Under-Ling: Creating a Planeswalker Character in Dungeons & Dragons

Magic: the Gathering casts its players in the role of planeswalkers, powerful wizards with the ability to travel between the planes of the Multiverse. They can learn to use each plane’s unique spells, creatures, and resources in their duels with other planeswalkers. But it can be easy to get caught up in the game’s complex mechanics and lose sight of the fact that the players are supposed to be part of the story.

Wizards of the Coast has begun to fix this problem by releasing Dungeons and Dragons supplements for a number of planes, including the marvelous Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica. These supplements allow players to play Magic characters and feel more like they’re part of the Multiverse. But there are not yet official rules for playing in these settings as a planeswalker. Luckily, my Dungeons and Dragons playgroup is working on a solution. Our campaign integrates Magic’s rules and mechanics into Dungeons and Dragons character creation and combat by giving its planeswalker characters decks of Magic cards instead of spell lists.

To explain how the system works, I’ll be using my own character as an example. Ariel is a newly-ignited planeswalker who grew up in Ravnica’s Selesnya Conclave.

Creating Your Character

To start creating a planeswalker, use the Dungeons and Dragons 5^th Edition rules to create a spellcaster. If there’s a supplement for your character’s home plane, use that. If there isn’t, work with your DM to find the best approximation. Choose a color identity instead of (or in addition to) an alignment, and build your character’s identity and goals around it. You may want to create your character at level 3 or higher so that they have access to some interesting magic that fits their color identity.

Ariel is a wood elf druid with the Selesnya Initiate background from Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica. She is a member of the Circle of the Land, in both the Grassland and Forest domains. Her color identity is white/green, with a blue splash that makes her curious about what life is like in other guilds. Our campaign is set shortly after War of the Spark, but Ariel lives outside Ravnica’s Tenth District, where the war actually happened, and has only read vague stories about it in her local newspaper.

Even though your character will probably be leaving their home plane, it’s a good idea to figure out what personal connections they have there. Your DM may want to use this information to flesh out the story. For example, my playgroup began our campaign with four short adventures telling the stories of how each character’s spark ignited, with the other players playing temporary characters. In Ariel’s adventure, she was sent to investigate the theft of some important documents with a team of low-ranking members of other guilds, including her Dimir friend Milo, who works at Ariel’s favorite bookstore. Her spark ignited during a confrontation with the Orzhov vampire who had stolen and sold the documents.

Planeswalkers’ magic works differently from other kinds of magic. If your character’s spark has already ignited, choose your cantrips and build a spell deck to replace spells of level 1 and higher. If your group will be running prequel adventures, choose spells normally and build your spell deck with your character’s original spell list in mind.

Building a Spell Deck

The spell decks my playgroup uses have a number of cards equal to 20 times their owner's proficiency bonus, and only use cards in their owner’s color identity. They contain no legendary creatures or planeswalkers, and have a number of rare or mythic cards less than or equal to the character’s spellcaster level. (For example, at level 4, a deck should have 40 cards and up to 4 rares.)

Build your spell deck from a roleplaying perspective. Use spells your character would cast, even if they’re not good spells for competitive Magic. For example, Ariel’s deck includes Sprouting Renewal and Healing Grace, two spells that are not widely played in Magic but can be interpreted as having powerful effects in Dungeons and Dragons.

Remember to keep your character’s abilities in mind: unless your character’s magic is specifically based on summoning creatures, you will want to include fewer creatures than is usual for Magic decks. And even if your character is a summoner, noncreature spells will be more useful outside combat, so you may want to focus on spells with modes that create creature tokens, as I do in Ariel's deck.

Don't worry about making your deck consistent. The fewer duplicates you include in your deck, the more different spells your character can cast.

Be creative with how you interpret spells. Effects that apply to your opponent’s creatures can be used on your enemies in combat, and effects that apply to your creatures can be used on your party members. Ariel’s deck includes Assure // Assemble, which can be used to strengthen her party members; and Totally Lost, which can be used to confuse an enemy and cause them to wander away. If you’re not sure how a spell will be interpreted, ask your DM about it before you put it in your deck.

Use creatures and lands from planes your character has spent a lot of time on. These will be the easiest for your character to use. For a newly-ignited planeswalker like Ariel, this will just be their home plane. Ariel’s deck includes creatures with Selesnya watermarks from Guilds of Ravnica, as well as several copies of Selesnya Guildgate. Make sure to include plenty of basic lands in your deck, since you will be using them to represent your available mana at the start of combat. (For more on that, keep an eye out for my next article.)