Guildmasters' Guide to Ravnica
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Guildmasters' Guide to Ravnica
Ravnica originally appeared as a setting for the Magic the Gathering trading card game. Ravnica is one of the most popular settings, in part because the world's ten guilds strongly support the way players build MAGIC decks.
Ravnica is a whole new world for your D&D campaign to explore. A vast, sprawling city that covers the whole of the known world, Ravnica teems with intrigue and adventure, driven by the conflicts among the ten powerful guilds that rule the city.
More than ten thousand years ago, a war tore across the world of Ravnica. Ten armies battled for control of the world in a conflict that ended with the creation of a magical contract of immense power known as the Guildpact. The leaders of each of the ten armies-ancient beings were the signatories to the Guildpact, and they became the first Guildmasters' of Ravnica.
During the monumental anniversary celebration of the Guildpact's signing, the pact was broken, the ancient balance was shattered, and Ravnica was thrown into chaos. The ten-thousand-year-old guild culture and division of duties reasserted itself. The ten guilds regained their dominant positions, but without the magically binding force of the Guildpact to maintain the balance among them.
Character Creation:
A brief overview of some of the guilds
Choosing guilds: Some guilds work very well with each other, some not so much. A template is given to help give a common cause for them working together. This is fantastic for building shared character motivations.
A large flowchart can help you pick which guild is best for what you want to play. This makes it easy without needing to read every guild if you don’t want to. Perfect for getting a great overview of each without a huge time sink into all the lore available.
This book gives fantastic insight into the renaming of existing races to fit the Ravnica setting. For instance, there aren’t Drow elves but are Devkarin, elves of shadow.
New Playable Races
Centaur, goblin, Loxodon(elephant people), Minotaur, Simic hybrid(fusion of different life forms), Vedalken(blue sin folk)
Recommended classes by Guild
A few new archetypes
Cleric Order Domain- similar in some ways to the conquest paladin(intimidation, persuasion like skills.) Casting enchantment skills as a bonus action is pretty dope though.
Druid - circle of spores(previously covered)
New backgrounds for each of the 10 guilds:
Book discusses creating adventures within the setting and how to link them with important locations and tying them to the different guild's goals.
Guild complications can add to an adventure and making it far more complex. For example maybe a known rival or enemy meddles in the hero's adventure, hoping that they will fail. Maybe they don’t succeed, but the PCs may now want to investigate why?
This extends to intrigue as well. Guilds are vying for influence all the time. Tossing in a simple feud going on between two guilds may draw particular players into wanting to help resolve that issue, either via diplomacy, or aggressive negotiations(combat).
Allies and Villains and the guild locations
Includes a short introductory adventure to the setting! How awesome is that!
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Character Concept:
The Living Pact!
Long ago your parents' families/tribe/clan were at war. The war was often full of subtlety and intrigue. While publicly they didn’t take action against each other, behind the veil lies, deceit, assassinations and blackmail were the norm. It got so bad that the families almost wiped each other out. The families decided that a truce needed to be established, before there was nothing left. You are the result of this unity. A tie to two families and the living proof of the pact they made to protect their houses.
Monster Variant:
Flux Mage
Origin: Cult Fanatic
Swap Int score with Cha
Change spellcasting ability to Int:
New spell prepared
Cantrips: Firebolt, Prestidigitation, Mending
1st level: chaos bolt(Xanathar or GGR), shield, detect magic
2nd level: mirror image, shatter
Fluxbending Overcast:(Recharge 5-6): The flux mage can create an additional effect immediately after casting a spell. Roll a d6 to determine the effect:
1-3. The flux mage teleports, swapping places with a creature it can see within 30 feet of it.
4-6. The flux mage and each creature within 10 feet of it must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution saving throw or take 4(2d4) thunder damage.
Encounter:
The Hunt of the Silver Sword
While sitting around a campfire, the loud crackling of thunder and a rush of wind draws your attention to the skies. A burst of lightning parts a section of the sky tearing a massive black and purple portal in reality. A massive sail winged boat lurches out slowly, the portal closing behind as the flying boat as it passes through.
The PC’s in their adventures have come a crossed a mystical silver greatsword sword in their adventures. Either by slaying an enemy wielding it or found it during the looting of a dungeon. In either case, this weapon a +3 silvered greatsword, while not cursed, is trapped nonetheless in a similar fashion. The blade once belonged to a Githyanki Warrior or Knight. Unbeknownst to the PC’s in the eyes of a githyanki, each silver sword is a priceless relic and a work of art. Githyanki will hunt down and destroy any non-githyanki that dares to carry or wield silver sword, reclaiming it for their people.
Magic Item: (GGR)
Izzet Item
Pyroconverger
Wondrous item, uncommon (requires attunement)
A pyroconverger is an lzzet-made flamethrower. It carries a risk of malfunction each time you use it.
As an action, you can cause the pyroconverger to project fire in a 10-foot cone. Each creature in that area
must make a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw, taking 4d6 fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
Each time you use the pyroconverger, roll a d10 and add the number of times you have used it since your last long rest. If the total is l1 or higher, the pyroconverger malfunctions: you take 4d6 fire damage, and you can't use the pyroconverger again until you finish a long rest.
Dungeon Master Tip:
Cross Purpose
Involving characters into a plot or hook can sometimes be difficult. One of the best ways to engage your players is to have the villain's activities cross or target the PCs ideals, bonds or flaws. Having an enemy challenge a PC’s ideal or maybe exploit a flaw can have a profound impact on a particular PC far more so than say, the bad guy doing a bad thing. In Ravnica/Forgotten realms, it could be a competing or conflicting guilds/factions goal with your own.
(use pregen rogue and Redbrands as example if needed or a good guild vs guild example)
Player Tip: Don’t be a Dick
Give your arcane focus some love!
If you use an arcane focus, give it some unique flavor, for instance in the Izzet section, since they are tinkerers and engineers it says that your focus probably takes the form of an intricate device that could include metal gauntlets, glass canisters, copper tubing, and leather straps attaching it to your body.
Reference(GUN Mage here)
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