Prepare for the Gith Invasion of Your 5E D&D World

January 25, 2022

Dungeons & Dragons/ Game Master Tips/ Monsters

There are a handful playable race options in fifth edition who are not truly native to the Material Plane. One of these is the gith. When I think about the gith I see them as one of the few races who could easily facilitate a thematic crossover between science fiction and fantasy.

The gith brought what to First Contact?!

Dealing with aliens and abnormal creatures is a common trope of science fiction stories. In 5E D&D the gith — a race split into two distinct paths — reside in Limbo or the Astral Plane. As such in both cases they do not understand many of the ways of life on the Material Plane. This mindset mixed with their bizarre appearance could be all you need to enact the typical first contact scenario, or first meeting of two communities previously without contact with one another. Are they the peaceful githzerai or the more aggressive githyanki?

Very often in these kinds of stories you’ll note how exposure to the new creatures begins with small numbers and they always come in peace and offer gifts. Are these visitors from elsewhere looking to solve a problem or prevent something bad from happening? Then the big question — are they being honest or do they have an ulterior motive? From here it is easy enough to decide if they simply trying to get someone or something specific or is this the precursor for an all out invasion?

If you are playing a gith character in 5E D&D what are the reasons for you being on the Material Plane? Are you or were you part of some kind of mission? How did it go? Are you some kind of sleeper agent waiting for a signal and everything you say and do are simply things to pass the time? With all the time passed since you were left to your own devices combined with all the hardship done with the party, how will you react once your brethren finally send you the signal? Will you betray your old or new brothers in arms or will you be frozen in indecision?

These alien creatures from another dimension can be used in so many great ways. The question is how are you using them in your game as a player or as a Dungeon Master? The inspiration for this idea came from the wonderful WizKids D&D: Githyanki Premium Statue. This statue is absolutely stunning and it will certainly find a beautiful home on our gaming shelf.

If you have a massive statue and a Gith centered campaign why not include the marvelous statue as a game piece at the same time? The statue could be used multiple times if you could include a fight scene in the same location multiple times. But the real kicker is one of the times — maybe the ending — the statue gets animated and is used against the party. The Walking Statue of Waterdeep from Waterdeep: Dragon Heist makes a terrifically appropriate stat block but literally any construct or homebrewed stats can work equally as well.

The awesome Githyanki Premium Statue comes on a heavy 6.5 inch base. You have to try if you want to knock this fella over. If you want an even crazier encounter and you happen to have both the Githyanki Premium Statue and a Walking Statue of Waterdeep thenwhy not have the gith attack, ruin several places and then as desperation draws closer the adventurers gain access to the Walking Statue they can pilot! Now you have the two massive figures fighting like mechs, which is a concept we explore in greater detail in another post and accompanying video discussion here. Check out this beauty and tell them Nerdarchy sent you.

Thanks for reading. Until next time, stay nerdy!

*Featured image — A githyanki astride a red dragon confronts a githzerai as seen in the fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes. This terrific book contains an entire chapter about the gith and their endless war. [Image courtesy Wizards of the Coast]