Editing Githyanki (section)

=Playable Githyanki=
Given their rather heavy-handed "Always Evil!" setup, it goes without saying that Githyanki have been rather absent from the line-up of PCs. Still, D&D really does have a solid tradition of Monster Adventurers, and so whilst the githzerai get all the press, the Githyanki have been playable since AD&D too.

The first appearance of githyanki PCs was in "A Guide to the Astral Plane", which admitted that rogue githyanki ''are'' a possibility and not all of them fall for Vlaakith's efforts. Their writeup looked like this:
::+1 Dexterity, +1 Intelligence, -1 Wisdom, -1 Charisma
::Racial Maximums of 19 Dex and Int
::Class Restrictions: [[Fighter]], [[Wizard|Mage]], [[Gish]] (Fighter/Mage), [[Psion]]icist
::Astral Movement rate of 96
::Double odds of having psionic wild talents
::Same access to psionic Sciences and Devotions as humans
::Malign Reputation: -2 reaction penalty with Good NPCs, -1 reaction penalty with Neutral NPCs
::Racial Enmity: Githzerai: -8 reaction penalty with Githzerai, stacks with Malign Reputation
::The Lich-Queen Is Watching: Upon hitting 11th level, the PC has Vlaakith CLVII's attention; if they reach 12th level, she senses it and will dispatch several waves of githyanki "retrieval teams", then turn to local resources ([[assassin]]s, etc), not stopping until either she or the githyanki character is dead. Githyanki can choose to deliberately not gain any levels after 11th to avoid her wrath.

==3.5E==
In 3.5, your Githyanki writeup looked like this when it appeared in the Expanded Psionics Handbook:
::+2 Dexterity, +2 Constitution, -2 Wisdom
::Medium
::Base Land Speed 30 feet
::Darkvision 60 feet
::Naturally Psionic: Increase your Psionic Points Pool by +3 psi points.
::Psi-Like Abilities: At 1st level, you can use the Psi-Like Abilities of ''Far Hand'' and ''Psionic Daze'' 3/day each. You also gain the Psi-Like Abilities of ''Concealing Amorpha'' (3/day) at 3rd level, ''Psionic Dimension Door'' (3/day) at 6th level, before finishing with ''Telekinetic Thrust'' (3/day) and ''Psionic Plane Shift'' (1/day) at 9th level.
::Power Resistance: Hit Dice + 5
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Fighter]]
::[[Level Adjustment]]: +2

Polyhedron's writeup was similar, but different: it replaced the Naturally Psionic and Psi-Like Abilities with "Psionics", replacing its psi-like abilities with the spell-like abilities of ''Mage Hand'' (3/day) and ''Daze Humanoid'' (3/day) at 1st level, ''Dimension Door'' (3/day) at 6th level, and both ''Telekinesis'' (3/day) and ''Plane Shift'' (1/day) at 9th level. Likewise, Power Resistance was replace with Spell Resistance (5 + 1 per character level) and they gained the Extraplanar trait, making them vulnerable to Banishment and similar spells when outside of the Astral Plane.

==4E==
Over in 4th edition, although arguably somewhat weaker than many other 4e races due to being in the back of the Monster Manual 1, githyanki were a lot less of a hassle to play with and still surprisingly viable:
::Ability Scores: +2 Constitution, +2 Intelligence
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 6 squares
::Vision: Normal
::Skill Bonuses: +2 History
::Danger Sense: +2 bonus to Initiative checks.
::Githyanki Willpower: +1 to Will defense, +2 to saving throws against Charm effects.
::Racial Power - Telekinetic Leap: Usable 1/Encounter, Move Action, target Self or 1 ally within 10 squares. The target of this power can Fly up to 5 squares; if you use this on an ally, that ally must remain in your line of sight at all times during the effect.

==5E==
In 5th edition, githyanki resurfaced in the September 2017 issue of [[Unearthed Arcana]], with results that were... different to what'd come before, but technically also more of the same.  Weirdly, while both subraces clearly got the shaft in terms of being designed by people who actually cared about the race in question, they're significantly more powerful and in-line with the majority of other 5e PC races compared to their poor, more PC-friendly cousins:
::+2 Strength, +1 Intelligence
::Medium
::Speed 30 feet
::Vision: Normal
::Decadent Mastery: One free language proficiency and one free tool or skill proficiency of your choice.
::Martial Prodigy: Free proficiency with Light and Medium Armor.
::Githyanki Psionics: Mage Hand at-will, Jump 1/day at 3rd level, Misty Step 1/day at 5th level, all keying off of Intelligence.

Gith PCs were used in a teaser adventure previewing ''Mordekainen's Tome of Foes'', letting fans get an early look at the official version. The only real difference for githyanki was that their Martial Prodigy feature now gives them Proficiency in the Shortsword, Longsword and Greatsword, which after all are as thematically tied to their race as the axe & hammer are to [[dwarves]] or the longsword & bow are to [[elves]]. ''Mordekainen's Monsters of the Multiverse'' would give another rewrite, sticking the generic +2/+1 to two stats/+1 to 3 stats boost and changing their floating proficiencies to 1 skill and 1 weapon or tool as well as psychic resistance, but this comes at the cost of their innate armor proficiency.