by Russ Nicholson
Warriors from the Astral Plane
Githyanki are descended from a humanoid species enslaved by the Illithid thousands of years ago, used as both labor and as a source of food. Led by the legendary Gith, from whom they take their name, they revolted against their psionic overlords made their way to the Astral Plane. In this alien space between the planes, the Githyanki carved out floating citadels from pieces of long dead deities, eventually founding Tu’narath, their capital city built on the corpse of a god.
The githyanki society is a military-minded cultural engine that does its best to make its people warlike and vicious, looking down on all other races and species. They stop their conquests only for two things: to destroy illithid or destroy githzarai. Githzarai are born of the same stock, both having fought for their freedom against the illithid empire but some unknown conflict during the fall of the illithid has led to a hatred between these two descendants of Gith. Their extermination of one another only takes pause to stamp out illithid.
The Lich-Queen’s Subjects
The githyanki are without a pantheon, instead paying homage to the lich-queen, a hungry patron who reigns from her palace on Tu’narath, surrounded by her eunuch warlocks. When one of her subjects becomes too powerful, she calls them to her palace where she can publicly devour their life essence. To deny the lich-queen when summoned is to be branded a traitor by your people and to be hunted across the planes of existence.
by Russ Nicholson
Size. Githyanki are well over six feet tall and weigh between 170 and 190 pounds. Your size is medium.
Ability Score Increase: Your Constitution score increases by 2 and your Intelligence increases by 1.
Age. Githyanki reach physical maturity at the same age as humans and rarely live past 60 years.
Alignment. Githyanki are most often evil, having been raised in a harsh culture of military imperialism, instilled with a feeling of superiority and lack of empathy. Good Githyanki are rare but sometimes occur.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet. In the Astral Plane, Githyanki can move at 120 feet, being used to moving with one’s mind as the guiding muscle.
Language. You speak secret language of Gith. You also speak Draconic and Common. In this setting, you may choose one more language: Drow, Dwarvish, Quaggoth or Gnomish.
Draconic Pact. Your people have had a pact with red dragons since your first days on the Astral Plane. When using your persuasion skill with a red dragon, you have advantage.
Psionic Resistance. You have resistance to psychic damage and have advantage against any saves against mind-control spells or psionic attacks.
Psionic Powers. You know the mage hand cantrip.
At 5th level, you know clairvoyance and can cast it once per day.
At 3rd level, you know the misty step spell and can cast it once per day.
At 7th level you know dimension door and can cast it once per day.
At 5th level, you know the clairvoyance spell and can cast it once per day.
At 9th level you know telekinesis and can cast it once per day.
At 14th level you can cast plane shift once per day.
When you use these powers, Intelligence is your spellcasting ability; you do not need any material components.
Lich-Queen’s Hunger. At 9th level, you must make a wisdom save, DC 15. If you fail, the lich-queen calls you back to Tu’narath so that she can devour your life essence, allowing your power to serve your people. If you refuse her summons, her first subject will be of equal power to you, increasing in power if you should defeat them.
If you succeed, nothing happens. You will make this save at every subsequent level, adding +1 to the DC each time.
by Russ Nicholson
Thank you to everyone who helped with comments, critique and encouragement on G+.
And thanks to the folks at the WotC boards for the added help.
