Help! I'm ignorant!

[Horacio]

Kenders are the comic relief in your average D&D party. Every movie, every TV series has a comic relief, from Buffy's Xander to the guy in D&D movie, from Jar Jar to Disney's cute little talking animals. That's the role of kenders.

Why do the other characters allow him in the groups? They may be several reasons, the same that movie or series main character uses to allow them in their group, friendship mainly...

 

[Henry]

I think the problem that most people have about kender is that they assume they must ALWAYS act like children. Tasslehoff Burrfoot, the iconic Kender of Dragonlance, is an excellent character study of when a kender should and SHOULDN'T be curious. Tasslehoof was mischevious at times, but the trick was despite his curiousity and fearlessness, he never did anything he KNEW would hurt a friend, or never did anything he KNEW would 'end his fun."

This is what people do - they assume kender are ALWAYS like children, and never learn anything. And indeed, in some non-Weis/Hickman novels, they were that stupid. However, kender are unlike children in that they can learn what kills them and what doesn't. If told not to pull the lever that drops the bottom out of the room, they WON'T still do it, "just to see what happens," or because, "It's what I'd do if I were a kender."

 

[Alchemist]

It also seems that the vast majority of the time, people play kender because it's an excuse to mess with the party and have an easy alibi for filching spell components. It's fun at the rest of the players expense and I, like many other DM's, banned them from my Dragonlance game. And in games that kender were available as a class the little bugger didn't last the game session, as he involuntarily scouts out the active volcano.

 

[Tsyr]

I think the problem that most people have about kender is that they assume they must ALWAYS act like children. Tasslehoff Burrfoot, the iconic Kender of Dragonlance, is an excellent character study of when a kender should and SHOULDN'T be curious. Tasslehoof was mischevious at times, but the trick was despite his curiousity and fearlessness, he never did anything he KNEW would hurt a friend, or never did anything he KNEW would 'end his fun."

This is what people do - they assume kender are ALWAYS like children, and never learn anything. And indeed, in some non-Weis/Hickman novels, they were that stupid. However, kender are unlike children in that they can learn what kills them and what doesn't. If told not to pull the lever that drops the bottom out of the room, they WON'T still do it, "just to see what happens," or because, "It's what I'd do if I were a kender."

DARNED STRAIT!

I can't count how many times I've tried to make that exact point. Study the Kender Wies and Hickman created... Tas specificly, but there were a few others.

Tas, for example, could actualy be a bit freekishly cold-blooded at times. Remember in the beginning of Dragons of Autum Twlight? That one scene, with Tas meeting up with Tanis and Flint, and the encounter with the goblins, has forever shaped how I view Kender. Tas just standing there smiling like a little kid while the goblin charged him, the flinging a dagger point blank into his heart.

Fun loving? Yeah. Keltomanical? Sure. Stupid? No. Tas knew when something was important, either to do or not do. About the only time he would directly disobey an order to stay put or something is when he honesty believed that he would be needed wherever the others were going.

The people who ruined Kender, mostly, were A) Third Party Authors (Some of the books were horrid), and B) Players who played them as an excuse to be an irritation to the party.

 

[Frostmarrow]

In a party of more than one kender all equipment is noted on a single piece of paper. When someone needs to use the rope for example, you randomly determine who is actually carrying it for the moment. This is because they constantly lift things off each other, 'borrowing' it. Since nobody cares when they lose stuff it makes for an interesting economy.

 

[Torx]

Kender are also the masters at rationalization. They can convince themselves of anything using simple yet convulted logic.

"I know the party would want me to do this because . . ."

Also, a lot of people think that kender have no morals to speak of. I contend that this is simply not true. While kender exemplify the chaotic side of the law-chaos balance, they do know right and wrong. Just not within the context of laws.

I happen to have a player in my group who roleplays kender extremely well (his taunts are great) - and he has no trouble with morality. And while he continously irks the other characters, he does not irk the players. That's a well played kender.

 

[Fast Learner]

Of course if Kender were actually all like their stereotype (completely fearless and completely heedless), the last generation of them would have been long ago. If you don't live long enough to reproduce, you don't have any more of that race.

Fear is the most important survival tool ever.