So I'm new to dnd and I want to play a Kenku and I'm mostly scared of the curse of creativity and I don't know how to go around that? I could ask the dm if he can just go over that or I could make some deep lore about how he followed an army and does everything they did but like there's only so much you can do with that. Any suggestions?
I have played multiple Kenku since their release. for the most part, you'll find that DMs (and players) quickly agree that the vocal issue was a dumb addition to the race with this edition and it is an RP penalty that is often just overlooked or ignored. It's mostly just like playing a flightless Aarakocra with cool mimicry powers.
That has not been my experience at all. I have a player in one of my games who has played one quite successfully. He sometimes butts up against the restriction of not being able to communicate effectively and not being able to come up with original ideas, however he's been pretty imaginative about those situations and it's been fun for him and us as a group. He especially leverages the mimicry ability to the point where I'm almost considering that it might be overpowered. That especially has been hilarious at times, especially since we're playing in Chult where he can mimic dinosaur sounds. It's also been useful for spying. And on one occasion, the group were wrestling with the issue of not being able to carry a giant's item for proof of a quest they were on, and the kenku player mimicked the giants and their winterwolf's speech and they realised they didn't need anymore proof than that :)
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"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
The real problem isn't the language - that can be worked around a little. The thing that makes them unplayable is that they have no creativity. They lack the spark of creativity.
What this really means is that they should not ever be able to come up with a solution - they should only be able to mimic something that they have seen in the past. put them in a situation that they have never seen before - they can't deal with it. Maybe that is an extreme view of the race - but that is what my group got out of reading the Kenku in Volo's. They can literally only do what someone tells them to do, or what they have been taught to do. They can't adapt that to solve a new puzzle, they can't invent a solution.
I kinda cheated the "unable to speak" difficulty by playing a Kenku GOOlock. As such, whenever I was "talking" to my party, I was speaking telepathically to one of them (e.g. whisper it to them), who would then voice my thoughts on the matter, like Raj from The Big Bang Theory.
My friends thought it was good damn hilarious and would often use it to comedic effect in our campaign, such as "my voice" saying something totally false, then me crying out "Liar" with the voice of a child with a tantrum.
What this really means is that they should not ever be able to come up with a solution - they should only be able to mimic something that they have seen in the past.
What they have and have not experienced previously, however, is a subjective determination between the player and DM. The player can be creative and say, "My thief kenku who grew up in a thieves' guild in Waterdeep remembers a similar situation where they did..." and then tell the other players in character.
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"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
I dm a game where I enforce my kenku player to have to mimic what other people say, and it so far is amazing. He mostly speaks in curse words and repeating embarrassing stuff NPCs have said. I think it isn't that huge of a penalty for live games. For pbp/chat games, it depends. I don't mind letting kenku's talk, but having played one for a very short amount of time, I just made sure I made it very clear that whatever my kenku was saying was strung together in the voices of several different people.
Think of, if you know of it, the entity you face in the Oxen Free game. Like someone taking one word clips from the radio and stringing them together. Different pitches, voices, emotion behind the voices. I think Kenku have the potential to be an awesome RP experience, but it isn't very convenient.
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DM: Adventures in Phandalin [Khessa], The Dread of Strahd[Darya], Dragons of Stormwreck Isle [Rook], Baldur's Gate Mysteries [4-Player] Player: Oona in MO's Icewind Dale Ru's Current Status
Seriously there are plenty of way to communicate. You have to be constantly aware of what people say and kind of mentally store it for use. Plus you can also use cantrips. My favorite would be minor illusion to communicate with small images if a phase cant be made. But like someone said bumble is the perfect example. As a campaign goes on to your party learns more things that you might say to construe the same point such as danger or stealth or things like that.
The frustrating thing about Kenku is that it's rather unclear what "incapable of creativity" actually means in practice, and many interpretations seem to simply be inconsistent, self-contradictory, or so constrictive as to render the race unable to perform basic adventuring tasks. For instance, we're told that they can't be creative, but that they can communicate by reorganizing previously-heard phrases into novel contexts to communicate... which seems like it would require some level of creativity. The fact that you're not using original sounds doesn't mean that you're not communicating something new, after all.
Generally, creativity means the ability to come up with original ideas. But, the Kenku lack of creativity can't actually mean that, because we totally see kenku in the lore producing ideas of their own (like desiring to fly, deciding to seek out ruins that reach to the sky, or applying mimicked sentences or schemes in new contexts). As such the line between what they can and cannot do tends to come off as weirdly arbitrary and vary widely by table.
On the subject of kenku creativity, consider other chunks of lore that have been misconstrued. Time always distorts legends. The has been used as a plot device since forever, adding last minute twists to all of our story based media. Who's to say that wasn't what happened to the kenku curse? Time has already forgotten who the kenku served before being rendered earthbound mimics, and the kenkus themselves either can't say due to the curse or because they themselves didn't preserve that history. So maybe the lore is only a loose approximation of the truth, as it usually tends to be.
