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Source: Paizo Blog, Paizo Publishing, LLC
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ACCESS TO RESOURCES
Unlike in dungeons and the wilderness, characters can buy
and sell gear quickly in a city. A large city probably has
high-level NPCs who can provide assistance and decipher
clues. When the PCs are battered and bruised, they can buy
healing at a temple or retreat to the comfort of an inn.
The freedom to retreat and access to the marketplace
means that the players have a greater degree of
control over the pacing of a city adventure.
HIRING SPELLCASTERS
Sometimes PCs return to town bloody,
poisoned, cursed, or suffering from
some magical attack that they
can’t cure, and hiring an NPC
spellcaster (such as a priest from
a temple, a
wizard mentor of one
of the PCs, and so on) to fix them
lets them get back to adventuring
quickly. By no means does this
mean these NPCs are willing to go
adventuring with the PCs—these are
services offered in the safety of a
city or town, and casters willing
to risk life and limb are likely far
more expensive. The typical cost
for this spellcasting is the spell’s
level × the caster’s caster level ×
10 gp. Cantrips and orisons cost
half as much as casting a 1stlevel
spell.
LAW ENFORCEMENT
A dungeon is a lawless place, but a city is held
together by a code of laws, many designed
to prevent adventurer-style killing and
looting. When adventurers encounter a
villain performing some evil in the city
limits, the law prefers that the evildoer goes
on trial for his crimes, rather than permitting
adventurers to kill him like vigilantes. Most
cities’ laws recognize monsters as a
threat to the stability the city relies on,
and prohibitions about murder rarely
apply to dangerous monsters.
WEAPON AND SPELL RESTRICTIONS
To keep citizens safe, some cities require
that any weapon larger than a dagger
be locked up with the city guard, or that weapons
are “peace bonded”—tied with leather cords so it is
difficult to draw them. A magic-fearing city may
require wizards to relinquish their spellbooks
and clerics to hand over their holy symbols
within the city walls.
URBAN FEATURES
In many ways a city is much like a dungeon,
with walls, doors, poor lighting, and uneven
footing. Some special considerations for an
urban setting are covered below.
ROOFTOPS
Getting to a roof usually requires climbing a wall, unless the character can reach a roof
by jumping down from a higher window, balcony, or bridge. Flat roofs (common only
in warm climates), are easy to run across. Moving along the peak of a pitched roof
requires a DC 20 Acrobatics check. Moving parallel to the peak of the roof requires a DC
15 Acrobatics check. Moving up and down across the peak of a roof requires a DC 10
Acrobatics check. The distance to the closest roof is usually 1d3 × 5 feet horizontally,
but the next roof is equally likely to be 5 feet higher, 5 feet lower, or the same height.
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SHOPS
Any city or town should have a
place where PCs can sell their loot, even if
it’s the local temple, inn, or blacksmith.
It is reasonable to say that villages and
small towns may not have the resources
to buy expensive items from PCs—just
because the heroes return with five suits
of full plate doesn’t mean the nearest
farming village has enough gold to pay for
those items. PCs should be able to buy most items
in the Hero’s Handbook in larger settlements,
but small settlements may not have all the
things adventurers want to buy (like alchemist’s
fire), simply because the local blacksmiths and
craftsmen have no reason to make them. In
larger cities, PCs should be able to purchase
masterwork weapons if they have enough gold—such weapons
are a good stepping stone for adventurers
who can’t yet afford or haven’t been lucky
enough to find
magic items.
MAGIC SHOPS
You decide how common
magic is in your world, and part of that decision
is whether or not there are places where PCs
can buy magic items in town. If your world is a
“high magic” world, PCs can reasonably expect
to buy any magic item in this book if they collect
enough gold. If you prefer magic to be less
common, you may decide that only certain
items are available for sale, like healing
potions from the temple or
wizard scrolls from
a
wizard guild. You may decide that your
world has no places where magic can
be bought—but if you do this, the
only place PCs can get magic items
is from the treasure they find, so
make sure they get appropriate
treasure rewards from their
adventures, otherwise they’ll
end up with a lot of gold and
nothing to spend it on.
WALLS
Many cities are
surrounded by walls. A typical
small city wall is a fortified stone
wall 5 feet thick and 20 feet high. Such a
wall is fairly smooth (DC 30
Climb check).
The walls are crenellated on one side to
provide a low wall for the guards atop it,
and there is just barely room for guards to
walk along the top of the wall. A typical
small city wall has AC 3, hardness 8, and
450 hit points per 10-foot section.
WATCHTOWERS
Some city walls
are adorned with watchtowers set at irregular
intervals. The towers provide a superior view of
the surrounding countryside as well as points of
defense against
potential invaders.
Watchtowers are often
10 feet higher than
the city wall and have
25-foot diameters. Arrow
slits line the outer sides of
the upper stories of a tower,
and the top is crenellated. A
simple ladder typically connects
the tower’s stories and its roof
(larger towers have stairs). The
tower has
strong wooden doors with good locks (DC
30). The
captain of the guard normally keeps the
keys to the towers, and second copies are
in the city’s inner fortress or barracks,
where soldiers can reach them.
GATES
A typical city gate is a
gatehouse with two portcullises
and murder holes above the space
between them. In smaller settlements
such as towns, the primary entrance is through
iron-bound double doors set into the city wall.
Gates are usually open during the day and
locked or barred at night. Usually, only one
gate lets in travelers after sunset and is staffed by guards who
will open it for someone who seems honest, presents proper
papers, or offers a large enough bribe (depending on the city
and the guards).
GUARDS AND SOLDIERS
A city typically has a small
number of full-time soldiers, with a larger militia called to duty
in emergencies. The soldiers are city guards responsible for
maintaining order within the city and defending it from outside
assault. Most city guards are
1st-level fighters.
Officers are usually higher-level fighters, clerics, or rogues.
CITY STREETS
Typical city streets are narrow and twisting.
Most streets are 15–20 feet wide, and alleys are usually 5–10
feet wide. Cobblestones in good condition allow normal
movement, but roads in poor repair or heavily rutted dirt
streets are
considered light rubble.
CROWDS
Urban streets are often full of people going
about their daily lives. Rather than marking individuals on the
map, just indicate which squares have crowds. If a crowd sees
something obviously dangerous, it moves away at 30 feet per
round at initiative count 0. It takes 2 squares of movement
to enter a square with crowds. Crowds provide
cover for anyone in them. It takes a DC 15
Diplomacy check as a full-round action to convince a crowd to
move in a particular direction.
SEWERS
Sewers are generally 10 feet below the streets and
covered by heavy metal grates (a full-round action to open).
Sewers work like dungeons, but usually have floors that are
slippery or covered with water. Most dungeon monsters can
be found in sewers. Some cities were built atop the ruins of
older civilizations, so their sewers sometimes lead to treasures
and dangers from a bygone age.
CITY BUILDINGS
Most city buildings are made of a
combination of stone or clay brick (on the lower one or two
stories) and timbers (for the upper stories, interior walls, and
floors). Roofs are a mixture of boards, thatch, and slates, sealed
with pitch. Exterior doors on most buildings are strong wooden
doors that are usually kept locked, except on public buildings
such as shops and taverns.
CITY LIGHTS
If a city has main thoroughfares, they are
lined with lanterns hanging at a height of 7 feet, spaced 60
feet apart. Alleys can be dark places even in
daylight (not
enough to give
concealment, but enough for a +2 bonus on
Stealth checks).
