Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 9426078" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dungeon/Polyhedron Issue 100/159: July 2003part 8/10Githyanki Characters: Time to finally get to the meaty stuff, with 17 pages of new options for every stage of character creation. The spell-like abilities they get have been slightly nerfed compared to their previous appearances in the psionics handbook and manual of the planes, with clairvoyance completely removed and the others only coming into play when they reach the level that they would be able to cast them anyway as a spellcaster. Despite this, they retain the same ECL+2. If you want to play a Duthka’gith, all those half-dragon bonuses on top of the gith ones put you at ECL+5, which may cause issues at low levels when everyone else has 4HD and you only have 1, even with those con bonuses. While they’re forbidden from worshipping anyone other than the lich-queen, they’re pragmatic enough to hire clerics of other races for extra healing, so that gives you an easy excuse to include all kinds of other evil races in their forces. Any other class is allowed, although monks don’t get much respect due to that skillset being favoured by the githzerai and bards are very rare indeed. In a foreshadowing of the kind of class feature substitution that will become common in 3.5, Duthka’gith sorcerers get to trade their familiar for becoming even more draconic as they level up, reflecting the strength of their bloodline. Blackguard is a very popular prestige class amongst those who can reach high enough level to qualify for it, and they can substitute knowledge (the planes) for religion as a prerequisite. There’s also 5 new prestige classes for high level specialists, all of which can theoretically be qualified for by 6th level so you can have the full 10 levels of it before you reach “retirement” level, but some are much easier than others in terms of multiclassing finickiness.Blackweave Warlocks are necromancy ultra-specialists, becoming very good at killing you and raising your body at the expense of any other kinds of spellcasting. One of those prestige classes that might be good to have around in a straightforward fight, but will probably turn out suboptimal anywhere else compared to a more flexible spellcaster.Ghustil are hr’a’cknir that specialise in converting astral energy into healing. Since they have no divine spellcasters and the timeless nature of the astral plane prevents natural healing as well, this makes them important to githyanki society to a degree well in excess of their rather limited powerset. You probably don’t want to play one as a PC though, unless you don’t mind being overshadowed and mainly a support character.Gish Mindslayers are a depsionicised version of the prestige class in the psionics handbook, since they want to keep everything in here accessible to the core only readers. The special abilities remain the same, but since they now advance your existing spellcasting level rather than having their own independent progression, plus they don’t need a power point reserve for their special powers to keep functioning this version is more powerful.Holocaust Warriors specialise in inflicting large amounts of fiery death, both ranged and with flaming sword. They’re obviously particularly favored amongst the Duthka’gith and anyone else who feels a particular bond with their red dragon companions. Sword Stalkers are the elite guys sent after anyone who gets their hand on a githyanki Silver Sword. With full BAB, all good saves and a decent set of interplanar scrying & tracking powers on top of that, they’re pretty decent, but that top level power is purely theoretical for them unless you can find a core class that has both good BAB and full spellcasting progression. Maybe the Lich-Queen will give special dispensation for a group when the thieves are epic level ones that have already defeated multiple retrieval parties.Finally, we have 14 new feats, most of which are further upgrades on existing feat chains. Even better combat reflexes, disarming, combat casting, the ability to move while casting spells, several ones that upgrade their innate spell-like abilities, upgrading a blackguard’s fiendish servant to a Nightmare mount, being better at severing silver cords, a martial arts style that lets them deflect arrows with their weapon. Most of these play up that gith are mobility and sneakiness based fighters. They work at their best when they’re hitting the enemy from odd angles, sweeping through their ranks, disappearing and then doing it all over again once they let their guard down. Standing there and trading blows is not the way you should be playing them as a DM or player, particularly when they’re trying to take over a world who’s defenders vastly outnumber them. While there are a few suboptimal choices here, at least they’re suboptimal in a way that matches the flavour text.</blockquote>

Verification