Bastion Facilities
Bastion Facilities are the rooms and functional spaces used by both Bastions and Strongholds.
Use this page as an index. It does not reprint the facility descriptions from the official books. It lists the available facilities, their level requirements, prerequisites, orders, room sizes, and source books so players and the DM can find the full rules quickly.
For construction-scale materials, see Material Acquisition. For workers and project assignment, see Labor Management. For Bastion-scale use, see Bastions. For Stronghold-scale use, see Strongholds.
Book Abbreviations¶
| Abbreviation | Book |
|---|---|
| DMG | Dungeon Master's Guide |
| EFotA | Eberron: Forge of the Artificer |
Facility Sizes¶
| Room Size | Maximum Area |
|---|---|
| Cramped | 4 squares |
| Roomy | 16 squares |
| Vast | 36 squares |
A facility's squares may be arranged as the player sees fit and may be split across multiple levels or stories, subject to the DM's approval and the map requirements in Bastions.
Stronghold Room Point Costs¶
In a Bastion, Special Facilities are normally gained for free through level advancement.
In a Stronghold, Special Facilities are built by spending Room Points. Room Points are not literal square footage. They represent usable institutional space, staffing capacity, circulation, storage, support infrastructure, and the ability to make a facility function as part of a larger holding.
Use the following Room Point costs for Stronghold Special Facilities:
| Facility Size | Room Point Cost | Stronghold Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Cramped | 1 RP | Small specialized room, office, vault, shrine, chamber, cell, or private workroom |
| Roomy | 2 RP | Standard functional facility and the default scale for most stronghold facilities |
| Vast | 4 RP | Major institutional space, hall, complex, courtyard, barracks, theater, menagerie, or large garden |
Room Points grant permission and capacity. They do not replace the map.
A Stronghold facility must still be placed somewhere physical, must fit inside the structure that contains it, and must make sense in the Stronghold's layout.
Basic Facilities and Special Facilities¶
Basic Facilities and Special Facilities do different jobs.
Special Facilities create orders and mechanical powers. Basic Facilities create capacity, context, and consequences.
For example, a Barrack Special Facility can issue the Recruit order and create Bastion Defenders.
A Vast Bedroom or Vast Sleeping Quarters Basic Facility might house soldiers, refugees, workers, pilgrims, or servants, but it does not automatically recruit them, train them, or give them Bastion Defender mechanics.
In a Stronghold, ordinary Basic Facilities are often assumed as part of a structure's function. A Keep has stairs, halls, storage, sleeping space, latrines, and working rooms because it could not function otherwise. However, when a Basic Facility is named, mapped, expanded, fortified, upgraded, or used as the focus of play, its size and location matter.
Basic Facilities¶
Basic Facilities serve ordinary, practical, narrative, and residential functions. They normally do not provide Bastion orders or special mechanical benefits by themselves.
A starting Bastion normally includes two free Basic Facilities: one Cramped and one Roomy. Additional Basic Facilities may be added or enlarged using the rules in Bastions.
| Facility Name | Room Size | Book |
|---|---|---|
| Bedroom | Chosen when placed | DMG |
| Courtyard | Chosen when placed | DMG |
| Dining Room | Chosen when placed | DMG |
| Kitchen | Chosen when placed | DMG |
| Parlor | Chosen when placed | DMG |
| Storage | Chosen when placed | DMG |
Basic Facility Size Meanings in Strongholds¶
The Basic Facilities listed above are intentionally broad. In a Bastion, they mostly provide flavor, structure, and map texture. In a Stronghold, they describe the mundane anatomy of civilization: sleeping, eating, storing, cooking, washing, governing, guarding, treating wounds, keeping animals, receiving guests, and organizing work.
Use the following tables as default meanings when a Basic Facility appears in a Stronghold.
