# Ideas for a Wizards Tower



## M.T. Black (Nov 5, 2016)

I'm currently putting together another "Wizards Tower" adventure, and I'm looking for some fresh ideas for rooms. I love having weird and magical rooms in these sorts of towers, and I'm always after fresh inspiration. 

Another question... What is the best "Wizards Tower" adventure ever published? No real "classics" spring to mind... what do you like?


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## Eltab (Nov 13, 2016)

- The wizard experiments with pocket dimensions.  Some rooms are ... 'it's bigger on the inside'.
- The wizard experiments with elemental power.  One room is a sandbox / pool / empty and drafty / aflame
- "Millionaire Next Door" room: an otherwise poor guy has one room (den? bedroom?) full of rich luxurious extravagances.  Wondrous objects &c.
- Statue in bath room has a magical necklace.  Touch the necklace and the statue animates.  It's supposed to carry steaming-hot water to warm the bath, &c.  Also protects the wizard's modesty because this way nobody had to be around and see him when he was without clothes.
- Laboratory (totally cliché) that gives the PCs clues about the wizard's real interests - and might help figure out the secret weakness of his 'house guardian'.
- Not far from the front door, a room with "Steal This" stuff scattered around.  To distract common thieves from what's REALLY important, deeper inside.
- Garden with an Earth Elemental for a guardian / gardener.
- Chess set, interrupted mid-game.  If you examine the set closely, likenesses of the wizard and his companions have been carved into certain pieces.  (If you examine the board even more closely, the wizard's side is losing.)
- Library room.  Many books are purchased, but a few are hand-written by the wizard himself.  The PCs really want to read through them (and do well on their skill rolls to understand what they are reading).


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## Ralif Redhammer (Nov 14, 2016)

I’d look at what a wizard needs in their tower, and then start riffing on wild ideas from there. The wizard needs to eat, so there’d be a kitchen. But maybe it’s got a portal to the elemental plane of fire to cook food. Or the library's books are all in liquid form.

Not sure on what a good wizard's tower module would be. Does Ruins of Undermountain count? I'd recommend Goodman Games’ Dungeon Alphabet as a great source for crazy and inspiring ideas.


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## Eltab (Nov 15, 2016)

M.T. Black said:


> What is the best "Wizards Tower" adventure ever published ... what do you like?



I was inspired enough by "Darwell's Tower" that I stole the building for my 4e Warlock's retirement estate.


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## Cognomen's Cassowary (Nov 15, 2016)

I've always wanted to do a gravity-themed wizard's tower. The players get to the top expecting to meet the wizard, only to find a switch which reverses gravity. They have to flip the switch (and themselves) and then climb back "up" to the ground floor, where the wizard is waiting in an area that they couldn't previously access.

For just a single room, I've had the idea of a shadow room, where strange shadows drift around the floor. When enough shadows collect under a PC, the character falls through the floor to a room below. The trick for getting through is to extinguish all torches, lanterns, and other light sources so that the shadows disappear into the darkness.


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## Argyle King (Nov 19, 2016)

I like Ghost Tower of Inverness.  


I seem to be one of the only people who enjoyed the D&D 4E adventure which had the guy trapped inside of the pyramid.  I can't remember the name of it, but I vaguely remember a mage who had been split into several pieces or something to that effect.


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## M.T. Black (Nov 19, 2016)

Yeah, Inverness is just about the only "wizards tower" from the TSR canon that sticks in my mind. A lot of fun to play, though most of the encounters are a bit more "gamey" than I prefer.


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## ccs (Nov 19, 2016)

I've gotten alot of milage out of C3: The Lost Island of Castanimir.
The pcs explore a wizards home & labs.
As written it's not neccecarilly a tower, more like extra-dimensionally linked rooms/floors.  But it might as well be.
I've run it straight with the intro provided.
I've had as an actual w.tower in the city & sent an all rogue party to burgle it.
I've placed it as a ruin that the pcs could explore as a side quest during a larger adventure.
I've added/deleted rooms....


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## M.T. Black (Nov 19, 2016)

I've always been curious about Castanimir as I like Ken Rolston's work a lot. I'll pick up a copy - thanks!


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## LordEntrails (Nov 20, 2016)

Unseen servants, of whatever flavor you like, are a must.

- a jacuzzi/hot tub
- a viewing room, like a modern TV room, where you can sit back and scry on others. Think reality TV.
- a glass ceiling or skylight/moon roof.
- walk in freezer/refrigerator
- a shower that has portals to a hot springs and cold waterfall so you can adjust the temperature. Water falls through a grate and into another portal so there's no mess.
- a trampoline room with spongy walls
- eccentric expensive items from all races/locations
- a massaging recliner
- hot and cold ventilation portals
- continual flame lights with adjustable covers (dimmers)
- extra dimensional vault/safe
- escape hatch/secret passage
- construct or golem guards


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## Quickleaf (Nov 22, 2016)

[MENTION=6782171]M.T. Black[/MENTION] 

The Rare and Banned Books Repository

Aging parchments written in forgotten tongues, map folios bursting at the seams, and spellbooks inscribed with the True Names of fiends and celestials alike line the 40-foot high circular walls of this creaking repository. Two barely visible _walls of force_ contoured to the shape of the room whirl in opposite directions at varying speeds; each _wall of force_ has a slight gap in it that only lines up for a fraction of a second with the gap of the other _wall of force._ Thus, physically reaching through that gap to grasp a book from the shelves is an extremely difficult task beyond the scope of all but the most talented of mortal thieves.

