Why would a Githyanki adventure?

[nickl_2000]

For those of you that have played Githyanki character, why was the character out adventuring? What was their goal?

I my brain is currently obsessed with the mechanics and imagery of an Aberrant Mind Githyanki Sorcerer with the Telekinetic Feat because it just sounds like it would be both a good class and a lot of fun.

[kazaryu]

For those of you that have played Githyanki character, why was the character out adventuring? What was their goal?

I my brain is currently obsessed with the mechanics and imagery of an Aberrant Mind Githyanki Sorcerer with the Telekinetic Feat because it just sounds like it would be both a good class and a lot of fun.

I mean...why would anyone adventure? Its incredibly dangerous, and not guaranteed the reap the rewards it usually does.

That aside: there are mind flayer colonies on the material plane, so perhaps something to do with that. Wanting to hunt the mindflayers/protect surface dwellers from them.

[Warder]

Life on the Astral Plane can get really boring. Githyanki raid the material plane for stuff to make their ageless existence on the astral plane more interesting - adventuring could be a logical extension of that. Githyanki adventurers are thrillseekers who want to experience more of what the planes have to offer, but for some reason have chosen to go at it with primes rather than with their githyanki kin. Either way, it's all for the glory of the Lich Queen, of course.

[Zhorn]

Adventurers of any race are best thought of as outliers.
They'll have more in common with other adventurers than they will with their own people.
It is a calling for the impatient, restless and risk-inclined.

If the motivation to adventure was Gith-centric, then far more gith would be out in the material plane vs staying in the astral plane.

[Unoriginal]

For those of you that have played Githyanki character, why was the character out adventuring? What was their goal?

I my brain is currently obsessed with the mechanics and imagery of an Aberrant Mind Githyanki Sorcerer with the Telekinetic Feat because it just sounds like it would be both a good class and a lot of fun.

Githyanki are known pirates and raiders, seeking, as people have pointed out above in the thread, thrills, glory and loot in weird and distant worlds, and all members of their highly militaristic culture receive training in weapon and armor to an extant.

Furthermore, a Githyanki away from the Githyanki society (assuming that they did grow up in it rather than, say, being the sole survivor of a Material Plane creche who's lived among other humanoids for most of their lives) was either separated from them unwillingly and will want to find their way back home, or is a pariah marked for death by the followers of Gith and the Lich-Queen.

Those points alone are enough to motivate a Githyanki to go adventuring, but there are plenty of other reasons, such as, for example:

- the Githyanki is on a mission from their superiors.

- the Githyanki learned of something of great interest for them, like a legendary item or a lost city or a new manner to create constructs, and decided to quest for it alone.

- the Githyanki wanted to get away from their rivals and enemies back home, so they managed to get themselves nominated as the "Githyanki observer" or "Githyanki liaison" for the world the rest of the adventurers are from, an unimportant, unglamorous job that mostly consist in telling raid planners if it's worth to raid there, but which keeps the PC alive by being far away from where getting backstabbed is ruled as a natural death.

- the Githyanki was blamed for a major, embarrassing failure (whether they were actually responsible or just a scapegoat for people with more power) and has been exiled as a result, with *maybe* a chance they can come back if someone back home sees it's profitable for them to advocate for the cancellation of the banishment.

- the Githyanki has grown to hate their homeland/plane and has decided to pull a Conan the Barbarian.

[KorvinStarmast]

There's a mind flayer elder brain out on the Prime Material plane, somewhere, and the Githyanki needs to find it and destroy it in order to restore the family status. Along the way, they need to attract allies and clues, since they are from a different plane, and in so doing end up making a temporary alliance with the other PCs. At some point the DM needs to take this background and make it into an adventure hook. Tier 2 or Tier 3, depending.

As with anything else regarding the occasional question of
'why is this PC of mine adventuring?'
Work With your DM to position the PC in the DMs world: it's a best practice.
Lastly: the Githyanki needs to find a red dragon to bring home, preferably an adult but a Young one is also OK.

[Mastikator]

Githyanki are basically murder-hobos already, sounds like they'd make ideal adventurers :smallcool:

[Temperjoke]

Maybe the Githyanki in question is a reluctant adventurer? It got separated from it's raiding party during a hunt or a raid, and it's ultimately trying to find a way home, the adventuring is more about finding a means to survive while searching.

Perhaps the Githyanki was captured by illithids and experimented on, which is why it's an Aberrant Mind. The Githyanki escaped during while someone attacked the illithids, but is afraid of going back to the Githyanki because of the potential for being executed.

What if your Githyanki is a member of the Sha'sal Khou (a group of gith seeking reunification mentioned in MtoF, pg 97) and was outed, but managed to escape to the material plane. Now you're trying to survive on your own.

[Psyren]

Adventurers of any race are best thought of as outliers.
They'll have more in common with other adventurers than they will with their own people.
It is a calling for the impatient, restless and risk-inclined.

If the motivation to adventure was Gith-centric, then far more gith would be out in the material plane vs staying in the astral plane.

While this is true, cultural values/upbringing can certainly coincide with reasons for adventuring too. Elves commonly adventure out of wanderlust and a desire for new experiences, while Dwarves tend to have more specific reasons to adventure that are tied to clan, honor, hearth or faith.

For Githyanki specifically, their primary motivator is strength - for many of them, service to their empress (even if it means death) is the highest honor they can aspire to, and only the strongest are worthy of climbing that hieratchy and becoming raid leaders or war leaders. It's not a far leap from there to concluding that facing down danger through the crucible of adventuring is the fastest way to climb that particular ladder.

[GentlemanVoodoo]

For those of you that have played Githyanki character, why was the character out adventuring? What was their goal?

I my brain is currently obsessed with the mechanics and imagery of an Aberrant Mind Githyanki Sorcerer with the Telekinetic Feat because it just sounds like it would be both a good class and a lot of fun.

As noted in Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes there is the The Sha'sal Khou, an organization of githyanki and githzerai radicals working toward the reunification of their peoples. A Githyanki character could start out on an adventure for some need then come across one of these individuals. The adventure is either curious about enough to see for themselves and can lead to them joining it or finding ways to sabotage it. At least one idea.

[Naanomi]

Any githyanki who somehow learns about the ultimate fate of individuals who get to powerful may have a lot of incentive to stay away from home

[ZRN]

For those of you that have played Githyanki character, why was the character out adventuring? What was their goal?

I my brain is currently obsessed with the mechanics and imagery of an Aberrant Mind Githyanki Sorcerer with the Telekinetic Feat because it just sounds like it would be both a good class and a lot of fun.

I wanted to play a badass githyanki psi warrior, but we started at low level so I made his backstory that he'd been part of a raiding party into the Prime Material Plane and had gotten grievously wounded (specifically, knocked off a flying red dragon) and left for dead. He managed to stay alive but without timely magical healing he was all screwed up - lots of long-term physical impairment, plus his psychic powers were disrupted. His basic goal at first was just survival, with a sketchy long-term plan to maybe get banished back to the Astral Sea once he was recovered enough to survive there long enough to get back to his people. (And then of course he meets up with some non-gith party members and other things take priority.)