Technically, anyone could potentially worship any deity. Are you the player or the GM?
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
This isn't really a mechanical question as the identity of a god who presides over a PC Cleric's domain doesn't have any mechanical ramifications. Nothing mechanically effects a Light Domain Cleric for example, if that Cleric's god is Apollo, Osiris, Fred the Mailman, or Sam the Doberman.
I'm interested in the question though as I've always been inspired to portray both Gith factions as fairly atheistic cultures, saving what ever reverence a mortal would have for a god for their faction's founders, so both societies are to a degree cults of personality. Both civilizations didn't seem to draw upon any divine intercession when they freed themselves from the mind flayers, and the Githzerai I think think of their greatest progenitors not so much as deities to be worship so much as inspiring forebears upon whose contemplation will aid all Githzerai realizing their greatest potential, not drawing upon those forebears powers. It's a distinction.
So given that, if I were a DM working with a player who wanted to play a Githzerai Cleric, I'd probably say mechanically sure they're a cleric, but as far as Githzerai are concerned, their Clerical powers are not a divine gift so much as powers over reality that the Githzerai have unlocked through the teachings of Zerthimon or Zerith. In other words, mechanically and game practically speaking the character is a Cleric, but "in world" they appear and play a role in society like any other Githzerai Monk.
But the Gith peoples and their varied cults and factions occupy a special place in my D&D games so I'm kind of particular as to how they're played.
Also, all the above is presuming, as I think you're OP is asking, that the Githzerai character is reflection of regular Githzerai society. A Githzerai somehow removed from that society could have any number of stories that leads them to be a Cleric in service of any number of gods.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
This isn't really a mechanical question as the identity of a god who presides over a PC Cleric's domain doesn't have any mechanical ramifications. Nothing mechanically effects a Light Domain Cleric for example, if that Cleric's god is Apollo, Osiris, Fred the Mailman, or Sam the Doberman.
This isn't really a mechanical question as the identity of a god who presides over a PC Cleric's domain doesn't have any mechanical ramifications. Nothing mechanically effects a Light Domain Cleric for example, if that Cleric's god is Apollo, Osiris, Fred the Mailman, or Sam the Doberman.
I'm interested in the question though as I've always been inspired to portray both Gith factions as fairly atheistic cultures, saving what ever reverence a mortal would have for a god for their faction's founders, so both societies are to a degree cults of personality. Both civilizations didn't seem to draw upon any divine intercession when they freed themselves from the mind flayers, and the Githzerai I think think of their greatest progenitors not so much as deities to be worship so much as inspiring forebears upon whose contemplation will aid all Githzerai realizing their greatest potential, not drawing upon those forebears powers. It's a distinction.
So given that, if I were a DM working with a player who wanted to play a Githzerai Cleric, I'd probably say mechanically sure they're a cleric, but as far as Githzerai are concerned, their Clerical powers are not a divine gift so much as powers over reality that the Githzerai have unlocked through the teachings of Zerthimon or Zerith. In other words, mechanically and game practically speaking the character is a Cleric, but "in world" they appear and play a role in society like any other Githzerai Monk.
But the Gith peoples and their varied cults and factions occupy a special place in my D&D games so I'm kind of particular as to how they're played.
Also, all the above is presuming, as I think you're OP is asking, that the Githzerai character is reflection of regular Githzerai society. A Githzerai somehow removed from that society could have any number of stories that leads them to be a Cleric in service of any number of gods.
To the first point - I defer to the admins, but Clerics do need deities to cast. So it seemed relevant mechanically.
Your idea is kind of cool, but there are multiple Cleric spells and abilities that specifically involve communing with the deity, worshiping it, or at least acknowledging it as such. (Yes, i know deities don't have to be gods anymore. We've all seen C.R.)
I could always go the route of making this Githzerai an exile who escaped to the "normal" world and then finds some "normal" religion.... but that seemed like such a trope.
Question - what book specifically covers PC Githzerai ?
