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The Tabletop role-playing game, Dungeons and Dragons has a massive amount of races for players to make use of when making their characters. From well-known elves and dwarves to the lesser-known hippofolk, also known as the Giff.
This guide is all about the mysterious and ruthless race known as the Githyanki that will be making an appearance in the latest video game adapted from the popular D&D franchise, Baldur's Gate 3. The Githyanki are natives from the Astral Plane that were once prisoners of the Mindflayers. Since their liberation, they have become a fearsome force of raiders and warriors. Here's a breakdown of the best Githyanki classes available in the game.
Updated by Chad Thesen on August 19, 2023: This guide has been updated to feature an additional entry, as well as remove any inconsistencies caused by the changes of Early Access. The Early Access of the game was more true to the source material, and changing this for the final release makes races more flexible for class choices.
What Makes The Githyanki Special?
Ability Score Increases
+2 To One And +1 To Another
The Githyanki race originally brought a brilliant balance of physical and mental potential thanks to having bonus values to their Strength and Intelligence which was incredible for builds that make use of both of them. Now you can choose which Ability gets a +2 and which gets a +1.
Proficiencies
Greatsword: You will be able to add your proficiency bonus to all the rolls to hit your targets that involve using a greatsword.
Longsword: You will be able to add your proficiency bonus to all the rolls to hit your targets that involve using a longsword.
Shortsword: You will be able to add your proficiency bonus to all the rolls to hit your targets that involve using a shortsword.
Light Armor: Wearing light armor will not impose a disadvantage on attacks nor will it prevent the ability to cast spells.
Medium Armor: Wearing light armor will not impose a disadvantage on attacks, nor will it prevent the ability to cast spells.
Any One Skill: You get to pick any skill you want to gain proficiency in.
Features
Githyanki will be able to make use of several psionic abilities that mimic certain spells. They can make use of these regardless of the backgrounds and classes you may select for them. These include the following:
- Mage Hand (Obtained at level 1): An invisible hand will appear that the player will be able to make use of to interact with objects at a distance from the caster.
- Jump (Obtained at level 3): For the next 10 turns, the target of this psionic ability will have its jump distance tripled.
- Misty Step (Obtained at level 5): You will be able to teleport to the targeted space, provided that it is unoccupied.
Barbarian: Charge Into The Fray
Githyanki’s psionic abilities will let you easily close the distance between you and your targets before unleashing your savage nature upon them. To utilize the full potential of this class, you will want a background that gives you Athletics.
For your skill proficiencies, you will want to go with animal handling and perception. These are always good, just in case they come up when a more suitable character isn’t able to use them.
- Primary Abilities: Strength and Constitution
- Secondary Abilities: Dexterity and Wisdom
- Dump Abilities: Intelligence and Charisma
- Backgrounds: Outlander or Soldier
- Subclass: Berserker
- Skill Proficiency: Animal Handling and Perception
Fighter: Mind And Muscle United
Githyanki are warriors, it’s in their blood, and they make excellent fighters. Fighter may be the single best class for a Githyanki thanks to the Eldritch Knight subclass. They can use their psionics to effortlessly reposition to be at close range or create distance to cast a spell. Your background should make use of the fact you have high Intelligence, and you can pick up Athletics from being a Fighter.
A good combo would be to take the Sage background and have your Fighter's other skill proficiency be Perception. It’s always great to have an extra set of eyes that might catch something, even if it is a small chance. For this reason, Wisdom beats out Dexterity as a mid-range Ability. You may want this to be the base of how you build Lae'Zel, the one companion option who starts as a Fighter.
