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.

 

[Corinnguard]

Meaning it is stuff that other magic can already do.

True, some psionics were simply the psionic equivalent of an arcane or divine spell in previous editions of D&D. This was probably one of the reasons why Pathfinder simply decided to make psionics into just another form of magic instead of giving its' own set of mechanics. But how many spells required you to feel or think a certain way in order to cast them?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

In D&D, mind powers. Telepathy, telekinesis, astral projection. That kind of stuff

But regular magic does all that stuff.

 

[Mind of tempest]

@Mind of tempest, you mentioned earlier that you dislike tying Psionics to the Far Realm, saying that WotC doesn’t do that to the other magic types. But they kind of do. Primal Magic is obviously connected to the Material Plane, Elemental Planes, and Feywild. Divine magic is generally tied to the Upper Planes. And while WotC has focused on the Aberration side of psionics a lot in 5e, that’s not the only source of it (Psi Warrior Fighters, Soul Knife Rogues, Astral Self Monks, the Telepathy and Telekinesis feats, the Kalashtar). The Astral seems to be a source of Psionics like the Far Realm is in base 5e lore. And WotC explained their reason for changing the Gith to Aberrations quite well, IMO. It’s because they want to fold all Humanoid monster stats in 5e into the NPC stat blocks or change their creature type to one that fits better. They explained that they’re specifically tying the Aberration creature type to creatures from or changed by the Far Realm. They decided Aberrations fit better because of the Gith’s lore of being created by the Mind Flayers, probably the most iconic Far Realm Aberrations in D&D.

I also disagree with the notion that a Githyanki would be offended by being called an aberration. They’re an alien people from the Astral Sea that lives on the back of a dead god. They’re extremely xenophobic and have innate psychic powers. They consider themselves better than all the humanoid races and wouldn’t feel a kinship with them, even if they might be distantly related. Not all aberrations are related to the Mind Flayers or are evil (trust a flumph). WotC didn’t turn the Gith into Aberrations to make it okay to kill them on sight, they wouldn’t do that to the Githzerai.

I don’t like the Forgotten Realms style Gods of Magic, but I don’t have anything against the core concept of a Deity of Magic. The execution is more important to me. While I have more of an Eberron approach to religion than the Forgotten Realms (gods not confirmed to exist, belief is the source of divine magic, religions are more nuanced than typical D&D churches and cults), my current world does have a God of Magic that is thought to be the source of all magic. But they’re also not just the token “Magic God,” and are also the god of knowledge, wisdom, enlightenment, dreams, prophecy, and so on. It is thought in this setting that all magic comes from the Astral, the plane of thought where belief, skill, and devotion can shape reality, the domain of the god of magic (well, it’s more like they think the Astral is the half-dead mind of that god. Long story). So in the main religions, Psionics is believed to be the highest form of magic due to its proximity to the Astral, followed by Arcane and Divine, then Primal (impure magic tainted by the material world), and finally Unholy (fiendish and shadow magic that comes from the Archons). They have this “Hierarchy of the Magics” for complicated lore reasons, but to simplify it a bit, the religions are about gaining divine knowledge (Gnosticism) and Dharmic-style enlightenment. The religion doesn’t like the natural world or fiends, so they dislike magic that comes from those sources.

I think Gods of Magic can absolutely work. I just think they have to not only be Gods of Magic (Mystril/Mystra) or just have it tacked on to their portfolio (looking at you Corellon).

I dislike the singular focus makes for bland ideas, primal being three planes and divine being the outer planes helps bulk up the viable concepts.
the far realm being one of several is ideal for me but singular no.

I do not like arcane magic being purely a divine creation as it makes the gods too big and close to Gods as opposed to gods, a divine archmage is fine but not its creator for dnd, and it keeps the clerics humble.

 

[lichmaster]

Yet another reason to completely ignore v2024/2025

 

[Stormonu]

Athas used to have gods according to 4e, but they were killed off by that world's primordials. Arcane Magic on that world was invented by Rajaat the Warbringer, a Pyreen who wanted to return Athas to its' original inhabitants, the Halflings of the Blue Age. It was him who created both Defiling Magic and Preserving Magic.

That was NOT the case in the 2E version (as far as gods go), and that is 4E just attempting to shoehorn everything to its blasted cosmology.

 

[Corinnguard]

That was NOT the case in the 2E version (as far as gods go), and that is 4E just attempting to shoehorn everything to its blasted cosmology.

I am going to need to take a refresher course on Dark Sun 2e. It's been ages.

 

[Stormonu]

I am going to need to take a refresher course on Dark Sun 2e. It's been ages.

Mostly, I enjoy just going with the original box set. I like Dark Sun's past being mysterious and unexplained, something for the DM and group to puzzle out and fill in for themselves. A lot of the reveals in even the original compilation I wasn't fond of, and by the time the 2nd box set came out, I'd pretty much tuned out to the backhistory they were presenting.

 

[Staffan]

I seem to recall that in 2nd edition Dark Sun it was stated that "the gods were dead". Which implies the setting once had gods. You can't be dead if you never existed.

The original Dark Sun boxed set was written in-character and left the question open. I believe it said something like "People definitely worshiped gods in the past, but they don't anymore. No-one knows if they actually existed or not, but if they did they're dead. The sorcerer-kings pretend to be gods but no-one believes them." That's not a direct quote, but it's the gist of it.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Also, it isn't because of the eggs. No one at WoTC even brought up eggs.

The post I referred to brought up the eggs and said that was the reason. So argue with him.

It was because of what was done to them by the Mind Flayers.

That's even more problematic. That's incredibly problematic.

If you can't see how, well jesus wept dude.

 

[Doctor Futurity]

This change seems cool and even possibly appropriate to me. It's only issue is in the way D&D hard codes classifications, such as the humanoid group not being a description of something with two arms, two legs, a torso and a head that walks upright, but rather a group of things subject to hold person spells. So....I guess YMMV on how that impacts you.