Kalashtar D&D 2024: Species Optimisation Guide

Embrace your dual minded nature with this refreshed species for D&D 2024.

The Kalashtar are dual minded beings. Primarily, they are humanoids with a similar appearance to Humans other than slightly more angular features and eyes that sometimes glow. However, they share their mind with renegade spirits from the plane of dreams known as the Quori.

Despite their dual-minded nature, the Kalashtar can’t communicate directly with their Quori companion, but they are influenced by them. This might manifest with instincts and natural capabilities or it might show while sleeping with memories not possessed by the Kalashtar themself, surfacing through dreams.

In practice, this means that Kalashtar are often blessed with a greater capacity for skill proficiencies as well as resilience to psionic attacks and their own psionic capabilities.

Kalashtar were first introduced in 5e 2014 as part of the Eberron: Rising From the Last War setting book. With Eberron character options getting an update in Eberron: Forge of the Artificer, we now have a new iteration to play with specifically for D&D 2024.

In my guide below, you can see how the Kalashtar have changed, what tactics you can use with them, optimal class combinations and how to play this psionic species.

Is a Kalashtar the right species for me?

Choose a Kalashtar if you want to…

Be more resilient
Have telepathy
More skills

A Kalashtar might not be for you if…

You don’t want to do much talking
Don’t want to deal with a shared mind

What’s changed for Kalashtar in D&D 2024?

Kalashtar weren’t updated in Monster of the Multiverse so didn’t get some of the quality of life improvements that other species had already received. This means we get a few extra changes to coincide with more recent design philosophies.

These changes include:

Changed creature type – Kalashtar are now considered aberrations rather than humanoids. This means that they’re not affected by a few spells that only affect humanoids (like hold person).
Strong against more saving throws – Dual mind now gives advantage on wisdom and charisma saving throws. Previously this was just wisdom saving throws.
Mind link no longer overcomes language barriers – The 2014 Kalashtar could communicate telepathically with a creature even if they didn’t share a language, this is no longer the case for the 2024 Kalashtar.
Changeable skill proficiency – Kalashtar now have a skill proficiency that can be changed each day.

Kalashtar traits

Creature Type	Aberration
Size	Medium
Speed	30ft
Traits	Dual mind, mental discipline, mind link, severed from dreams
Resistances	Psychic
Proficiencies	One of your choice that can be changed each long rest
Darkvision	No
Innate spellcasting	None
Book found in	Eberron: Forge of the Artificer

Tactics

Kalashtar have a decent amount of resilience as well as telepathy and an adjustable skill proficiency for a decent amount of utility. I’d consider the following tactics for a Kalashtar:

Mage slayer: A lot of spells require wisdom saving throws and a decent number demand a charisma saving throw. This makes you extra resilient against spellcasters and other magical creatures. You can focus your approach around targeting these types of creatures knowing you’re more resilient to their effects.

Quiet communication: Telepathy can be really useful when needing to communicate discreetly. This can be the case in stealth situations or even when the party is split up by a small distance. It can be used in much more interesting ways though. You can have fun speaking in the minds of others to shock them or even speaking covertly to a hostage for example. You could even bypass natural barriers like walls or deafness to communicate too.

Telepathy naturally lends itself well to high charisma characters due to the fact you may be communicating in situations that others can’t.

Skillful: A changeable skill can be really useful. You might just use it to fill a skills gap, but you can also swap it around so if you know you’re going to infiltrate a keep the next day, you can place it on stealth or if you know you’ll be negotiating between 2 warring nations, you can place it on persuasion.

This is perhaps most useful for classes that tend to need plenty of skills to fulfill their functions like party faces and scouts.

Choosing a class for your Kalashtar

Below I’ve scored how well each class works with a Kalashtar:

Artificer⭐⭐⭐

Barbarian ⭐⭐⭐

Bard ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Cleric ⭐⭐⭐

Druid ⭐⭐⭐

Fighter ⭐⭐⭐

Monk ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Paladin ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Ranger ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rogue ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Sorcerer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Warlock ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Wizard ⭐⭐⭐

*Star ratings scored out of 5

Best classes for a Kalashtar

There are no bad options here. But I do think that your best options are those that benefit from plenty of skills and that have high charisma to make the most of telepathy. Extra resilience is universally useful, though I might argue that frontline classes benefit a little more here.

I’d say the following are your best classes for a Kalashtar:

I’d probably also argue that paladins and melee warlocks and bards are your ultimate best option here, but all these classes are great options.

Worst Kalashtar classes

There aren’t any bad classes for a Kalashtar, any class will find that their traits are broadly quite useful.

About Kalashtar

Appearance

Kalashtar have the appearance of Humans but with more symmetrical and angular features. When concentrating or expressing strong emotions, their eyes might also glow.

Personality

Kalashtar are affected by their dual mind through the Quori, the entities that are a part of them. They don’t speak directly to the Quori, but the Quori can influence them and this can have an impact on who they are.

They may find that they possess skills and capabilities that they never physically learnt. They may find their sleep influenced by memories that are not their own. The influence is subtle, but does affect who they are.

How to roleplay a Kalashtar

I’d lean into the dual minded nature and have it manifest in interesting ways. You could have skills manifest through the dreams that occupy your mind at night and have them show a memory that isn’t your own, but demonstrates that skill in action.

You could also speak to your DM about how they can use your Quori companion to present plotlines or clues or even tie things into the dream realm.