- Primary Abilities: Strength and Intelligence
- Secondary Abilities: Constitution and Wisdom
- Dump Abilities: Dexterity and Charisma
- Backgrounds: Sage
- Subclass: Eldritch Knight
- Skill Proficiency: Athletics and Perception
- Githyanki Skill Proficiency: One Intelligence skill you don't have (Nature, Religion, or Investigation)
Wizard: More Like Escape Artist
Githyanki makes being a wizard a great kick-up in the survivability department. Their proficiency in Medium Armor with some points in Constitution makes them a hard Wizard to take out of the fight compared to much glassier builds, even while still using early low-level spells. If something does blow past your frontline and closes the distance between the two of you, you no longer need to waste a spell slot to get out of there.
Your Misty Step is a cantrip as a Githyanki, allowing you to pop to the high ground or behind another character to safety. For your subclass, go with Evocation for a very strong influence of control on the field while being able to help with the best damage output for the party when the need arises. All of this makes the Ability Score Improvement to strength not even that big of a deal.
- Primary Abilities: Intelligence and Constitution
- Secondary Abilities: Dexterity and Wisdom
- Dump Abilities: Strength and Charisma
- Backgrounds: Sage
- Subclass: Evocation School
- Skill Proficiency: Religion and Investigation
- Githyanki Skill Proficiency: Use this to acquire the one outstanding Intelligence skill you don't yet have, Nature. This will help you deal with any Intelligence skills that the game may throw your way.
Rogue: From The Magic Shadows
The Arcane Trickster Rogue will put an Ability Point increase in Intelligence to good work, and the extra proficiency from the Githyanki race means this character really fills out anything the group is missing. A really nice touch is making use of the Rogue's Expertise feature to make this character excel at things it normally would not be able to.
It is a real shame the Githyanki race's other Ability Score increase was for Strength and not Dexterity, but with it changed to your choice, it is now possibly one of the best subclasses for them. For their background, go with Sage to cover some Intelligence skills that may come your way. Being able to disable both physical traps with your thieves' tools and magical ones with proficiency in Arcane will make you a trap-disarming savant.
- Primary Abilities: Dexterity and Intelligence
- Secondary Abilities: Constitution and Wisdom
- Dump Abilities: Strength and Charisma
- Backgrounds: Sage
- Subclass: Arcane Trickster
- Skill Proficiency: Stealth, Sleight of Hand, Acrobatics, and Intelligence Skills.
Cleric: All-Knowing Healer
Githyanki is a perfect racial option for a Knowledge Domain Cleric. Clerics already make use of Strength as one of their primary Ability Scores, and the other Ability increase can go to Intelligence to give them a bump up whenever they roll for one of their Intelligence skills. You will want to go with the Solider Background for your Cleric. This is because Soldier will give you proficiency in Athletics and allow you to pick up more Inspiration than other Backgrounds.
These are two skills that will be beyond useful. As a Cleric, you can take Religion and History, and since your domain is knowledge, you can take Arcane and Nature to round off covering almost every Intelligence skill in the game, making you the Bookworm of the group to discover many of the secrets the game may be hiding from you. You are also a Healer and bring some Strength to mix. Finally, use your Githyanki Proficiency to take Investigate. You now know 'all' the Intelligence skills in the game, and the game will actively struggle to keep anything hidden from you.
- Primary Abilities: Strength and Intelligence
- Secondary Abilities: Wisdom and Constitution
- Dump Abilities: Dexterity and Charisma
- Backgrounds: Sailor
- Subclass: Knowledge Domain
- Skill Proficiency: Religion, History, Arcane, and Nature.
- Githyanki Skill Proficiency: Investigate
Sorcerer: A Natural Born Nuker
Sorcerers are known to let loose powerful spells that can just decimate entire groups of enemies. They are a rather glassy choice, but the Githyanki race has them covered by providing them with Medium Armour and some psionics to get out of trouble. This greatly brings up their survivability. Just like with being a Wizard, you will want to reposition your Sorcerer behind tankier frontliners.
Githyanki psionics also means they can escape danger without expending one of their valuable spell slots. A Sorcer that is harder to kill means a lot more damage output and even ending an encounter before anyone can go down.
