Played a kenku sun soul monk named Icarus.  (Though he could not fly he found the sun within himself etc.).  He spoke primarily in monastic truism he was clearly parroting back to the party.  "The way forward is inward."  "Be still like water and it will become clear."  Assuming a kenku knows "yes" and "no" the mimicry thing is not a substantial limitation even in a rp heavy campaign, you just have to be creative in how you express yourself.  

I have a male Kenku bard character under the name of Poet. Given the fact my master is quite short on patience, I had to create a backstory that could give him some talking ability. In a nutshell, he was an adventurer that once saved the life of a traveling bard, they became friends, and upon realizing it's mimicry ability the bard started saying common phrases in a bird-ish voice while they were traveling to their adventures. This way I have certain sense of verbal communication, but keep the limitation for specific or odd situations. For example, as it only has heard about regular creatures, each time he sees a monster he will growl or hiss, to indicate the danger. 

I think it's a good idea to use background and backstory for what sounds a Kenku would hear and know. The bard he helped doesn't have to talk like a bird for Kenku mimicry to work, he can talk normal but from being with him he would know verses and songs by heart possibly even able to mimic the sounds of instruments like the beat of a drum or pluck of a string. Like you said they only know regular creatures (my guess is urban like a cat and dog for example where the hiss and growl could come from) 

As much as the Kenku seems limited with this approach you can create a reliable vocabulary to use on adventures, after all they lived a few good years and should know some speech, then new phrases to learn they might repeat over and over until they got it down like they encounter a creature enough times they learn to mimic it's sound to warn their allies of the creature.

Also thinking of where they have been and what they heard. Maybe for example if the bard performed for nobles they could mimic someone sophisticated and be all about diplomacy and economics or whatever while a tavern performance would be more gruff and talk about great feats and adventures. Basically the Kenku learns sounds and speech from their environment so while lots of phrases his bard friend taught some things he picked up listening to the others in the area. 

I had a kenku warlock, his patron was the Great Old One so he could use telepathy when the party was being obtuse, but didn't use it frequently because he knew other beings found it creepy.  When he got his pact of the tome he picked up mold earth, and would write his messages on the ground or on cave walls.

I have found in my campaign that it has posed some unique challenges. I keep a notebook with quotes from when people say things I find either humorous out of context, or helpful. I worked with my DM to home brew the “rule of 2”: I can come up with 2 “freebies”, sentences or phrases that weren’t said at the table, but represent things my character may have heard either prior to joining, or from traveling with the group. When all else fails, and I don’t have the words, pantomiming while the party rolls to figure out a la charades, OR writing short notes to a character also help. Honestly, just like playing an illusionist, it will only be as difficult to play as your dnd group and your creative thinking make it. Have a convo with your DM and fellow players about how you want to play a kenku, and what you want to get out of it.

Kenku bard who stole the work of another bard then killed them so it was his work. Basically all he did was sing songs about plagiarism.

I have, his name was quoth and it was a really fun group

Quote from WarGamesCmm >>

I have, his name was quoth and it was a really fun group

 

 If you used quoth for his name for the reason I'm thinking, I would have gone with either Nevermore or Evermore. Hmmm maybe I'll file that one away for later. 

I'm currently playing a Battlemaster Fighter Kenku named Carver and he's really great! He's an ex-gladiator now searching for adventure with his elven wizard buddy. He doesn't fully understand traditional empathy but he cares for those around him (to an extent, he still sees many interactions as a sort of transaction) and is pretty fun to roleplay. He's also somewhat aquaphobic due to a harrowing encounter with merrow on an overseas trip earlier in the campaign, which has made for some. . . interesting moments.

I think their inability to speak is bad but the lack of creativity makes them unplayable RAW. If your Kenku rogue thinks of a creative combat maneuver unless you justify it every time that he has seen the maneuver done before he is unable to perform it as Kenku have no creativity. That isn't just a general ineptness at being creative it is a complete magical inability to think up new things. So if removing normal speech cripples Kenku somewhat in a roleplay sense the lack of creativity completely cripples them in combat and rp to boot. The only way to play them and have fun is to ignore the fluff partially if not completely. A dedicated player can tolerate the lack of speech but I don't think anyone can truly play a character with zero creativity and not cheat.

I did play a Kenku illusionist wizard for one session named Yowl. His ability to speak to use spells was handwaved as he had party members say the name of spells in his spell book to him so he could then say them by mimicking their voice. Still, as noted above he violated the creativity rule I talked about. He ended up killed by Bahamut after being thrown in jail for being dressed as a cultist and quoting their dogma. Polymorphed Bahamut was just sitting in prison and accidentally cast a high level magic because he couldn't restrain his power fully in the material plane. That death is simultaneously my best and worst character death ever.   

I'd argue that things like combat maneuvers are more often acts of instinct or reflex rather than always premeditated acts of creativity.

