The following guilde allow you to upgrade the manor and/or tavern using earnings from adventuring and business profits.
Each new upgrade increases the overall valuation of the property and unlocks a new downtime activity for you to exploit, or a passive mechanical benefit linked to the upgrade in question. For simplicities’ sake, each upgrade takes a tenday to install and only one upgrade can be developed at a time.
Some upgrades have tiered costs that represent the level of luxury afforded. A cheap taproom has spit-and-sawdust floors, worn tables, and cracked mugs; whereas an expensive taproom would have polished floorboards and crystal glasses. Spending more on upgrades improves the overall valuation of your business and thereby increases your profits.
If you improve an existing upgrade, you only pay the difference in cost between the two levels. You can also bypass lower tiers and pay the full sum for a higher tier, rather than purchasing a lower tier and eventually upgrading it.
Certain upgrades have prerequisites that you must first meet. For example, to construct a coach house you must first construct a stable.
Manor Upgrades
Feature |
Prerequisite |
Cost |
Valuation |
|
Furnishings ↳ I. Basic Furnishings ↳ II. Comfy Furnishings ↳ III. Cushy Furnishings ↳ IV. Opulent Furnishings |
— |
0 400 850 1,200 |
+1 +3 +5 +8 |
From Tier II onwards, characters start their next adventure with 5 temporary Hit Points. Each additional tier provides +5 temporary HP, to a maximum of 15 temporary HP. |
Servants* ↳ I. Basic Staff ↳ II. Specialized Servants |
— |
50 150 |
+2 +5 |
The servants take care of characters’ needs, so they can concentrate on their next adventure. After spending at least a month being pampered, the PCs gain 1 Inspiration Point per tier, to be distributed among the party. |
Manor Security ↳ I. Reinforced Entries ↳ II. Magic Alarm System |
— |
200 500 |
+2 +5 |
This ensures that the manor cannot be attacked by surprise and would-be thieves have a much harder time infiltrating the building. |
Vault |
Manor Security |
500* |
+2 |
A secure, fortified room in the manor, complete with one or two traps and a magically password-protected door. Should any thief reach the vault, bypassing the lock without the password is a DC 20 task. Pick one deadly trap, two dangerous traps, or 3 setback traps from the Dungeon Master’s Guide. |
Glyphs of Warding |
— |
300* |
— |
Ulkoria Stonemarrow of the Watchful Order of Magists and Protectors can be hired to cast glyph of warding at designated points. |
Cobbled Streets ↳ I. Re-Paved Cobbles ↳ II. Magic Streetlights |
— |
200 500 |
+2 +6 |
Well-lit streets and well-paved roads Good roads halve travel time around the manor, allowing customers and suppliers to reach you more easily. They also increase the overall quality of the neighbourhood. These grant a minor social benefit for characters’ neighbourhood reputation and each tier gives +10 gp per week. |
Garden ↳ I. Window Boxes ↳ II. Green Corner ↳ III. Urban Oasis |
— |
200 500 1,000 |
+3 +6 +10 |
A beautiful garden full of flowers, gurgling fountains, gazebos, or whatever your heart desires. Each tier provides +1 HP restored during short rests. |
Laboratory ↳ I. Beakers & Burners ↳ II. Clockwork Equipment ↳ III. Mad Science Lab |
Library |
250 750 1,250 |
+1 +3 +5 |
A room filled with esoteric crafting equipment, typically located in the basement or the attic for safety reasons. Each tier reduces the amount of hours needed to craft an item by a quarter. Tier III also reduces the cost of crafting by a quarter. |
Smugglers’ Cache ↳ I. Loose Floorboards ↳ II. Hidden Room ↳ III. Ley Tunnels |
Cellar |
200 600 1,000 |
+1 +3 +5 |
A totally-not-suspicious space for storing secret items. Nothing to look at here, folks! Each tier increases the amount of goods—contraband or otherwise—that can be stored. Tier III also implements protective measures against arcane detection, as your cache now extends into a small undetectable demiplane. |
Training Course ↳ I. Obstacle Course ↳ II. Sergeant Thorbrug |
Cobbled Street |
150 350 |
+1 +3 |
