That's mostly true, but at least they've gone to the effort of devloping the Kalashtar into a fully-formed race with some interesting ideas. They end up fitting better into the setting than some of the other crap, such as Gnomes and (dare I say it?) Dwarves, who are both woefully underdeveloped.
Hmmm. Maybe I'll have to look at the Kalashtar again. The Nightmare Empire of Reidra I liked, but the PC race...
Agree with you on the Gnomes, who seem the same cliche of sheltered, slightly dotty midget Einsteins that they are in most fantasy settings. Something of a missed opportunity there, but then what can you
really do with something that's just a medieval folktale (thanks for the prompt .e.) variation on a dwarf anyway?
I actually liked the Eberron Dwarves. They struck me as something more than 'hi-ho' merchants or 'Dimwit, son of Groin' cliches for once. Their shifting from mining to banking has an early-modern historical precedent (the Fuggers of Augsburg in Germany) and allows me to add my hobbyist interest in alchemy and metallurgy to them without it seeming too artificial.
Eberron dwarves don't need to beat on orcs with axes anymore. They just foreclose on their mortgages and send the PCs in as bailliffs
