The Gith

[Quantumboost]

Githyanki have never been given a playable writeup, not ever. Do you know how many Gith PCs there are? A Lot! More than Doppelganger PCs or even Raptoran PCs, even though Raptorans and Doppelgangers (through "changelings") got a playable writeup!

Seeing as I can only rarely get myself to put in actual work on design projects without prompting, and this is one of those times:

Gith
“There cannot be two skies.”
Despite their massive cultural differences and mutual hatred of each other, the Githyanki and Githzerai are not very different from a biological standpoint. They’re both resistant to psychic powers due to long times slaving under the illithid, and they both have psychic powers of their own. The major divide between them is a shared hatred of each other due to a betrayal in the distant past. Given the potential lifespans of the members of these races, there are likely members who actually participated still alive.

• Medium Size
• 30' movement.
• Humanoid Type (Extraplanar subtype - Githyanki are native to the Astral Plane, and Githzerai are native to Limbo)
• Darkvision 60 ft.
• +2 Dex, +2 Wis
• +2 bonus to Concentration and Spot checks
• Psionics (Sp): Gith with a Wisdom of at least 10 may use mage hand at will as a spell-like ability, with a caster level equal to their character level.
• Spell resistance equal to character level+1.
• +2 bonus to saving throws against mind-affecting effects.
• Favored Classes: Samurai and Gish (for Githyanki), or Monk and Gish (for Githzerai).
• Automatic Languages: Githzerai or Githyanki (as appropriate)
• Bonus Languages: Common, Draconic, Infernal, Githyanki, Githzerai, Slaad, Undercommon

Upcoming: Gish class (probably a Warmagesque caster with swording abilities and blastan majiks. Until then replace "Gish" with Duskblade or Assassin or something), and probably a scaling SLA feat for more psykic powarz.

[CatharzGodfoot]

Why daze? Any why not give mage hand at will?

[PhaedrusXY]

A Paragon class would be nice for these guys, that gives more Psi-like abilities like Inertial Armor, Plane Shift, etc.

[schpeelah]

Erm, there already is one in the Tome pdf.

5.4.2 Progenitor of the Gith

“I’ve spent five years as a slave to brain-eating geniuses, fighting every day in the pits for their amusement,
killing beings culled from dozens of planes. Do you really think this crap impresses me?”

The Illithid are slavers extraordinaire, masters of the mind control and capable of traveling far in their search for slaves. To escape their clutches, one must become a creature as powerful as them, and some do so by absorbing the ambient psionic radiations of their cities and becoming a more than mortal creature. In this way, the Githzerai and Githyanki earned their freedom, and this route is still open to those willing and capable of surrendering their essence in exchange for communion with the Astral Plane.

Prerequisites:
BAB: +4
Race: Human
Special: Must have spent at least five years as a slave in an illithid city.
Hit Die: d8
Class Skills: The Progenitor of Gith’s skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Handle Animal (Cha), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), and Swim (Str).

Skills/Level: 4 + Intelligence Bonus
Base Attack Bonus: Full
Saves: All good

Level
1 Thoughtful Warrior, Endurance of the Mind
2 Ideas Made Form
3 Movement of the Mind
4 Astral Strike
5 Native of the Silver Sky

All of the following are Class Features of the Progenitor of Gith class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Progenitors of Gith gain proficiency in the composite long bow, and gain no armor proficiencies.

Thoughtful Warrior (Sp): At 1st level, a Progenitor gains the ability to cast daze, mage hand, and feather fall at will as a spell-like ability
Endurance of the Mind (Su): A Progenitor has likely been mind blasted and charmed many times in his life. If he is currently the subject of an ongoing effect that allows a Willpower save, he may retest that saving throw every round. Success is treated as if he had passed the initial Willpower save.
Ideas Made Form (Sp): At 2nd level, the Progenitor gains the ability to cast clairaudience/clairvoyance and shatter at will as a spell-like ability
Movement of the Mind (Sp): At 3rd level, the Progenitor gains the ability to cast dimension door at will as a spell-like ability.
Astral Strike (Sp): At 4th level, a Progenitor can cast Telekinesis at will as a spell-like ability.
Native of the Silver Sky (Ex): At 5th level, the energies of the Astral Plane now bolster the physical form of the Progenitor, and he gains becomes an Outsider native to the Astral Plane and he gains Spell Resistance equal to his character level +5, a +4 armor bonus to AC, and the ability to cast plane shift twice a day as a spell-like ability.
If he breeds with a githzerai or githyanki, any offspring will be of that race.

