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GameMastery Guide / Adventures / Dungeons

Dungeon Ecology

Source GameMastery Guide pg. 176
Once you’ve created your dungeon map, you’re ready to populate it. If you’re building a static dungeon, you can simply fill it with traps and guardians and other challenges as you wish, with little concern as to how each area interacts with the others.

But if you’re building a living dungeon, there are more considerations you’ll want to address. In particular, if your dungeon is the lair for a number of living creatures, keep in mind that they don’t just sit in their rooms in stasis waiting for a group of heroes to blunder into their clutches—at least, dungeon denizens don’t always behave this way. Usually, you’ll want to design your dungeon with its ecology in mind.

Food and Water: If there’s not a constant source of food in or nearby your dungeon, your monsters will need storerooms in which to stockpile their food. Even if there is a handy supply of food, monsters whose territories are blocked from access to these ready supplies will need some sort of concession toward food and water. A river running through a dungeon is a handy way to supply both of these necessities, as are magic items like decanters of endless water, rings of sustenance, and sustaining spoons. Finally, including a cleric of at least 5th level in a group gives that group access to create food and water spells.

Shelter and Access: All of your dungeon denizens need somewhere to live. The main thing to keep in mind here is that a monster’s lair should be sized appropriately for the monster. The larger the monster, the larger its lair needs to be. As a general rule, it’s good to give a monster living space that’s at least nine times its own space. And unless you want your monster to be trapped in its lair, make sure it can access other parts of the dungeon, including an exit (by squeezing, at minimum).

Archives of Nethys

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Dungeon Ecology