Ondath
Hero
I've been looking at the Stronghold rules for an upcoming high-level game where the players will have gained strongholds over the timeskip, and I realised that the numbers between building and rural strongholds is slightly off.
The price of equivalent strongholds is usually the same for the two types (a 5000 square-feet building and a 10-acre building both cost the same for instance), but there are points where the prices diverge wildly: For a Grade 1 Building, for instance, you can just spend 100 gp and call it a day, and the maximum building size of Grade 1 would still cost 1000 gp. A rural stronghold, on the other hand, costs 500 gp minimum, with the maximum size for Grade 1 costing 2500 gp!
The discrepancies become even more pronounced when it comes to staff and furnishing, where rural strongholds give far too little compared to buildings. A Frugal Building gives you 1 staff member per 1000 square feet — meaning that you spend 500 gp to get one staff member. A frugal rural stronghold instead gives you one staff member per 5 acres, meaning that you need to spend 1250 gp to get one staff member!
I'm wondering if the discrepancy was intentional, either to portray the higher costs of running rural lands, or to balance the different stronghold options for rural strongholds (like the Druid grove). If it isn't intentional, I think at least the staff size discrepancies could be fixed in the following way:
For Frugal Rural strongholds, you should get 1 Staff member per 2 acres. This should mean you spend 500 gp per staff member, same as a building of the same quality.
For Average Rural strongholds, you should get 1 Staff member per acre. This once again keeps the price at 500 gp per staff member.
For Luxurious and Legendary Rural strongholds, you should get 5 staff members per acre. This means you're paying 200 gp per staff member (or 500 gp if legendary), which is once again in line with Luxurious and Legendary Building strongholds.
The price of equivalent strongholds is usually the same for the two types (a 5000 square-feet building and a 10-acre building both cost the same for instance), but there are points where the prices diverge wildly: For a Grade 1 Building, for instance, you can just spend 100 gp and call it a day, and the maximum building size of Grade 1 would still cost 1000 gp. A rural stronghold, on the other hand, costs 500 gp minimum, with the maximum size for Grade 1 costing 2500 gp!
The discrepancies become even more pronounced when it comes to staff and furnishing, where rural strongholds give far too little compared to buildings. A Frugal Building gives you 1 staff member per 1000 square feet — meaning that you spend 500 gp to get one staff member. A frugal rural stronghold instead gives you one staff member per 5 acres, meaning that you need to spend 1250 gp to get one staff member!
I'm wondering if the discrepancy was intentional, either to portray the higher costs of running rural lands, or to balance the different stronghold options for rural strongholds (like the Druid grove). If it isn't intentional, I think at least the staff size discrepancies could be fixed in the following way:
For Frugal Rural strongholds, you should get 1 Staff member per 2 acres. This should mean you spend 500 gp per staff member, same as a building of the same quality.
For Average Rural strongholds, you should get 1 Staff member per acre. This once again keeps the price at 500 gp per staff member.
For Luxurious and Legendary Rural strongholds, you should get 5 staff members per acre. This means you're paying 200 gp per staff member (or 500 gp if legendary), which is once again in line with Luxurious and Legendary Building strongholds.