Should be fairly easy to convert.

[Quantumboost]

Daze is in there because the 3.5 Monster Manual Githyanki and Githzerai both get it as part of their Psionics, and it's a low-powered mind-affecting attack. Granted, it could possibly go away and nobody would notice, but I mostly regard it like the RoW Teifling's darkness - a flavor ability from the preexisting version.

As for mage hand at will, I'm a bit hesitant to give them a free hand of the mage from the very start. They do get it at-will from 4th level onward, but that level was fairly arbitrary, and I could be convinced it should come into play earlier. On the other hand, 1/day is probably too little even if it isn't at-will from the start, and daze isn't all that powerful outside of a gith/stabber tag team, so both could definitely be increased to 3/day without problems.

[CatharzGodfoot]

Daze is fucking useless, unlike darkness. It also has nothing whatsoever to do with the gith flavor, as they evolved to avoid and kill mindflayers, not to be like them.

Remember that the progenitor of the gith is effectively a human paragon class, not a gith paragon. Gith paragons probably should be different for githzerai and githyanki, granting abilities like 'silver sword'.

[Quantumboost]

Daze is fucking useless, unlike darkness. It also has nothing whatsoever to do with the gith flavor, as they evolved to avoid and kill mindflayers, not to be like them.

Fair enough.

[Quantumboost]

@Progenitor: Progenitor of the Gith has some stuff that could be good for a Gith to eventually get, mostly because it has stuff that the Core Gith actually do get, but that should definitely go into a sphere-like or scaling feat structure, since a Paragon class for non-template races shouldn't break when entered at level 1.

For instance:
Psionics
Special: You can use feather fall at will as a spell-like ability. This takes the same action that a feather fall spell does.
Level, Benefits
1 Protection from Chaos/Evil/Good/Law
3 Blur
5 Greater Magic Weapon
7 Dimension Door
9 Telekinesis
11 Plane Shift
13 Greater Teleport
15 Mind Blank
17 Foresight
19 Astral Projection

And then the class gets proficiency with racial weapons and Inertial Armor (levels stack with Armored in Life) at 1st level and gives Basic access to the Psionics Sphere at 2nd. Something for 3rd and Advanced access for 4th. It also gets full BAB and either full or partial spellcasting advancement - which depends on whether having those psychic powers 3/day plus standard spellcasting is overpowering. I'm thinking "yes, but not worth more than two and maybe only one caster levels".

[Maxus]

Well, there could be two paragon classes--Yanki and Zerai.

And the flavor quote for the Zerai should be "Damn yankis"

If I remember correctly, the Githyanki are the ordered militaristic ones, right? I'll have to refresh my memory and take a stab at this...

[Quantumboost]

Distilled from the wikipedia article:

The Githyanki are paranoid xenophobes who team up with Red Dragons and live in cities on the astral plane, often built on asteroids which are actually dead gods. They're ruled by a Lich-Queen who lives in their capital city, which is built on a really big goderoid. They hate illithids and githzerai more than they hate most other people. They have warrior-mage types called gish, and also really like stabbing people and shooting them with mind bullets.

The Githzerai live in anarchistic communes in Limbo, and survive there by forcing reality into shape with their minds. They really don't like being enslaved by anybody, which includes being clerics of deities. They really like punching people. They have zerth, which might be the same as gish (like Dak'kon is) or clerics. Possibly both are true.


The big differences between the two mechanically are in their specific psychic powers (both get daze and plane shift, 'Yanki get blur, dimension door, and telekinesis, 'Zerai get feather fall, shatter, and always-on mage armor) some racial bonuses ('Yanki get Con and a Wis penalty, 'Zerai get Wis and an Int penalty), and their favored classes. I probably should've given the 'Yankis their Con bonus instead of Wisdom, fixing that now.

[Maxus]

Words.

I have read your words. Also, I remember some of the Githzerai getting a special soul-sword thing?

I'm convinced sometime there needs to be an official Tome 'Magic Warrior' base class. I was thinking of this the other day...

Hey, Lago (and anyone else who's played Tales of Symphonia 1), what do you think of using Kratos/Zelos as a template for this?

