New Traits for a Classic 'Dungeons & Dragons' Race Leak Online

Dungeons & Dragons players now have a clearer idea of what it will be like to play as a [...]

By Christian Hoffer

githyanki

Dungeons & Dragons players now have a clearer idea of what it will be like to play as a Githyanki.

The Githyanki (a group of elf-like humanoids who live on the Astral Plane) are one of the races that will be featured in Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, a new publication for Dungeons & Dragons. The new book will detail racial traits and features for the Githyanki and several other races, so that players can create a character from that race in an upcoming adventure.

Earlier this week, a Redditor leaked some details from Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, courtesy of a Preview Adventure they recently played at their local store. According to the Redditor, the adventure will allow players to choose between several pre-generated Githyanki or Githzerai characters. While the two races are usually enemies, the adventures pushes both cultures to team up for their mutual benefit.

The adventure itself sounds pretty cool, but one of the big takeaways from the post were a list of racial traits the Githyanki and Githzerai characters had. While most of these won't be surprising to Dungeons & Dragons players (players could probably have guessed a few of these traits by reading the Monster Manual), it does serve as a confirmation as to what sort of abilities PCs will have access to in upcoming adventures.

Keep in mind that these traits are for a pre-generated preview adventure, so it's possible that Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes will have more racial traits not seen below.

Per the Reddit post, the list of Githyanki racial traits include the following:

  • Decadent Mastery: You learn one language of your choice, and you are proficient with one skill or tool of your choice. In the timeless city of Tu'narath, githyanki have bountiful time to master odd bits of knowledge.
  • Martial Prodigy: You are proficient with light and medium armor and with shortswords, longswords, and greatswords.
  • Githyanki 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 misty step spell once with this trait, and you regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. None of these spells require components.

The Githzerai racial traits include the following:

  • Mental Discipline: You have advantage on saving throws against the charmed and frightened conditions. Under the tutelage of monastic masters, githzerai learn to govern their own minds.
  • Githzerai 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 shield 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. None of these spells require components.

Personally, we really like the invisible mage hand ability and think it could make being a rogue a lot of fun. A lot of these abilities could give players an extra edge, assuming they don't mind being otherworldly psionic elf-descended creatures from a strange and inhuman plane.

Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes comes out on May 29th.

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