Dragon: Githzerai
Unlike the psion's debut article, this one makes sure that you know about all the new content without having to cross-reference the Compendium and/or Character Builder to figure out what the hell it all does. Kudos, Wizards. The article looks exactly like a PH entry: you get the racial stat block, some backstory on them, and then the short-list about why you would want to play one. The only deviation is that there're also a couple of backgrounds to help spark your imagination.
As I said in my other post on the githzerai debut, not much has changed about the race itself except that they get a bonus against daze, dominate, and stun conditions, and can also shift a short distance when they trigger their second wind (Shifting Fortunes). Like other monster-to-player races, there are changes to ramp their power up a bit but not much.
Thankfully, I only managed to dig up half the new feats that are offered. There are a dozen in total, and only Iron Resolve of Zerthadlun is explicitly psionic-related, demanding a power point in order to function. Almost everything else keys off of iron mind or Shifting Fortunes, meaning that any githzerai of virtually any class combination can get some mileage out of it. If you're looking to optimization as a design goal, I'd say that all in all it plays best for defenders and strikers.
The article does a great job of pushing the race's psionic nature, as well as playing up their history as former slaves: they can deal bonus psychic damage, ramp up their defenses/durability by expending iron mind for various reasons, and are extremely difficult to pin down since they can shift quite a distance as well as even teleport at epic tier.
Part and parcel to the debut articles is the sweet, succulent commentary. Its James, Mike, Robert, and Chris yakking about certain parts of the race and why they did whatever the hell they did. For example, they figured that since many players would play a psionic class with a githzerai, that they wanted their feats to emphasize that, which is why Iron Resolve of Zerthadlun requires a power point in reserve, and also why Miryath's First Strike deals bonus psychic damage. I'm a total fucking nerd for this shit. If this all they did for Dragon, I'd probably still buy it.
One thing I discovered is that the githyanki are not going to appear in PH3. Why not? In a nutshell it can be interesting and/or fun to "play gainst type" and do a villianous race as a hero, but it can get old pretty fast (ie, drow). There's more on the topic, and I agree with much of what is written. Luckily, my players are not the types to want to make monstrous characters just to go against the grain. Thats mostly just me and my desire to play an illithid or blink dog (which I did get to do in 3rd Edition, but it sucked due to Level Adjustment).
As I said in my other post on the githzerai debut, not much has changed about the race itself except that they get a bonus against daze, dominate, and stun conditions, and can also shift a short distance when they trigger their second wind (Shifting Fortunes). Like other monster-to-player races, there are changes to ramp their power up a bit but not much.
Thankfully, I only managed to dig up half the new feats that are offered. There are a dozen in total, and only Iron Resolve of Zerthadlun is explicitly psionic-related, demanding a power point in order to function. Almost everything else keys off of iron mind or Shifting Fortunes, meaning that any githzerai of virtually any class combination can get some mileage out of it. If you're looking to optimization as a design goal, I'd say that all in all it plays best for defenders and strikers.
The article does a great job of pushing the race's psionic nature, as well as playing up their history as former slaves: they can deal bonus psychic damage, ramp up their defenses/durability by expending iron mind for various reasons, and are extremely difficult to pin down since they can shift quite a distance as well as even teleport at epic tier.
Part and parcel to the debut articles is the sweet, succulent commentary. Its James, Mike, Robert, and Chris yakking about certain parts of the race and why they did whatever the hell they did. For example, they figured that since many players would play a psionic class with a githzerai, that they wanted their feats to emphasize that, which is why Iron Resolve of Zerthadlun requires a power point in reserve, and also why Miryath's First Strike deals bonus psychic damage. I'm a total fucking nerd for this shit. If this all they did for Dragon, I'd probably still buy it.
One thing I discovered is that the githyanki are not going to appear in PH3. Why not? In a nutshell it can be interesting and/or fun to "play gainst type" and do a villianous race as a hero, but it can get old pretty fast (ie, drow). There's more on the topic, and I agree with much of what is written. Luckily, my players are not the types to want to make monstrous characters just to go against the grain. Thats mostly just me and my desire to play an illithid or blink dog (which I did get to do in 3rd Edition, but it sucked due to Level Adjustment).
it seems they get a little extra... more than most races out there
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