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I am DMing a one-could-say difficult party. The campaign setting itself makes it very difficult as I have decided to provide the characters with a full sandbox experience. They decided to visit Waterdeep and after staying there for a couple of nights, the Rogue of the party decided he wants to rob Waterdeep's treasury.

The way I see it I don't need to design a map of the Treasury as there is no logical way one drow elf could get inside the City of Splendor's vault. On that note though, I tried to find a map of the castle of Waterdeep but I haven't been able to find a good one.

Is there a detailed map of Castle Waterdeep?

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Are you looking for an official map, or are you open to unofficial ones as well? \$\endgroup\$
    – V2Blast
    Sep 1, 2019 at 4:07
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    \$\begingroup\$ Both are fine so long as they follow the structure provided in the official map as seen here imgur.com/gallery/E1WSv6S \$\endgroup\$ Sep 1, 2019 at 8:23
  • \$\begingroup\$ Please add what you have in that comment as a note under your bolded bottom line (it's a criteria) (Neat question, and I may end up needing the answer!) \$\endgroup\$ Sep 2, 2019 at 2:44

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Assuming that a castle would not change significantly†, one official source would be an old boxed product called the City System by Jeff Grubb and Ed Greenwood. Amongst the ~10 maps is one that covers the ten above-ground levels of Castle Waterdeep.

Yet, I am not sure how much that map would be useful to you, as presumably you will also be interested in the dungeons under the castle. A search on the web (try "Castle Waterdeep sewers" for instance) yields homebrew solutions.

†: The pictures of the castle seen in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons comics and on the cover of 3.5e product City of Splendors: Waterdeep are quite similar. Morever the floor plan we see of the castle on the Waterdeep map that comes with 5e Dragon Heist agrees with the first floor shown in the City System.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Thanks a lot! Do you know if by any chance it says how high the walls are? I have read that they are about 18 meters thick but can't seem to find how high they are. \$\endgroup\$ Sep 1, 2019 at 8:24
  • \$\begingroup\$ @iaminsensible Looking at the ratio of height to diameter I made a quick estimate of one of the shorter towers to be over 250m. I believe the scales must be off, as Mount Waterdeep itself is about 450m. Assuming it is ~11-storey building and taking 3m per storey, a more reasonable estimate would be around 35-40m for the towers. Half that number for the walls, perhaps? \$\endgroup\$
    – ZwiQ
    Sep 1, 2019 at 9:49
  • \$\begingroup\$ It's worth mentioning that the City of Splendors: Waterdeep book you mention has quite a good description of how well armed and stocked the Castle is. \$\endgroup\$
    – illustro
    Sep 1, 2019 at 10:38
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    \$\begingroup\$ @ZwiQ Volos guide to Waterdeep contains this short passage about the dimensions of Castle Waterdeep: "four hundred feet high at the highest point, walls 60 feet thick [...]" \$\endgroup\$
    – illustro
    Sep 1, 2019 at 10:53
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    \$\begingroup\$ We need a badge of some sort here that identifies lore masters like ZwiQ. \$\endgroup\$ Sep 2, 2019 at 2:45
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Another possibility is for you to try to get your hands on the 2E Forgotten Realms Interactive Atlas (originally commissioned by TSR to ProFantasy). However, it's been discontinued for a very long time and a quick search suggests that resale prices are quite high.

Even if you don't mind that all maps are from 2E (Waterdeep Castle shouldn't have changed much if at all), be warned that the maps' style seems a bit outdated. The amount of maps included is amazing nonetheless.

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