What exactly are Jace's powers/capabilities as The Living Guildpact? The book seams a little vague. It said something about any law he verbally confirms becomes enforced by the Guildpact, which is magically enforced. How does that enforcement take shape? Does that give him ultimate power? Like if someone draws a knife on him and he says "you holding that knife is against the law," does the knife spring out of the attacker's hand? Or is the magic more subtle than that?
Just trying to gauge Jace's power level should I run a campaign there. Like, he's not a god, is he?
Basically any law of the guildpact (in other words Jace) is unbreakable by members of the 10 guilds.
So to address you example, if a member of a guild drew a knife on Jace and Jace said "members of the guilds shall not bear arms against the living guildpact," that person would be magically forced to put away or drop his knife.
Keep in mind if you plan on portaying him, Jace is a genius and a powerful telepath, but as a planswalker he may not be on Ravnica and when he is he would mostly be in his apartments which is also gatewatch headquarters.
Basically any law of the guildpact (in other words Jace) is unbreakable by members of the 10 guilds.
So to address you example, if a member of a guild drew a knife on Jace and Jace said "members of the guilds shall not bear arms against the living guildpact," that person would be magically forced to put away or drop his knife.
Keep in mind if you plan on portaying him, Jace is a genius and a powerful telepath, but as a planswalker he may not be on Ravnica and when he is he would mostly be in his apartments which is also gatewatch headquarters.
I'm planning for him to be away most of the time, but I think the main bad guy is going to need to kidnap him at some point. Just need to guage how much DM BS ill need to pull that off haha
Jace is also pretty scatterbrained most of the time (or at least was before his relaxing island vacation on Ixalan). It is a plot point in one of the short stories that Teysa just badgered him for like several hours a day to "confirm" certain laws, occasionally slipping in statutes that he wasn't aware weren't real just so she could effectively complete whatever plot she was hatching without the magic of the Guildpact affecting her or her accomplices. It almost worked too, except that the place she was braking into was apparently a space withing the Orzhov's control that was basically immune to the Guildpact magics for some unknown reason, so when she was quoting laws at the Ghost Council to usurp them, they basically just laughed it off.
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
Probably only possible by another planeswalker or a mage of similar strength or greater cunning.
There are a few areas (inner sanctum of the obzedat for example) where the guildpact magic doesn't work.
Niv Mezzit might be the only creature on ravnica with the power and planning to do such a thing, but since doing so would probably violate the guildpact, he probably can't.
But it is your adventure, you can completely replace Jace with a non-planeswalker if you want.
The previous Guildpact would subtly shift things to favor a guild in their sphere of influence, similar to how Domino's power works in Deadpool. While the new Guildpact is different (I like to think it's weaker than the original Guildpact), I think it would still work largely in the same way as it's based on the same magic.
In the knife scenario, the power of the Guildpact would cause the person to trip as they lunged at Jace. Jace isn't a god, but with the power of the Guildpact at his command he can subtly influence the outcome of things so long as it's a codified law.
That's interesting. Slightly different question for that last bit, how would you represent that mechanically? Flat disadvantage for all actions that violate the Guildpact?
Doubtful as it is more of a power on par wit ha divine force than an actual "spell" or other magical effect. Think of it more as an omnipresent universal law of Ravnica. While it has been shown that there are rare patches of the Plane where the Guildpact doesn't function, those areas were likely wrote into the original Guildpact at its inception and are not the result of some errant spell.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
That's interesting. Slightly different question for that last bit, how would you represent that mechanically? Flat disadvantage for all actions that violate the Guildpact?
The Guildpact's influence and power is more a narrative tool. It's just one of those things that work and is beyond the comprehension of most mortals, given that it's woven into the plane. If the Guildpact is functioning it wouldn't matter the roll that was made, the Guildpact would influence the outcome favorably. That's not to say the Guildpact is without limit. There can always be a loophole to exploit. The Living Guildpact's role is to keep the peace between the guilds and lend the force of the Guildpact to any rules or laws that any of the guilds establish. Jace doesn't make the laws or rules, he just enforces them.
I would be careful giving stats to the Guildpact. it would be like giving stats to a god, you don't want to do that unless you intend to allow the players to kill it.
Follow up: Do you think the Guildpact's influence would be negated within an anti-magic field?
Metamongoose has the right of it. The Guildpact is a magic woven into the plane. It's possible to undo that magic (see The Decamilennial and the other two stories of the first Ravnica block), but doing so requires finding very small loopholes in the fabric of the Guildpact to exploit.
