Ancestry: Gith
The warlike Githyanki and the contemplative Githzerai are a sundered people – two cultures that utterly despise one another. The brutal Githyanki are trained from birth as warriors, while the Githzerai hone their minds to a razor’s edge in their hidden fortresses. But before there were Githyanki or Githzerai, these creatures were a single race enslaved by the Illithids, who at the time held an interplanetary empire that stretched across the cosmos. The Gith managed to free themselves, destroying the Illithid's evil empire at large in the process, but philosophical differences led to a bitter internal conflict that split the people in two.
Gith are tall, gaunt creatures with features slightly reminiscent of fish. They have yellow, green, and brown skin tones, and any color of eyes. They complement their physical prowess with psionic might, instilled in them by Illithids and cultivated over eons. Feathers, beads, gems, and precious metals decorate their armor and weapons – the legendary silver swords with which they cut through their foes.
Gith Traits
Ability Score Increase. One ability score of your choice increases by 2, and another by 1, to a maximum of 20.
Age. Gith reach adulthood in their late teens and live for about a century.
Alignment. A Gith's alignment is heavily influenced by which people they originate. Githyanki are aggressive and arrogant, tending toward evil, lawful, and/or chaotic alignments. Githzerai undergo rigorous training in psychic abilities that require an implacable mental discipline, thus tending toward lawful neutral.
Creature Type. You are a Humanoid.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Mental Resilience. You have advantage on saving throws against mental effects.
Gith Psionics. You know the Mage Hand cantrip, and the hand is invisible when you cast the cantrip with this trait. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the Jump spell once with this trait, and you regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. When you reach 5th level, you can cast the Detect Thoughts spell once with this trait, and you regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for these spells. When you cast them with this trait, they don't require components.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Gith.
Heritage: Githyanki
Githyanki split from the Githzerai after philosophical disagreements following their escape from the Illithid Empire and fled to the Cosmos. Among the stars Githyanki honed their psionic powers and built a great city called Tu’narath. They have since spread throughout many worlds, creating small settlements called Creches. Githyanki can use their psychic bond with each other to access splinters of knowledge left behind by beings who travel, live, and die among their people.
Astral Knowledge. You can mystically access a reservoir of experiences of entities connected to the Cosmos. Whenever you finish a long rest, you gain proficiency in one skill of your choice and with one weapon or tool of your choice, selected from the Player’s Handbook, as you momentarily project your consciousness into the collective knowledge of the Cosmos. These proficiencies last until the end of your next long rest.
Martial Prodigy. You are proficient with light and medium armor and with shortswords, longswords, and greatswords.
Heritage: Githzerai
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 in hidden settlements.
Mental Discipline. You have advantage on saving throws against being Charmed or Frightened.
Psionic Attack. As an action, you can make psionic attacks with your mind, which counts as a simple ranged weapon with which you are proficient. Choose one creature you can see within 30 feet of you. Roll a ranged weapon attack, adding your Intelligence modifier to the attack and damage rolls instead of your Strength or Dexterity. On a hit, the target takes 1d4 Psychic damage.