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.

 

[Senior_WotC_Janitor]

Nope.

2014 is looking better every day.

Or you could you know, play 2024 and classify the gith however you want to. WotC can release press releases all day and they need not affect your game.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Than what benefit to the game is there to decide that psionics are all about the tentacles and the mind-destroying secrets none were meant to know? Why even try to force that narrative as a default? It's pretty specific, and colors everything about the topic.

it limits options when we could get a full class out of it, a theme of being pulled between enlightenment and madness could work to swallow both ideas easily.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Also, if you are a sentient being, you're a person. I can't see it any other way.

That is sweet of you, but for D&D purposes that has not been true for 30 years at least...

 

[UngeheuerLich]

"Everything I Don't Like is 4e"

Like the 4e monk?

 

[UngeheuerLich]

They are the ones deciding to change backward compatibility after making a lot of promises there.

I wish they had broken backwards compatibility a bit more.
But really, how difficult is it to just say that in those campaigns goblins are treated as huamnoids. MM is not a law text. And actually the most easy book to replace with any monster compendium you like.

There was no reason to make the change from humanoid to aberration except to justify the Orc and try to provide more reasons for them to be “monsters.”

You mean to differentiate the PHB PC species from the other creatures. Maybe that is one thing.

But another reason given in the video which I agree with is that now you can't solve any low level encounter with the same spell. Now having protection from evil and good prepared at level 1 is not totally nonsense.

I get it and this is not my main reason for not switching to 5.5. That would be masteries. It just seems to be change to have change.

While I think masteries are a very nice addition to martial characters, although maybe the implementatiin could have been a bit different.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I know people hate this, but that really is exactly how they would represent themselves in marketing materials.

I guess it doesn't matter, but I would have liked to part with WotC still feeling they made choices for the game I grew up on because they wanted to make the best game they could.

They did. But nit the best game you like. Probably, because they did not want to just reprint 50 years old material?

 

[Parmandur]

They did. But nit the best game you like. Probably, because they did not want to just reprint 50 years old material?

I mean, to be fair they did reprint the 50 year old material lol

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I mean, to be fair they did reprint the 50 year old material lol

I meant as the new official version.

And without a foreword that makes the target group mad...

 

[Remathilis]

I mean, to be fair they did reprint the 50 year old material lol

If EN World was representative of the D&D community writ large, WotC would just sell B/X in perpetuity.

 

[Micah Sweet]

That is sweet of you, but for D&D purposes that has not been true for 30 years at least...

First of all, that phrasing is condescending. Secondly, "person" is not a game term, so not sure what you're trying to get at.