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

[JacktheRabbit]

I don't want to hijack but I don't have any problem with the gensai. I honestly feel they are underpowered.

I hate the Gensai, though it has mostly to do with the Water Gensai and their incredibly annoying Control Water ability.

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[JacktheRabbit]

"Kenku invent nothing new" - IRL, how many other cultures have copied and use Western technology because it is easier and faster than re-inventing it on their own?
Kenku may be inclined to copy other peoples' works but that does not make them dumb. They still have to figure out what to copy and how to adapt it to the needs of the moment.

If you listen to Bumblebee in the first live-action Transformers movie, you get a good model for a Kenku reading a scroll. (You also get a headache, trying to work out all those different voices speaking one word each into a coherent sentence.)

Two things.

One there is a difference between being efficient and not reinventing when you don't have to and not being able to ever invent the wheel no matter how long you are given to try.

Second magic is not spoken in Common. Bumblebee speech only works if the Kenku was around large numbers of spellcasters listening as they cast dozens of different spells so he could build his vocabulary.

That being said this is all theoretical. I would never enforce any of this. Just pointing out bad writing by WOTC.

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[Satyrn]

Second magic is not spoken in Common. Bumblebee speech only works if the Kenku was around large numbers of spellcasters listening as they cast dozens of different spells so he could build his vocabulary.

Is there anything in the rules that say magic is spoken at all? Well, specifically, that the verbal components are speech of any sort?

 

[Remathilis]

As a side note, I want to play a Kenku named "Meme" who only talks in memes

"Come at me, Bro!"
"Cash me outside, howboutdah?"
"Feels bad, man!"
"Problem?"
"Ermahgerd!"

 

[JacktheRabbit]

Is there anything in the rules that say magic is spoken at all? Well, specifically, that the verbal components are speech of any sort?

Per the PHB "most spells require the chanting of mystic words, the words themselves are not the source of power, rather the particular combination of sounds with specific pitch and resonance, sets the thread of magic in motion."

So the verbal component is most certainly the speaking of very specific words, and more so they are spoken in a very specific manner.

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[Satyrn]

Per the PHB "most spells require the chanting of mystic words, the words themselves are not the source of power, rather the particular combination of sounds with specific pitch and resonance, sets the thread of magic in motion."

So the verbal component is most certainly the speaking of very specific words, and more so they are spoken in a very specific manner.

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I'd totally let "rather the particular combination of sounds with specific pitch and resonance" justify the kenku's spellcasting.

 

[SkidAce]

So consider this;

You kenku buddy who joined the group ages ago, and who yells and talks in different voices, like "I'm hungry" in a little girl's voice, or "Do you feel lucky punk?" in a gruff man's voice, one day starts casting a spell and the party members realize its in the voice of their arch enemy!

Is the kenku a traitor? Where did he learn that spell?

DUN DUN DUNNNNN!

 

[pukunui]

Their racial mechanics do not explicitly say they can't speak or must repeat said phrases.

"You can read and write Common and Auran but you can speak only by using your Mimicry trait."

I imagine the kenku says the magic words in a hodgepodge of mishmashed words and sounds, like a bad text-to-speech program.

That's what I said! And now I kinda want to play a kenku using one of those programs to speak for me.

I also had the idea of playing a kenku bard that only speaks in Shakespeare quotes.

 

[Jester David]

"You can read and write Common and Auran but you can speak only by using your Mimicry trait."

And that trait sez:

You can mimic sounds you have heard, including voices. A creature that hears the sounds you make can tell they are imitations with a successful Wisdom (Insight) check opposed by your Charisma (Deception) check.​

​

How flexible or limited that trait is, is really up to the DM. (But it probably shouldn't come at the expense of a character concept, especially one that works like a kenku wizard.)

That's what I said! And now I kinda want to play a kenku using one of those programs to speak for me.

I also had the idea of playing a kenku bard that only speaks in Shakespeare quotes.

I'm picturing one that sounds like Siri. That muddle of sounds that's almost normal speech but not quite...

 

[pukunui]

I'm picturing one that sounds like Siri. That muddle of sounds that's almost normal speech but not quite...

I was more picturing one from pre-Siri days. Like Stephen Hawking's. Where it doesn't sound at all like normal speech. Just individually pronounced words spliced together to form a sentence.