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.

 

[Parmandur]

Personally I have no issue with the change itself. Seems fine with Gith lore, makes them more resistant to Mind Flayers (and they are supposed to be the Mind Flayer hunters after all).

I do however agree with Merric that its weird to bring this in to an update that has vaunted backwards compatibility so often. This will have some breaks with older things....and I'm not sure why. WOTC has held off on several other changes in the name of backwards compatibility, I don't see why the need to do it here. Its both so minor I couldn't really care much, but also so minor its like "why are you even bothering with changing it and breaking old stuff?"

Honestly, it doesn't "break" anything: from the designer's statements, the impacts on Spell usage were envisioned and intended. Like changes to individual Spells or Class features, changes to a Monster stat block are pretty insignificant to the system itself.

 

[Michael Blackett]

Outside of the Planesape: Torment c RPG, I dont recall the Gith as a playable race outside of 5e. Saying that I think I saw them in the old AD&D2e pdf of the boxed set of Planescape.

Yet here we are, they are playable un BG3 and the 2014e. So, Gith are definitely not in the same category as elf, aberration seems fine, like Illithid or Yuan-Ti.

 

[Stormonu]

Or hold person now simply applies to all 2 legged, two armed one headed races. And Hold monster applies to all aberrations. sucks to be gith or a humanoid monster.

That would also include giants and medusas too, which have a long history of immunity to charm/hold person. Though, I've long wondered why giants weren't just Large/Huge/Gargantuan Humanoids - or honestly Humanoid (Giant).

 

[Stormonu]

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!

Wow, I'd always thought too that penultimate was "bestest of the best" too, not "second to last"

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

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"

At least in kanon, the Gith were the "base material" that the Daelkyr used to form the Mindflayers.

 

[Corinnguard]

That would also include giants and medusas too, which have a long history of immunity to charm/hold person. Though, I've long wondered why giants weren't just Large/Huge/Gargantuan Humanoids - or honestly Humanoid (Giant).

Pathfinder has Giants being Large Humanoids with the Giant subtype.

 

[Worrgrendel]

Wow, I'd always thought too that penultimate was "bestest of the best" too, not "second to last"

Yup! I Googled it and was like “Crap. I’ve been wrong about something pretty much my entire life and society failed to correct me until now.”

 

[Queer Venger]

finally fixed. Thank you wotc.

 

[Staffan]

Isn’t it a D&D lore thing that Psionic power originates from the Far Realm though? I’m far from a D&D lore expert, but I thought that was the case in the assumed setting. I’m pretty sure that was the case in 4e at least.

Certainly wasn't the case in 2e or 3e. If psionics had a tie to any plane back then, it was the Astral, or to individual Mindscapes.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Dragonborn and Lizardfolk into Dragons.

Lizardfolk really don't seem like dragons to me. None of these creature type changes seem beneficial. Not sure what the point is.