This training course includes beams, ropes, walls, mud, swinging targets and (eventually) Sergeant Thorbrug, a gruff dwarven veteran who will make you pump iron and ignore your tears. Each tier grants a PC +5 feet to their Speed and +1 to Initiative for the following month if they spend 40 hours per week/tenday training. |
Clinic |
Class II Property |
250 |
+5 |
Having a small hospital on one’s lands not only ensures the locals’ gratitude, but also provides medical professionals whose instructions can save lives. After spending at least one week with this upgrade, a PC reduced to 0 HP automatically succeeds at their first death saving throw for the following month. |
Library |
— |
1,000 |
+5 |
Books bring relaxation, wisdom, and knowledge, and especially arcane magic users find that studying benefits their spellcasting abilities. After spending at least one week with this upgrade, arcane spellcasters (artificers, bards, sorcerers, warlocks, and wizards) can know or prepare +1 spell for the following month. |
Shrine |
— |
1,000 |
+5 |
A room, small building, or grove in which a religious or spiritual devotee can spend time strengthening their connection to the divine. After spending at least one week with this upgrade, divine spellcasters (cleric, druid, ranger, paladin) can know or prepare +1 spell for the following month. |
Secret Exit |
— |
50* |
— |
A hidden tunnel behind the bar. A door masked by a wardrobe. A removable section of the wall, or perhaps a teleportation circle. Finding a secret exit requires a successful DC 10 Intelligence (Investigation) check. Each exit can be upgraded for 50 gp per upgrade, making it more difficult to find and adding +5 to the DC. This upgrade can be purchased multiple times for multiple secret exits. |
Tavern Upgrades
Feature |
Prerequisite |
Cost |
Valuation |
|
Lavatories ↳ I. Basic Bathrooms ↳ II. Better Bathrooms ↳ III. Luxury Loo |
— |
— 200 500 |
+2 +3 +5 |
Most taverns make do with an outhouse, ditch, or screened-off chamber pot for patrons to relieve themselves in. Building a lavatory indoors is the height of luxury and sure to make your tavern a talking point around town. |
Tavern Security ↳ I. Bouncer ↳ II. Tavern Task Force |
— |
150 500 |
+2 +5 |
A private guard who keeps an eye on patrons and ensures the security of the tavern. At Tier II, this becomes a small group of security staff that patrol the streets around the tavern. This upgrade significantly reduces the chances that something wrong happens when the heroes are away. |
Taproom ↳ I. Spit & Sawdust ↳ II. Polished Wood ↳ III. Glass & Marble |
— |
— 500 1000 |
+1 +3 +5 |
The taproom is the heart of your tavern, containing your bar, a fireplace, and seating for your guests. Without this, you have no business! Each additional tier increases the foot traffic of your tavern, leading to higher earnings overall. |
Snug ↳ I. Cool Kid’s Corner ↳ II. VIP Section ↳ III. Elite Clientele |
Class II Property |
450 750 1,200 |
+3 +6 +10 |
A private room for guests who are prepared to pay a little extra, with comfortable seating and table service. A great place for clandestine conversations or private deals. Tier I grants Advantage on Deception or Persuasion checks for Sowing Rumors while within the snug. Tier II grants Advantage in negotiating deals with Waterdeep's Guilds, potentially reducing Guild fees. Tier III unlocks the ability to Make Contacts (see below). |
Stage ↳ I. Raised Dias ↳ II. Fancy Footlights |
Taproom |
400 650 |
+2 +5 |
A raised platform gives a natural place for bards, actors, or tipsy amateur poets to perform and entertain tavern patrons. This upgrade grants a +1 bonus to Performance checks made on the stage, with Tier II granting a +2 bonus. Tier II also gives Advantage on the Performance check when resolving the Money-Making (Performing) downtime activity if on location. |
Cellar ↳ I. Basic Storage ↳ II. Bigger Basement ↳ III. Personal Labyrinth |
— |
— 500 800 |
+1 +3 +5 |
A stone-lined cellar allows the tavern to, among other things, stockpile wines and spirits at temperature and hold reserves of ale inside giant storage barrels. Subsequent tiers increase the overall basement size of your establishment, allowing for more storage space and for the utilization of the underground area for other rooms. |
Brewery & Distillery ↳ I. Brewery Basics ↳ II. Beer Engine |