Bedroom / Sleeping Quarters¶
| Size | Stronghold Meaning |
|---|---|
| Cramped | One modest bedroom, servant room, guard room, monk cell, or officer bunk |
| Roomy | One high-end bedroom, shared servants' quarters, small barrack, or family room |
| Vast | Large barracks, dormitory, refugee sleeping hall, pilgrim quarters, or troop room |
Dining Room / Mess¶
| Size | Stronghold Meaning |
|---|---|
| Cramped | Private dining room, officers' table, or small staff meal room |
| Roomy | Common dining room, crew mess, guild dining hall, or modest refectory |
| Vast | Great hall, feast hall, communal refectory, or military mess hall |
Kitchen¶
| Size | Stronghold Meaning |
|---|---|
| Cramped | Small kitchen for household, officer, shrine, or private use |
| Roomy | Working kitchen for a hall, crew, inn, barrack, or modest institution |
| Vast | Large kitchens, bakery, smokehouse prep area, cauldron room, or full communal food operation |
Storage¶
| Size | Stronghold Meaning |
|---|---|
| Cramped | Closet, secure cabinet room, pantry, reagent store, records store, or small armory store |
| Roomy | Store room, warehouse room, granary chamber, tool depot, or supply room |
| Vast | Major warehouse, supply hall, stronghold depot, grain store, or stockpile building |
Courtyard¶
| Size | Stronghold Meaning |
|---|---|
| Cramped | Lightwell, small enclosed yard, shrine court, washing yard, or service court |
| Roomy | Work yard, training yard, small market court, animal yard, or receiving court |
| Vast | Main bailey, parade ground, market court, muster yard, public square, or major garden court |
Parlor / Common Room¶
| Size | Stronghold Meaning |
|---|---|
| Cramped | Private sitting room, consultation room, waiting room, or small meeting room |
| Roomy | Common room, guild lounge, officers' room, reception chamber, or social hall |
| Vast | Audience hall, civic hall, assembly room, public forum, court chamber, or large council hall |
Additional Stronghold Basic Facilities¶
The Dungeon Master's Guide Basic Facility list is deliberately short. Strongholds may also use additional Basic Facilities when the map needs ordinary civic, logistical, or defensive spaces that do not grant Bastion orders.
| Basic Facility | Stronghold Use |
|---|---|
| Animal Shelter | Draft animals, mounts, livestock, feed storage, and stable-adjacent support |
| Cellar / Cold Storage | Food preservation, alcohol, medicine, seed stock, and temperature-sensitive supplies |
| Dock / Landing | Ship access, river logistics, unloading, fishing, patrol boats, or supply transfer |
| Gatehouse | Access control, portcullis operation, visitor inspection, and defensive chokepoints |
| Guard Post | Watch rotation, checkpoints, alarm points, patrol staging, and local security |
| Infirmary | Recovery, plague response, triage, injured workers, and battlefield aftermath |
| Latrine / Washroom | Sanitation, disease prevention, siege realism, and daily population support |
| Office / Records Room | Administration, ledgers, maps, claims, permits, correspondence, and civic memory |
| Workshop Yard | Repairs, carts, scaffolding, bulk work, drying space, sorting, and rough assembly |
These are Basic Facilities unless the DM gives them a special rule. They create places where things happen; they do not automatically grant orders, hirelings, or special mechanics.
Defensive Walls¶
Defensive Walls may be added to Bastions or Strongholds.
A Defensive Wall is a fortified 5-foot section of wall, up to 20 feet high, built to protect a Bastion, Stronghold structure, yard, gate, stockpile, or other important site. It may include a walkway along the top and a means to access that walkway, such as a ladder, stair, ramp, or lift.
Defensive Walls are purchased and built by 5-foot square. A wall segment does not count as a Basic Facility or Special Facility, and it does not cost Room Points.
