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First Post
So, we all know that Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica is coming out in November. It's the first dedicated "campaign book" we've seen since the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide. That means we're going to get new (sub)classes and new races, as well as discussions on how to work the old classes/races into the setting. Which makes me curious what people think we're going to get in terms of class and race materials with this new book.
There's a rumor going around on /tg/ that the Circle of Rot druid, Brute fighter, Order cleric, Invention wizard, and Centaur & Minotaur UAs have been tests for this book, and that makes sense; Circle of Rot works well for the dark druids and fungus-shamans of the Golgari, there are centaurs & minotaurs in several Guilds, Order cleric works well for the Azorius, I suppose the Brute makes sense for the Gruul and/or Rakdos, and Invention could, with a LOT of thematic work, make sense for the Izzet League.
But what else could there be? What are you really hoping for?
Personally, I'm expecting us to get:
Some races will probably be told to "reskin" for. Trolls, Cyclops and Giants will probably be told to use Half-Orc and/or Goliath stats for. The Djinn/Human hybrids of the Izzet League will be just Genasi. Viashino... either Dragonborn mandated to the Fire & Lightning elements or Volo's Lizardfolk, I'm expecting; I'd like a new lizardfolk race, but the wiki's description of viashino is so bare-bones I can't tell how they differ much, although that bit about being lizardfolk descended from dragons is interesting. The Dmiir Doppelganger... I don't think we'll see anything like this, as that steps on the toes of the Eberron Changeling too much.
Now... I really don't want to think like this, but the above could be all we get. But, to stave off despair, I want to focus on what I want to see, and these are the races I really want us to get PC stats for:
There's a rumor going around on /tg/ that the Circle of Rot druid, Brute fighter, Order cleric, Invention wizard, and Centaur & Minotaur UAs have been tests for this book, and that makes sense; Circle of Rot works well for the dark druids and fungus-shamans of the Golgari, there are centaurs & minotaurs in several Guilds, Order cleric works well for the Azorius, I suppose the Brute makes sense for the Gruul and/or Rakdos, and Invention could, with a LOT of thematic work, make sense for the Izzet League.
But what else could there be? What are you really hoping for?
Personally, I'm expecting us to get:
- Merfolk: They've appeared in multiple Plane Shifts thus far, and they have their own unique culture on Ravnica, as well as close ties to the Simic Combine. Plus, WotC has hinted they want to do other MtG to D&D splats in the future, and as merfolk appear on multiple planes, it makes sense to put them here and just add new merfolk subraces in future MtG/D&D books.
- Vampire: Again, multiple Plane Shift appearances, present on multiple worlds, and the Moroii are one of the more iconic races of House Dmiir, so it makes sense.
- Centaurs & Minotaurs: Present in multiple Ravnican guilds, and of great interest to "classic" D&D settings as well.
- Goblin: Multiple Plane Shift appearances, associated with multiple guilds & planes, and technically almost as "workable" into a base D&D setting as a centaur or minotaur. I'd be very surprised not to see this race.
Some races will probably be told to "reskin" for. Trolls, Cyclops and Giants will probably be told to use Half-Orc and/or Goliath stats for. The Djinn/Human hybrids of the Izzet League will be just Genasi. Viashino... either Dragonborn mandated to the Fire & Lightning elements or Volo's Lizardfolk, I'm expecting; I'd like a new lizardfolk race, but the wiki's description of viashino is so bare-bones I can't tell how they differ much, although that bit about being lizardfolk descended from dragons is interesting. The Dmiir Doppelganger... I don't think we'll see anything like this, as that steps on the toes of the Eberron Changeling too much.
Now... I really don't want to think like this, but the above could be all we get. But, to stave off despair, I want to focus on what I want to see, and these are the races I really want us to get PC stats for:
- Revenant: More of a placeholder name, but, there's a lot of free-willed, non-vampire undead in Ravnica; House Dmiir and the Orzhov Syndicate both employ ghosts as part of their guilds, and many Golgari Swarm members find immortality as a sapient zombie (or "liche"). So, some kind of way of playing these would be really imaginative and much enjoyed from my perspective; this could even divide into subraces based on zombie or ghost - the former is tankier, the latter is more mobile. We had a revenant in UA once, so some kind of "living dead" race isn't impossible.
- Faerie: I'm not 100% sure of this idea, to be honest, as MtG's faeries are kind of like flying gnomes more than anything. But, they are part of the Izzet League and the Simic Combine, so it'd be interesting to see them, especially as they have a place on other worlds.
- Dryad: These are important to the Selesnya Conclave, and we have had playable dryads before - 4th edition's hamadryads were a great race. As MtG dryads lack the "cannot leave a small area" aspect of D&D fluff, these would be an excellent choice for a new, exotic race to add.
- Mutant: This has been referenced as part of the aforementioned rumors, that we'll get a mutant and/or krasis race to represent the Simic Combine's fondness for magical grafts and splices. I don't honestly know how they'd pull it off, but I'd be very interested in seeing this.
- Kraul: Mysterious, caste-based bug-people who are allied to the Golgari Swarm and who, in the Ixalan storyline, were being set up as making a major push into the city proper. I really want to know more about these guys.
- Gorgon: Hands down the race I want the most. I know the mechanics will need work, and it'll probably rely heavily on both racial feats & gameplay/story segregation (for example, the gaze attack may be just a blast of necrotic damage with the petrifying being a cosmetic effect on creatures killed by it), but still, gorgons are a unique PC race opportunity, they got a lot of publicity thanks to Vraska's importance in the Ixalan storyline, they have a great backstory as being regarded as untouchables even by the Golgari (themselves the most looked-down-on Guild in Ravnica), and they have a place in multiple other planes. Not getting these girls as a PC race would be a HUGE waste, as far as I'm concerned.
- Vedalken: Being honest, I actually don't care about this race. At all. They're just blue-skinned, dispassionate humanoids who've been used to edge Merfolk out of the role of "Iconic Blue Mana Race" for years until WotC decided to reskin MtG merfolk as zora-style humanoid fish-people. But they are unique to Ravnica (and a couple of other planes), and they are an iconic Azorius race, so I'd rather have them and be pleasantly surprised by WotC putting effort into this book than not have them.