Full BAB, good Fort and Will...Class features could be a mix of attacks which scale weapon damage, direct damage elemental magic (and give a chance to experiment with fixing evocation. I'm thinking about discarding dice rolls and having attacks just do set damage-per-caster level, with higher level spells doing more damage per level), and if one really wanted to wake on it, some healing based on the same stuff as the evocation. Oh, and combining these after a while (SUPAH LIGHTNING BLADE!)

[Quantumboost]

I have read your words. Also, I remember some of the Githzerai getting a special soul-sword thing?

That's the Githyanki. Their elites get a special silver sword that cuts astrally projecting peoples' soul ribbons. So they die.

The Githzerai elites get a special weapon made of Chaos Matter, which they control with their minds. It was usually a glaive-thing in Planescape: Torment, but I'm pretty sure that's just character preference.

I'm convinced sometime there needs to be an official Tome 'Magic Warrior' base class. I was thinking of this the other day...

Hey, Lago (and anyone else who's played Tales of Symphonia 1), what do you think of using Kratos/Zelos as a template for this?

Hells yes.

Full BAB, good Fort and Will...Class features could be a mix of attacks which scale weapon damage, direct damage elemental magic ([...]), and if one really wanted to wake on it, some healing based on the same stuff as the evocation. Oh, and combining these after a while (SUPAH LIGHTNING BLADE!)

Pretty much what I was thinking for the Gish.

[CatharzGodfoot]

I actually liked the idea of making githyanki and githzerai identical at level 0. The only difference I'd keep is favored classes (as you have done).

One of the most important differences in gith philosophy is shown by where they choose to live. Githzerai live in Limbo because it's a place no mind flayer should have reason to go. Githyanki live in the Astral plane because every mind flayer goes there on a regular basis.

Inertial armor for githzerai isn't especially useful. Monks get Armored in Life anyway.

Depending on what direction you choose to take the gish class (Slayer vs. Holocaust Warrior), they should totally get 'psychic feedback'.
Psychic Feedback: Technically speaking, you're psychic rubber and your enemies are glue. Any mind affecting effect that you save against bounces back and hits your enemy. This can range from pointless (charm monster) to deadly (mind blast).

[Maxus]

...

Allright, I'll go make a thread now and put up some ability ideas in it.

[Quantumboost]

Depending on what direction you choose to take the gish class (Slayer vs. Holocaust Warrior), they should totally get 'psychic feedback'.
Psychic Feedback: Technically speaking, you're psychic rubber and your enemies are glue. Any mind affecting effect that you save against bounces back and hits your enemy. This can range from pointless (charm monster) to deadly (mind blast).

Even if we end up going something different than Psychic Slayer, it is the favored class for Gith[yanki|zerai], and Tome favored class means "can take substitution levels" - so that could still be a special option for Yanki/Zerai/Humans/Halfelves. Actually, that option's wide open for adding in racial-specific abilities to the class in general.

[Meikle641]

Know what I never really got? Githyanki are wizards and shit, which is alright, since they do have their Gish and all...so why the hell do they have a penalty to Intelligence?

Same with the Githzerai, they're all about mental toughness and that shit, then they get a Wis penalty. Wat.

Can someone explain this giant frog?

[Username17]

Know what I never really got? Githyanki are wizards and shit, which is alright, since they do have their Gish and all...so why the hell do they have a penalty to Intelligence?

Same with the Githzerai, they're all about mental toughness and that shit, then they get a Wis penalty. Wat.

Can someone explain this giant frog?

Same reason that Tieflings get a Charisma penalty. Because stat modifiers are a really shitty idea and are implemented badly.

-Username17

[PhaedrusXY]

The 3.5 version of the 'zerai got +6 Dex and +2 Wis, along with some other crap I don't remember. They had a LA of +2, which was too high, also. I forget what book that was in... but I played one a few months ago, despite the LA totally nerfing me, just like what was said in the other thread.

[Quantumboost]

Know what I never really got? Githyanki are wizards and shit, which is alright, since they do have their Gish and all...so why the hell do they have a penalty to Intelligence?

Same with the Githzerai, they're all about mental toughness and that shit, then they get a Wis penalty. Wat.

Can someone explain this giant frog?