Cellar |
400 1,000 |
+2 +5 |
A distillery allows you to distil your own brands of gin, rum, or whiskey, for sale on and off the premises. Fiery branded liquors are vital for raising your tavern’s profile and boosting revenue. Use of a distillery reduces or eliminates the need to purchase liquor from the Vintners', Distillers' & Brewers Guild. If your brew is good, you can even supply it to other taverns in your area! Tier II unlocks a dwarven-invented mechanical apparatus that propels cask ale from the cellars to hand pumps at the bar, allowing taverns to serve customers at greater speed. |
Kitchen ↳ I. Rough & Ready ↳ II. Fancy Knife Set ↳ III. Magic Appliances |
— |
— 500 800 |
+1 +3 +5 |
All this drinking is sure to cook up an appetite in your customers! Providing food is the very first step to better service. |
Larder ↳ I. Standard Rations ↳ II. Well-Stocked ↳ III. Rare Ingredients |
Kitchen |
— 500 800 |
+3 +5 |
A storage area for wholefood supplies with a cool room for perishables. Any establishment looking to improve its fare should start with one of these. |
Guest Bedrooms* ↳ Matches Manor Furnishings |
— |
— |
+4 (per room) |
The presence of bedrooms transforms your tavern into an inn. Patrons can now use your establishment as a base to explore the city, turning over a steady stream of profit as they come and go. |
Stable ↳ I. Trough & Tethers ↳ II. Full Livery ↳ III. Coach House |
— |
400 750 1,000 |
+3 +6 +10 |
This wooden structure features stalls for up to six At Tier II, a dedicated stable provides an additional revenue stream: patrons can pay basic stabling charges, and can pay extra for their horses to be fed and brushed down. At Tier III, a coach house transforms your establishment into a full-blown coaching in, putting you on the map for wealthy customers and increasing the revenue of your stabling services. |
Office ↳ I. Ledgers & Abacus ↳ II. Accounting Imp |
— |
200 500 |
+2 +5 |
An office provides a secure space to manage your business, containing a strongbox, writing desk, and a bookcase for ledgers and paperwork. At Tier I, staying on top of your paperwork allows for a 50% chance to reduce incoming guild fees by 25 gp per month. At Tier II, Flounson the Imp takes up residence in the office, and his devotion to numbers is something to be afraid of! Thanks to mysteries of finance only Flounson seems to comprehend, monthly guild fees are permanently reduced by 35 gp. |
Make Contacts
Frequency: 1 roll/tenday Prerequisite: Saloon Bar
A saloon bar attracts distinguished clientele who you can tap for useful contacts. Each day you spend carousing in your saloon bar costs you 3 gp. After engaging in this activity, roll percentile dice on the Making Contacts table to determine the success or failure of your efforts, adding a +2 bonus for every day you invested.
Skill Check DC |
Cost Reduction |
01–10 |
Your clumsy inquiries make an enemy. This character or organization is now hostile to you. Your DM determines the offended party. You decide what you did to offend them. |
11–20 |
Nobody you talk to yields anything of note. You fail to make any new contacts. |
21–40 |
You make a useful contact, but they come with some baggage. You can call on this contact once to introduce you to any NPC in the middle to lower classes of your region, but they need a favor first: perhaps they’re in debt with local criminals or want to go on a date with one of your friends. Your DM decides what they require. |
41–80 |
You earn a useful contact for information gathering. You can call on this contact once to answer any reasonable question about your local region or provide simple assistance in your endeavors. |
81–90 |
You earn a contact within a powerful organization: a guild, religious order, or government body such as the city watch, courts, or militia. Your DM determines your contact’s sphere of influence. You can call on this contact once pull the strings within their own area of expertise. |
91–00 |
You earn a contact at the highest level of the aristocracy: for example, a member of the royal family, high council, or barony. You can call on this contact once gain any assistance your DM deems appropriate. |
Stable Services
TBA.