The Githyanki and PF Class Selection


Conversions


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I'm planning an upcoming Incursion campaign, and I'm trying to decide what PC classes I'll have available for the githyanki.

Here's what carries over from 3.5:
Barbarian (rare)
Bard
Fighter
Monk
Ranger
Rogue
Sorcerer
Wizard
Psionic classes (which I'll be using the Dreamscarred PF versions of)
Psion
Psychic Warrior
Soulknife
Wilder

For PF Classes I'll allow the Githyanki to have:
Alchemist (naturally would develop as an alternative to divine healing)
Antipaladin (nice replacement for the Blackguard as the Gith Knight, but changing alignment allowed to any evil, variant code for loyalty to the Githyanki race)
Bloodrager (probably even more on the fringes of society than the barbarian)
Brawler
Cavalier (seems like a good class to go for dragon/nightmare riders, perhaps multiclasses with levels in antipaladin)
Investigator (focused on spying and subterfuge
Magus (makes a natural Gish)
Ninja (some have commented that the look of the githyanki sometimes seems to have an Eastern theme to theme, and I like the idea of rogues in tune with the mystical properties of the astral plane. Also, the gityanki could use a ki-user not dependent on Wisdom.)
Samurai (see the explanation for the ninja; plus this class seems to fit the githyanki's proud warrior nature)
Skald
Slayer
Summoner (shapers of astral stuff)

Classes I'm disallowing from githyanki (at least those loyal to the queen):
The various divine casters (oracle, shaman, warpriest)
Gunslinger- I'm not having personal firearms as a technology the githyanki have masterd yet. I think the timeless nature of the astral plane and the Lich Queen's rule would slow down development of nonmagical technologies that don't directly address the githyanki race's needs. Firearms also have a destabilizing effect on elite social classes, so I can see the warrior caste (or even the Lich Queen herself) discouraging the use of firearms.
The more pragmatic reason I'm not giving the githyanki personal firearms is that I want the defending world to have at least one edge on the githyanki (who have dragon minions, flying ships, etc.) Note that I'm not doing this on Golarion but instead a version of FR minus the really high level NPCs.

I'm on the fence about the following classes:
Inquisitor (a divine caster, but one that's been shown not to need a good or even a philosophy, just some kind of cause. For example, look at the Inquisitor of House Thrune in a certain adventure module. The githyankis aren't TOTALLY devoid of divine casters; they have a few tertiary casters- knights/blackguards and rangers. However, allowing inquisitors of the Vaalkith line or the githyanki race as a whole seem to make the Lich Queen's ultimate goals less dramatic.
Witch This wouldn't be a problem except for the vague patron that grants patron spells. I don't think the Lich Queen would be too comfortable with witches in her ranks, lest some conflict of interest. However, the patron is a minor part of witch class, so I'm on the fence.

What do other people think? What do PF classes do you think the githyanki should be allowed to take?


For non-divine healing, you could take a look at Dreamscarred's Vitalist, especially the more aggressive variants. A Battle-Medic Tactician could work quite well, too.


Could the Lich Queen not serve as the patron? (I am not super familiar with Incursion) Patrons are pretty vaguely defined and the Antipaladin is allowed which indicates some level of allegiance to "divine" forces...

But I have always thought of the Witch as the arcane cleric and if clerics are not allowed I would keep it consistent in carrying over to witches. (at least with my understanding of the mechanics... Patrons seem TOO closely aligned with gods, and the iconic witch is hinted that her patron is Desna)


I am planning to run Incursion as well but will replace all the Githyanki with PF Denizens of Leng supplemented by Phrenics from the Dreamscarred psionic bestiaries.


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
What's in the box? wrote:

Could the Lich Queen not serve as the patron? (I am not super familiar with Incursion) Patrons are pretty vaguely defined and the Antipaladin is allowed which indicates some level of allegiance to "divine" forces...

But I have always thought of the Witch as the arcane cleric and if clerics are not allowed I would keep it consistent in carrying over to witches. (at least with my understanding of the mechanics... Patrons seem TOO closely aligned with gods, and the iconic witch is hinted that her patron is Desna)

It's a bit muddled. The lich queen of the githyanki can't directly sponsor clerics or other divine spellcasters yet, and she refuses to tolerate any real divine spellcasters among her race until she can sponsor them directly (by becoming a deity herself). She is in a situation somewhat similar to Razmir without the deception- very, very, inhumanly powerful, but not a real god (yet).

Rangers and blackguards/antipaladins are the exception, since they don't seem to require the same divine source as more powerful divine casters do. (At least in the Incursion interpretation.) The lich queen has blackguards/antipaladins as serving as Knights. But at least one of the Githyanki Knights rebelled at some point and still kept his powers, so this leads me to believe that the Knight's divine powers come from its evil and allegiance to the githyanki race as a whole rather than the queen necessarily.


In Incursion the bards have the ghustil prestige class that serves as the githyanki's healer. Also, check out the Vitalist from Dreamscarred Press here. http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/classes/vitalist

They're psionic healers that maintain a psionic collective amongst a group of creatures. They can use healing powers on the collective (aka network), as well as steal health from other enemies or add bonuses to the collective. I could also see Path of War classes being used, given the githyanki's love of martial styles and combat.


What is Incursion?

I'm currently running this PC as a Direlock (Fear Eater archetype) in a modded version of Pyramid of Shadows via Planescape in a PbP here on these boards.

Note she is a non-psionic from a splinter sect kept away from the rest of githyanki society and trained in anti-magic arts in almost githzerai asceticism.


I checked the list of Witch patrons and one of them is Ancestors. It seems to me that the Githyanki would consider that an acceptable patron.


Witch's patron does not have to be a divine force. A gravewalker witch from Ultimate Magic could fit a githyanki - the spell poppet being imbued with a portion of lich-queen power. Or a regular witch with undead familiar being servant/creation of the lich queen.

Also, there could be a githyanki witch that skirts the patron restriction by having a powerful red dragon as a patron (assuming in your game githyanki still have a pact with red dragons).

Community / Forums / Pathfinder / Pathfinder First Edition / Conversions / The Githyanki and PF Class Selection All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.