Gith
Once members of a people who escaped servitude to mind flayers, githyanki split from their cousins, githzerai, and fled to the Astral Plane. In that timeless, silvery realm, githyanki honed their psionic powers and built a great city called Tu’narath. They have since spread throughout the multiverse, starting in outposts outside the Astral Plane, called creches, where time passes and their children can reach adulthood.
Githzerai migrated to the Everchanging Chaos of Limbo after the ancient schism that split their ancestors from their cousins, githyanki. Limbo is a roiling maelstrom of matter and energy, collapsing and reforming without purpose or direction, until a creature exerts deliberate will to stabilize it. Through their potent psionic power, githzerai carved a home for themselves amid the chaos. As the ages passed, githzerai explorers ranged out to other planes and worlds of the multiverse.
Ability Score Increase. You may increase one ability score by 2, and a different ability score by 1. This bonus cannot allow one of your scores to exceed 20.
Age. Gith reach adulthood in their late teens and live for about a century, but gith that reside in the astral plane can live indefinitely.
Size. Gith are taller and leaner than humans, with most a slender 6 feet in height. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Psychic Resilience. You have resistance to psychic damage.
Language. You can speak, read, and write Common and Gith.
Gith Ancestry
The Gith separated into two different groups due to philosophical differences, the Githyanki and the Githzerai. Choose one of the following options to determine the extra abilities you are granted.
Githyanki
Githyanki are a lanky people with skin tones of yellows, greens, and browns, githyanki complement their physical prowess with psionic might, instilled in them by mind flayers and cultivated over eons in the Astral Plane. Now all githyanki can use their psychic bond with that plane to access splinters of knowledge left behind by beings who travel, live, and die among the silver astral clouds. The githyanki plunder countless worlds from the decks of their astral vessels and the backs of red dragons. Feathers, beads, gems, and precious metals decorate their armor and weapons – the legendary silver swords with which they cut through their foes. Since winning their freedom from the illithids, the githyanki have become ruthless conquerors under the rulership of their dread lich-queen.
Alignment. Githyanki tend toward lawful evil. They are aggressive and arrogant, and they remain the faithful servants of their lich-queen.
Astral Knowledge. You can mystically access a reservoir of experiences of entities connected to the Astral Plane. Whenever you finish a long rest, you gain proficiency in one skill of your choice and with one weapon or tool of your choice, as you momentarily project your consciousness into the Astral Plane. These proficiencies last until the end of your next long rest.
Githyanki Psionics. You know the Mage Hand cantrip, and the hand is invisible when you cast the cantrip with this trait.
Starting at 3rd level, you can cast the Jump spell with this trait. Starting at 5th level, you can also cast the Misty Step spell with it. Once you cast Jump or Misty Step with this trait, you can’t cast that spell with it again until you finish a long rest. You can also cast either of those spells using any spell slots you have of the appropriate level.
Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells when you cast them with this trait (choose when you select this race). None of these spells require spell components when you cast them with this trait.
Psychic Resilience. You have resistance to psychic damage.
Githzerai
Githzerai are generally slender, with speckled skin in shades of yellow, green, or brown. Eons of cultivating their mental powers within the endless chaos of Limbo have imbued githzerai with the ability to shape psionic energy to protect themselves and probe minds. Focused philosophers and austere ascetics, the githzerai pursue lives of rigid order. Lean and muscular, they wear unadorned clothing free of ornamentation, keeping their own counsel and trusting few creatures outside of their own kind. Having turned their backs on their warlike githyanki kin, the githzerai maintain a strict monastic lifestyle, dwelling on islands of order in the vast sea of chaos that is the plane of Limbo.
Alignment. Githzerai tend toward lawful neutral. Their rigorous training in psychic abilities requires an implacable mental discipline.
Mental Discipline. Your innate psychic defenses grant you advantage on saving throws you make to avoid the charmed or frightened effect. If you fail the save anyway, you can use your action to end the condition on yourself.
Additionally, when you are not wearing any armor, you have a +1 bonus to your AC.
Githzerai Psionics. You know the Mage Hand cantrip, and the hand is invisible when you cast the cantrip with this trait.
Starting at 3rd level, you can cast the Shield spell with this trait. Starting at 5th level, you can also cast the Detect Thoughts spell with it. Once you cast Shield or Detect Thoughts with this trait, you can’t cast that spell with it again until you finish a long rest. You can also cast either of those spells using any spell slots you have of the appropriate level.
Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells when you cast them with this trait (choose when you select this race). None of these spells require spell components when you cast them with this trait.