Monster Manual IV and the Githyanki Psion

[Dark Psion]

OK, let's look at this in a different way;

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Monster Manual IV revisits several monster races that are very much "monsters with traction", to use the phrase from the WotC web article of several months ago. These races are the Drow, Githyanki, Gnoll, Lizardfolk, Ogre, Orc, and Yuan-Ti, and form the core of many D&D campaigns.

Now imagine these as specific threats;

Drow: Arcane threat due to their innate magics and spell resistance
Gnoll: Warrior threat due their sheer toughness and annoying laughter
Yuan-Ti: Divine threat as followers of a snake cult
Lizardfolk: Stealth threat due to their use of water and swamps for battles
Orc: Pastry threat due their need for pies

The Githyanki could be presented as a Psionic threat with alien powers of the mind. On one hand, they provide an "unknown" factor in a game that has yet to use psionics. On the other, they give Psionic PCs a chance to shine and get some rare Psionic Swag! It would provide an opportunity to introduce psionics into a campaign, but not a requirement that you must.

 

[Kishin]

As someone who does use psionics in his games, and has so since started with the Complete Psionics Handbook in 2E (I was young, and foolish. Oh so foolish.), I certainly wouldn't be adverse to Wizards providing more psionic content. In fact, I welcome it. I do feel, however, that the psionics side of this argument are almost overinflating the significance of psionics as they pertain to the Githyanki: The entire race isn't comprised of psions and psychic warriors (and ardents and lurks and so on and so forth) Githyanki gish (for example) as just as iconic (so much so that they spawned the term we know use to refer to all fighter/caster hybrids) as the psionic element of the race.

 

[GQuail]

I think the much better justification for having psionic githyanki in the MM4 is that at this point, there is almost no excuse for not knowing the psionics rules. They are available for free online. They are being GIVEN away.

As Vocenoctum says, the SRD isn't necesarilly something every D&D player knows about: my group do, and the use it online when they look up stuff at home, but I suspect there are plenty of D&D players and even GMs who aren't that knowledge about it. And even then, it's still a non-core book that loads of players aren't using: so whereas the Ninja needs a paragraph to get inserted, I'm supposed to sift through the SRD to make this page work?

Plenty of GMs would still find a Psionic Warrior Githyanki statted up in MM4 pretty useless to them: but if a sidebar or something said, "You can go to this website to download the rules to use him fully", that might be more acceptable, though I dunno if WotC really want to attract attention to the SRD as a "free rulebook" rather than a "developer tool": they certainly downplayed the OGC nature of UA for that reason.

But as MerricB said, I think sticking to other classes in the book itself and having Psionic/Incarnum/<insert favoured optional rules system here> NPCs in a web supplement would be a better bet. Hell, that way you get your psionic NPCs for free! ;-)

 

[pawsplay]

Not every psionic race favors psionic classes. Githyanki are known for the lich-queen and fighter-mages, not their psions. Elves have a Dex bonus, yet do not favor the rogue class; dwarves have a high Con but are rarely barbarians; half-orcs have darkvision, yet do not have a completely underground-adapted society; lizardmen are hardy warriors, but their favored class is druid.

One-note races and types are not very useful or interesting. Also, it's worth keeping in mind that the githyanki were once slaves of the illithid, and probably regard psionics as the tools of slavers. Which does not mean they are not useful, just that they are not a favored tool.

 

[GQuail]

it's worth keeping in mind that the githyanki were once slaves of the illithid, and probably regard psionics as the tools of slavers. Which does not mean they are not useful, just that they are not a favored tool.

That's an interesting interpretation that I was far, far too stupid to come up with myself: but fully intend to use, anyway. Thanks!

 

[Vocenoctum]

As Vocenoctum says, the SRD isn't necesarilly something every D&D player knows about: my group do, and the use it online when they look up stuff at home, but I suspect there are plenty of D&D players and even GMs who aren't that knowledge about it. And even then, it's still a non-core book that loads of players aren't using: so whereas the Ninja needs a paragraph to get inserted, I'm supposed to sift through the SRD to make this page work?

Moreso, if you think about it, is that the psionics rules are an entirely alternate system that you have to learn to use any of, so not only must you find the rules, but youhave to learn them if you want to use them.

Aside from that, Psionics is a polarizing issue for a lot of people I think. People that don't like Psionics are more likely to complain about it then just ignore it, at least from what I've seen.