- Primary Abilities: Charisma and Constitution
- Secondary Abilities: Wisdom and Dexterity
- Dump Abilities: Strength and Intelligence
- Backgrounds: Charlatan
- Subclass: Draconic Bloodline
- Skill Proficiency: Persuasion and Intimidation
Paladin: Suboptimal All-Rounder
For those of you looking to try something unorthodox, this might be something to consider. You are by no means putting yourself at a disadvantage, as Paladins will get a nice boost from an Ability increase of +2 to their Strength. Your psionic abilities are also useful, just like a Barbarian Githyanki. Your increased Jump will let you get to high places a Paladin normally could not get to, and Misty Step lets you put yourself between an enemy and an ally to be their savior. Overall, Githyank brings a lot of fun new tweaks to being a Paladin.
You're going to want to go with Soldier for this one as well, granting you proficiency in Athletics and Intimidation. You will also want to pick up Persuasion as one of your proficiencies. As for your Githyanki Proficiency, you will want to take Deception. This means you can cover any social situation. A Guard might be much bigger than you, and you would have a hard time manipulating such a high-difficulty character with Intimidate. They also hate outsiders, so Persuasion is equally hard, but if you have Deception, you can trick them into leaving their post. Being able to cover any social situation in the game will open up a lot of opportunities for you.
- Primary Abilities: Strength and Charisma
- Secondary Abilities: Constitution and Dexterity
- Dump Abilities: Intelligence and Wisdom
- Backgrounds: Soldier
- Subclass: Any
- Skill Proficiency: Persuasion and any other one
- Githyanki Skill Proficiency: Deception
Warzard: The Magic Tank (Multiclass)
This is the first Mutliclass on the list and will optimize everything about the Githyanki. Taking a first level in fighter will give you everything you need to be a solid melee frontliner. You will have Heavy Armour, a fighting style, high Strength, and martial weapons. Now every other level, you just sink into Wizard. This lets you get all the way to a 6th-level spell slot, while Eldritch Knight will cap at a measly 2nd-level spell slot.
This class will significantly ramp up your control on the field while also having very high AC to stick around longer than any other Wizard. Level 11 and level 12 wizards have the same number of spell slots, and they only miss out on gaining a third feat. However, you could consider everything the fighter gives this multiclass as an extra powerful feat on its own.
- Primary Abilities: Strength and Intelligence
- Secondary Abilities: Constitution and Dexterity
- Dump Abilities: Wisdom and Charisma
- Backgrounds: Sage
- Subclass: Evocation School
- Skill Proficiency: Athletics and Acrobatics
- Githyanki Proficiency: Any Intelligence skill you don't have.
High Librarian: Omniscience Unleashed (Multiclass)
A Knowledge Domain cleric can be completely reimagined thanks to multiclassing with a Wizard. This allows it to keep using a high Intelligence Ability to clear Intelligence skills with ease, but now also gives them full access to the Wizard spell list and a Spell Book to keep them all in. This creates a ton of versatility thanks to spells they would normally not have access to. Both the Cleric and Wizard have access to the same number of spell slots of their respective levels, but level 11 and level 12 have the same total number for both of them.
Clerics get their Divine Domain at level 1, so this allows Wizards to multiclass and still have access to a 6th-level spell slot. You are basically trading your third feat for 3 additional cantrips, 2 additional first-level spell slots, access to a larger pool of prepared spells, a larger amount of hit points, proficiency in medium armor and shields, 2 skill proficiencies, and Expertise in both those skills. That is very good value, especially since it all comes together at level 2. Taking spells from the Cleric list that don't require rolling for Wisdom means you can dump the stat and still perform well.
- Primary Abilities: Strength and Intelligence
- Secondary Abilities: Constitution and Dexterity
- Dump Abilities: Wisdom and Charisma
- Backgrounds: Sage
- Subclass: Evocation School
- Knowledge Domain Proficiencies: Nature and Arcane
- Class Proficiencies: Investigation and Religion
- Githyanki Proficiency: Athletics