It's the other way around, at least in the Monster Manual... Githyanki have a Wis penalty, Githzerai have a Int penalty. It's still dumb, just slightly less dumb.

I forget what book that was in... but I played one a few months ago, despite the LA totally nerfing me, just like what was said in the other thread.

The 3.5 Gith* was in the Monster Manual.

[CatharzGodfoot]

The 3.5 version of the 'zerai got +6 Dex and +2 Wis, along with some other crap I don't remember. They had a LA of +2, which was too high, also. I forget what book that was in... but I played one a few months ago, despite the LA totally nerfing me, just like what was said in the other thread.

Ah yes, the same logic that tells us that elves get Str+2, Dex+2, Wis-2, Cha-2.

[PhaedrusXY]

The 3.5 version of the 'zerai got +6 Dex and +2 Wis, along with some other crap I don't remember. They had a LA of +2, which was too high, also. I forget what book that was in... but I played one a few months ago, despite the LA totally nerfing me, just like what was said in the other thread.

Ah yes, the same logic that tells us that elves get Str+2, Dex+2, Wis-2, Cha-2.

I wasn't saying it was good. I was just saying it wasn't as bad as had been previously claimed. At least the guys that are supposed to be monks are getting boosts to stats that help monks, and not penalties.

[Maxus]

Githyanki Paragon
"My pa can whoop any illithid, and I can whoop my pa!"
d10 HD
Good BAB
Good Fort and Will
Proficiency: Martial weapons, Heavy Armor, Shields
4+ Int skill points (Fill in some skills later)

1 Sword of the Silver Sky, Psychic Feedback
2 Psionics
3 Mind Fang, Conduit of the Mind

Sword of the Silver Sky: A Githyanki Paragon has been gifted with a silver longsword or bastard sword infused with the power of the Astral Plane. It's a magic weapon with an enhancement bonus of 1/3 his character level (round up), and the Ghost Touch property, and it's slightly transparent and ripply, appearing solid in some places and nearly invisible in others. If he gains sufficient renown, the crafters in the Githyanki cities will add further properties to it for him, with things like Aberration Bane and any space or time-bending properties he wants--provided he's sufficiently badass (read: high level) to be worthy of them.

Note: It's uncommon, but not unheard to see a weapon other than a sword have these properties. Usually, they're solid-piece slashing or piercing weapons with a definite handle (axes, rapiers, scimitars, etc.). The Gith craftsman say they're still working on spiked chains and flails and the like

Psychic Feedback: Technically speaking, you're psychic rubber and your enemies are glue. Any mind affecting effect that you save against bounces back and hits your enemy. This can range from pointless (charm monster) to deadly (mind blast).

Psionics: The Githyanki Paragon gains the Psionics sphere at Basic Access.

Mind Fang: The Githyanki Paragon can perform a weapon swipe (read: An attack action and can therefore be used to do a full attack) which uses the essence of the Astral inside him and his psionics to create a 'bullet' in space. This does his weapon damage which all applicable bonuses and critical modifiers, and has a 30- foot range increment, unless he's using his special Silver Sword to perform the attack, in which case it's 60-foot range increments.

Conduit of the Mind: The other planar races can make snide remark about how much the Githyanki love their swords all they want. The fact is, the things are incredibly attuned to their masters. When a Githyanki is holding his own personal Sword of the Silver Sky, he has it at Advanced access because the Sword helps him channel his psionic energies more efficiently. Should he ever lose his Silver Sword by any means, it takes another one a month to attune to him. However, any Githyanki whose Sword was lost or broken can expect to be treated like his balls had suddenly fell off; i.e., a total wimp. This lasts until two months after he's got another Sword attuned to him, or until he does something awesome. Whichever comes first.

[Maxus]

Githzerai Paragon
"Damn 'yankis."
d8 HD
Good BAB
Good Reflex and Will
Proficiency: Simple Weapons, Light Armor
6 + Int skill points (Mobility, Stealth, Knowledge, Weird Skills)

1 Honing the Body, Inertial Armor, +1 Wis-based spellcaster/manifester
2 Psionics, Psychic Feedback
3 Honing the Soul, Clear Mind, +1 Wis-based spellcaster/manifester

Honing the Body (Ex): The Githzerai Paragon undergoes rigorous physical training to turn his own body into a weapon. He gains a Slam attack as per the Monk. Should he also get an equivalent ability (say, by taking levels in Monk or taking the Gishzerai options), he now has two Slam attacks, can use them with the Two-Weapon Fighting, and is very happy.

