Are githyankis and githzerai worth the +2 ECL?

[psyronin]

Seems to me all outsiders start with LA+1 since the "person" spells (like Hold Person) can't target them. Compare, say, a dwarf to a fire genasi.
I think what tilts the githyanki into LA+2 is the spell resistance plus the "get of out jail free"-type spells such as dimension door and plane shift.

 

[Scion]

And cant be targeted by friendly such spells either. Such as enlarge person and the like, which is a big hit in 3.5. Plus you have difficulty in being raised most of the time. Plus protection from 'alignment' protects against most of the spells you mention, only a first level spell. I think that pushes him back out of the +2 category again

(not to mention banishment and the like )

 

[psyronin]

Hmm, githyanki are not outsiders, just extraplanar humanoids. Oh well.

 

[shilsen]

And cant be targeted by friendly such spells either. Such as enlarge person and the like, which is a big hit in 3.5.

Not necessarily. As long as the gith(yanki/zerai) lowers SR at the right time, it's not a problem.

 

[Thanee]

He was speaking of the outsiders not being affected by spells that target persons. Altho Githyanki are not outsiders, but it was under that assumption.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Scion]

What are extraplanar humanoids? I know of the native outsiders and such, but what are the rules for these guys? Does 'extraplanar' even do anything? I know adding 'monstrous' to the front of humanoid pretty well kills a ton of things that can be done (as apparently humanoid modifies monstrous, not the other way around, in d&d..lol).

 

[Camarath]

What are extraplanar humanoids?

Text from the SRD.

Extraplanar Subtype: A subtype applied to any creature when it is on a plane other than its native plane. A creature that travels the planes can gain or lose this subtype as it goes from plane to plane. Monster entries assume that encounters with creatures take place on the Material Plane, and every creature whose native plane is not the Material Plane has the extraplanar subtype (but would not have when on its home plane). Every extraplanar creature in this book has a home plane mentioned in its description. Creatures not labeled as extraplanar are natives of the Material Plane, and they gain the extraplanar subtype if they leave the Material Plane. No creature has the extraplanar subtype when it is on a transitive plane, such as the Astral Plane, the Ethereal Plane, and the Plane of Shadow.

 

[Staffan]

What are extraplanar humanoids? I know of the native outsiders and such, but what are the rules for these guys? Does 'extraplanar' even do anything? I know adding 'monstrous' to the front of humanoid pretty well kills a ton of things that can be done (as apparently humanoid modifies monstrous, not the other way around, in d&d..lol).

Extraplanar is a subtype, like Goblinoid, Fire or Evil. The effects were explained by someone else.

Monstrous Humanoid is to Humanoid like Natural Armor is to Armor - a different thing with cosmetic similarities.

 

[Endur]

SR and plane shift 1/day are AWESOME abilities.

SR is very nice for dodging deadly spells. Oops you rolled a 1 on the saving throw vs. Slay Living, well don't worry, you can still make your SR check.

Plane Shift will save your character from death when facing overwhelming odds.

Now, to be truthful, if I wanted to play a Barbarian, I probably wouldn't pick Gith as my race of choice. I'd pick Mountain Giant or Kraken or Red Dragon as my Barbarian race of choice.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

SR and plane shift 1/day are AWESOME abilities.

SR is very nice for dodging deadly spells. Oops you rolled a 1 on the saving throw vs. Slay Living, well don't worry, you can still make your SR check.

Plane Shift will save your character from death when facing overwhelming odds.

Except the weak SR stacked on a weak character level (due to the LA) is never going to save you against a Slay Living. It might save you against a Hold Person cast by a low level Follower or a spell cast from a wand, but that is just about it. Mid and higher level spellcasters sometimes have Spell Penetration, too.

How useful SR will be depends a lot on the style of your DM. It will be near useless if the DM prefers to use one or two powerful opponents instead of mixtures including weak opponents. A single powerful opponent will often have enough HD/levels to automatically cut through any Gith PC SR.