At the very top and center of the room is a large 25-pound floating black book that serves as a magical index of all rare and banned books in the repository; within this index is mention of several books containing spells that might be helpful for dealing with the whirling _walls of force,_ among whatever other volumes are apropos for your particular archmage.

Anyone attempting to fly above 10-feet finds some of the books animating and flying from the shelves, shooting through that gap to attack the flyer until they're back on the ground. A creature flying through magical means who is struck by a flying book must make a saving throw or the effect allowing them to fly is dispelled for 1 minute. However, these very same defenders can be controlled telekinetically, through _mage hand_, via object control magic, or even solid use of a lasso to hover in place, creating a floating "staircase" out of the flying books.


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## M.T. Black (Nov 23, 2016)

Nice, Quickleaf! Have you published anything?


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## Quickleaf (Nov 23, 2016)

M.T. Black said:


> Nice, Quickleaf! Have you published anything?




Hope your design process for the wizard's tower is going well!

I have written a few things... looks like I lost my signature in the recent database crash and need to re-do that...

Tales of the Caliphate Nights
Green Ronin True20 Setting Search Winner
Paradigm Concepts, 2006
Link: http://www.amazon.com/Tales-Caliphate-Nights-True-PCI2301/dp/1931374295 
Reviews: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/20418/Tales-of-the-Caliphate-Nights--True-20 

The Bardic Arts
Kobold Quarterly #20, Winter 2012
Link: http://koboldpress.com/kpstore/product/kobold-quarterly-issue-20-pdf/ 

Court of Stars: The Wild Hunt
DRAGON #428, Oct 2013
Link: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/168541/Dragon-428-4e

The Haunting of Calrow Ruins
Adventure, EN5ider Patreon, Nov 2015 / W.O.I.N. Free Adventure, Mar 2016
Link (W.O.I.N.): http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/180748/WOIN-The-Haunting-of-Calrow-Ruins 
Review: https://merricb.com/2015/12/22/5e-adventure-review-the-haunting-of-calrow-ruins/ 

The Buccaneer’s Bestiary
Monster Supplement, DMs Guild, March 2016
Link & Reviews: http://www.dmsguild.com/product/176625/The-Buccaneers-Bestiary 

The Beast of Graenseskov
Adventure, DMs Guild, April 2016
Link & Reviews: http://www.dmsguild.com/product/180558/The-Beast-of-Graenseskov-An-Introductory-Ravenloft-Adventure 

Death on Ascalaon
Adventure, W.O.I.N. FUTURE by Russ Morrissey, June 2016
Link: http://www.woinrpg.com/resources/


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## M.T. Black (Nov 23, 2016)

Some nice credits there, well done!


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## LordEntrails (Nov 23, 2016)

Quickleaf said:


> Hope your design process for the wizard's tower is going well!
> 
> I have written a few things... looks like I lost my signature in the recent database crash and need to re-do that...



FYI, changes since the crash is that you have to be a subscriber to get a signature or avatar. You can check out the META forum for more info on this.


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## jimmifett (Nov 23, 2016)

Domesticated Mimic Tower. Wizard feeds it kobolds or goblins that the nearby tribes offer up as tribute for his protection.


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## LordEntrails (Nov 24, 2016)

"Fantastic Beasts..." movie had an some interesting things there. It wasn't a tower (it was actually an extradimensional space inside a suitcase), but once inside it had various "
rooms." Each room was actually an extra dimensional space that acted like a habitat for a magical beast. 

For instance, a tent flap that opened onto the Arizona desert, where a coutzl (spelling?) was hanging out. Then through a gate was another area, and so on and so on.


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## Draegn (Nov 24, 2016)

I once had a wizard who was known to use the colour, chromatic and prismatic spells very often. To back up his number of "slots" he cast continual light inside crystal prisms so that they would project a false prismatic wall, set multiple ones up to create a crystal disco ball that spun multiple beams of coloured light into a room. The players were then slowed down while they figured out which was real and which was not.


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## the_cowley (Nov 27, 2016)

http://www.dmsguild.com/product/180106/Tower-of-the-Mad-Mage--Adventure

Ive bought a few of this guys adventures for low levels. Its all fairly written, and easy to adapt to your own setting.


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## the_cowley (Nov 27, 2016)

M.T. Black said:


> Yeah, Inverness is just about the only "wizards tower" from the TSR canon that sticks in my mind. A lot of fun to play, though most of the encounters are a bit more "gamey" than I prefer.





HEY! I Buy your stuff on DMGuild. Just wanted to say, its marvelous stuff, and exactly what i look for in modules for 5e!!!!


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## M.T. Black (Nov 27, 2016)

Thanks Cowley - glad you are enjoying my adventures!!


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