I don't buy that. I'm supposed to believe that races were designed for specific roles?
Designed? Maybe.
But different races have different powers/features/racial feats (above and beyond their stat pairings -- which tend to suit them to specific classes). These powers and features will tend to give the race a tendency towards specific roles, as a +striker feature is better for strikers, a +leader feature is better for leaders, etc. This doesn't mean that a bit of some feature isn't useful out of role -- of course it is. But it's even -more- useful in-role.
Take, for instance, the Halfling Second Chance feature. This is a +defender power, at heart. Yes, it's useful for everyone -- it really is. But it's even -more- useful if you're receiving enough attacks every encounter to use it every encounter, and you've got sky-high defenses and will go 1/3 of the fight before you first get hit -and- have a very good chance of nullifying an attack with it. Characters with very low defenses don't benefit much from a "second chance" -- they're much better off with features that let them stay out of harm's way entirely. But defenders? Oh, yeah.
So look at the shardmind's major features:
Int & Cha: +Bard, +Warlock, +Wizard, +Psion
Int & Wis: +Wizard, +Invoker, Artificer, Shaman, Avenger
Shard Swarm: Mobility and combat advantage. +striker (movement is a striker thing, so is combat advantage); +controller (getting out of dodge)
Telepathy: +leader (more or less)
Crystaline Mind: more or less +defender, but psychic damage isn't that common.
Liberating Shard Swarm: +defender
Psychic Focus +striker (more damage), +controller (more damage to lots of people, controllers have the most psychic damage)
Warding Shard Swarm: +everyone (AC is good for everyone, though it's -better- for defenders).
The biggest features here are pretty clearly Psychic Focus and Shard Swarm -- so I'd peg them as striker/controller major, with a minor in defending, but I don't think even with flexible stats that there's a defender that fits them perfectly. Swordmage or Paladin could work, but they've got few features that are useful for leaders (telepathy, ok, what else?) aside from their stats, and their stats are bad for defenders.
Of course, in paragon and epic, most of their feats are +Defender or +Leader. Can't have everything.
Now, lets look at Kalishtar:
Wis+Cha: +Bard, +Cleric, +Ardent, +Paladin
Bastion of Mental Clarity: +Defender, +Leader
Telepathy: +Leader
Dual Soul: +Defender
Feats:
Clarity of Spirit: +Leader, +Defender
Dual Mind Strength: +Striker, +Controller (but really good with any psionic class)
Group Mindlink: +Leader
Quori Shield: +Defender (same issues as the shardmind resist, though
And they've got some good feats for nearly every class--many of which don't suit their stat pairs. Go fig.
And in epic:
Quori Desperation: +Defender
A quick perusal implies that while either can really do any role (Kalishtar monks look lovely aside from that minor lack of a Dex bonus), that Kalishtar are best suited as defenders and leaders, whereas shardminds are best suited as strikers and controllers.
