LichPlease
2018-07-24, 08:09 PM
Below, in bold, are predictions and ideal character options others and myself have come up with that may be suggested as playable character options for particular guilds in Guildmasters' Guide to Ravnica.
I think something important that should be known about the guilds is that they each seem to represent a sector of society we experience every day but taken to its utter extreme and in a fantastical setting. So, I have also described each guild in the role they play in Ravnican society and how they have pushed that role to the point of becoming a nuisance. I apologize if my knowledge of Ravnica is a bit shoddy. Feel free to correct me if you want. Just don’t be a jerk about it. Let us know if you have any of your own predictions!
Azorius Senate – Azorius is basically the government in that they make and enforce the laws of Ravnica. Some people think that Boros makes up the police force, but I think it is more Azorius. They make and enforce rules to the point of being like the Vogons from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. They probably have laws upon laws just to make new laws, which they probably are more than happy to do. Their members and territories are also probably impeccably clean and orderly. The UA Order Domain Cleric is probably going to be used to represent Azorius. Otherwise, any heavily lawful character could probably work.
Orzhov Syndicate – Orzhov serves two, technically three, functions. It primarily acts as the bank of Ravnica. It also acts as an untouchable crime syndicate. It is tertiarily a church. It’s function as a bank has overshadowed the other two, especially the church aspect. Orzhov is all about gold and ripping people off with exorbitant interest rates and taxes. It’s function as a sort of mafia is to enforce debts owed to the Orzhov as well as perform “favors” in exchange for even more money. The Orzhov as a church is strictly used as way of “tithing” it’s members. It is likely that there is no longer any sort of god backing Orzhov. If you owe Orzhov, you owe it even in the afterlife and they will make sure you pay what you owe. Nothing in the UA seems to point to Orzhov, and nothing in the current official books seems to represent Orzhov’s greed heavily. Many Orzhov members are incorporeal undead or work for its spectral leaders, so Death/Grave Cleric and Undying Patron Warlocks are good fits, as are Oath of Conquest and Oath of Vengeance Paladins, as they would be the ones best to collect on payments.
House Dimir – The Dimir technically sort of publicly serve as the postal service, librarians and other such keepers and deliverers of information. They take this to the extreme however by hoarding knowledge and secrets to the point of keeping their existence secret from the rest of Ravnica for long LONG periods of time. So, while those services such as the postal service and library may seem like they are run by another guild or no guild at all, really, Dimir has their hands in it all to gain the upper hand since they, of all guilds, believe that knowledge is power. Members of Dimir range from couriers, to spies, to assassins. Nothing in UA has popped out significantly to be as Dimir, but College of Whispers Bard is a perfect fit as well as the Knowledge Domain Cleric, Way of the Shadow Monk and most Rogues and some Wizards.
Izzet League – The Izzet are a sort of labor union and guild of engineers in Ravnica. Their main function was to build and maintain the infrastructure of the city plane, such as plumbing, roadways and possibly any magical “electrical” system. However, their impulsive creativity has led to them somewhat abandoning their responsibility as they obsess over experimenting with new magical technologies. They don’t mean to intentionally harm anyone but they tend to not think of consequences before acting and their experimentation ends up being more destructive than it could have ever been constructive. The School of Invention Wizard UA is a shoe-in for this guild.
Cult of Rakdos – Rakdos is an undeniably chaotic-evil demon and his Cult revels in his presence. In its more light-hearted settings, the Cult of Rakdos serves as the entertainment industry through carnivals and such. However, the Cult has no qualms with giving its customers whatever they want, even at the cost of others. Deep Rakdos territory is probably reminiscent of the Purge or Hellraiser movies, where pleasure and fun is derived from pain, from others or even one’s self. Nothing from UA seems very Rakdos but a few Bards and the Fiend Patron Warlock are dead ringers.
Golgari Swarm – Initially purposed as farmers and garbagemen, the Golgari have taken the cycle of life and death to the extreme through the powers of necromancy. While not particularly evil, they see no offense in the creation of undead and might actually see it as an honorable state of existence. Due to their standard of living, however, they are heavily shunned by the rest of Ravnica and have reluctantly been forced out of sight of the general public. The UA Circle of Spores Druid will likely be the playable option for Golgari. Any sort of necromancer build is also a good match.