There's several groups that actively seek to bring down the Guildpact, and Ravnica with it. The Cult of Yore believes that the Nephilim have the ability to destroy the Guildpact. The Gruul believe that a boar god called Ilharg will bring about the End Raze to destroy Ravnica.
What exactly are Jace's powers/capabilities as The Living Guildpact? The book seams a little vague. It said something about any law he verbally confirms becomes enforced by the Guildpact, which is magically enforced. How does that enforcement take shape? Does that give him ultimate power? Like if someone draws a knife on him and he says "you holding that knife is against the law," does the knife spring out of the attacker's hand? Or is the magic more subtle than that?
Just trying to gauge Jace's power level should I run a campaign there. Like, he's not a god, is he?
Basically any law of the guildpact (in other words Jace) is unbreakable by members of the 10 guilds.
So to address you example, if a member of a guild drew a knife on Jace and Jace said "members of the guilds shall not bear arms against the living guildpact," that person would be magically forced to put away or drop his knife.
Keep in mind if you plan on portaying him, Jace is a genius and a powerful telepath, but as a planswalker he may not be on Ravnica and when he is he would mostly be in his apartments which is also gatewatch headquarters.
I'm planning for him to be away most of the time, but I think the main bad guy is going to need to kidnap him at some point. Just need to guage how much DM BS ill need to pull that off haha
Jace is also pretty scatterbrained most of the time (or at least was before his relaxing island vacation on Ixalan). It is a plot point in one of the short stories that Teysa just badgered him for like several hours a day to "confirm" certain laws, occasionally slipping in statutes that he wasn't aware weren't real just so she could effectively complete whatever plot she was hatching without the magic of the Guildpact affecting her or her accomplices. It almost worked too, except that the place she was braking into was apparently a space withing the Orzhov's control that was basically immune to the Guildpact magics for some unknown reason, so when she was quoting laws at the Ghost Council to usurp them, they basically just laughed it off.
Probably only possible by another planeswalker or a mage of similar strength or greater cunning.
There are a few areas (inner sanctum of the obzedat for example) where the guildpact magic doesn't work.
Niv Mezzit might be the only creature on ravnica with the power and planning to do such a thing, but since doing so would probably violate the guildpact, he probably can't.
But it is your adventure, you can completely replace Jace with a non-planeswalker if you want.
The previous Guildpact would subtly shift things to favor a guild in their sphere of influence, similar to how Domino's power works in Deadpool. While the new Guildpact is different (I like to think it's weaker than the original Guildpact), I think it would still work largely in the same way as it's based on the same magic.
In the knife scenario, the power of the Guildpact would cause the person to trip as they lunged at Jace. Jace isn't a god, but with the power of the Guildpact at his command he can subtly influence the outcome of things so long as it's a codified law.
That's interesting. Slightly different question for that last bit, how would you represent that mechanically? Flat disadvantage for all actions that violate the Guildpact?
That's a good way to do it easily.
Follow up: Do you think the Guildpact's influence would be negated within an anti-magic field?
Doubtful as it is more of a power on par wit ha divine force than an actual "spell" or other magical effect. Think of it more as an omnipresent universal law of Ravnica. While it has been shown that there are rare patches of the Plane where the Guildpact doesn't function, those areas were likely wrote into the original Guildpact at its inception and are not the result of some errant spell.
The Guildpact's influence and power is more a narrative tool. It's just one of those things that work and is beyond the comprehension of most mortals, given that it's woven into the plane. If the Guildpact is functioning it wouldn't matter the roll that was made, the Guildpact would influence the outcome favorably. That's not to say the Guildpact is without limit. There can always be a loophole to exploit. The Living Guildpact's role is to keep the peace between the guilds and lend the force of the Guildpact to any rules or laws that any of the guilds establish. Jace doesn't make the laws or rules, he just enforces them.
I would be careful giving stats to the Guildpact. it would be like giving stats to a god, you don't want to do that unless you intend to allow the players to kill it.
Metamongoose has the right of it. The Guildpact is a magic woven into the plane. It's possible to undo that magic (see The Decamilennial and the other two stories of the first Ravnica block), but doing so requires finding very small loopholes in the fabric of the Guildpact to exploit.
There's several groups that actively seek to bring down the Guildpact, and Ravnica with it. The Cult of Yore believes that the Nephilim have the ability to destroy the Guildpact. The Gruul believe that a boar god called Ilharg will bring about the End Raze to destroy Ravnica.