Yet another take on Kalashtar for 5th edition
I recently offered to run the alternate, off-week, D&D game for the group I play with on Tuesdays. I would be the fill in guy for weeks when the normal DM did not want to run. My offer was generally greeted with some enthusiasm. The normal DM and another player expressed a desire for Eberron. Now, I love me some Eberron. I could wax rhapsodic about it for days. It is a setting with a wider range of setting conventions than are found in Forgotten Realm. And then there is Sharn: City of Towers.
That said there are some issues with running it in 5th edition, at the moment. Some things just haven’t been written yet. They only now released The Mystic (see also Psionics) and the Artificer. They do have some race stats for some of the races, like the Warforged, on the Wizards of the Coast site. Others have not been done. Also Dragonmarks have been accounted for, but I feel like they need some clarification. I will tackle those another time, but the race I was asked for was Kalashtar. There are some fan versions out there, but nothing definitive. I figured I would take a pass at it.
Kalashtar
Ability Score Increase
Your Wisdom score increases by 2 and increase either Charisma or Intelligence by 1.
Age
Kalashtar mature at about the same rate as humans and reach adulthood in their late teens. They live somewhat longer than humans do, up to 160 years.
Alignment
Kalashtar tend toward a neutral alignment.
Size
Kalashtar are as varied as humans, standing anywhere from 5 feet to over 6 feet tall. Your size is Medium.
Speed
Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Languages
You can speak, read, and write either Riedran or Common and Quor. Quor is your native language and is hard for other races to learn due to elements being conveyed in mind speech.
Mindlink
As a bonus action, you can communicate telepathically with one willing creature you can see within 120 feet of you. The target must have an Intelligence of at least 2, otherwise this ability fails and the action is wasted. This communication can occur until the end of the current turn. You don’t need to share a language with the target for it to understand your telepathic utterances, and it understands you even if it lacks a language.
At 3rd level, the affect can communicate to as many people at once as your half you level plus your wisdom bonus. So 4th level Kalashtar with a 16 Intelligence can communicate with up to 5 people at once. This communication does not continue once the Kalashtar ends it or becomes incapable of maintaining it. (thinking real hard at the Kalashtar does not work if they are not listening.)
Dreamless
The Kalashtar do not dream nor do they need to sleep. They are immune to Sleep effects and any effects which rely on sleep. (admittedly, I can’t think of any spells that attack you in your sleep but if they exist..) They do meditate 4 hours a night, but they are conscious and aware during this meditation.
Dual Souls
The Kalashtar have two souls, and the second soul affects how their mind works. They have advantage to resist charming, enchantment, fear or controlling effects. They cannot be possessed.
Also, due to the experience and knowledge available through the second soul, Kalashtar can also roll with advantage on one Deception, Insight, or Persuasion check. This refreshes with a short rest.
Notes:
There are a few fan versions floating around providing free psi points to the Kalashtar. I tend to stay away from such notions because I don’t like the notion that there should be a race that is so perfect for a class that any other race is sub optimal. There is another reason for avoiding it. People might want to run a Kalashtar in a game where the DM is not using the Mystic rules. I decided a more broadly written set of race stats was better.
Dual souls was the hardest part of this to write. There have been some wildly variant ideas of what that does, and even the fiction is not super clear. I went with the version I thought fit the 5th edition rules better. It is not as powerful as some I have seen but it seems effective.
