Player characters can acquire and use Bastions as described in the 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide and as follows. See Allowed Content for more details.
Bastions aren’t gained from levelling up, but instead must be built in downtime using gold and DTP, with costs listed in Allowed Content for more details. Your initial Bastion must consist of two Basic Facilities (one Cramped and one Roomy) and two Special Facilities. You must be level 5+ to build and benefit from a Bastion.
You must meet the prerequisites of any Special Facility in order to build and benefit from it, and the maximum number of Special Facilities your Bastion can have at any given time depends on your character level.
| Level | Special Facilities |
| 5 - 8 | 2 |
| 9 - 12 | 4 |
| 13 - 16 | 5 |
| 17 - 20 | 6 |
For any facility or component built as part of a Bastion, you can choose to tear it down and refund 50% of its gold cost. Your Bastion must still contain at least two Basic Facilities (including one Cramped and one Roomy) and two Special Facilities afterward to be useable. You can also replace a Special Facility with another Special Facility you qualify for by expending gold and DTP for the new facility, but the full gold cost of the old facility contributes towards the new one.
You can only build Bastions either a) near Hawthorne or a guild outpost or b) another world location if you are able to claim a parcel of land or stronghold as part of an adventure as determined by the DM.
You can combine your Bastion with Bastions built by PCs of other players into a single structure as written in 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide (p. 334). Each participating PC can mutually contribute gold and DTP in building and expanding Bastions in this way. Two or more PCs of other players can instead build and expand a shared Bastion: see Allowed Content for details.
You can flavor and assign names and personalities to any Bastion hirelings you have, which can’t provide any benefits beyond what’s written for their associated facility. Bastion hirelings don’t have statblocks, but can be assigned an NPC statblock by a DM during an adventure, with a CR of 3 or less.
You can take a Bastion Turn in downtime by expending 7 DTP and issuing orders as written to one or more Special Facilities of the Bastion (except for Maintain). Your character must either be present at the Bastion or have a way to communicate with Bastion hirelings (e.g. the Sending spell) to issue orders other than Maintain.
Bastion Events
Bastion Events can’t occur during downtime as the Maintain order can’t be issued in downtime. However, a DM can use Bastion Events for adventures they run that can include your Bastion. Unless the Maintain order is issued, you must still expend 7 DTP for Bastion Turns taken during adventures unless the benefits are limited to the scope of the adventure.
A PC can only ever own and benefit from one Bastion at a time. If you want to make a new Bastion elsewhere, you must pay the full cost in gold and DTP to do so. You must tear down the preexisting Bastion and regain 50% of its gold cost. Alternatively, you can retire the previous Bastion and allow it to continue existing narratively, though you can gain no mechanical benefits from it as a Bastion, and must note this in #downtime-logs.
DMs can also award a Bastion as part of an adventure, which doesn’t count against the adventure’s gold allotment or item slots. The number of Special Facilities and their level prerequisites must adhere to the previous table, using the Average Party Level (APL). These Bastions can’t be used in downtime or otherwise altered or expanded; however, Bastion Turns can be taken during adventures with a DM’s permission. (Items crafted and effects gained at these Bastions can’t persist beyond an adventure.) You can however claim an awarded Bastion as your new Bastion (which can be used in downtime) by using the rules for Additional Bastions and expending the full cost in gold and DTP for the awarded Bastion’s facilities. You must have the original DM’s permission to do so, which must be noted in the session log originally or as later edited.
If you rework your character into another character, the new character can retain your existing Bastion. If your character’s level drops below the required level for the number of Special Facilities due to a rework, you must choose a number of those facilities corresponding to your level to benefit from and can’t benefit from any other existing facilities until you reach the appropriate level. Log these chosen facilities as part of any rework that drops your level.
The previous Hawthorne Housing and Hawthorne Hirelings documents are retired. Players that utilized these systems are eligible to refund gold and DTP they spent as part of those systems, as well as for any permanent spells or effects at those locations. Any such refund must be logged in #player-requests for approval by the Auditors. Any such houses and NPCs narratively continue to exist but mechanically provide no benefit until rebuilt using the rules for Bastions.
Hawthorne Guild