Inertial Armor (Su): As, and stacks with, the Monk's Armored in Life or any other equivalent ability.

Psionics (Sp): The Githzerai Paragon gains the Psionics Sphere at Basic Access.

Psychic Feedback (Su): Technically speaking, you're psychic rubber and your enemies are glue. Any mind affecting effect that you save against bounces back and hits your enemy. This can range from pointless (charm monster) to deadly (mind blast).

Soul of Steel (Su): Steel marks flesh, but flesh does not mark steel. By extensive meditation and cultivation of his mind and psionic talents, the Githzerai Paragon gains an enhancement bonus equal to 1/3 character level (round up) to his Slam attack(s), or to Inertial Armor, and these are now considered to be magic.

Clear Mind (Su): By gaining Psionic Focus (DC 20 Concentration check as a standard action is how I'm handling this), the Githzerai Paragon gains Advanced Access to the Psionics Sphere. Psionic Focus lasts for a number of rounds equal to his Wisdom modifier, but if the Githzerai Paragon takes damage, he immediately attempts a Concentration check DC 8 + Damage taken or loses focus. If he uses one of his Psionics abilites outside of Psionic Focus, it's expended for that day. Also, when he uses Clear Mind, his Special Attack and Special Defense increase by 2.

[Quantumboost]

Random Abilities: Still trying to find some good ones. Anyone have any idea for SLAs and the like? I'm thinking about letting them spend a feat to upgrade Psionics to Advanced access...

Yeah, there should probably be a feat to upgrade or give them the primary SLAs. In fact, if you're only giving it out on one actual level (along with a conditional "your access is one bigger" at the next level), just outright having a scaling feat that gives SLAs would probably be more appropriate than a sphere.

So either:

Psychic Hunter [Monstrous]
You have superhuman fighting powers that come from your brain.
Prerequisite: Must have some form of psychic power. Wild talent background, being a naturally Psionic race, telepathy, whatever.
Benefits: You gain Basic Access to the Psionics Sphere, and whenever you are allowed to select a sphere you may add Psionics to the list of spheres you may select. If you later gain access to the Psionics Sphere from any source, your access increases to Advanced (and if this happens again, Elder).

And the Gith* Paragons would take the feat to upgrade their access. And then a bunch of Psionic Infernal Dalliance Conduits show up and do psychic demon kung fu.

or:

Psychic Hunter [Monstrous]
You have superhuman fighting powers that come from your brain.
Prerequisite: Must have some form of psychic power. Wild talent background, being a naturally Psionic race, telepathy, whatever.
Benefits: As a free action, you can cast feather fall at will as a spell-like ability. This is usable even when it isn't your turn. You may also cast protection from evil or the equivalents for Chaos, Good, and Law 3/day and greater magic weapon 2/day as spell-like abilities.
6 HD: You may cast blur and dimension door 3/day as spell-like abilities.
11 HD: You may cast telekinesis 3/day and plane shift 1/day as spell-like abilities.
16 HD: You are continually under the effects of mind blank. This is a supernatural ability.

And the Paragons just get that as a bonus feat.

[Maxus]

Random Abilities: Still trying to find some good ones. Anyone have any idea for SLAs and the like? I'm thinking about letting them spend a feat to upgrade Psionics to Advanced access...

Psychic Hunter [Monstrous]
You have superhuman fighting powers that come from your brain.
Prerequisite: Must have some form of psychic power. Wild talent background, being a naturally Psionic race, telepathy, whatever.
Benefits: As a free action, you can cast feather fall at will as a spell-like ability. This is usable even when it isn't your turn. You may also cast protection from evil or the equivalents for Chaos, Good, and Law 3/day and greater magic weapon 2/day as spell-like abilities.
6 HD: You may cast blur and dimension door 3/day as spell-like abilities.
11 HD: You may cast telekinesis 3/day and plane shift 1/day as spell-like abilities.
16 HD: You are continually under the effects of mind blank. This is a supernatural ability.

And the Paragons just get that as a bonus feat.

It Works...

I was thinking of making the Githzerai a bit looser and with more variety because they do have the whole line on chaos and all.

I'll sleep on it.