D&D 5E Kenku - Poorly thought out race no matter how cool

[Fleetwood C. DeVille]

End result: a kenku with an inventive mind might not become an actual inventor, and would spend more time reverse engineering the technologies of other species. Sort of like feathered Sigma Iotians...

Classic Star Trek reference FTW!!

Kenku are supposed to be very good at blending in and surviving.The old crows would teach what sounds they know to the chicks of the nest. By the time an adventuring Kenku starts their career they should have a large stock of mimicked sounds to draw on.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I'll also note that regular, real life crows, are very intelligent and adaptive, and great and finding new ways to find solutions to problems. If a regular crow can do that, I don't see why a 14 INT kenku wouldn't be a lot better.

I guess the bottom line is that I wouldn't get hung up on thinking kenku can't cast spells based on a flavor interpretation. There are many ways you can justify it in the game.

 

[lonelynoose]

I'd like to think that the training of any young Kenku would include a week of spell memorization. Anyone have the stats on total casting times of all spells? Basically, whether or not you want to be a spellcaster you'd have all the sounds in backup. Those with high INT, which a caster would need, of course would have a greater ability to remember/recall these sounds. Practice would make perfect. Of course Kenku can read, so when they read/find a new spell they would see and know the verbal parts. M and S is the practice part. This also might satisfy how a multiclassing Kenku can all of the sudden know spells.

 

[Ancalagon]

If a regular crow can do that, I don't see why a 14 INT kenku wouldn't be a lot better.

Because they have been cursed.

It's frustrating. If you are too strict about it, the race is unplayable. Too loose, the history means nothing.

 

[dropbear8mybaby]

If you are too strict about it, the race is unplayable.

I think that this thread has proven that this isn't true.

 

[KahlessNestor]

Because they have been cursed.

It's frustrating. If you are too strict about it, the race is unplayable. Too loose, the history means nothing.

The history is only the history if you make it the history. Maybe the kenku believe they are cursed, but actually aren't, and are just like any other PC race. Or your kenku don't have any of that fluff at all. That's just it, it's all fluff and means nothing unless you make it mean something for your game. Nothing in the mechanics requires you to keep the curse aspect, or limit their intelligence/abilities.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Because of this thread, I revisited some of the YouTube videos of parrots and cockatoos cursing like sailors...

Seriously, though- if you haven't done this yet, you really should.

 

[variant]

I would argue that, in order to be able to read, they would need to know what the words they are reading sound like, so they ought to be able to say them out loud. They're just copying what someone else has written, after all. It might come out sounding like one of those early text-to-speech computer programs, but I'd say they'd be able to do it, since it doesn't involve any original thought on their part.

To be honest, it's that last part that I can't get my head around. How do you roleplay something that's incapable of thinking for itself? And what exactly does that mean anyway?

There are deaf and mute people who can read, but not speak. There are people that are highly intelligent that are unable to be eloquent or express themselves via speech even if they know all the words they should say. There are people who have a major neurological stutter that can sing perfectly. It has nothing to do with their capability of having original thought or thinking for themselves.

 

[jimtillman]

I like the Kenku, I like the picture drawn and I like the options when playing them.

But, if you want to go purely by the rules as written no Kenku can be a spell caster. A Kenku cannot speak on its own, it can only mimic sounds it has heard.

So it cannot cast any spell it has not heard another spell caster cast. A Kenku also cannot read any magic scroll aloud unless it has also heard another read the exact same scroll.

I assume most people do not think about this flaw or if they do it is merely hand-waved away.

Opinions?

why cant they mimic the spells vocal components?

 

[lonelynoose]

Mike Mearls response: https://twitter.com/mikemearls/status/917865250908545024

They use noises and tones they have picked up that fit
2:31 PM - 10 Oct 2017