The Gruul Clans – I want to say the Gruul are technically not a guild but there are many members of the Ravnican public that truly belong to no guild. The Gruul started out as somewhat of conservationists, keeping the spread of the city at bay. However, Ravnican society pretty much ignored the Gruul and kept on building anyway. This led to the Gruul sort of dismantling and becoming, not exactly non-existent but ununified. This is why the Gruul is referred to as clans, as they are really an assortment of smaller groups. They no longer serve the purpose of conservationists, but more anarchists and nomads. Their goal now is to break apart society and civilized life and bring the plane of Ravnica back to a more primitive state. The UA Brute would have been a good fit for Gruul but from what I heard from another forum member, barring a heavy fix, the Brute has been nixed. Otherwise, your typical Barbarian, Druid or Ranger makes for an ideal member of Gruul.
Boros Legion – The Boros act as the Ravnican military. This is all well and good as they typically seem honorable except that since Ravnica is technically a unified plane, I’m not sure what Boros would be protecting it from. Therefore, Boros ends up impulsively looking for a fight and cause when there may very well not be any. Someone pointed out that the Minotaur UA would be an ideal fit for the Boros Legion and I would agree. Beyond that, look to your typical Cleric, Fighter and Paladin.
Selesnya Conclave – I don’t now my Ravnica lore THAT well but I feel like Selesnya were sort of the sell outs for what Gruul represented. They are the conservationists the urban plane prefers over the Gruul – controlled and upkept. Selesnya is the parks and recreation to Gruul’s great outdoors. However, they have gotten a little nutty with their duties in gardening and arborism to the point of becoming cultish. Again, it has been pointed out by another forum member that the representative for Selesnya will be the UA Centaur and I agree. Any Druid, Ranger or other nature themed class/archetype is also a good match.
Simic Combine – I feel like from a D&D perspective, the Simic are going to possibly provide one of the most unique player options out of the bunch. The Simic are the bio-medical sector of Ravnica. Like the Izzet, however, they seem to have gotten a bit bored with their normal responsibilities at some point and have gone crazy with "perfecting" their experiments. However, instead of occasionally blowing up entire city blocks by accident, they have unleashed various freaks of nature upon civilization. These experiments go by the name Krasis (not sure if it’s the same singular and plural) but they aren’t exactly one species. They are more various combinations of species. Frog lizards. Fish crabs. Mutants upon mutants. My imagination cannot come up with any particular subclass that could stand in for the Simic other than some sort of outside-the-box druid/wizard hybrid. However, I think a more likely candidate would be a playable Krasis race.
Hope you enjoyed!
I think something important that should be known about the guilds is that they each seem to represent a sector of society we experience every day but taken to its utter extreme and in a fantastical setting. So, I have also described each guild in the role they play in Ravnican society and how they have pushed that role to the point of becoming a nuisance. I apologize if my knowledge of Ravnica is a bit shoddy. Feel free to correct me if you want. Just don’t be a jerk about it. Let us know if you have any of your own predictions!
Azorius Senate – Azorius is basically the government in that they make and enforce the laws of Ravnica. Some people think that Boros makes up the police force, but I think it is more Azorius. They make and enforce rules to the point of being like the Vogons from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. They probably have laws upon laws just to make new laws, which they probably are more than happy to do. Their members and territories are also probably impeccably clean and orderly. The UA Order Domain Cleric is probably going to be used to represent Azorius. Otherwise, any heavily lawful character could probably work.
Orzhov Syndicate – Orzhov serves two, technically three, functions. It primarily acts as the bank of Ravnica. It also acts as an untouchable crime syndicate. It is tertiarily a church. It’s function as a bank has overshadowed the other two, especially the church aspect. Orzhov is all about gold and ripping people off with exorbitant interest rates and taxes. It’s function as a sort of mafia is to enforce debts owed to the Orzhov as well as perform “favors” in exchange for even more money. The Orzhov as a church is strictly used as way of “tithing” it’s members. It is likely that there is no longer any sort of god backing Orzhov. If you owe Orzhov, you owe it even in the afterlife and they will make sure you pay what you owe. Nothing in the UA seems to point to Orzhov, and nothing in the current official books seems to represent Orzhov’s greed heavily. Many Orzhov members are incorporeal undead or work for its spectral leaders, so Death/Grave Cleric and Undying Patron Warlocks are good fits, as are Oath of Conquest and Oath of Vengeance Paladins, as they would be the ones best to collect on payments.
