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What are DnD Bastions?

One big change revealed for Dungeons and Dragons’ new Dungeon Master’s Guide is Bastions, a base-building mechanic with multiple benefits.

DnD Bastions - Wizards of the Coast art of a house in a tree

A DnD Bastion is a home or stronghold that belongs to one or more players in a campaign. Optional rules for Bastions will be introduced in chapter eight of the new 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide, and it seems that these new mechanics will be very close to the rules revealed during playtesting for the new edition. This guide explains how Dungeons and Dragons Bastions work, and it offers tips for making the most of the new rules.

For more recent RPG mechanics, here’s how DnD 2024 backgrounds work in the new Player’s Handbook. Or, for something more familiar, here’s everything you need to know about DnD classes and DnD races.

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DnD Bastion rules

On October 3, Wizards of the Coast gave a presentation about the rules for Bastions that will appear in the new Dungeon Master’s Guide coming up next on the DnD release schedule. It seems that everything that was present in the playtest is still accurate for the new edition, though it’s possible some significant details have changed. For now, this guide combines all the rules for Bastions from the One DnD playtest with everuthing else discussed in the presentation – we’ll update it as soon as we learn anything has changed.

Gaining a DnD Bastion

If the DM allows Bastions in their DnD campaign, players can decide to acquire one once they reach level five. Each character can have their own Bastion if they wish, but they can also choose to co-own the property. Even if a player chooses not to own a Bastion, they can still benefit from those that belong to their fellow party members.

A Bastion is available to use as soon as a character decides to gain one. Wizards of the Coast suggests coming up with a story reason for the Bastion appearing, but it’s safe to assume that construction or sale of the Bastion has taken place in the background of your adventures.

DnD Bastions - Wizards of the Coast art of a Dwarf gesturing through a portal

DnD Bastion Turns

Every seven days, players with a Bastion can take a ‘Bastion Turn’ to issue orders to their base and gain benefits from its facilities. The players do not have to be present at the Bastion to do so, and the playtest gives DMs free reign to change the time between Bastion Turns to suit their campaign.

During a Bastion Turn, special facilities in a Bastion can generate Bastion Points (BP). These can be spent to gain DnD magic items or other specific boons.

Magic item Level prerequisite Cost
Common 20 BP
Uncommon 70 BP
Rare 9 250 BP
Very Rare 13 350 BP
Legendary 17 700 BP

Players can also spend 10 Bastion Points during a DnD level up to gain advantage on Charisma checks for seven days, provided that they stay within 50 miles of their Bastion. Alternatively, when a character dies, they can spend 100 Bastion Points to be revived in their Bastion at the start of the next day. This can only be done once per level.

DnD Bastions - Wizards of the Coast art of a group of Dwarfs

DnD Bastion Facilities

Every Bastion starts with two basic facilities and two special facilities. Players have control over the floor plan of their property and are encouraged to map it out.

Basic Facilities

Basic facilities include the following:

  • Bedrooms
  • Courtyards
  • Dining Rooms
  • Kitchens
  • Parlors
  • Storage
  • Washrooms

These facilities are non-magical and don’t generate Bastion Points, but no building would feel complete without the essentials. The two free basic facilities in a starting Bastion must include one cramped (max area four squares) and one roomy (max area 16 squares) facility of your choice.

If you want to expand them (say, to vast, which is 36 squares maximum), you can spend gold and in-game time.

Space increase GP cost Time required
Cramped to Roomy 500 GP 25 days
Roomy to Vast 2,000 GP 80 days

You can also spend gold and time to add further basic facilities:

Facility space GP cost Time required
Cramped 500 GP 20 days
Roomy 1,000 GP 45 days
Vast 3,000 GP 125 days

All this can be done in the background of your regular adventuring.

DnD Bastions - Wizards of the Coast art of a group of Elves

Special Facilities

Special facilities can only be gained by leveling up your character. At level nine, a player can add two special facilities of their choice to their Bastion. They also gain one special facility at level 13 and again at level 17.

Each special facility comes with one or more hirelings to take care of it while the players are away. During a Bastion turn, players can issue a variety of special orders to their facilities, depending on which they’ve chosen for their Bastion:

  • Craft – Create an item specific to that facility
  • Empower – Give someone a temporary buff
  • Harvest – Gather a resource specific to that facility
  • Maintain – Keep the Bastion in good shape.
  • Recruit – Recruit creatures to live at your Bastion
  • Research – Gather information
  • Trade – Buy or sell goods and services stored at or produced by the facility

Alternatively, players can choose the Maintain order for all special facilities. The character who issues this order gains 1d4 Bastion Points for each special facility in their Bastion, and the DM rolls for a random Bastion event. Typically, the Maintain order is given while characters are away from their Bastion during a Bastion Turn.

Here’s a summary of all the special facilities featured in the DnD Bastion playtest:

Level Special Facility Prerequisite Order
5 Arcane Study Ability to use an Arcane Focus Craft
5 Armory None Trade
5 Barracks None Recruit
5 Garden None Harvest
5 Library None Research
5 Sanctuary Ability to use a Holy Symbol or Druidic Focus Craft
5 Smithy Fighting style feature or Unarmored Defense feature Craft
5 Storehouse None Trade
5 Workshop Expertise in a skill Craft
9 Gaming Hall None Trade
9 Greenhouse None Harvest
9 Laboratory None* Craft
9 Sacristy Ability to use a Holy Symbol or Druidic Focus Craft
9 Scriptorium None* Craft
9 Stable None Trade
9 Teleportation Circle None Recruit
9 Theater None Empower
9 Training Area Expertise in a skill, fighting style feature, or Unarmored Defense feature Empower
9 Trophy Room None Research
13 Archive None Research
13 Meditation Chamber None Empower
13 Menagerie None Recruit
13 Observatory Ability to use a Spellcasting Focus Empower
13 Pub None Research
13 Reliquary Ability to use a Holy Symbol or Druidic Focus Harvest
17 Demiplane Ability to use an Arcane Focus Empower
17 Guildhall Expertise in a skill Recruit
17 Sanctum Ability to use a Holy Symbol or Druidic Focus Empower
17 War Room Fighting style or Unarmed Defense feature Recruit

* Some orders given in these facilities have extra prerequisites.

According to the preview on October 3, some facilities might be specialised. For example a garden could be an ornamental garden, a kitchen garden, a herb garden, or even a poison garden.

Special facilities also grant you additional benefit. The October 3 preview gives the example that, while you’re in your Demiplane, you benefit from Arcane Resistance, as you’re “tougher to take on on your home turf”.

Conflict with Bastions

According to the October 3 presentation, nothing is likely to take a player’s bastion away from them, unless they draw the Ruin card from the Deck of Many Things. There are rules for reconstructing a Bastion just in case campaign events make that a concern, but by design, “the Bastion is not a knife for the DM to hurt the players”.

That said, it’s still likely that your Bastion will be a source of story hooks – for example, you may find your Bastion is in conflict with another facility in the same town. Opening a Thieves’ Guild or a Pub is likely to put you into competition with rival organisations.

You can find out more about each facility in the full Bastion playtest document. For more on the new rules, check out our full 2024 Player’s Handbook review. We can also help you prepare for your first D&D 2024 game with a step-by-step DnD character creator.