This isn't really a mechanical question as the identity of a god who presides over a PC Cleric's domain doesn't have any mechanical ramifications. Nothing mechanically effects a Light Domain Cleric for example, if that Cleric's god is Apollo, Osiris, Fred the Mailman, or Sam the Doberman.
This isn't really a mechanical question as the identity of a god who presides over a PC Cleric's domain doesn't have any mechanical ramifications. Nothing mechanically effects a Light Domain Cleric for example, if that Cleric's god is Apollo, Osiris, Fred the Mailman, or Sam the Doberman.
I'm interested in the question though as I've always been inspired to portray both Gith factions as fairly atheistic cultures, saving what ever reverence a mortal would have for a god for their faction's founders, so both societies are to a degree cults of personality. Both civilizations didn't seem to draw upon any divine intercession when they freed themselves from the mind flayers, and the Githzerai I think think of their greatest progenitors not so much as deities to be worship so much as inspiring forebears upon whose contemplation will aid all Githzerai realizing their greatest potential, not drawing upon those forebears powers. It's a distinction.
So given that, if I were a DM working with a player who wanted to play a Githzerai Cleric, I'd probably say mechanically sure they're a cleric, but as far as Githzerai are concerned, their Clerical powers are not a divine gift so much as powers over reality that the Githzerai have unlocked through the teachings of Zerthimon or Zerith. In other words, mechanically and game practically speaking the character is a Cleric, but "in world" they appear and play a role in society like any other Githzerai Monk.
But the Gith peoples and their varied cults and factions occupy a special place in my D&D games so I'm kind of particular as to how they're played.
Also, all the above is presuming, as I think you're OP is asking, that the Githzerai character is reflection of regular Githzerai society. A Githzerai somehow removed from that society could have any number of stories that leads them to be a Cleric in service of any number of gods.
To the first point - I defer to the admins, but Clerics do need deities to cast. So it seemed relevant mechanically.
Your idea is kind of cool, but there are multiple Cleric spells and abilities that specifically involve communing with the deity, worshiping it, or at least acknowledging it as such. (Yes, i know deities don't have to be gods anymore. We've all seen C.R.)
I could always go the route of making this Githzerai an exile who escaped to the "normal" world and then finds some "normal" religion.... but that seemed like such a trope.
Question - what book specifically covers PC Githzerai ?
Thanks.
Technically they can use a force, concept, or belief just as well, at DM's discretion within the setting. A beard in the sky is not mandatory. Unfortunately for Gith lore, the good material is all in Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, which is no longer available for purchase on D&DB. If you don't have it already, you need someone to share it with you, a physical copy of the book, or just look up gith lore on Google.
This isn't really a mechanical question as the identity of a god who presides over a PC Cleric's domain doesn't have any mechanical ramifications. Nothing mechanically effects a Light Domain Cleric for example, if that Cleric's god is Apollo, Osiris, Fred the Mailman, or Sam the Doberman.
This isn't really a mechanical question as the identity of a god who presides over a PC Cleric's domain doesn't have any mechanical ramifications. Nothing mechanically effects a Light Domain Cleric for example, if that Cleric's god is Apollo, Osiris, Fred the Mailman, or Sam the Doberman.
I'm interested in the question though as I've always been inspired to portray both Gith factions as fairly atheistic cultures, saving what ever reverence a mortal would have for a god for their faction's founders, so both societies are to a degree cults of personality. Both civilizations didn't seem to draw upon any divine intercession when they freed themselves from the mind flayers, and the Githzerai I think think of their greatest progenitors not so much as deities to be worship so much as inspiring forebears upon whose contemplation will aid all Githzerai realizing their greatest potential, not drawing upon those forebears powers. It's a distinction.
So given that, if I were a DM working with a player who wanted to play a Githzerai Cleric, I'd probably say mechanically sure they're a cleric, but as far as Githzerai are concerned, their Clerical powers are not a divine gift so much as powers over reality that the Githzerai have unlocked through the teachings of Zerthimon or Zerith. In other words, mechanically and game practically speaking the character is a Cleric, but "in world" they appear and play a role in society like any other Githzerai Monk.
