Do Githzerai lay eggs?

[kilamanjaro]

I'm not sure where the original source for 'yanki laying eggs is. I know the Guide to the Astral Plane mentions it, but it seems like I first read it in the Dark Sun adventure Black Spine. I know it was implied that their breeding cycle was a result of Illithid intervention, for unknown reasons.

 

[S'mon]

Except 1e explicitily stated kobolds had scales...

So? Ain't you never seen a mammal with scales? Gygax sez they're mammals, good enough for me (they're scaly cuz they're implike).

 

[Gez]

D&D proudly features a number of mammalian reptiles, or reptilian mammals.

 

[wingsandsword]

*boggle*

Where the heck was that at? I've never seen that in any of the 2e stuff I've read (and I'm probably spoiled in only having gone back to look at the best of that edition) and any undead I've ever used, be they evil, neutral, or good are still a product of negative energy.

Monstrous Manual, Mummy entry (Page 261).
"On occasion, perhaps due to powerful evil magic or perhaps because the individual was so greedy in life that he refuses to give up his treasure, the spirit of the mummified person will not die, buttaps into energy from the Positive Material Plane and is transformed into an undead horror"

"Because of their magical properties, mummies exist on boththe Prime and Positive Material Planes".

Van Richten's Guide to the Ancient Dead (Page 8)
"The ancient dead are unique among the undead in that the appear to have a positive-energy component. This does not mean that the ancient dead are good - far from it. Rather they have at their disposal an alien power that is disruptive and inimical to life. Positive Energy might also be the source of the ancient dead's most dreaded attack, mummy rot." (the passage continues on for over a page giving explanations on how all a mummies powers come from Positive Energy as opposed to Negative Energy).

Sometimes there are entries in a monsters "Ecology" entries, like Githyanki eggs or Positive Energy Mummies, where you just have to go "No, I'm the DM, and that's stupid" and move on.

 

[Darkness]

Sometimes there are entries in a monsters "Ecology" entries, like Githyanki eggs or Positive Energy Mummies, where you just have to go "No, I'm the DM, and that's stupid" and move on.

Concur. This includes some MM creatures in their entirety (mimic, rust monster, ethereal filcher, digester...).

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

I don't buy egg-laying Gith. I don't think anything with the creature type of Humanoid should lay eggs, honestly. (Monstrous Humanoids are fair game-- hence, I reclassify Kobolds to allow it.)

Hmm, well, then count me in as someone who is ignoring the whole "laying eggs" thing. As far as I'm concerned, the Githyanki and Githzerai are a human subrace, and give birth live. Although the idea of Githzerai laying eggs may come up if my game goes planar again, as a nice "clueless berk" bit, right before a Githzerai kicks someone in the head for thinking it.

Do they have the subtype Human in your games, as well? I give them their own subtype (Gith) and a common language.

 

[Khayman]

Kinda makes you wonder about all those half-dragons out there, doesn't it?

Not to mention all those poor egg-laying sorcerers...

 

[wingsandsword]

Do they have the subtype Human in your games, as well? I give them their own subtype (Gith) and a common language.

Since it's a tiny rules point that never really becomes relevant, I haven't dealt with it ever, and don't expect to. The 3.5 MM makes a point that Githyanki and Githzerai speak their own languages, but they are closely related and could be mutually intelligible with some effort (which they virtually never do), and given common ancestry but centuries of divergence makes complete sense.

 

[Alzrius]

Githyanki definitely lay eggs, and this may have to do with faint traces of red dragon blood. Or with the insectile Giths of Athas.

The gith of Athas aren't insectile, though they're lanky bodies can be likened to that. However, Athasian gith are the result of the githyanki/githzerai precursors fighting (either against each other, or mind flayers, not sure which but I think it's the former), and becoming trapped on Athas. They've had nothing to do with githyanki proper for a long while (Black Spine notwithstanding).

 

[Alzrius]

Monstrous Manual, Mummy entry (Page 261).
"On occasion, perhaps due to powerful evil magic or perhaps because the individual was so greedy in life that he refuses to give up his treasure, the spirit of the mummified person will not die, buttaps into energy from the Positive Material Plane and is transformed into an undead horror"

"Because of their magical properties, mummies exist on boththe Prime and Positive Material Planes".

Van Richten's Guide to the Ancient Dead (Page 8)
"The ancient dead are unique among the undead in that the appear to have a positive-energy component. This does not mean that the ancient dead are good - far from it. Rather they have at their disposal an alien power that is disruptive and inimical to life. Positive Energy might also be the source of the ancient dead's most dreaded attack, mummy rot." (the passage continues on for over a page giving explanations on how all a mummies powers come from Positive Energy as opposed to Negative Energy).

Sometimes there are entries in a monsters "Ecology" entries, like Githyanki eggs or Positive Energy Mummies, where you just have to go "No, I'm the DM, and that's stupid" and move on.

To the best of my knowledge though, there have been no 3(.5)E sources that say mummies use positive energy, and plenty of inferences that they're negative energy creatures.

For one thing, mummies are still healed by negative energy, and harmed by positive energy. Likewise, we have a sort of "positive energy undead" with the Deathless type, and the mummies don't exhibit any qualities of that.

For more on this topic, check out Mongoose Publishing's The Slayer's Guide to Undead, written by (Jon Creffield and) Gary Gygax himself (or in this case, Zagig the Mad Archmage himself), where he comes down pretty hard against the idea of positive energy mummies (the sidebar on page 47).