Background for a Kalashtar psion [Archive] - Wizards Community

Background for a Kalashtar psion [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
AngelWings
06-14-06, 08:29 AM Hey guys,

I am planning to do a low-level female Kalashtar psion (good alignment) soon, but I don't have any background story that comes to mind. Any ideas ? I will be playing in Khorvaire and not on Sarlona, so I don't know if I can have a background with those Dreaming Dark guys.

I was thinking about being a Templar for the Silver Flame, but I wanted something really original, unusual, and cool !

I still don't know which discipline would be nice to play, as it will be my second psionic character, and my first was an ardent, not a psion, so any advice from guys who frequently play psionic characters would be appreciated ;)

AngelWings
Dipteran_Legacy
06-14-06, 02:03 PM just because you're on khorvaire doesnt mean you cant tie in the dreaming dark. after all, when you hail from the plane of dreams, anywhere on the prime is only a thought away
;)
the DD can be as far-reaching as your DM wants. though the inspired are just beginning to sink their political teeth into khorvair'es soft, juicy flesh, they have agents and spies all over.

If you take the DD out of your story, you're left with a human, that has a lot of dreams of other lives, and hears hints of whispers in their soul.

I think I read something someone did with a kalashtar wilder- their parents were killed by the DD while away from home, the child was put into an abusive orphanage, and their powers began to manifest completely beyond their understanding. fun ensued, with the child winding up out of the orphanage around 16 or so.

other than that, you could have some reason to have a beef with the fiends of xoriat. maybe while most of your peers were being trained in a small kalashtar community, you were taken away by an odd man your parents knew well, but you had never met. with him you traveled great distances, and did much training and meditating in the ancient ruins and abandoned towns of the demon wastes. having to meditate while knowing some terrible fiend could show up and tear you limb from limb would definately be a challenging mental excercise.

there's a lot to go after, if you read into the areas of eberron. choose the stuff you like, and tie it into your background.

as for psions, I'm typically more of a gishy fan, so I dont have a lot of experience with psions. nonetheless, I've heard that nomads are slightly on the weak side, and if you run with the updated rules for Cpsi, I wouldnt go with a shaper either- alot of people feel that shapers arent playable if they can only have one astral construct at a time. this leads me to think that shapers also have a poorly set up power list(though I havent heavily looked into it-maybe it is quite possible to play a shaper with only a single astral construct, but that's just the easiest way to play them, which would explain why people are so upset.)
AngelWings
06-15-06, 08:51 AM Nice ideas!

Maybe it could go along the lines of :my small Kalashtar community where I was living was raided by agents of the Dreaming Dark when I was 12, but I was saved by an odd, old man who was watching over me over my younger years. After that he could have trained me in the Demon Wastes, as your backgound idea above ;)

I will go for psion telepath with racial subst levels finally.
Dipteran_Legacy
06-16-06, 01:54 AM glad I could help.

it might make for a nice dramatic scene in the campaigns future if you arent really aware that the DD are responsible for the destruction of your town-maybe you have faint, warm feelings and vague, blurred images of your parents faces, followed by a time you can only recollect as scary, and your first real concrete memories are of this man. depending on which way you go, he could be either a parent figure or an enigmatic, semi-inhuman figure(maybe training you for an insane scheme of his own)

of course, stuff like that requires a DM that enjoys wrapping your personal story into the over-arching campaign plot, which not all DMs like to do.

:bored:

PS: early in the post, I was thinking of recommending the telepath, since they have the sub levels, but I forgot. sorry!
:D
poisondusk
06-16-06, 07:46 AM I like your idea of having your childhood home decimated by the DD in your youth. Being thenraised by an 'odd man'. Was he a kalashtar or just another psion who helped your mind fo blossom?

Raised in the Demon Wastes. Damn, talk about a harsh life. What's your plan for how you got out as the orcs who monitor it's borders kill anything coming out assuming it to be tained far beyond reconcilliation.
AngelWings
06-16-06, 08:08 AM I like your idea of having your childhood home decimated by the DD in your youth. Being thenraised by an 'odd man'. Was he a kalashtar or just another psion who helped your mind fo blossom?

Raised in the Demon Wastes. Damn, talk about a harsh life. What's your plan for how you got out as the orcs who monitor it's borders kill anything coming out assuming it to be tained far beyond reconcilliation.

Guys, those are really good ideas ! :)

My DM likes to focus on character backgrounds to integrate it into a campaign. Blurry images of my parents or some unkown guys would be a nice way to put some kind of mystery my character tries to understand.

The odd man would be a kalashtar psion too, only with more levels than me, who realized my potential and actually saved my life.

As for my plan to get out of the Demon Wastes..... well, I'm a telepath. Maybe I got lucky and charmed one of those guys so I convinced him that I can get out and everything is okay.

