ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

…Wait, why do Mindslayers start with mindstars if they don't start with the Wild-Gift/Mindstar Mastery tree? I mean, yeah, you can buy it in Zigur, but that still costs a category point (unless you get a major early gold bonanza), which means level 10 at the earliest for non-Cornacs. ("It's also available as an escort reward–" Yeah, no.)

Hence my new Mindstar Mindslayer addon, which adds the Wild-Gift/Mindstar Mastery tree (unlocked, 1.3 mastery) to Mindslayers. Overpowered? Meh, AFAIAC it just makes the early game less annoying.

[And no, this almost certainly isn't going into ZOmnibus… ]

This had puzzled me too, thanks for this way around it. Granted Rogue used to start with Sling but it was removed, so that would make Mindslayer the only class that starts with an item without mastery (unless you count Shields or Staves, I guess, I don't really count Doomed, Psyshot, or Possessor because they have their own interactions with the weapon).

Because they are from before Mindstars and were never really meant to use them.
And possibly because of the weirdness of having the possibility of an Undead race start with a Wild-Gift category...