With regard to balance, I consider non-Kalashtar initiated conversation to be unbalanced in combat.
Some people like posting a bunch of suggestions OOC for combat tactics and such and then deciding on their PC's actions. I prefer people posting a bunch of suggestions IC for combat tactics and such. Doing it the other way feels like kibitzing in Chess. There is no roleplaying of PC tactics if OOC tactics are allowed. An entire roleplaying portion of gaming is discarded for the sake of tactically efficiencies.
To me, IC is preferable to OOC. Removing an aspect of tactical roleplaying from combat is inferior to encouraging it.
I also feel that the DM should roleplay NPC IC tactical commands and discussions as well, but that's a different topic in the same vein.
Back to balance, when a non-Kalashtar can initiate a combat tactical conversation behind the backs of the NPCs, it gives the PCs a significant tactical advantage over combats where only the Kalashtar can do so.
The player of the Kalashtar earned the right to do this by taking that race. The players of other PC races did not. They gained other advantages by picking the races they did. They should not gain the advantages that the Kalashtar has, nor should he gain theirs (i.e. a Kalashtar should not be able to use Second Wind as a minor action, just because a Dwarf is in the party). And even the Kalashtar should be limited to telepathically talking to only one or two PCs in a combat round to discuss tactics, not everyone in the group from a balance perspective (without the Group Mind feat).
In regard to Kalidrev's question in the other thread "If a Kalashtar were NOT always listening, then how in the world would the Telepathic Sensitivity feat work?", it seems non-sequitor to the discussion.
The Telepathic Sensitivity feat does not give the Kalashtar surface thoughts (even though people want to roleplay that it does). It's like listening to Mosquitoes. I know they are there cause I can hear them, but I have no clue what they are saying.
So from my perspective, the "Telepathy: You can communicate" vs. the "Group Mind: Any ally can communicate" rules infer (but do not explicitly state) that the Kalashtar initiates, and giving Group Mind capability to non-Kalastar PCs gives a tactical advantage to them in combat that they should not have (without the Group Mind feat being taken). Telepathy is too useful as is, let alone making it more useful.
Handing out most of Group Mind to the non-Kalashtar PCs for free is like giving a +2 to Perception rolls vs. Stealth to all Kalashtars and giving part of Telepathic Sensitivity to them for free. I don't see the difference. To me, the counter argument appears to be "We have been playing it this way and want to keep playing it this way". That doesn't mean it is balanced or the original intent of the rules.