Or maybe as I've been lucky, when I tried to get out, an "Orc" (actually a good changeling monitoring the borders of the Demon Wastes, for for other unkown reasons) would let me go, sensing the goodness of my heart? :)

Or maybe the odd man sacrificed himself in the combat to let me go as a diversion. From there, the possibilities are almost infinite.
Dipteran_Legacy
06-16-06, 09:54 PM What's your plan for how you got out as the orcs who monitor it's borders kill anything coming out assuming it to be tained far beyond reconcilliation

maybe you're more familiar with eberron than I am, but I really dont remember it saying in the core book that the guardians killed anything they met.

I was under the crazy impression that the thin, weak forces of orcs still surviving therein were far more concerned with keeping what was below the ground where it is.

I dunno though. maybe in an update, keith baker said that the orcs have since gotten massive re-inforcements, making it possible to watch the entire borders 24-7, while easily keeping all other threats at bay.

I guess they also have druids constantly "watching" if anyone uses teleportation powers to get into the area.

sorry if this sounds rude, but your statement sorta seemed like you were implying my idea was an idiotic one.

As for my plan to get out of the Demon Wastes..... well, I'm a telepath. Maybe I got lucky and charmed one of those guys so I convinced him that I can get out and everything is okay.

Or maybe as I've been lucky, when I tried to get out, an "Orc" (actually a good changeling monitoring the borders of the Demon Wastes, for for other unkown reasons) would let me go, sensing the goodness of my heart?

Or maybe the odd man sacrificed himself in the combat to let me go as a diversion. From there, the possibilities are almost infinite

or maybe the man was an ally of the orcs, who had returned home to warn others that far worse threats than the DD were lurking in the world (and bolster the numbers of his brave orcish allies), only to-ironically- find that the DD had destroyed his old community.

or maybe the odd man was such a powerful psion, he kept the knowledge of their existence from the orcs minds.

or maybe, the odd man is actually a member of the DD, and this one child was deliberately spared and given a hard and terrible life, so that she would not only hate the DD, but resent alot of others too.
which could thereby the skewed perception that kalashtars are terrorists, while the inspired are the friends of khoirvairians when they stop her from trouncing some egotistical cannith artificer.
it would simultaneously set a powerful, potentially influential kalashtar on a path that is directly opposed to the path of light(the nonviolent way the kalashtar hope to rid the world of the DD), which could potentially pull many others away from the flock.

use your enemies weapons against them. that's the sorta stuff the DD does. why kill a powerful kalashtar when they could simply use them against the kalashtar as a whole?

-I'm not necessarily saying you have to take that route, just throwing out ideas, and felt that one took some explanation.

I would like to note that the "quori nightmare" Prc (or whatever its called) from races of eberron might be a neat prc for you to take, whether you use this almost anti-heroic concept, or even if you dont
(as such a traumatic childhood could easily lead to your character being capable of inflicting fear and whatnot in others)

