Kalashtar are confirmed for the Eberron Player's Guide!

[Glyfair]

You'd think so, but then you would have had to have missed all the debates where some folks were arguing that Kalashtar wouldn't be a distinct race in 4E...

And don't forget the speculation that the PHB II would have psionics, since you need psionics for Kalashtar. Since it didn't, one bit of speculation was that the Kalashtar would be in the PHB III since we wouldn't have psionics for the Eberron Player's Guide).

Confirmation that kalashtar will be in the book is newsworthy.

 

[fanboy2000]

Not being an Eberronite (and my 3E book is buried somewhere) what are kalashtars? There shtick and look...
They obviously aren't in the srd.org.

The kalashtars were one of the races introduced in the Eberron campaign setting. They were introduced as a psionicly inclined race. Warforged and shifters get a lot of the coverage, but Eberron also had changelings and kalashtars.

 

[doctorhook]

And don't forget the speculation that the PHB II would have psionics, since you need psionics for Kalashtar. Since it didn't, one bit of speculation was that the Kalashtar would be in the PHB III since we wouldn't have psionics for the Eberron Player's Guide).

Confirmation that kalashtar will be in the book is newsworthy.

Yes, that too! And thanks for the backup, btw.

The kalashtars were one of the races introduced in the Eberron campaign setting. They were introduced as a psionicly inclined race. Warforged and shifters get a lot of the coverage, but Eberron also had changelings and kalashtars.

Changelings (now Doppelgangers) and Shifters are more "generic/traditional fantasy"-applicable, whereas Warforged and Kalashtar are more iconically and uniquely "Eberron". Warforged got a lot more attention -- being as super-cool as they are -- but Kalashtar are arguably more important to one of the central conflicts in the setting. Anyway, if they didn't appear in Eberron, they weren't likely to appear anywhere, IMO.

As for what Kalashtar are: they're naturally-psionic humanoids, descended from Humans who were possessed by the souls of (benign) aberrant horrors from Dal Quor, the Plane of Dreams. A modern Kalashtar is a single entity with a single mind, but also a dual-soul; one part of the dual-soul is human, the other part is the essence of some Quori dream-creature. Generally, Kalashtars are peaceful and good-natured, but their race is preoccupied with combatting the influence and incursions of the much more sinister and tyrannical monsters from the plane they left behind. Kalashtar are mostly drawn to internal pursuits, so in 3.5E Kalashtar characters were often either Monks or any of the Psionic classes; in 4E, the Monk is a Psionic class.

I hope that helps!

 

[fanboy2000]

Changelings (now Doppelgangers)

So they actually merged Changelings and Doppelgangers? Cool.[/QUOTE]

 

[Kobold Avenger]

And if you want your Kalashtar to have psi-abilities there's also the Monk playtest to use with that. Which is a good thing since Monk was one of the more "favoured" classes (along with Soulknife and Psion which haven't been completely confirmed as coming back yet) of the Kalashtar.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I consider it great news - they were easily my favourite of the Eberron races (followed by changelings then warforged and lastly shifters - although the latter two seemed to receive most of the development love)

I hope that they hew a little more towards the original ECS descriptions than the 'races of eberron' description, but I'm not holding my breath there.

Cheers

 

[doctorhook]

So they actually merged Changelings and Doppelgangers? Cool.

It certainly seems that way. 4E's Doppelgangers are basically the same creatures we called "Changelings" in 3.5E's Eberron.

 

[Dragonhelm]

It certainly seems that way. 4E's Doppelgangers are basically the same creatures we called "Changelings" in 3.5E's Eberron.

Didn't changelings descend from doppelgangers originally?

One other thing I hope to see with the Kalashtar is better art. I never cared for the 3.5 art personally. They came across to me as blurry humans, IMO.

 

[amethal]

It certainly seems that way. 4E's Doppelgangers are basically the same creatures we called "Changelings" in 3.5E's Eberron.

So are there any actual doppelgangers in 4E?

 

[amethal]

You'd think so, but then you would have had to have missed all the debates where some folks were arguing that Kalashtar wouldn't be a distinct race in 4E, and that (for some unfathomable reason) Kalashtars are redundant with Devas. It was silly, and now it's over, because we have confirmation that Kalashtar players won't have to use Deva stat to make their characters.

I'm really glad I missed that debate. Silly doesn't begin to describe it.

I don't play 4th edition, but I'm always on the lookout for Eberron stuff. However, no kalashtar, no sale!