Hi,

I'm curious, how do you guys think of gods in ravnica? How do you integrate them in your ravnica game? And which gods do you allow? Because ravnica to me feels like a godless plane but there's still paladins and clerics that needs to pray something. Without many races (ie dwarfs) I don't feel comfortable allowing dwarf gods for example. I honestly thought that maybe I can convert some guildmasters (niv-mizzet, rakdos) to the rank of gods.

Or maybe I'm just missing an important point :)

I don't know much about the world of Ravnica, but here is an idea, instead of gods just have the paladins and clerics receive their powers like a warlock does, but instead of a pact they offer prayers and worship to a more powerful being.  Essentially that's what they do anyways but they just pray and worship a deity instead of a powerful being that can offer powers in exchange.  Hope my idea helps.

As a Magic setting, Ravnica doesn't delve too deep into the idea of "gods" in an sense, mostly because, unlike the Greek-themed world of Theros or the Egyptain-themed world of Amokhet where the gods are omnipresent in a very real way, Ravnica's story is more interested in the guild conflicts.

That being said, you could easily build Orzhov clerics that worship at the altar of debt and death, an Azorius cleric dedicated to the preservation of law and justice, a Selesnyan cleric that draws power from their faith in the world spirit, or even some Gruul cleric that rallies the horde to the call of the ancient boar god they worship. 

Anyway, those are just a few options. There are even more that could be fit in as needed. 

Well, I guess we can easily go around the problem by saying that there are no gods and divine powers comes from nature and all those stuff. I don't really like the idea, I want my players to have a name, a face, something they can really interact with if they want to for more roleplay opportunities. I think I'm going to upgrade some guildmasters to semi-gods, add some gods like nephilim and borrow some minor gods from other sources.

That's quite doable. At least some of the guild leaders certainly have the power to bestow "favor" on their faithful. The Orzhov Ghost Council and the the World Soul of the Selesnya both come to mind. That being said, both Selesnya and Gruul players are more likely to go the Druid route than play a Cleric. And while you could find a Cleric among the Boros Legion worshiping among the battle angels, you are equally likely to find Divine Soul Sorcerers or divine Pact Warlocks.

What I'm saying is there are plenty of options for your players with very little additions required. 

I tend to take an Eberron perspective on this. In Eberron, there are religions and faiths, but the power is granted by unknown means. There is not concrete proof that any of the gods exist. Some, including me, say that it is the faith of clerics and paladins that grant THEMSELVES power. Blood of Vol gives credence to that theory.

In Ravnica, you have angels which can serve for the 'logic' behind where the religious-type classes gain their powers. However, I would argue it's their pure belief in JUSTICE, RIGHTEOUSNESS, COMMUNITY, GREED, etc that fuel their powers. You can include some gods, but on Ravnica it doesn't feel that necessary.

So basically, a Selesnya Paladin heals via Lay on Hands because they truly believe that only together with their allies can they conquer evil and cynicism. Whereas an Azorious Paladin using Command as a spell is strictly because they are harnessing the literal power of the law, which they believe will bring society away from the chaos that will surely tear the world apart.

EDIT: Also, the book doesn't offer this, so I will - Mana is a thing in Magic the Gathering. Their powers growing could be explained - in a meta sense - as that character gaining an innate reserve of mana they use to fulfill their various feats, spells, and abilities. 

Quote from LaRue >>

I tend to take an Eberron perspective on this. In Eberron, there are religions and faiths, but the power is granted by unknown means. There is not concrete proof that any of the gods exist. Some, including me, say that it is the faith of clerics and paladins that grant THEMSELVES power. Blood of Vol gives credence to that theory.

In Ravnica, you have angels which can serve for the 'logic' behind where the religious-type classes gain their powers. However, I would argue it's their pure belief in JUSTICE, RIGHTEOUSNESS, COMMUNITY, GREED, etc that fuel their powers. You can include some gods, but on Ravnica it doesn't feel that necessary.

So basically, a Selesnya Paladin heals via Lay on Hands because they truly believe that only together with their allies can they conquer evil and cynicism. Whereas an Azorious Paladin using Command as a spell is strictly because they are harnessing the literal power of the law, which they believe will bring society away from the chaos that will surely tear the world apart.

EDIT: Also, the book doesn't offer this, so I will - Mana is a thing in Magic the Gathering. Their powers growing could be explained - in a meta sense - as that character gaining an innate reserve of mana they use to fulfill their various feats, spells, and abilities. 

You're making a good point here. Gods are really not needed in Ravnica, especially when you have a world very "magic" prone. I'm not too fond on the idea of removing gods because I like the chance to create some roleplaying but the effort of explaining why deities are here and which of them should be included is probably too much work compared to the gain.

There are a ton of things and people and strange beings to interact with in Ravnica though, so at least you have that going for you. I mean, Aurelia may be the guild leader for Boros, but the troops DO revere her with an almost religious fervor. I imagine the same goes for any of the poor who follow Orzhov (without knowing of their greed) may worship the deathpact angels. 

There are no gods, in the traditional D&D sense, worshiped in Ravnica. Clerics of the plane draw their power from the concept or idea of a domain, such as the Forge or Tempest, rather than from a deity. There are extremely powerful beings on the plane that can/do get worshiped. The easiest of these to find would be those guildmaster paruns who have survived the last 10,000 years (Rakdos and Mat'Selesnya being prime examples). There's also the Nephillim, tarrasque-like beings, who are worshiped as gods by some of the guildless. There is a cult that has formed around them to preserve the old ways of worship and life that existed before the first Guildpact. The Cult of Yore actively works to wake these creatures believing that they will scour the guilds from Ravnica.

My regular group is about to start a game set on Ravnica. Rather than expunge the gods altogether, I've decided that the Guildpact has served as a barrier to the gods. I like this as a DM as it allows me to decide how much of a role they will end up playing later. If the party travels to planes outside Ravnica they may encounter them. Since the Guildpact is now housed in a mortal being it's effects will be less stable. This keeps the door open to meddling from the extraplanar gods without infringing on the setting too much.

I believe that there is a sidebar somewhere in the PHB that addresses this exact issue. I'm paraphrasing, but essentially it says "Sometimes worlds don't have gods in the traditional sense. In that case, the paladins and clerics get their divine power through worship of a divine cosmic force such as truth, righteousness, law, life, etc." It's not about the gods, and instead about the Domains that they represent.