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
AngelWings 06-14-06, 08:29 AM	Hey guys, I am planning to do a low-level female Kalashtar psion (good alignment) soon, but I don't have any background story that comes to mind. Any ideas ? I will be playing in Khorvaire and not on Sarlona, so I don't know if I can have a background with those Dreaming Dark guys. I was thinking about being a Templar for the Silver Flame, but I wanted something really original, unusual, and cool ! I still don't know which discipline would be nice to play, as it will be my second psionic character, and my first was an ardent, not a psion, so any advice from guys who frequently play psionic characters would be appreciated ;) AngelWings
Dipteran_Legacy 06-14-06, 02:03 PM	just because you're on khorvaire doesnt mean you cant tie in the dreaming dark. after all, when you hail from the plane of dreams, anywhere on the prime is only a thought away ;) the DD can be as far-reaching as your DM wants. though the inspired are just beginning to sink their political teeth into khorvair'es soft, juicy flesh, they have agents and spies all over. If you take the DD out of your story, you're left with a human, that has a lot of dreams of other lives, and hears hints of whispers in their soul. I think I read something someone did with a kalashtar wilder- their parents were killed by the DD while away from home, the child was put into an abusive orphanage, and their powers began to manifest completely beyond their understanding. fun ensued, with the child winding up out of the orphanage around 16 or so. other than that, you could have some reason to have a beef with the fiends of xoriat. maybe while most of your peers were being trained in a small kalashtar community, you were taken away by an odd man your parents knew well, but you had never met. with him you traveled great distances, and did much training and meditating in the ancient ruins and abandoned towns of the demon wastes. having to meditate while knowing some terrible fiend could show up and tear you limb from limb would definately be a challenging mental excercise. there's a lot to go after, if you read into the areas of eberron. choose the stuff you like, and tie it into your background. as for psions, I'm typically more of a gishy fan, so I dont have a lot of experience with psions. nonetheless, I've heard that nomads are slightly on the weak side, and if you run with the updated rules for Cpsi, I wouldnt go with a shaper either- alot of people feel that shapers arent playable if they can only have one astral construct at a time. this leads me to think that shapers also have a poorly set up power list(though I havent heavily looked into it-maybe it is quite possible to play a shaper with only a single astral construct, but that's just the easiest way to play them, which would explain why people are so upset.)
AngelWings 06-15-06, 08:51 AM	Nice ideas! Maybe it could go along the lines of :my small Kalashtar community where I was living was raided by agents of the Dreaming Dark when I was 12, but I was saved by an odd, old man who was watching over me over my younger years. After that he could have trained me in the Demon Wastes, as your backgound idea above ;) I will go for psion telepath with racial subst levels finally.
Dipteran_Legacy 06-16-06, 01:54 AM	glad I could help. it might make for a nice dramatic scene in the campaigns future if you arent really aware that the DD are responsible for the destruction of your town-maybe you have faint, warm feelings and vague, blurred images of your parents faces, followed by a time you can only recollect as scary, and your first real concrete memories are of this man. depending on which way you go, he could be either a parent figure or an enigmatic, semi-inhuman figure(maybe training you for an insane scheme of his own) of course, stuff like that requires a DM that enjoys wrapping your personal story into the over-arching campaign plot, which not all DMs like to do. :bored: PS: early in the post, I was thinking of recommending the telepath, since they have the sub levels, but I forgot. sorry! :D
poisondusk 06-16-06, 07:46 AM	I like your idea of having your childhood home decimated by the DD in your youth. Being thenraised by an 'odd man'. Was he a kalashtar or just another psion who helped your mind fo blossom? Raised in the Demon Wastes. Damn, talk about a harsh life. What's your plan for how you got out as the orcs who monitor it's borders kill anything coming out assuming it to be tained far beyond reconcilliation.
AngelWings 06-16-06, 08:08 AM	I like your idea of having your childhood home decimated by the DD in your youth. Being thenraised by an 'odd man'. Was he a kalashtar or just another psion who helped your mind fo blossom? Raised in the Demon Wastes. Damn, talk about a harsh life. What's your plan for how you got out as the orcs who monitor it's borders kill anything coming out assuming it to be tained far beyond reconcilliation. Guys, those are really good ideas ! :) My DM likes to focus on character backgrounds to integrate it into a campaign. Blurry images of my parents or some unkown guys would be a nice way to put some kind of mystery my character tries to understand. The odd man would be a kalashtar psion too, only with more levels than me, who realized my potential and actually saved my life. As for my plan to get out of the Demon Wastes..... well, I'm a telepath. Maybe I got lucky and charmed one of those guys so I convinced him that I can get out and everything is okay. Or maybe as I've been lucky, when I tried to get out, an "Orc" (actually a good changeling monitoring the borders of the Demon Wastes, for for other unkown reasons) would let me go, sensing the goodness of my heart? :) Or maybe the odd man sacrificed himself in the combat to let me go as a diversion. From there, the possibilities are almost infinite.
Dipteran_Legacy 06-16-06, 09:54 PM	What's your plan for how you got out as the orcs who monitor it's borders kill anything coming out assuming it to be tained far beyond reconcilliation maybe you're more familiar with eberron than I am, but I really dont remember it saying in the core book that the guardians killed anything they met. I was under the crazy impression that the thin, weak forces of orcs still surviving therein were far more concerned with keeping what was below the ground where it is. I dunno though. maybe in an update, keith baker said that the orcs have since gotten massive re-inforcements, making it possible to watch the entire borders 24-7, while easily keeping all other threats at bay. I guess they also have druids constantly "watching" if anyone uses teleportation powers to get into the area. sorry if this sounds rude, but your statement sorta seemed like you were implying my idea was an idiotic one. As for my plan to get out of the Demon Wastes..... well, I'm a telepath. Maybe I got lucky and charmed one of those guys so I convinced him that I can get out and everything is okay. Or maybe as I've been lucky, when I tried to get out, an "Orc" (actually a good changeling monitoring the borders of the Demon Wastes, for for other unkown reasons) would let me go, sensing the goodness of my heart? Or maybe the odd man sacrificed himself in the combat to let me go as a diversion. From there, the possibilities are almost infinite or maybe the man was an ally of the orcs, who had returned home to warn others that far worse threats than the DD were lurking in the world (and bolster the numbers of his brave orcish allies), only to-ironically- find that the DD had destroyed his old community. or maybe the odd man was such a powerful psion, he kept the knowledge of their existence from the orcs minds. or maybe, the odd man is actually a member of the DD, and this one child was deliberately spared and given a hard and terrible life, so that she would not only hate the DD, but resent alot of others too. which could thereby the skewed perception that kalashtars are terrorists, while the inspired are the friends of khoirvairians when they stop her from trouncing some egotistical cannith artificer. it would simultaneously set a powerful, potentially influential kalashtar on a path that is directly opposed to the path of light(the nonviolent way the kalashtar hope to rid the world of the DD), which could potentially pull many others away from the flock. use your enemies weapons against them. that's the sorta stuff the DD does. why kill a powerful kalashtar when they could simply use them against the kalashtar as a whole? -I'm not necessarily saying you have to take that route, just throwing out ideas, and felt that one took some explanation. I would like to note that the "quori nightmare" Prc (or whatever its called) from races of eberron might be a neat prc for you to take, whether you use this almost anti-heroic concept, or even if you dont (as such a traumatic childhood could easily lead to your character being capable of inflicting fear and whatnot in others)