The Gith Are Now Aberrations in Dungeons & Dragons

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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.
 

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Christian Hoffer

Christian Hoffer


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It isn't mindless though? Psionics (to my knowledge) first came in with the Mind Flayer, then monsters like the Thought Eater and other Aberrations. THEN it became a PC ability. The fact of the matter is, psionic monsters have been tied to the Far Realms (Mind Flayers, Aboleths, ect) far more than literally any other location.

Now, if you don't like Aboleths and Mind Flayers and Beholders being Aberrations from the Far Realms, I can get not liking it. But I do like that, it makes them feel like a stranger and more deadly threat, and is an interesting way to work the cosmology.
I think it was more psionics and mindflayers happened at the same time plenty of demons in the first Unearth Arcane also had psionics thus it is not from mindflayers more just all at the time.

the far realm had not been added yet.

I do not dislike aberrations being from the far realm I would prefer why they select for psionic to be unknown as well as its source helps keep some mystery to things, or perhaps a clear connection just unknown how a correlation rather than causation if you will
 

I don't remember that being the case in most D&D. 1e Greyhawk did not talk about Boccob the god of magic creating magic, he was just the Archmage of the Gods, for instance. In Eberron it is not even clear that the gods exist. Dark Sun has no gods.
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.
 

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.
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.
 

I always hated gods of magic in a game where arcane and divine magic are different things and even more so if the god of magic was the source of the arcane.
I can see a god a magic forming but magic should predate them they just stabilise it or make it more accessible
@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).
 



What is psionics?
In D&D, mind powers. Telepathy, telekinesis, astral projection. That kind of stuff.

In my approach and setting, it’s basically lucid dreaming in a fictional world. Realizing your reality is merely the dream of a dead god and using your mind to manipulate the world around you. A weaker version of Neo gaining control of the Matrix or CHIM from the Elder Scrolls.
 


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