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.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Thinking about the above of any instance where being an aberration would have mattered the only one I can think of is things like a vampire's charm ability. It calls out that it works only on humanoids so I would likely just house rule the text or accept that aberrations can't be charmed that way. Much like elves can't be magically put to sleep it's a nice benefit that almost never matters. Of course we also haven't seen the rules for vampires and the like yet so it could change.

But what's the reason for that difference? Just that one is a PC and the other isn't? I think it's entirely fair to not see that as good enough.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Generally, and IMHO, game rules are not strictly the physics of the game world. The status of "PC" is not an in-world thing, it is a meta-game concern. No amount of in-world investigation will reveal the status of "PC". It exists to help us real-world people manage the fact that this is a game and activity of humans around a table.

I am currently running a D&D campaign. There are four players at the table. If one of them happened to be Githyanki, there's only one Githyanki PC in the entire universe. The Gith NPC doesn't know that some are not immune, because that non-immune Githyanki is UNIQUE. There is not some small but statistically relevant population of PCs out there in the universe that the NPC could have encountered or heard about before - there's just the four in the entire universe, only one of whom is githyanki!




Well, there is only a narrative difference if the difference appears in the narrative generated by play. In play, has someone actually tried to cast Charm Person on both a PC and NPC Githyanki? No? Then that's no narrative difference.

There may be a rules difference. As above, those differences exist because we are playing a game, and that activity calls for some deviation from strict simulation of a world.

Plus... we are effectively comparing the 2014 Githyanki playable race to... nothing. We don't have the 2024 playable race, if one will ever exist. We are assuming they won't have the equivalent of "Elven Ancestry", which might largely eliminate the issue.

The issue is how much deviance from strict simulation is needed. You and I clearly have different lines there, so just saying this is how it is only applies to you and your game, not anyone or anything else.

I know I'm supposed to assume that, but your language really seems to be trying to generalize your personal opinion on this issue, and I just don't agree.

 

[Umbran]

And yet WotC themselves seem to want to make a big deal out it in their marketing materials. How can you expect those following their every move not to do the same?

Heavens forfend we ask folks to engage critical thinking skills beyond the rules themselves, and into the market and marketing context!

 

[AlViking]

I think it's kind of fascinating that as per the new MM, a goblin PC (increasingly common across 5E as a whole, even if not in your or my game) would be definitely immune to that stuff.

Elves not being subject to ghoul paralysis has come up for me more often than them not being able to Sleep'd in 5E I note, and that's not even in the PC stat block, that's in the monster stat block! I don't think I've seen Sleep cast on PCs at all in 5E.

Goblins in my campaigns can either come from the feywild or have been on the prime material for generations. If I have PC goblins they come from the second group. I'm really not worried about it until if and when we get rules for gith or goblin species as a playable race. Until then if it mattered I'd use the legacy rules and if anyone cares come up with an in-world explanation.

 

[Umbran]

The issue is how much deviance from strict simulation is needed.

I think that way of putting it is loaded.

If you replace "needed" with "desirable", "useful for purpose X", "tolerable" or something similar, it is more likely a tractable discussion about subjective bits. I feel "need" in this context has less-than-constructive connotations or assumptions I'm not going to engage with.

Each game is going to have some choices that will impact various potential uses of the game. Designers get to make those choices, for their own various reasons.

You and I clearly have different lines there, so just saying this is how it is only applies to you and your game, not anyone or anything else.

It is almost like I should have started with a statement to that effect. OH, WAIT! I DID!

"Generally, and IMHO...," first words of the post.

So, please take your suggestions that this was anything other than a personal perspective, and stick it in a compost bin. Thanks much.

 

[Teemu]

They already explained what the in-world logic for the humanoid vs aberration gith is. The gith who've spent most of their lives away from the usual gith home planes can be humanoid. So, Lae'zel from BG3 has lived the majority of her life on the Material Plane, hence gith like her would be humanoid. The same logic applies to the other creatures who were largely humanoid in 2014. So goblins who've lived or maybe descend from goblins who've lived on the Material Plane can be humanoid. It's the exact same story reason why elves are humanoid and not fey.

 

[Azzy]

They already explained what the in-world logic for the humanoid vs aberration gith is. The gith who've spent most of their lives away from the usual gith home planes can be humanoid. So, Lae'zel from BG3 has lived the majority of her life on the Material Plane, hence gith like her would be humanoid. The same logic applies to the other creatures who were largely humanoid in 2014. So goblins who've lived or maybe descend from goblins who've lived on the Material Plane can be humanoid. It's the exact same story reason why elves are humanoid and not fey.

And that's an after-the-fact lore reason for the difference. They actual reason is likely because the PC gith were presented as humanoids in MTOF and MPMotM before there was a glimmer of them being aberrations in the 5.24e MM. I'd wager that if Gith were to show up as a PC species for 5.24e, they'll likely be aberrations, too (and then this will no longer be an issue). Until such time, DM can either treat the PC versions as aberrations or the NPC versions as humanoids—however one feels.

 

[Voadam]

They already explained what the in-world logic for the humanoid vs aberration gith is. The gith who've spent most of their lives away from the usual gith home planes can be humanoid. So, Lae'zel from BG3 has lived the majority of her life on the Material Plane, hence gith like her would be humanoid. The same logic applies to the other creatures who were largely humanoid in 2014. So goblins who've lived or maybe descend from goblins who've lived on the Material Plane can be humanoid. It's the exact same story reason why elves are humanoid and not fey.

But the gith on Faerun were modified by Illithids just like the Gith on the Astral or Limbo. It is not their growing up in the Astral or Limbo that makes them aberrations but the Far Realms illithid modification connection, correct?

It is not like if a human had a background of growing up in Sigil they would no longer be humanoid, is it?

 

[Umbran]

... but that's not what @Ruin Explorer is saying, they're insulting anyone else's opinion if it differs.

[b}Mod Note:[/b]
Is the title of this thread, "Ruin Explorer is now an aberration in D&D"? No?

Then why are you making this about Ruin Explorer, rather than gith?

Next time you think someone is insulting folks, report it and allow us to deal with it... like we did in this case.

 

[dave2008]

But the gith on Faerun were modified by Illithids just like the Gith on the Astral or Limbo. It is not their growing up in the Astral or Limbo that makes them aberrations but the Far Realms illithid modification connection, correct?

It is not like if a human had a background of growing up in Sigil they would no longer be humanoid, is it?

It is separation from the source that is important. So elves have been away from the Feywild so long they are no longer Fey. Humanoid Gith have been influenced by other forces enough that the Far Realm influence has been diminished enough or eliminated and they are no longer are aberrations. Personally I would make all Gith Aberrations or Humanoids, but that is the company line currently.