The Gith Are Now Aberrations in Dungeons & Dragons

The githyanki and githzerai are officially reclassified as aberrations in Dungeons & Dragons. In a video released today about the 2025 Monster Manual, D&D designers Jeremy Crawford and F. Wesley Schneider confirmed that the two classic D&D species are now being classified as aberrations. The reasoning given - the two gith species have been so transformed by living in the Astral Plane and Limbo, they've moved beyond being humanoids. Schneider also pointed out that the illithid's role in manipulating the gith also contributed to their new classification.

The video notes that this isn't technically a new change - the Planescape book released in 2023 had several githzerai statblocks that had aberration classifications.

The gith join a growing number of previously playable species that have new classifications. The goblin, kobolds, and kenku have also had their creature classifications changed in the 2025 Monster Manual. While players can currently use the 2014 rules for making characters of those species, it will be interesting to see how these reclassifications affect the character-building rules regarding these species when they are eventually updated for 2024 rules.

 

[Micah Sweet]

You mean like kobolds?

Lizardfolk have never, as far as I know, been associated with dragons.

 

[Micah Sweet]

They ought to make the Aasimar into Celestials, the Tieflings into Fiends and the Genasi into Elementals.

That would be the thing to do if they were making the changes for artistic/creative reasons.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Recategorizing classic antagonist species as "monsters" helps solving some dilemmas.

But not game design dilemmas. Other dilemmas.

And "courageous" game design, to be fair, would have been making an actual 6e.

 

[Corinnguard]

That would be the thing to do if they were making the changes for artistic/creative reasons.

True. The elemental features of some Genasi in Monsters of the Multiverse is enough in my book to give them the Elemental type.

 

[Tonguez]

Wow, I'd always thought too that penultimate was "bestest of the best" too, not "second to last"

From Latin Paene Ultimus = almost last

Strangely enough the word Penult also exist to label the penultimate item in a series

 

[Kobold Avenger]

If the Mind Flayer's Extract Brain is the same as it was in the 2014 book, then yes NPC Gith are immune to that.

I don't see why that was the case in 2014 only working on Humanoids as I think it's should be easy for a Mind Flayer to extract a brain from a beast like a dog, and probably most other things that are living and sort of humanoid shaped. Might be a problem trying to extract a brain from a Warforged though.

 

[Gradine]

At least in kanon, the Gith were the "base material" that the Daelkyr used to form the Mindflayers.

Oh wow, I hadn't realized that! That's pretty neat.

 

[Corinnguard]

Might be a problem trying to extract a brain from a Warforged though.

Assuming it was edible.

 

[MGibster]

You know who else can do those things? Jedi. And Jedi aren't aberration-based. The default for psionics should not be "slime and tentacles".

Jedi aren't really part of D&D though. Psionics has always been an odd thing in D&D, might as well give it the "slime and tentacles" treatment. At least that's interesting.

 

[Weiley31]

Lizardfolk really don't seem like dragons to me. None of these creature type changes seem beneficial. Not sure what the point is.

Its a reference to how in 3rd edition, Lizardfolk could speak/understand Draconic.