House Dimir – The Dimir technically sort of publicly serve as the postal service, librarians and other such keepers and deliverers of information. They take this to the extreme however by hoarding knowledge and secrets to the point of keeping their existence secret from the rest of Ravnica for long LONG periods of time. So, while those services such as the postal service and library may seem like they are run by another guild or no guild at all, really, Dimir has their hands in it all to gain the upper hand since they, of all guilds, believe that knowledge is power. Members of Dimir range from couriers, to spies, to assassins. Nothing in UA has popped out significantly to be as Dimir, but College of Whispers Bard is a perfect fit as well as the Knowledge Domain Cleric, Way of the Shadow Monk and most Rogues and some Wizards.
Izzet League – The Izzet are a sort of labor union and guild of engineers in Ravnica. Their main function was to build and maintain the infrastructure of the city plane, such as plumbing, roadways and possibly any magical “electrical” system. However, their impulsive creativity has led to them somewhat abandoning their responsibility as they obsess over experimenting with new magical technologies. They don’t mean to intentionally harm anyone but they tend to not think of consequences before acting and their experimentation ends up being more destructive than it could have ever been constructive. The School of Invention Wizard UA is a shoe-in for this guild.
Cult of Rakdos – Rakdos is an undeniably chaotic-evil demon and his Cult revels in his presence. In its more light-hearted settings, the Cult of Rakdos serves as the entertainment industry through carnivals and such. However, the Cult has no qualms with giving its customers whatever they want, even at the cost of others. Deep Rakdos territory is probably reminiscent of the Purge or Hellraiser movies, where pleasure and fun is derived from pain, from others or even one’s self. Nothing from UA seems very Rakdos but a few Bards and the Fiend Patron Warlock are dead ringers.
Golgari Swarm – Initially purposed as farmers and garbagemen, the Golgari have taken the cycle of life and death to the extreme through the powers of necromancy. While not particularly evil, they see no offense in the creation of undead and might actually see it as an honorable state of existence. Due to their standard of living, however, they are heavily shunned by the rest of Ravnica and have reluctantly been forced out of sight of the general public. The UA Circle of Spores Druid will likely be the playable option for Golgari. Any sort of necromancer build is also a good match.
The Gruul Clans – I want to say the Gruul are technically not a guild but there are many members of the Ravnican public that truly belong to no guild. The Gruul started out as somewhat of conservationists, keeping the spread of the city at bay. However, Ravnican society pretty much ignored the Gruul and kept on building anyway. This led to the Gruul sort of dismantling and becoming, not exactly non-existent but ununified. This is why the Gruul is referred to as clans, as they are really an assortment of smaller groups. They no longer serve the purpose of conservationists, but more anarchists and nomads. Their goal now is to break apart society and civilized life and bring the plane of Ravnica back to a more primitive state. The UA Brute would have been a good fit for Gruul but from what I heard from another forum member, barring a heavy fix, the Brute has been nixed. Otherwise, your typical Barbarian, Druid or Ranger makes for an ideal member of Gruul.
Boros Legion – The Boros act as the Ravnican military. This is all well and good as they typically seem honorable except that since Ravnica is technically a unified plane, I’m not sure what Boros would be protecting it from. Therefore, Boros ends up impulsively looking for a fight and cause when there may very well not be any. Someone pointed out that the Minotaur UA would be an ideal fit for the Boros Legion and I would agree. Beyond that, look to your typical Cleric, Fighter and Paladin.
Selesnya Conclave – I don’t now my Ravnica lore THAT well but I feel like Selesnya were sort of the sell outs for what Gruul represented. They are the conservationists the urban plane prefers over the Gruul – controlled and upkept. Selesnya is the parks and recreation to Gruul’s great outdoors. However, they have gotten a little nutty with their duties in gardening and arborism to the point of becoming cultish. Again, it has been pointed out by another forum member that the representative for Selesnya will be the UA Centaur and I agree. Any Druid, Ranger or other nature themed class/archetype is also a good match.
Simic Combine – I feel like from a D&D perspective, the Simic are going to possibly provide one of the most unique player options out of the bunch. The Simic are the bio-medical sector of Ravnica. Like the Izzet, however, they seem to have gotten a bit bored with their normal responsibilities at some point and have gone crazy with "perfecting" their experiments. However, instead of occasionally blowing up entire city blocks by accident, they have unleashed various freaks of nature upon civilization. These experiments go by the name Krasis (not sure if it’s the same singular and plural) but they aren’t exactly one species. They are more various combinations of species. Frog lizards. Fish crabs. Mutants upon mutants. My imagination cannot come up with any particular subclass that could stand in for the Simic other than some sort of outside-the-box druid/wizard hybrid. However, I think a more likely candidate would be a playable Krasis race.
Hope you enjoyed!