But ultimately this only cripples you as much as you (and the DM) want it to. Our table would have fun with it in social encounters, but it would pretty much stop there. The idea that a Kenku wizard can't use his spells undercuts some very basic assumptions of the game.

Quote from scatterbraind >>

I'd argue that things like combat maneuvers are more often acts of instinct or reflex rather than always premeditated acts of creativity.

But ultimately this only cripples you as much as you (and the DM) want it to. Our table would have fun with it in social encounters, but it would pretty much stop there. The idea t

 I think you are basically agreeing with me that you as a DM would ignore the no creativity thing and only use it sporadically for flavor. I think the no creativity thing was simply supposed to make them more flavorful and distinctive but ultimately you have to ignore it or else nearly every action you take has to be justified and you can't properly play the game. I'm not saying you can't play a Kenku following the core mechanics, I am saying if you are determined to follow the lore in Volo's you will inevitably fail because it is impossible. RAW they have no capacity for creativity whatsoever. This doesn't even make sense for a humanoid and is more like an computer. Even the writers themselves say "no creativity" when they appear to mean "not very creative." A true inability to be creative would lead them unable to even think in unique sentences they haven't seen before.

The whole reason people will usually chose the Kenku is for creative uses of their mimicry and forgery. Volo's art shows a Kenku wizard so yes I agree they intended for you to be able to play them. It still doesn't mean that it really fits well with the lore that Volo's Guide itself puts out though.  

I have done a few where I have mimiced a few of the part members before to get my point across. And even used parchment to make my best RP line. We were talking about demon weapons and an expert in arcane magic told us he will strike at our most vuneralble time. Then I wrote and showed everyone, "Sounds like my ex." No one was expecting it, not even me until I said it. 

Kind of a eclectic perspective but is Volo a reliable narrator? I mean you are dealing with a race that can only repeat what they have heard so it's not as if he could just ask them and even if he did it would be a game of charades trying to fill in the gaps and details.

The rebuttal of course is that WoTC wrote Volo's Guide to Monsters and since they created D&D that is the end all be all of the argument. If you treat it though that Volothamp Geddarm is an in world character and that Volo's Guide was written by him it makes things much looser. 

For example the kenku's origins have them as cursed and losing wings for trying to steal a valuable treasure and it's kept mysterious and vague as to what happened. I had to dig around mostly on wikis to loosely craft a theory as to what happened. Part the leaps for me is asking if lore from older books counts, such as mentioning the god the kenku were created for in his image. That or also tying physical features with alignment i.e. in first and second addition kenku had wings and were unaligned or neutral, then in third addition you seem them without wings and they are chaotic evil. That to me just seems very peculiar but that's probably a tangent for another time.

I've read most of this thread since I was wondering about how it might be to play as a Kenku character.
There's some interesting ideas and stories here to be sure, however...

It seems to me that a lot of people are more or less ignoring the curse of creativity as far as characters are concerned.
The way I see it it having creativity taken away from them means that a Kenku should be completely unable to come up with anything on their own. They should only be able to copy sounds and actions they've seen in the exact context that they've seen it in. So for example some neat ideas like a Kenku mimicking the sound of a ticking clock to tell the party to hurry up should really only be possible if the Kenku has heard someone make the sound of a ticking clock to get someone to hurry up.
To go from hearing the sound of a ticking clock to thinking that you can essencially use it as a metaphor for the passing of time requires creative thinking which is something that due to their divine curse the Kenku should not be able to do.

I don't mean to come off as a massive rule lawyer since I often play characters that might differ from the racial or class archetype but in a few select cases like the Kenku I will stick to lawyering. They're meant to have at one point had a god place a curse on them that took away their wings, voice and creativity. That curse has been powerful enough to affect the entire Kenku race, in perpetuity and has not been seen to weaken over the generations nor has it ever been lifted (that I know of). So that really seems like a rule you shouldn't be able to sidestep around.

I think that the Kenku curse is open to interpretation... at what point do we say that they can only copy things versus having limitations in regard to copying? Do we say, "This kenku has seen someone cook pork, but not beef, therefore, if given beef, they won't even think to apply the same techniques to this other cut of meat?" "This Kenku was taught how to swing a sword at a training dummy, therefore, they are unable to attack anything other than a training dummy?" If a DM wants to get pedantic about it, then there's really no reason to include Kenku at all, since at that point they're more like robots that are only capable of repeating the routines they were "programmed" to do.

I don't know if there is any room for interpretation. You're either able to think creatively and come up with ideas of your own or you're not.
After all if you're capable of small acts of creativity or leaps of imagination then why would you suddenly not be capable or larger creative tasks?
And yes robots repeating the same acts they were "programmed" to do, i.e. that saw being done, is exactly what they're supposed to be like.
Anything else is really just pretending that the curse doesn't exist. In which case you might as well just admit that you want to ignore the rule and see if the DM agrees.

