Kalashtar: am I missing something?

[Felon]

Same here. Telepathy is way underrated.

People rate it according to the likelihood that it will be useful in their campaign. I can safely say it wouldn't see much use at all in the Revenge of the Giants campaign I play in. The players aren't very discrete, and the monsters aren't very chatty. Communication skills kinda go to pot. It's very much a YMMV ability.

Now, dual mind is actually pretty darned handy because, as has been stated, dazing becomes RIDICULOUSLY common at the paragon tier. I mean, crap like at-will attacks that dazes (save ends). Auras that auto-daze anyone starting their turn in it. It gets nutty.

The only thing I really dislike about the kalashtar is that they don't get a NAD compensator like goliaths and eladrin.

 

[Starfox]

People rate it according to the likelihood that it will be useful in their campaign. I can safely say it wouldn't see much use at all in the Revenge of the Giants campaign I play in. The players aren't very discrete, and the monsters aren't very chatty. Communication skills kinda go to pot. It's very much a YMMV ability.

I say this is ok. Halflings and Gnomes are pretty much this way too - if your DM appreciates stealth , they rock. of not, they die. Nothing wrong with situational/specialized races.

 

[Destil]

Kalashatar are a fantastic, but defensive race. I think it wouldn't hurt if they had +1 reflex, but it's not needed either.

The save bonuses are huge, daze is a pain in the ass and dominate can totally ruin your day. Shaking those off for free is a big boost.

They basically get an at-will racial utility power (telepathy) plus an encounter defensive power(Bastion of Mental Clarity). I have some issues with the design of Bastion: It's a pain in the ass; it requires too much back and forth to use it to good effect and I know it annoys my DM. So I just fire it the first time I get a chance every fight (it doesn't come up every fight, daze/dominate are more common from my experience).

I've played a Kalashatar Paladin to 15th level now. In my last fight my resist 12 Psychic (Quori Shield) was the only thing keeping me alive, it easily saved me from 100 + damage over the course of the fight. I also dealt around 150ish with Quori Backlash (irrelevant, thoug, since the opponent had resist psychic too).

They could use some race/class feats (I envious the half-elf for the paladin feat so much), but their general feat support is cool if narrow. All in all they're a decent, if defensive and utility oriented, race.

 

[Rechan]

Dazed appears every other encounter for me. As the DM, it'd be hard to AVOID using daze-causing monsters.

So to me, being able to thumb your nose at dazing powers is PRETTY SWEET.

 

[bganon]

Did anyone mention Telepathic Sensitivity? Potentially up to +17 on Perception checks against stealthed creatures at first level. Even if you don't optimize it to quite such a horrifying extent, +5 to a useful aspect of a useful skill is sweet.

 

[abyssaldeath]

Fun fact: If you put "dazed" as a search parameter in the compendium over 700 creatures show up. "Dominated" comes up with 130.

 

[Alabast]

Now, dual mind is actually pretty darned handy because, as has been stated, dazing becomes RIDICULOUSLY common at the paragon tier. I mean, crap like at-will attacks that dazes (save ends). Auras that auto-daze anyone starting their turn in it. It gets nutty.

Ah, I haven't played in any campaigns that have reached paragon yet. Also, I just re-read the racial powers, and realized that Dual Mind allows a save even if the power isn't (save ends), so there's a chance that they'll shrug off any dazed or dominated condition. I guess these things together make it a pretty good racial ability. Still wish they had that extra NAD, though.

Also, the encounter power most races get, (Elven Accuracy, Halfling dodging, Warforged Resove, Hellish Rebuke, Fade Away, Dragon Breath, Shifting) will be useful in almost every encounter. Bastion of Mental Clarity is decidedly not so. Unless Attacks vs. Will become much more common at paragon, too, I have a hard time seeing how it stacks up.

 

[Klaus]

They don't make good Psions, but they're the best Ardents out there.

 

[Dayspire]

Someone else briefly touched on telepathy, but I'll be a little more blunt.

If your game is full of hack and slash, telepathy will be minimally useful.

If your game is full of roleplaying, telepathy will be incredibly useful.

 

[eriktheguy]

I think that Wizards was mindful of the races defenses when they made it. For all other races with two bonus abilities in the same defense, they have awarded a bonus to one defense in return (case in point, eladrin) and humans simply get +1 to all since they only have one ability score bonus.
I'm pretty sure that Wizards did this intentionally. People seem to think the race's other abilities more than make up for this.