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.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

This is pretty much how I feel about D&D 2024/2025 in general, as if they took D&D and started cutting left and right, tacking on all kinds of stuff and it's all being done by different contractors, not coordinating well... Now we're stuck with an upside-down house.

No. That is a way overstatement. You might just be doing headstands.

We generally play D&D (2e, 3e, and 5e), so we're likely to move to this edition SOON(tm). And what a character could do from the PHB 2024 looks cool, but now 6 months later there are still major changes happening to the new D&D...

Yeah. Because everything is fluid. A book is always just a snapshot of design. At some point you have to print it.

 

[Bae'zel]

So I'm assuming that "Hold Monster" covers all the rest?

That's a few levels higher. I'm kind of confused.

A "Hold Undead" or "Hold Fey" seems like a perfect spell for certain classes.

This may be my first "hack" of 2024 D&D.

 

[Staffan]

I'm not a fan, but mostly because I don't want everything with psionics to be Aberration-based. I mean, yes, weird crap from beyond reality can mess with people's heads and do telekinetics and see things far away and such.

You know who else can do those things? Jedi. And Jedi aren't aberration-based. The default for psionics should not be "slime and tentacles".

 

[Bae'zel]

I'm not a fan, but mostly because I don't want everything with psionics to be Aberration-based. I mean, yes, weird crap from beyond reality can mess with people's heads and do telekinetics and see things far away and such.

You know who else can do those things? Jedi. And Jedi aren't aberration-based. The default for psionics should not be "slime and tentacles".

I mean, D&D can still be considered a toolkit, we’re all free, and encouraged, to hack it and make it our own.

In your campaign setting you can change these things. I know that I certainly will. Gith are still humanoid to me because… well I have reasons.

 

[GMMichael]

As someone who resembles the Gith, I find this offensive.

This is pretty much how I feel about D&D 2024/2025 in general,

C'mon. It's so much easier to type "6e."

Yeah. Because everything is fluid. A book is always just a snapshot of design. At some point you have to print it.

I bet the Dark Souls RPG used this excuse too.

 

[Retros_x]

Its so funny what people are getting mad about. What major problems can this bring? If for some reason you need Gith to be humanoid so they can get enslaved by Slaad or Mindflayers or for any other reason you say in session zero "For all intents and purposes, in this game Gith are considered to be humanoids, not abberrations". Boom easy as that. No need for major homebrewing.

(on a sidenote: Do we have the statblocks for Slaad and Mindflayer already? Maybe they even thought of that and changed their abilites accordingly)

it really should have been playtested.

It wasn't playtested?

 

[Weiley31]

I like the idea that the Goth have developed defenses against mind flayers, but getting your brain sucked is still gonna not be pleasant for them regardless.

 

[AlViking]

Its so funny what people are getting mad about. What major problems can this bring? If for some reason you need Gith to be humanoid so they can get enslaved by Slaad or Mindflayers or for any other reason you say in session zero "For all intents and purposes, in this game Gith are considered to be humanoids, not abberrations". Boom easy as that. No need for major homebrewing.

(on a sidenote: Do we have the statblocks for Slaad and Mindflayer already? Maybe they even thought of that and changed their abilites accordingly)



It wasn't playtested?

It wasn't publicly playtested which doesn't mean it wasn't done for a smaller audience. My prediction is that in a couple of years we'll have forgotten all about how controversial this was.

 

[AlViking]

I mean, D&D can still be considered a toolkit, we’re all free, and encouraged, to hack it and make it our own.

In your campaign setting you can change these things. I know that I certainly will. Gith are still humanoid to me because… well I have reasons.

In the same way orcs are effectively fiends in my game unless like Keith Baker's gnolls they're one of the few that have somehow rejected the control demon that the original orcs had implanted and that the offspring inherit. Orcs have always been a go-to bad guy despite world of warcraft's influence in my games and I've included story arcs about how they are under directed control much like the clones in Star Wars were with order 66. But I've always viewed DnD and especially lore behind it to be up to the GM and group.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

It wasn't publicly playtested which doesn't mean it wasn't done for a smaller audience. My prediction is that in a couple of years we'll have forgotten all about how controversial this was.

Ghat depends on how many problems it creates and how they tie up loose lore ends.