Summary

• DnD introduces the Bastion system in its revised 2024 manuals, offering unique mechanics for players to create and defend home bases during campaigns.
• Bastions allow customization and immersion, with players issuing orders to gain items, buffs, and even respawn characters in-game.
• An Unearthed Arcana playtest provides insight into Bastion mechanics, with potential changes before the final DMG release.

tweaking DnD classes and subclasses, it occasionally extends to adding entirely new mechanics.

While at interview with Screen Rant, DnD designer Chris Perkins explained the ins and outs of the Bastion mechanic, saying:

"We wanted to find something that was meaningful that actually had an impact on the campaign and on their characters, that was another activity for players to engage in...This idea of you're building your home, you're building your home base, your safe space, your place where you go back to between adventures, and giving you a solid framework so that there is rules weight to it, it has consequence."

In short, Bastions allow DnD parties to construct homes/castles/fortresses that they can return to repeatedly throughout a campaign. Bastions create new opportunities for customization and immersion, raising the stakes by giving the player a place to defend. They're designed to be both approachable and mechanically deep, working much more simply near the beginning, and getting gradually more complicated. They also come with certain risks and bonuses, according to their earlier inclusion in an Unearthed Arcana playtest.

What Unearthed Arcana Tells Us About D&D's New Bastion System

Looking Ahead To The 2024 DMG Release

Although Perkins didn't reveal any specific details about the nitty-gritty of the Bastion system, it's possible to gain an idea of how it works by looking back at its first inclusion in an Unearthed Arcana playtest. As described there, players first gain a Bastion at level five, and it's up to them and the DM to determine its size, structure, and nature. Each Bastion can have any number of Basic Facilities - things like bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens, storage closets, et cetera. These don't have any mechanical impact - they're just for flavor. Their Unearthed Arcana debut also provides estimated costs and measurements for Basic Facilities.

In addition, each Bastion is allotted a limited number of Special Facilities, which have more practical uses. From time to time, players can issue orders to each of their Special Facilities, which may return helpful items, information, or buffs. There are six possible orders for Special Facilities: Craft, Trade, Recruit, Harvest, Research, and Empower. Their actual effects depend on the nature of the facilities carrying them out. For example, issuing the Recruit order to a Menagerie returns new creatures who can help defend the Bastion, while issuing it to a Thieves' Guild causes them to steal a nonmagical object of the player's choosing.

A Bastion has two special facilities at player level five, four at level nine, five at level 13, and six at level 17.

Every seven in-game days, a Bastion turn is triggered. First, this means players can issue an order to each of their Special Facilities. Each order issued generates Bastion Points, the number of which varies based on the order given (and sometimes, the Special Facility's performance in the task). Bastion Points can then be spent to acquire magic items, spread word of a character's deeds for Advantage on Charisma checks, or even respawn a dead character within their Bastion.

Bastions are also subject to random events, which may be either negative or positive. They may receive friendly visitors who will pay for their stay, suffer the disappearance of their hirelings, or, in rare cases, suffer an attack. Attacks are resolved based on Bastion Defenders, units whose numbers are determined by certain Special Facilities and orders. Bastion Defenders don't need to have concrete stats; all that matters is the number of them present. Bastions can also fall if a character lets them, or fails to issue orders for a number of Bastion Turns equal to their level, but this is mostly designed to happen only if a character dies.

Of course, all these rules come from a playtest, so they're subject to change in the final version. However, based on Chris Perkins' surface-level description, and the original rules provided in Unearthed Arcana, it's possible to get a good look at the new Bastion mechanic long before the new DMG comes out. Until then, players are free to dream up what their Bastions will look like in the revised edition of Dungeons & Dragons.