But the Gith peoples and their varied cults and factions occupy a special place in my D&D games so I'm kind of particular as to how they're played.
Also, all the above is presuming, as I think you're OP is asking, that the Githzerai character is reflection of regular Githzerai society. A Githzerai somehow removed from that society could have any number of stories that leads them to be a Cleric in service of any number of gods.
To the first point - I defer to the admins, but Clerics do need deities to cast. So it seemed relevant mechanically.
Your idea is kind of cool, but there are multiple Cleric spells and abilities that specifically involve communing with the deity, worshiping it, or at least acknowledging it as such. (Yes, i know deities don't have to be gods anymore. We've all seen C.R.)
I could always go the route of making this Githzerai an exile who escaped to the "normal" world and then finds some "normal" religion.... but that seemed like such a trope.
Question - what book specifically covers PC Githzerai ?
Thanks.
So to push this thinking forward a bit with your questions. I think a "Cleric" of Zerthimon or Zerith would look at them as not so much a "supreme being" per se so much as examples of a "supreme way of being." At that point the distinction between religiously communing with or philosophically dwelling upon the Githzerai progenitors starts to become kind of semantic, but does stay in line with how I at least regard Githzerai. So as to the spells, and apologies if this sounds bit irreverent to some religious sensibilities, it's not so much channeling the divinity of some divine Gith, but more performing in answer to the "Way of" question "What would Zerith do?" and recognition of the answer to that unlocks "divine like" powers reflective of the teaching and accounts of the actions of Zerith. So spells like Bless or Ceremony, would be the Zerith Cleric touching upon the participants being blessed or undergoing the ceremony and not so much using the power of their god but remarking "As Zerith says..." or "As Zerith was witnessed to." So in some ways your Zerith Cleric is flavored as s sort of a College of Zerith Lore Bard and Way of Zerith Monk, but mechanically operates as a Cleric. Resurrection isn't so much Zerith raising the dead, but the "Cleric" reenacting "Zeriths meditation on mortality through the prism of the diamond" or some other comparable great deed from the annals of Zerith's history. I'm starting to think this is sounding pretty cool, but I'm more Githyanki than Githzerai, so am easily impressed with myself.
In between this idea of Githzerai cleric and a Githzerai who gains religion apart from the Githzerai, a middle ground might be found in where the seat of Githzerai civilization resides. Perhaps there are gods in Limbo, or particularly chaos gods with vested interest in Limbo, or maybe even divinities who wish Limbo be contained. The Githzerai grant these gods a number of their people as tribute, to them and these Githzerai become sort of emissaries for these gods, in their own doing their part to maintain the concentration requiring I'm not going to type it out so let's say Githzerai City be as well as its other fortifications in Limbo. These Githzerai become more like Warlock/Monks but again mechanically work like Clerics. It'd be a pretty big leap from Gith lore I'm familiar with but it seems like it'd ring ok.
As for Gith resources, there's Monsters of the Multiverse, which is a little thing, and pretty much riffs off what's in the Monster Manual. A deeper dive is in Mord's Tome of Foes, though you'll have to dig around FLGSs and online retailers to see if anyone has it in print, or see if someone will give you access to it through shared content here as its no longer supported on DnD Beyond aside from legacy owners. There's an adventure that went with MToF called Rrakkma, which is a mission with pregen Sha'sal Khou operatives (the Sha'sal Khou is a clandestine group of Githyanki and Githzerai plotting for the reunification of their societies) ... and among those pregens is a 9th Level Githzerai Cleric, apparently life domain and no info on their deity ... so that still leaves the questions open ended. I'd say the way the character is written it does seem it's more values oriented than oriented, specifically to traditions, than it is to a particular deity.
