as I began trying to write fluff and such I suddenly realized: there are spellcasters casting up to NINTH level spells who are willing to sell their services. That kind of trumps ANYTHING I had planned in the campaign. Not to mention the fact that then to challenge said spellcaster(s) I'd have to have some villain equally monstrous for them to spend every waking minute on.
TLDR: does anyone else have a challenge designing settlements where the power levels of the denizens are insane?
Honestly no, I just don't make settlements with insanely powered denizens.
But I actually have never used the rules to create a town or settlement. I just find it to be one of those things that while advice is awesome to have on the subject rules are unnecessary.
What I personally do is search the interwebs for a pre-made RPG city as there are just tons of them for a map of the city that looks interesting to me then I just think of and write down a dozen or so interesting locations in the city and come up with some notable NPC for the place. The magic level of the city is whatever I want it to be. If I want to way for my player access to 9th level spellcaster then there are no ninth level spell caster.
Thanks for the input duble b!
Anyone else have tips or troubles building larger settlements?
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Funny I dont think I have ever had to make up, at least in detail, a large settlement. I have always had random tables and modules to flesh them out for me. Even when I sandbox/homebrew I tend to use supplements published by companies to help detail it out. I try not to put too much effort in these thing as often you do way more work than is neccesary. My players are more likely to keep on moving then to spend enough time in any one place. Unless its an urban campaign which would happen a lot more if it was up to me. My group doesnt like them a whole lot.
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If you want to limit the spellcasting beyond what the settlement table says, you can! Just because the table says its supposed to be there based on the fact that you've got 3 stacking spellcasting modifiers, doesn't mean you have to include it. Typically I would limit a non-holy seat of power to 6th level spells, with the 7,8,9 for only the holiest cities where the highest priests reside; or similarly only for the Waterdeep's or Absalom's out there where the few 17+ arcanists hang out.
Because I tend to run the lower spectrum of levels, rarely above level 10, which I believe is a common situation, I make a change that instead of that number being the highest spell level that can be purchased, I say that is the highest level random spellcaster to be found without making it an ordeal. And that tends to slash the higher level spells down quite a bit while making lower level stuff nearly as plentiful.
Additionally, I made rules for enchanting civic structures assuming that mages work for the local authorities or enterprises and try to use their spells to do more than kill monsters or sell things with which to better kill monsters. Here is a link of some example city enchantments and their prices:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bxt7mtj_p8SlWDZVX3FBTHF6ak0/edit?usp=shari ng (close the space btwn ri and ng to make the link work)