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

[Sunseeker]

The first rule of gaming: If a rule does not significantly impact balance, and the rule is reducing the fun, the rule should be altered to make more fun possible.

Some players might think it is fun to give their characters a challenge in spellcasting - their characters can only cast a spell they have seen cast is a wonderfully fun quirk!

Others might turn an angry glare at a DM that told them they can't cast a spell unless they see it cast.

If I had a Kenkyu player, I'd allow suggest they bypass this rule by allowing them to use a minor illusion, thaumaturgy, or other easy method to create the sounds of the spell once and then copy it in the future.

I would agree that with a flavor element like "you can only mimic what you've seen" if a player finds that an engaging element of play, then more power to them. If a player just wants to play a crow-styles scavenger without that entirely fluff element, go for it.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

That was my thought too. Mimic birds don't exactly reproduce the sounds of our voiceboxes, and they can also approximate things like chainsaws and doorbells.

I would even let a Kenku's verbal components be the sound that the spell makes when it goes off. It's flavorful and it matches how I interpret the verbal, somatic and material component rules. They are there so you can disrupt spell-casters with silence or grapple. They are not there as a kind of literacy test for player races.

Ohhh, I love that!

Scorching Ray:
[video=youtube;dBbkqQfympg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBbkqQfympg&sns=em[/video]

Meteor Swarm:
[video=youtube;RcG7-zrGVT4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcG7-zrGVT4&sns=em[/video]

Message:
[video=youtube;emQzekdypfs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emQzekdypfs&sns=em[/video]

Stinking Cloud:
[video=youtube;tLnvnLqF11c]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLnvnLqF11c&sns=em[/video]

 

[SkidAce]

Bah. Kenku are +Dex, +Wis. That means that, if there are any spellcasters, they'll be clerics, druids and rangers. Unlike wizardry, I don't think there's exact reproductions of sounds you need for these types. Its not an academic discipline, but one based more on communion with gods and spirits.

I could see issues with wizardry and maybe draconic sorcerers, but the rest? Bah. I don't expect to see them at the table, so I wouldn't bat an eye over this.

I would say "trend" towards those classes.

Several 5e kenku have been arcane casters.

One was an EK.

 

[GreenTengu]

Don't get me started on the Volo's races. I provided heaps of feedback on the draft versions and was dismayed to see that the final versions were virtually unchanged.

Is the hobgoblin one of them?

Hey, I am not going to deny that a good part of my "crusade" against Volos was stating up the Hobgoblin race with an +2 in objectively the worst attribute in the game even though it doesn't remotely fit the racial concept and then "investing" all of the rest of the racial abilities into weapon and armor proficiency that are effectively thrown out if you choose any class that sensibly matches the racial concept... and finally topping it off by giving them a racial ability that is entirely dependent on party size while violating the fundamental concepts of the game by absolutely indicating success or failure before you even use it.

But, from the Bugbear's fundamental ability to output more damage than any other race in the game to the Kobold's insane party boosting ability to Firbolg's ability to turn invisible indefinitely until they attack someone... there is so much in that book that is just fundamentally terribly designed, like the person writing it had no idea how the game actually works.

The ones that aren't bad are Aasimar and Goliath. Triton is also not hugely off the mark, maybe just a little underwhelming. All the rest have some pretty serious balance issues.

 

[for_a_girl]

The best thing you can do for your kenku is get him killed and reincarnated.

 

[QuietBrowser]

I find the concept that "kenku have no ability to invent new ideas of create new things" more egregious. If that is the case, they should have animal intelligence and be unplayable as a race. I would flat-out ignore this. Period.

I would highly recommend this. Why? Because, not only is it an inherently stupid idea, but it's a stupid idea completely devoid of historical precedent: neither the Ecology of the Kenku (3e, Dragon #329) nor Winning Races: Kenku (4e, Dragon #411) feature anything like that.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I should note there is nothing stoping a kenku from making the proper sounds by mixing and matching words it knows. It will sound odd but it should work the same as normal.

 

[Iry]

Any half decent Kenku parent is going to reach their crow children a pretty wide vocabulary, even if that's just to help them become better thieves or whatever. Likewise, a Kenku who grows up around any other race will have the lions share of words, and might even have many words from a single individual they haven listened to over the years.

A young Kenku might sound exactly like the solemn voice of an elder priest, since he spent every morning perched in the bell tower listening to the sermons in the church below. Anyone who was a mentor figure, or who the Kenku admires, might become the voice that the Kenku uses most of the time.

That might take some of the fun out of Bumblebee speech, but it probably works better for NPCs. Especially if the party encounters entire flocks of Kenku who all look up to the same inspiring leader and sound exactly the same.

 

[GlassJaw]

I would highly recommend this. Why? Because, not only is it an inherently stupid idea, but it's a stupid idea completely devoid of historical precedent: neither the Ecology of the Kenku (3e, Dragon #329) nor Winning Races: Kenku (4e, Dragon #411) feature anything like that.

My initial thought was how the heck do you roleplay that? Can you never offer ideas when making a plan with the rest of the party? That doesn't sound fun at all.

 

[Kurotowa]

I should note there is nothing stoping a kenku from making the proper sounds by mixing and matching words it knows. It will sound odd but it should work the same as normal.

That's about what I was thinking. A well socialized kenku should have a large enough sound library to have most words available for use. However the longer and more specific what they say is, the more it's going to jump back and forth between different source samples. A single sentence could jump around from "small child" to "old woman" to "preaching chaplain", which other humanoids will likely find disorienting or disturbing. Keeping it short and simple means fewer sound clip splices, and using natural sounds avoids the issue entirely.