To use your cooking analogy; If a Kenku is shown how to roast beef then sure it will be able to apply the same skill in the same context to roast mutton, venison, whatever else you like.
But it will not be able to think like other races and realise that if there's one way to cook meat, then there might be others as well. It will never experiment or add new things to it. It will only ever roast meat in the same manner it was shown. It cannot learn or expand its knowledge by its own accord, it can only learn by copying what other people are doing.

If it was taught a certain way of swinging a sword at a dummy then it would be able to repeat the same technique and swing the sword at an enemy but it would not be able to improve the technique on its own, just repeat it. Improving the knowledge it has on its own would require creativity and that's exactly what a Kenko is missing as a state of being. A Kenko might be able to create a master copy of a skill, item or sound it sees but it can never make it any better or any different - it will always stay a copy, never anything more.

Quote from TransmorpherDDS >>

... at what point do we say that they can only copy things versus having limitations in regard to copying?

It's like this;
You learn something by seeing it done. When you see that it's been done your mind registers that it's a thing that's exists, a thing that's possible to do.
Then you move your body or your mouth to try and repeat that act that you saw was possible and keep doing it until you're finally able to do it and that's when you've learned it.
Then at a certain point, once you've seen and copied enough skills you can pull together the knowledge you have so that you no longer need to see another person present the skill.
From that point on you can in your mind picture a reality where something you haven't seen done, something you don't know for sure exists. You imagine that if i can do this technique with the sword, then maybe i can do this other thing.

You picture this proposed thing in your mind and then you let your body try to copy the movement/skill/idea that you yourself rather than someone external have planned out and see if it works. That's how you think creatively and that's how you use your imagination to test out new skills and improve pre-existing ones. Because it's the same for improving skills or transposing skills as well. To improve a skill you first need to be able to imagine a non-existant (at the moment of imaging it) reality where this skill already is improved, where by being better it's different than the knowledge you already have.

So if you were playing it fairly here's how it would work for a Kenko:
A Kenko would be able to see the skill being demonstrated and would be able to have a perfect imagine in their head of the thing the saw. Based on that image they would be able to recreate it perfectly and keep it in their memory.
However the Kenko would only ever be able to picture in their mind this thing that they've seen or heard done as they saw it being done. That experienced to them is a closed book.
Crucially they would never be able to imagine a scenario where the skill they learned was different, only ever seeing it exactly as it was. And you need to be able to picture a movement being different to try to physically execute a movement being different, if you see what I mean.
That ability to picture a sound, phrase object or movement differently than they've experienced it Exactly what their past god ripped from their essences/minds.

By the way; I'm not just spinning yarn here. That IS actually how creative learning works. You use pre-existing ideas to create "proposed models" of new ideas and then execute them to see if they work. Same with movements, sounds and skills. It's all just data to the mind only the composition and complexity of it differs.
As an added point of interest there is a point in a child's development where it's essencially in a Kenko-like state and can only copy the information it sees but can't yet levarage it to theorise new information. This is the point where children will commonly not recognise the fact that they see a reflection of themselves in a mirror. Later on their minds develop the ability to think creatively and from that point on they can and will work with the information they have rather than just copy. Often enough they will work with it by doing and saying things which seem like silly versions of the correct information to us. However the crucial thing is that they things they say weren't told to them by others; they made them up themselves.

It's tricky because the description of Kenku in Volo's contradicts the assertion that they lack any and all ability to conceptualize beyond what they are shown literally. It mentions the idea of a Kenku conveying the concept of boredom by making the slow, rhythmic sound of a hammer. That's not literally what the sound means, so it implies that there's some ability to conceptualize ideas.

I think something else that's important to keep in mind is that the origins of the Kenku and their curse is kept deliberately vague. What god they betrayed, when, and why, isn't even known. I think an important point is that it says "the spark of creativity was torn from their souls". The wording there is imprecise enough that it could be taken to mean that it's not that all creativity and ability to think was removed, but rather that their creativity was greatly hampered or lost. Although the most damning sentence in the description is probably " kenku have no ability to invent new ideas or create new things". If you take the term "idea" to mean any thought or concept, then sure, they're incapable of any form of complex thought. But at that point it would mean Kenku aren't even creatures at all... even a chicken can at least make simple, basic thoughts. If, instead, you take it to mean they can't conceive of lofty concepts beyond their basic instincts and things they've seen others do, it makes a bit more sense. No matter how unpleasant or painful their lives are under a monarchy, they could never conceive of enacting a democracy, as it's far too large and unusual a concept if they've never encountered one before.

So in that sense, I think it would make sense to say that a Kenku could associate a slow, rhythmic tapping sound with boredom, and then use that same sound to inform other party members of their boredom. It's somewhat creative, sure, but it's not complex.

I don't want to come off as too argumentative, because I don't really feel that you're necessarily "wrong", in terms of literally reading the description of Kenku. But I think it makes more sense to assume that the description, as is often the case with D&D, is less than perfect and requires some willingness to interpret the RAI instead of the RAW.

That is more or less what I said, TransmorpherDDS. The writers themselves say "no creativity" when they appear to mean "not very creative."