Deva as a Spirit Guide?

[Arn]

I would like to ask about devas.

Devas DO exist in D&D 3.5, in the Monster Manual at page 11. But it's only in Fourth Edition, and in Dragon Magazine, that they are more fleshed out.

So here is the question: how much can I borrow from Fourth Edition? And how much can I use Dragon Magazine?

Specifically, in Dragon Magazine, issue 374, pages 43-44, a deva's reincarnation cycle is discussed. (Of course, the mention of the Shadowfell does not apply to our timeline, but the rest of the quote might work.)

When a deva dies, his or her body remains like those of other mortals, although some who drop the body have been said to disperse as motes of light. Whatever the case with the body, a deva’s soul doesn’t go to the Shadowfell like the souls of other mortals do. Instead, the soul stays in the world where it is bound by the ancient primal pact. The soul undergoes the “bodiless dreaming,” as devas call the period between incarnations. During this time, the soul wanders the spirit realm of the world, and some claim it experiences up to an entire lifetime in that ephemeral region of time and space. What the soul does in the spirit realm is a mystery, but the few revelations that exist suggest that the deva acts as a powerful ancestor spirit and caretaker of the world even in this in-between space.
Stories of this “bodiless dreaming” come from various sources, including druids, shamans, and others who interact most directly with the primal spirits. It is said to be a blessed state wherein the deva remembers all lives lived and can put that knowledge to use. The most compelling proof of this state comes from a small number of devas who have had what devas call “bodiless waking,” “waking dreaming,” or “disincarnate.” Such devas are between physical bodies, but through strange fate, outside influence, or powerful willpower, they can interact with the material world as ghostlike beings.

A Spirit Shaman's spirit guide can be an incorporeal undead. It would be neat if that incorporeal undead could be a deva in the "bodiless dreaming" state. But I do not want to godmod, or use lore that is not canon.

So what do the DMs think? Can a spirit shaman have a "bodiless dreaming" deva as a spirit guide? Either way, thanks for reading.

[DM Narshe]

All spirit shamans have a spirit guide, a personification of the spirit world. In some sense a spirit shaman and her guide are one being, both knowing and seeing and experiencing the same things. Unlike a familiar, a spirit guide is not a separate entity from a spirit shaman. She is the only one who can perceive or interact with the guide. It exists only inside her own mind and soul....
The exact form of the spirit guide is chosen by the spirit shaman at 1st level, usually for the qualities it represents. The exact form of a spirit guide is purely personal preference and confers no special advantages or disadvantages.

So, no. A deva would be an actual creature just in it's incorporeal phase of... unlife. The spirit guide is basically a hallucination. Only the spirit shaman can see/interact with it.

A spirit shaman could probably find and interact with an actual Deva soul (ping the DMs if you want to do this) but it wouldn't be their spirit guide.

[Arn]

Got it, thanks. No actual deva, or any separate entity.

Now, if the exact form of a spirit guide is purely personal preference and confers no special advantages or disadvantages, can this "hallucination" take the form of a deva? In other words, it is not an actual deva, but it appears to the character to be one?

[DM Narshe]

It could be Mystra for all the sourcebook seems to care.

The sourcebook describes only animal familiars, however.

If you can list characteristics your character attributes to something then an argument could be made for that being their spirit guide. Seeing as how Spirit Shaman do focus on nature spells, I wouldn't stray too far from natural spirit guides.