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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Faolyn" data-source="post: 8312302" data-attributes="member: 6915329">I have, like, out-the-wazoo ADHD (Inattentive subtype) which I can't treat with medication. I cannot imagine how an entire race of people with this disorder built in could have survived. They must have a very busy patron god.Lying doesn't need to be malicious to be a lie.Anyway, while I don't have any of the main Dragonlance game books, I do have the 2e Dragonlance MC Appendix. In the entry on kender, it reads:  If caught red-handed with another's property, they offer an amazing range of excuses: I forgot I had it. I found it. I was afraid someone else would take it. More often than not, kender believe their excuses to be the truth.So I amend my statement to say "they either lie about it or lie so well that they believe their lies and  have lost touch with reality, and thus may qualify for an insanity plea, should they be ever brought to trial." Either way, "compulsive liar" is not a good trait, and yet the paragraph goes on to say that there are no evil kender. Of course, the MC entry says their mostly lawful(!) neutral or chaotic neutral.Oddly, right above the aforementioned section, the entry says "Kender do not steal for the sake of profit, since they have little concept of value; they are just as happy with a chunk of purple glass as they are with a glittering diamond" while a few paragraphs earlier it also says "In fact, most kender find an enemy occupation to be a tremendous boost to the local economy, since the invaders always bring such interesting things for the kender to 'handle.'" This is what I meant by hypocrisy in their entry. They either look at an occupation as a source of things to steal or a source of wealth, or they don't think they're stealing anything and have no concept of value. Also from the entry: "The kender's most effective defense is their ability to enrage opponents by taunting them with verbal abuse. Any creature taunted by a kender for one full round must roll a successful saving throw vs. spell or attack wildly for 1d10 rounds at a -2 penalty to attack rolls and a +2 penalty to Armor Class." As an aside, the entry doesn't say that the creature has to understand the kender's speech. How many languages were there in that setting?If you consider that kender have to taunt for a full round--meaning, a minute in 2e--I can't imagine that they don't know what they are doing. Maybe they really have lost all touch with reality and doesn't seem to realize that "person or creature goes berserk and tries to kill everyone" often seems to follow "verbally abuse someone for one minute." Understanding correlation and causation is not their strong suit.Now, I'm fully aware that a lot of the problem with kender is that they're played by people who like having an excuse to mess with their fellow players. I just think that, as I have read them, they are absolutely terrible.I think it might be possible to redeem them. Have them either not be kleptomaniacs or write that they give away everything they pick up, and sooner rather than later. Have them own up to taking the stuff. Not "I was afraid that someone would take it" but "it didn't look like you needed, so I took it to give to someone who needed it more. If you want it back, here."</blockquote>

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