EDIT: the best place to really go deep on Gith is frankly, probably prior editions, they haven't done much with them in 5e, besides Rrakkma and the Baldur's Gate video game. Not sure about 3/3.5/4 but I know they come up a fair bit in Planescape (and probably Spelljammer) ... I know there was a Plansescape/Infinite Staircase anthology late in 2e that had an adventure where the party had to help sort out a Githzerai outpost where one of the members came to believe they were the second coming of either Zerith or Gith themself. Probably the best place to start would be the Gith articles in the Forgotten Realms wiki. You may find more than enough there, but if you want more the articles footnotes should point you to the right sources and editions.
Personally I enjoy having lore to consider when designing a PC. Really wish they'd bothered to carry even a fraction of it over to MotM instead of just phoning in one or two brief paragraphs for each race.
If you want divine mechanics in technical Cleric game mechanics, you'll need to homebrew it for Githzerai. Otherwise, flavor the technical game mechanics as you wish. I've never had a Monk that was monastic or Kung Fu, but the mechanics were still there though renamed to brutish fisticuffs.
Githzerai Clerics could be shamans in name but Clerics mechanically. If you must have divine because RaW says it in the description despite the main 3 sources being slathered with play-your-way suggestions, you've backed yourself into a corner.
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Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider. My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong. I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲 “It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
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Mechanically, if a player rolls up a Githzerai Cleric, should they be allowed to take Zerthimon or even Zaerith Menyar-Ag-Gith as their deity?
Deities are pure flavor. Ask your DM.
Technically, anyone could potentially worship any deity. Are you the player or the GM?
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
This isn't really a mechanical question as the identity of a god who presides over a PC Cleric's domain doesn't have any mechanical ramifications. Nothing mechanically effects a Light Domain Cleric for example, if that Cleric's god is Apollo, Osiris, Fred the Mailman, or Sam the Doberman.
I'm interested in the question though as I've always been inspired to portray both Gith factions as fairly atheistic cultures, saving what ever reverence a mortal would have for a god for their faction's founders, so both societies are to a degree cults of personality. Both civilizations didn't seem to draw upon any divine intercession when they freed themselves from the mind flayers, and the Githzerai I think think of their greatest progenitors not so much as deities to be worship so much as inspiring forebears upon whose contemplation will aid all Githzerai realizing their greatest potential, not drawing upon those forebears powers. It's a distinction.
So given that, if I were a DM working with a player who wanted to play a Githzerai Cleric, I'd probably say mechanically sure they're a cleric, but as far as Githzerai are concerned, their Clerical powers are not a divine gift so much as powers over reality that the Githzerai have unlocked through the teachings of Zerthimon or Zerith. In other words, mechanically and game practically speaking the character is a Cleric, but "in world" they appear and play a role in society like any other Githzerai Monk.
But the Gith peoples and their varied cults and factions occupy a special place in my D&D games so I'm kind of particular as to how they're played.
Also, all the above is presuming, as I think you're OP is asking, that the Githzerai character is reflection of regular Githzerai society. A Githzerai somehow removed from that society could have any number of stories that leads them to be a Cleric in service of any number of gods.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
To the first point - I defer to the admins, but Clerics do need deities to cast. So it seemed relevant mechanically.
Your idea is kind of cool, but there are multiple Cleric spells and abilities that specifically involve communing with the deity, worshiping it, or at least acknowledging it as such. (Yes, i know deities don't have to be gods anymore. We've all seen C.R.)
I could always go the route of making this Githzerai an exile who escaped to the "normal" world and then finds some "normal" religion.... but that seemed like such a trope.
Question - what book specifically covers PC Githzerai ?
Thanks.
Technically they can use a force, concept, or belief just as well, at DM's discretion within the setting. A beard in the sky is not mandatory. Unfortunately for Gith lore, the good material is all in Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, which is no longer available for purchase on D&DB. If you don't have it already, you need someone to share it with you, a physical copy of the book, or just look up gith lore on Google.
