The Gith Are Now Aberrations in Dungeons & Dragons

gith.jpeg


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.
 

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Christian Hoffer

Christian Hoffer

The Gith aren't the only playable species that have been messed around with by Mind Flayers. There's also the Duergar. Anyone know how they are being typed in 5.5e? Humanoid or Aberration? If being messed around by the Mind Flayers makes a species into an Aberration, then the Duergar ought to have the same type.

We do know that the Derro became abberations, so it is possible. It could also be their go fiendish, or even stick to humanoid with the idea that the Duergar escaped before the changes tipped them over the edge.
 

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5e14 MM on humanoids:

Humanoids are the main peoples of the D&D world, both civilized and savage, including humans and a tremendous variety of other species. They have language and culture, few if any innate magical abilities (though most humanoids can learn spellcasting), and a bipedal form. The most common humanoid races are the ones most suitable as player characters: humans, dwarves, elves, and halflings. Almost as numerous but far more savage and brutal, and almost uniformly evil, are the races of goblinoids (goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears), ores, gnolls, lizardfolk, and kobolds.

4e:

Natural [Origin]: Natural creatures are native to the natural world—the world of humans, dwarves, elves, halflings, and dragons. Most natural creatures breathe, eat, and sleep. Natural creatures with the construct or undead keyword are exceptions.

Humanoid [Type]: Humanoid monsters are usually bipedal, but some have monstrous or animalistic characteristics, such as the squidlike head of a mind flayer or the serpentine body of a yuan-ti abomination.

3.5:

Humanoid Type: A humanoid usually has two arms, two legs, and one head, or a human-like torso, arms, and a head. Humanoids have few or no supernatural or extraordinary abilities, but most can speak and usually have well-developed societies. They usually are Small or Medium. Every humanoid creature also has a subtype, such as elf, goblinoid, or reptilian.

AD&D 2e (the closest I could find):

Demihuman—a player character who is not human: a dwarf, elf, gnome, half-elf, or halfling.

Nonhuman—any humanoid creature that is neither a human nor a demihuman.

1e:

Demi-humans — Refers to anthropomorphic, generally non-hostile (towards man) creatures that may be played as characters: elves, dwarves, halflings, etc.

Humanoid — Refers to anthropomorphic, generally hostile creatures: orcs, goblins, hobgoblins, kobolds, etc.
 

5e14 MM on humanoids:

Humanoids are the main peoples of the D&D world, both civilized and savage, including humans and a tremendous variety of other species. They have language and culture, few if any innate magical abilities (though most humanoids can learn spellcasting), and a bipedal form. The most common humanoid races are the ones most suitable as player characters: humans, dwarves, elves, and halflings. Almost as numerous but far more savage and brutal, and almost uniformly evil, are the races of goblinoids (goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears), ores, gnolls, lizardfolk, and kobolds.

4e:

Natural [Origin]: Natural creatures are native to the natural world—the world of humans, dwarves, elves, halflings, and dragons. Most natural creatures breathe, eat, and sleep. Natural creatures with the construct or undead keyword are exceptions.

Humanoid [Type]: Humanoid monsters are usually bipedal, but some have monstrous or animalistic characteristics, such as the squidlike head of a mind flayer or the serpentine body of a yuan-ti abomination.

3.5:

Humanoid Type: A humanoid usually has two arms, two legs, and one head, or a human-like torso, arms, and a head. Humanoids have few or no supernatural or extraordinary abilities, but most can speak and usually have well-developed societies. They usually are Small or Medium. Every humanoid creature also has a subtype, such as elf, goblinoid, or reptilian.

AD&D 2e (the closest I could find):

Demihuman—a player character who is not human: a dwarf, elf, gnome, half-elf, or halfling.

Nonhuman—any humanoid creature that is neither a human nor a demihuman.

1e:

Demi-humans — Refers to anthropomorphic, generally non-hostile (towards man) creatures that may be played as characters: elves, dwarves, halflings, etc.

Humanoid — Refers to anthropomorphic, generally hostile creatures: orcs, goblins, hobgoblins, kobolds, etc.
Again, sure looks like by and large the dictionary definition of humanoid still applies in D&D (or did until quite recently).
 

Level Up on Humanoids:

Humanoids include a number of different intelligent, language-using bipeds, usually of Small or Medium size. Humanoids may employ magic but are not fundamentally magical—a characteristic that distinguishes them from bipedal, language-using fey, fiends, and other monsters. Humanoids have no inherent alignment, meaning that no humanoid ancestry is naturally good or evil, lawful or chaotic.
 

What is an "abberation characteristic"? As far as I'm aware, Abberations don't share a common aesthetic or set of characteristics. And there are no racial tropes associated with then. Oceanic tropes, maybe, but even that doesn't cover all aberrations.
As pointed out upthread:
From the 5e 2014 MM:

Aberrations are utterly alien beings. Many of them have innate magical abilities drawn from the creature's alien mind rather than the mystical forces of the world. The quintessential aberrations are aboleths, beholders, mind flayers, and slaadi.
Gith are very obviously not "utterly alien". If anything they're very human-like in their behaviour, appearance and thought, moreso than many. Tabaxi or Kenku are far stranger than they are.

