Githzerai

I like the Githzerai. They have a cool backstory of once being a slave race to mindflayers, splitting with their githyanki brethren, and then developing an ascetic monastic tradition. The only thing I don't like about them so much is how they're "native" to the Elemental Chaos - they're "population center" is in a plane that most traditional campaigns will never get to until paragon levels.

I'd rather githzerai be "centered" in the regular world than another plane of existence. So to that end I'm going to say that they are extraterrestrials, having broken away from their githyanki ancestors ages ago and alighting on the campaign world. I imagine that, when the githzerai landed, psionic power was in more limited supply. So over time, they adopted ascetic traditions that husbanded their psionic energy as their technology gradually broke down and/or failed to operate on the campaign world.

I like this take on the githzerai because it more firmly places them in the world, gives them a science fantasy angle (I've become fond of that genre lately), leaves open the idea of space-faring githyanki hunting them, and also sets up the possibility that some of their old, forgotten tech is still out there. With the Far Realm's proximity to the world, perhaps more psionic energy is availble to power these ancient vessels.

Tying githzerai to the real world appeals so much to me I'll probably go a similar route for other planar races, such as genasi, shadar-kai, or eladrin.