The Gith Are Now Aberrations in Dungeons & Dragons

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.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I think this changes look cool at first, but folks will find it actually causes more problems both mechanically and lore side then folks think.

Like these are all creatures Slaads previously could infect, now they can't, same with Mindflayers, Gith are now immune to mindflayers. This could end up a major problem, it really should have been playtested.

You don’t think that maybe Mindflayers and Slaadi have been changed?

 

[Hatmatter]

Thats a thing with your ex...

To the topic: 3e had a lot of playable species that were not humanoids.

Aasimar were classified as outsiders. And this meant they were immune to all those humanoid spells. But they also had a level adjustment.

In a later species book, they added the option of playing a lesser variant of those species, that reclassified them as humanoids and removed the level penalty.

In MMotM goblins are humanoids with the fey ancestry. I don't have a problem with those two variants loving side by side. Many goblins are fey. Some goblins are more removed from the feywild and are humanoid with fey ancestry.

Keith baker showed how he would treat gnolls as fiends. I love his take.

Instead of constantly complaining when something changes, he finds an easy solution that makes sense in the world.

Nice response.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

might well point out that Derro, Psi Goblins, and a few other things were already classified as Aberrations in books prior to this announcement.

 

[Gradine]

But RE: the lore, I don’t see why gith being classified as aberrations would get in the way of the “gith hate aberrations” theme. They’re being classified that way because they were altered by aberrant influence, which if anything I would think gives them all the more reason to hate (other) aberrations.

Yeah, what's next, an undead who hunts other undead?

Wait...

 

[Charlaquin]

Wait, does that mean the Psionic Grey Ooze is now the pin ultimate evolution of Halflings?

*Penultimate. It means second-to-last.

 

[Charlaquin]

This is the exact reason but it will not fly with folks who make the argument that X are people too. The same moral issues will continue to apply to any sentient group as a whole.

It is a no win scenario.

You’re not wrong

 

[Remathilis]

That leaves the lore, I like the "gith hate aberrations, especially mind flayers" theme in my camapign's prehistory, so I dislike the change. But this is a me problem, a molehill, not a mountain to die on.

It could be a reflection of self loathing; both species were changed so radically they cannot admit they are different and lash out at other aberrations (especially the ones who did this to them) because they cannot stand what they've become.

Denial ain't just a river in Egypt.

 

[Gradine]

I mean, "aberrations turning humanoids into aberrations" have existed since at least Eberron 3.5 with the Dolgrim and Dolgaunt basically being "goblins and hobgoblins we(big bad aberrations the Daelkyr) messed with to make them more useful"

 

[Mind of tempest]

Wouldn’t any such foreign incursion be indistinguishable from the Far Realm? I mean, for all the inhabitants of the multiverse know, “the Far Realm” might not actually be one realm. I kinda view it as a catch-all term for “not of this multiverse.”

unknown the theme could be very different

This is the exact reason but it will not fly with folks who make the argument that X are people too. The same moral issues will continue to apply to any sentient group as a whole.

It is a no win scenario.

who cares if illifids are people they want to eat and enslave us it is not a moral situation.

I mean, "aberrations turning humanoids into aberrations" have existed since at least Eberron 3.5 with the Dolgrim and Dolgaunt basically being "goblins and hobgoblins we(big bad aberrations the Daelkyr) messed with to make them more useful"

it is more gith do not feel aberrationy you know they are just aliens not something aberration like

 

[Worrgrendel]

*Penultimate. It means second-to-last.

LOL my phone autocorrected and I didn’t notice it but I am now educated on the correct meaning. Oddly enough it’s relevant either way!