They aren't similar to Aboleths, Beholders, Mind Flayers or Slaadi in any way.

So unless the 2025 MM drastically redefines Aberration to basically mean "anyone with innate psionics", then it's obviously weird as hell to call them that.

Also, everything else called that is a horrifically dangerous monster. Whereas they're just people. Maybe some of them aren't very nice people, but frankly they're no worse than humans can be.
Even if the original person presented it as a theory, you coming in and loudly proclaiming WoTC is wrong to have done this because of egg-laying is still wrong and still misinformation. Because that isn't why they did it.
This is your failure to follow the thread, and you trying to blame me for it and calling it "misinformation" (literally misusing the word) is not cool, frankly, but it's also not interesting. Read more closely please in future.
Eh, maybe? I can sort of see the Githzerai having some asian connotations because of Buddhism analogues, but that is more based on their religion and spirituality than their race. You may as well say dwarves are a stand-in for greeks because they have a pantheon like the greeks did. It doesn't really fit well.

And while there are some faint hints of asiatic features in their artwork... again it is mostly just the Githzerai, using buddhist imagery and clothing patterns to reflect their monasterial society. The Githyanki certainly never struck me as asiatic with their western armor and dragon riding.
The Githyanki have sometimes (often?) been given Asian-style weapons and armour, and the whole "disciplined and fanatic warriors" is absolutely a classic trope applied to the Japanese. The tiny noses and yellow skin of the Gith also mirror extreme racist propaganda directed against the Japanese and others in WW2.

Your comparison re: dwarves is really lazy and ill-considered and seems similar to how a lot of people (mostly white, male, older) will cheaply dismiss racist stuff to do with their hobbies until it's so glaring they can't, and sometimes even keep going then. Even when some of those same people might immediately notice and call out even lesser racism in hobbies/media they aren't into!

Fantasy dwarves have two ethnic stereotype roots, by the way - Jewish stereotypes, and Norse stereotypes. Tolkien explicitly, in his own words, was inspired by his ideas about Jewish people (which were not hateful, let's be clear, but were... stereotypical), to create his dwarves, which are the origin point of pretty much 98% of fantasy dwarves - that's why they're reclaiming their homeland and why they have words/names which sound kind of like Hebrew ones as well (again, explicitly, Tolkien literally said so). A lot of people didn't realize this though, and early art of dwarves tended towards portraying them in Viking-adjacent ways simply because a lot of work of that era liked horned helms and axes and so on, and eventually this slid into more and more Viking associations with dwarves (which I think was also because dwarves were in Norse mythology, and were also big craftsmen there), and that's nowadays the more dominant association. Thankfully! Because stuff like "They lust for gold!" hits different once you know what Tolkien was going for... damn...

Yes, the game term "humanoid" does not match its scientific meaning. Studded leather also doesn't exist. DnD takes liberties. This isn't an issue until you make it an issue by ascribing traits to humanoid that do not exist in the game
There's no modern "scientific meaning" of humanoid lol.

The Wikipedia article is pretty good: Humanoid - Wikipedia

It's just a word. But TSR and WotC used it fairly consistently up until mid-5E, to mean human-shaped, roughly human-sized corporeal beings, and only when we got this weird "you can only have one type" thinking with the Satyrs and the like did it start being an issue.

Further, there's no rational or logical or even game-balance justification for NOT making Elves, Fey, Dragonborn, Dragons, etc. etc. if we're going to play that game. Indeed it's perverse and bizarre the Goblins ARE Fey, but Elves AREN'T Fey.
 

As pointed out upthread:

Gith are very obviously not "utterly alien". If anything they're very human-like in their behaviour, appearance and thought, moreso than many. Tabaxi or Kenku are far stranger than they are.

They aren't similar to Aboleths, Beholders, Mind Flayers or Slaadi in any way.

So unless the 2025 MM drastically redefines Aberration to basically mean "anyone with innate psionics", then it's obviously weird as hell to call them that.

They did redefine Aberration to a degree, they literally talk about that in the video. And they also mentioned that playable Gith are humanoid. So, you have a species that can be defined as both, meaning it is on the border of the two. Should I then be shocked that they are somewhat human-like? You say they are "obviously" not utterly alien, but I don't know where you get that idea from. That isn't obvious to me at all.

Also, everything else called that is a horrifically dangerous monster. Whereas they're just people. Maybe some of them aren't very nice people, but frankly they're no worse than humans can be.

And Githyanki instill Mind Flayers with fear, causing them to flee and hide. So the horrifically dangerous monsters are TERRIFIED of them. What's that make them? Bland and uninteresting?