Defensive Wall Cost¶
The official Bastion rule prices one 5-foot square of Defensive Wall at 250 GP and 10 days of work.
| Defensive Wall Segment | Wood | Stone | Iron | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Material Cost | 1 MU | 12 MU | 1 MU | 10 days |
The Wood represents scaffolding, walkways, hoardings, gates, braces, ladders, platforms, forms, temporary works, and internal structure. The Stone represents the main defensive mass, foundations, revetments, blocks, rubble, earthwork facing, or masonry. The Iron represents nails, braces, hinges, bands, spikes, gate hardware, portcullis fittings, reinforcement, and tools consumed during construction.
Enclosed Bastions¶
If a Bastion is completely enclosed by Defensive Walls and comes under attack from a Bastion Event, reduce by 2 the number of dice rolled to determine how many Bastion Defenders are lost.
This follows the standard Bastion wall benefit.
Stronghold Walls¶
Strongholds do not require full room-by-room maps, but Defensive Walls must be tracked clearly enough for their protection to matter.
For a Stronghold, record what the wall encloses:
- a single Structure;
- a gatehouse or entry road;
- a stockpile;
- a harbor, dock, or landing;
- a courtyard or bailey;
- a district;
- or the whole Stronghold.
A wall only protects the area it actually encloses or controls.
If a Stronghold is too large to map square-by-square, the DM may track walls by named sections such as North Wall, Harbor Wall, Inner Bailey Wall, or Market Palisade. Each named section should list its approximate number of 5-foot wall squares and total material cost.
Wall Cost Formula¶
For larger projects, use this formula:
Total Wall Cost = Number of 5-foot wall squares × 1 Wood / 10 Stone / 1 Iron MU
Total Wall Time = Number of 5-foot wall squares × 10 days
Multiple work crews may build different wall sections at the same time if the party has enough materials, labor, tools, and skilled hirelings.
Special Facilities¶
Special Facilities provide mechanical benefits, hirelings, and Bastion orders. In a Bastion, they are normally gained through level advancement. In a Stronghold, they may be built using Room Points and the Stronghold facility rules.
| Level | Facility Name | Prerequisite | Order | Room Size | Book |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | Arcane Study | Ability to use an Arcane Focus or a tool as a Spellcasting Focus | Craft | Roomy | DMG |
| 5 | Armory | None | Trade | Roomy | DMG |
| 5 | Barrack | None | Recruit | Roomy | DMG |
| 5 | Dragonmark Outpost | Renown 10+ with any dragonmarked house* | Empower | Roomy | EFotA |
| 5 | Garden | None | Harvest | Roomy | DMG |
| 5 | Library | None | Research | Roomy | DMG |
| 5 | Sanctuary | Ability to use a Holy Symbol or Druidic Focus as a Spellcasting Focus | Craft | Roomy | DMG |
| 5 | Smithy | None | Craft | Roomy | DMG |
| 5 | Storehouse | None | Trade | Roomy | DMG |
| 5 | Workshop | None | Craft | Roomy | DMG |
| 9 | Gaming Hall | None | Trade | Vast | DMG |
| 9 | Greenhouse | None | Harvest | Roomy | DMG |
| 9 | Kundarak Vault | Renown 15+ with House Kundarak | Trade | Cramped | EFotA |
| 9 | Laboratory | None* | Craft | Roomy | DMG |
| 9 | Navigator's Helm | None | Empower | Cramped | EFotA |
| 9 | Orien Helm | Renown 15+ with House Orien | Empower | Cramped | EFotA |
| 9 | Sacristy | Ability to use a Holy Symbol or Druidic Focus as a Spellcasting Focus | Craft | Roomy | DMG |
| 9 | Scriptorium | None* | Craft | Roomy | DMG |
| 9 | Stable | None | Trade | Roomy | DMG |
| 9 | Teleportation Circle | None | Recruit | Roomy | DMG |
| 9 | Theater | None | Empower | Vast | DMG |
| 9 | Training Area | None | Empower | Vast | DMG |
| 9 | Trophy Room | None | Research | Roomy | DMG |
| 13 | Archive | None | Research | Roomy | DMG |