So to push this thinking forward a bit with your questions. I think a "Cleric" of Zerthimon or Zerith would look at them as not so much a "supreme being" per se so much as examples of a "supreme way of being." At that point the distinction between religiously communing with or philosophically dwelling upon the Githzerai progenitors starts to become kind of semantic, but does stay in line with how I at least regard Githzerai. So as to the spells, and apologies if this sounds bit irreverent to some religious sensibilities, it's not so much channeling the divinity of some divine Gith, but more performing in answer to the "Way of" question "What would Zerith do?" and recognition of the answer to that unlocks "divine like" powers reflective of the teaching and accounts of the actions of Zerith. So spells like Bless or Ceremony, would be the Zerith Cleric touching upon the participants being blessed or undergoing the ceremony and not so much using the power of their god but remarking "As Zerith says..." or "As Zerith was witnessed to." So in some ways your Zerith Cleric is flavored as s sort of a College of Zerith Lore Bard and Way of Zerith Monk, but mechanically operates as a Cleric. Resurrection isn't so much Zerith raising the dead, but the "Cleric" reenacting "Zeriths meditation on mortality through the prism of the diamond" or some other comparable great deed from the annals of Zerith's history. I'm starting to think this is sounding pretty cool, but I'm more Githyanki than Githzerai, so am easily impressed with myself.
In between this idea of Githzerai cleric and a Githzerai who gains religion apart from the Githzerai, a middle ground might be found in where the seat of Githzerai civilization resides. Perhaps there are gods in Limbo, or particularly chaos gods with vested interest in Limbo, or maybe even divinities who wish Limbo be contained. The Githzerai grant these gods a number of their people as tribute, to them and these Githzerai become sort of emissaries for these gods, in their own doing their part to maintain the concentration requiring I'm not going to type it out so let's say Githzerai City be as well as its other fortifications in Limbo. These Githzerai become more like Warlock/Monks but again mechanically work like Clerics. It'd be a pretty big leap from Gith lore I'm familiar with but it seems like it'd ring ok.
As for Gith resources, there's Monsters of the Multiverse, which is a little thing, and pretty much riffs off what's in the Monster Manual. A deeper dive is in Mord's Tome of Foes, though you'll have to dig around FLGSs and online retailers to see if anyone has it in print, or see if someone will give you access to it through shared content here as its no longer supported on DnD Beyond aside from legacy owners. There's an adventure that went with MToF called Rrakkma, which is a mission with pregen Sha'sal Khou operatives (the Sha'sal Khou is a clandestine group of Githyanki and Githzerai plotting for the reunification of their societies) ... and among those pregens is a 9th Level Githzerai Cleric, apparently life domain and no info on their deity ... so that still leaves the questions open ended. I'd say the way the character is written it does seem it's more values oriented than oriented, specifically to traditions, than it is to a particular deity.
EDIT: the best place to really go deep on Gith is frankly, probably prior editions, they haven't done much with them in 5e, besides Rrakkma and the Baldur's Gate video game. Not sure about 3/3.5/4 but I know they come up a fair bit in Planescape (and probably Spelljammer) ... I know there was a Plansescape/Infinite Staircase anthology late in 2e that had an adventure where the party had to help sort out a Githzerai outpost where one of the members came to believe they were the second coming of either Zerith or Gith themself. Probably the best place to start would be the Gith articles in the Forgotten Realms wiki. You may find more than enough there, but if you want more the articles footnotes should point you to the right sources and editions.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I've seen Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes. It was okay... but the content wasn't really designed with PCs in mind.
Personally I enjoy having lore to consider when designing a PC. Really wish they'd bothered to carry even a fraction of it over to MotM instead of just phoning in one or two brief paragraphs for each race.
If you want divine mechanics in technical Cleric game mechanics, you'll need to homebrew it for Githzerai. Otherwise, flavor the technical game mechanics as you wish. I've never had a Monk that was monastic or Kung Fu, but the mechanics were still there though renamed to brutish fisticuffs.
Githzerai Clerics could be shamans in name but Clerics mechanically. If you must have divine because RaW says it in the description despite the main 3 sources being slathered with play-your-way suggestions, you've backed yourself into a corner.
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider.
My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong.
I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲
“It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.