This is your failure to follow the thread, and you trying to blame me for it and calling it "misinformation" (literally misusing the word) is not cool, frankly, but it's also not interesting. Read more closely please in future.

I'm not blaming you for anything. I'm stating facts. WoTC never once made the claim that Gith were made into Aberrations because they lay eggs. WoTC never mentioned eggs at all in regards to the Gith. It is a non-issue to get upset that they were changed because they lay eggs. You may as well get upset that they did it because BG3 made them too popular and WoTC wanted to prevent them from being put in the PHB. It has no basis on anything they said.

The Githyanki have sometimes (often?) been given Asian-style weapons and armour, and the whole "disciplined and fanatic warriors" is absolutely a classic trope applied to the Japanese. The tiny noses and yellow skin of the Gith also mirror extreme racist propaganda directed against the Japanese and others in WW2.

It is also applied to South American tribal people, Christian Crusaders, Muslim warriors... "disciplined and fanatic" isn't asian coding. Yes, it is something used for the Samurai, but that alone isn't enough. The yellow skin might be enough, but a lot of the artwork also shows them with green-skin. They've been described as "frog-like" while most Yellow Terror propaganda was aimed at making the Asian people appear rat-like.

Is there absolutely nothing there? No, there is a little bit there. But it is mostly in the Githzerai and likely because of the religious roots of their inspiration, not the racial roots.

Your comparison re: dwarves is really lazy and ill-considered and seems similar to how a lot of people (mostly white, male, older) will cheaply dismiss racist stuff to do with their hobbies until it's so glaring they can't, and sometimes even keep going then. Even when some of those same people might immediately notice and call out even lesser racism in hobbies/media they aren't into!

Fantasy dwarves have two ethnic stereotype roots, by the way - Jewish stereotypes, and Norse stereotypes. Tolkien explicitly, in his own words, was inspired by his ideas about Jewish people (which were not hateful, let's be clear, but were... stereotypical), to create his dwarves, which are the origin point of pretty much 98% of fantasy dwarves - that's why they're reclaiming their homeland and why they have words/names which sound kind of like Hebrew ones as well (again, explicitly, Tolkien literally said so). A lot of people didn't realize this though, and early art of dwarves tended towards portraying them in Viking-adjacent ways simply because a lot of work of that era liked horned helms and axes and so on, and eventually this slid into more and more Viking associations with dwarves (which I think was also because dwarves were in Norse mythology, and were also big craftsmen there), and that's nowadays the more dominant association. Thankfully! Because stuff like "They lust for gold!" hits different once you know what Tolkien was going for... damn...
Yes, I'm aware of all of that. That's why I used the dwarf example, because it took an aspect of them that is true (they worship a pantheon of the gods) and stretched it to fit a racial archetype. My example was intentionally wrong, to point out how I am seeing you stretch this. Not that you are stretching to the extreme I did there, but I think you are stretching.

And if the only thing that has changed is that the Gith living in the planes are just on the other side of the line between humanoid and Abberration.. then this isn't that egregious. Certainly no more egregious than the Aztec-coded Yuan-Ti being Monstrosities, or the potential Romani influences you can find in the Kenku who were also made monstrosities. It is something to keep an eye on, but it isn't something to start burning the book over.

There's no modern "scientific meaning" of humanoid lol.

The Wikipedia article is pretty good: Humanoid - Wikipedia

It's just a word. But TSR and WotC used it fairly consistently up until mid-5E, to mean human-shaped, roughly human-sized corporeal beings, and only when we got this weird "you can only have one type" thinking with the Satyrs and the like did it start being an issue.

So succubi were humanoid? They are "human-shaped, roughly human-sized corporeal beings". Same with Golems right? We certainly didn't have Planetars or Ogres or any of a dozen other monsters that were "human-shaped, roughly human-sized corporeal beings" that weren't listed as Humanoid until 2019, right?
Further, there's no rational or logical or even game-balance justification for NOT making Elves, Fey, Dragonborn, Dragons, etc. etc. if we're going to play that game. Indeed it's perverse and bizarre the Goblins ARE Fey, but Elves AREN'T Fey.

To you.

There is no rational, logical or game-balance justification TO YOU. It is perverse and bizarre TO YOU.

I can't give you anything other than speculation. Write a letter to Crawford asking for the meeting minutes where it was decided I guess, but stop acting like they clearly did it for the lulz. They had a reason. We only have their word to go on, and they SPECIFICALLY addressed this point. You don't believe them and think they are lying.... cool. What do you want me to do about the fact that you think they are lying? Get angry and demand they tell us something else that you will think is a lie unless it matches your expectations?
 




I am by no means someone that thinks monsters and player characters need to use the same abilities and rules, but having the creature type of the player option and monster version be different is dumb. When the Gith change came in Planescape, I was excited because I thought that meant Gith would be playable aberrations. Making playable Gith be humanoid while the monsters are aberrations doesn’t make any lore sense and doesn’t please either crowd.
 

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