| 13 | Artificer's Forge | Ability to use Artisan's Tools as a Spellcasting Focus | Craft | Roomy | EFotA |
| 13 | Inquisitive Agency | None | Research | Roomy | EFotA |
| 13 | Lyrandar Helm | Renown 25+ with House Lyrandar | Empower | Cramped | EFotA |
| 13 | Manifest Zone | Ability to use a Spellcasting Focus | Empower | Vast | EFotA |
| 13 | Meditation Chamber | None | Empower | Cramped | DMG |
| 13 | Menagerie | None | Recruit | Vast | DMG |
| 13 | Museum | None | Research | Roomy | EFotA |
| 13 | Observatory | Ability to use a Spellcasting Focus | Empower | Roomy | DMG |
| 13 | Pub | None | Research | Roomy | DMG |
| 13 | Reliquary | Ability to use a Holy Symbol or Druidic Focus as a Spellcasting Focus | Harvest | Cramped | DMG |
| 17 | Construct Forge | Ability to use Artisan's Tools as a Spellcasting Focus | Recruit | Vast | EFotA |
| 17 | Demiplane | Ability to use an Arcane Focus or a tool as a Spellcasting Focus | Empower | Vast | DMG |
| 17 | Guildhall | Expertise in a skill | Recruit | Vast | DMG |
| 17 | Sanctum | Ability to use a Holy Symbol or Druidic Focus as a Spellcasting Focus | Empower | Roomy | DMG |
| 17 | War Room | Fighting Style feature or Unarmored Defense feature | Recruit | Vast | DMG |
* Certain benefits or orders for this facility have additional prerequisites in the source text.
Gardens, Greenhouses, and Farmsteads¶
Bastion Gardens, Greenhouses, and Farmsteads all involve plants, but they operate at different scales.
A Garden is a Bastion Special Facility. It produces specific harvests through the Harvest order. A Food Garden produces 100 days of rations after 1 bastion turn. For ACS logistics, this equals 100 rations, or 0.2 Food MU. A Vast Food Garden is equivalent to two Roomy Gardens and may produce 200 rations, or 0.4 Food MU, per Harvest order.
A Greenhouse is a higher-level Bastion Special Facility for controlled magical plant cultivation. Its harvests produce magical fruit, a Potion of Healing (greater), or rare poisons. It is treated as herbalism, alchemical, medical, and poison infrastructure rather than bulk food production.
A Farmstead is a Stronghold Individual Structure. It represents agricultural land, barns, storage, animals, tools, workers, and seasonal production. Farmsteads produce Food MU and support settlement-scale logistics.
In short:
- Garden: feeds or supplies a Bastion.
- Greenhouse: produces advanced herbalism and magical plant benefits.
- Farmstead: feeds people at civilization scale.
Food Garden Conversion¶
A Food Garden produces 100 days of rations per Bastion turn.
For ACS logistics:
| Facility | Rations per Bastion Turn | Food MU |
|---|---|---|
| Roomy Food Garden | 100 rations | 0.2 Food MU |
| Vast Food Garden | 200 rations | 0.4 Food MU |
A Bastion turn is 5 days. In a 30-day month, a Garden can therefore be harvested up to 6 times if the facility is continuously assigned to that work.
| Facility | Rations per 30-Day Month | Food MU per 30-Day Month |
|---|---|---|
| Roomy Food Garden | 600 rations | 1.2 Food MU |
| Vast Food Garden | 1,200 rations | 2.4 Food MU |
| ## Using Facilities in Strongholds | ||
| Strongholds use the same Special Facilities as Bastions, but they are not limited to facilities gained through character level advancement. |
A Stronghold may build Special Facilities by spending Room Points, materials, labor, and time as described in Strongholds. These facilities represent institutional infrastructure rather than a single character's personal advancement.
The source book level remains useful as a rough measure of complexity, power, and expected campaign tier, even when the facility is built as part of a Stronghold.
Final Rule¶
A facility is not just a line on a sheet.
If it matters mechanically, it must exist physically.
If it exists physically, it must appear on the map.