Gith
by Prince Phantom
The Gith are a really cool race on multiple fronts. A warrior race of astral monks who sail through space fighting Mindflayers and other aberrations sounds like the best sci-fi action movie ever, it’s just a shame the whole race looks like it has jaundice. Still, if you can ignore that, there’s some really cool stuff here. The Gith are split into two factions, the Githyanki and the Githzerai.
Githyanki
The Githyanki are the more martial focused of the two, so let’s see how well they accomplish that goal.
Astral Knowledge: We get a flexible skill and tool/weapon proficiency that we can swap on a long rest, which is great for being adaptable if you have a general idea of what the next day holds.
Githyanki Psionics: We get an invisible Mage Hand, which I love, along with the Jump and Misty Step spells, both once for free and then later with spell slots. Jump is an underrated traversal tool for low levels before flight becomes more accessible, and Misty Step is great all around.
Psychic Resilience: Resistance to psychic damage won’t come up very often, but if you’re a Bear Totem Barbarian, you now have resistance to every damage type while raging.
The Githyanki don’t get many abilities, but the ones they do get are pretty nice. The spells in particular are a great selection, and will probably be the reason you’d be interested in this race. This isn’t the strongest race, but it’s got some nice stuff that a lot of builds can take advantage of.
Final Rating: 3/5
Githyanki (Legacy)
This is a legacy race and may not be available at all tables. Check with your DM before selecting this option.
The old Githyanki actually has a significant number of differences with the new version that makes it worth going over in detail.
Decadent Mastery: This is the same as the new skill feature, except we can’t change it after a long rest, so what you pick at level 1 is what you have. Still a good feature, just not as good.
Martial Prodigy: The big gain here is light and medium armor proficiency for classes that don’t get those. This is a really big deal for those classes as it provides a massive defensive boost.
Githyanki Psionics: This is the same as the revised version, except we can’t cast the spells using spell slots. Definitely worse, but not by a ton.
The only reason you would choose this over the new version is the armor proficiencies. In the case of wanting those, this is one of the better races that provide them, so I could definitely see a case where this is the best race for some specific builds.
Final Rating: 3/5
Githzerai
Where their Githyanki brethren advertise to focus on martial capabilities, the Githzerai hone their mental capabilities to great effect. I’m not kidding when I say that for some classes this might be the best non-flying, non-feat granting race for them. Let’s see why.
Githzerai Psionics: We get an invisible Mage Hand, THE SHIELD SPELL, and Detect Thoughts. Let’s tackle that elephant in the room first. We get Shield once for free and then we can cast it with spell slots. The Shield spell is the premier defensive option in the entire game, as a +5 to AC for a whole round is unmatched in 5e, but it’s only on the Wizard and Sorcerer lists. It can be hard for some spellcasting classes to dip one of those to get this spell, so getting it through our race is amazing.
Clerics, Druids, Rangers, Paladins, two of the Artificer subclasses, non-Hexblade Warlocks, and Arcane Tricker Rogues all benefit massively from getting Shield here, and this race is an extremely strong selection for any of those classes. Adding Detect Thoughts, a personal favorite spell of mine, and an invisible Mage Hand is just the icing on top.
Mental Discipline: Oh right, we get other features too. Hey, this one’s pretty great also! Advantage on saves versus charm and frighten is amazing, covering a lot of the mental saves you’ll be making over the course of your campaign.
Psychic Resilience: Resistance to Psychic damage won’t come up often, and I really think there are better Psychic-resistant races for Bear Totem Barbarians than this.
For about half the classes in this game, this is easily one of the best options for your character. The Shield spell is just that good, and we get even more cool stuff. I highly recommend you take a look at this race, as the defensive buff it offers is unmatched by any other race.
Final Rating: 5/5
Githzerai (Legacy)
The old Githzerai is strictly worse than the new one. We can’t cast our spells with spell slots and we don’t get psychic resistance. You have no reason to ever select this.
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