My interpretation is that the curse wasn't ment to tear the creativity out of their soul, but stifled it instead. The kenku's ambition turned to conniving is the real thing that their former master hated, so he/she/it took all the things that would foster that creativity; take flight and song from the birds and cut them off from their coveted treasure and now they're basically a completely different people. This makes the distinction between kenku goons running amuck in back alleys and PC Hero kenkus super important. Most kenku have lost that ambition and let the curse define their people. They fall into the niche of "hopeless plagiarist" because it's easier than trying to break a near-deity's curse on the entirety of their race. They use their mimicry and forgery, honed after ages of adapting to their limitations, because that instinct is easier to follow than going through with something new, ambitious, and risky. Their is a definite curse on them, that the lack of creativity part becomes self fulfilling to every kenku that isn't a PC.
I think the vagueness of the curse is meant to allow such interpretations. It let's the player and DM get to choose who cursed them, how the curse is really worded, and how much of it is literal. The way I worked kenku into my world has put PC kenkus and a place where they're almost seen as trouble makers by their own kind, as if them trying to be more than beggars and thieves is just gonna anger the gods again. However, they can quickly inspire other kenkus by example of their own deeds and help their kin remove their own stigmas concerning their curse.
I ran a Kenku thief in 2E many years ago. He perceived the spell caster to be the one who "saved" him and so, whenever the spell caster cast a spell, he'd repeated the verbal and somatic components to no effect. He'd twiddle his fingers, ruffle his feathers, all sorts of responses whenever his spells didn't work. He'd even step up to the spell caster and lean in, trying to hear the words, thinking he was mispronouncing the incarnation. He wasn't. But it made for some fun roleplaying.
I've been playing a Kenku in our 5e campaign for quite a while now, and out of all the games our group has played, this is by far my favourite character. Not being able to freely converse is an obvious drawback, however the longer you play, the more quotes and sound effects you get, means you constantly grow and evolve as a character, even moreso than levelling up etc. Definitely not for everyone though, and your group has to be open minded, and above all willing to help teach you phrases.
For a race that lacks creativity however, it is the one that you will require the most creativity to play, figuring out howto use the phrases you have learnt in order to get across what you desire. And being able to use that very specific sentence in a completely different setting, with it making sense, not only feels good, but your group will also have constant flashbacks to the story that you have all been on.
As for classes, I play a sorcerer with wild magic. My background is charlatan, and so it was written that I grew up on the streets, taught how to be a con artist by a mentor, and lived life grifting. My signature trick was the ball in a cup con, with 3 cups, a ball, and the player had to guess which one it was. Typically this con would be done via sleight of hand and performance, to try and hide the ball. My kenku however: used minor illusion to fake a ball being there, and then used mimicry to perfectly mimic the sound of a ball rattling in a cup. I also started with phrases such as "Pay the speaker, pick a beaker; find the ball, win a haul", "Winner winner, chicken dinner!", "Hand over the money", "Bad luck friend, maybe next time".
A lot of people also ask what use a Kenku is to the party. One, a great source of gold income. As above I know how to con people. Another thing I did one session in a new city, was I bought an arena ticket. Used forgery to make dozens of perfect copies, and sold them. Another is passing messages on, or recounting conversations, or fooling npc's. I've used mage hand to steal a guards keys, and mimicry & throw voice to mimic the sound of them jingling. Or thrown voice while intentionally "failing" a sleight of hand check to pickpocket somebody in order to start a riot between npc spectators inside an arena.
I played an urchin kenku cleric of trickery to 18th level in a long running campaign. I interpreted the proclivity for henching and lack of creativity as being very curious and supportive to the efforts of party members and friendly npcs. I manifested the loss of flight part of the curse as a strong interest in items and spells that offered temporary flight. But the real growth of the character came in the form of near obsessive people watching. He voraciously used divination magics, his training in illusions and stealth to break into places and spy on people's conversation and correspondence. Roleplaying wise my conversations were very limited to start with descriptions of sounds and direct mimicry, but as the game continued I practiced doing impressions of other characters. This would lead to copying certain key phrases at first, but over the course of years I would say original phrases but in my impression of there voices. So if I wanted to bravely fight or counsel moral good do an impression of something our paladin would say. Our GM used downtime mechanics, and we worked out a deal where I spent downtime basically spying and using divination ultimately trying to develop more and more of an approximation of my own voice through an amalgamation of experiencing so many conversations. And of course as I leveled I gained access to divine intervention, which is not a solution for most characters but worked pretty well. My thought is the mimicry and lack of creativity is really a built in flaw, and a stricter interpretation is not tenable. The game is never the totality of what your character experiences, so an abstraction of life experience has to happen on some level.
I played a Kenku pirate once who only spoke in pirate jargon. *That* was a lot of fun, and I want to play that character again some day. I’m also the type of player to be totally okay with the “lack of creativity” aspect, as I took that as a roleplaying challenge. Ultimately my Kenku was basically content to be a minion of the rest of the party. My fun came from how I messed with that perception and circumvented the party’s plans using my own ‘plans’ that I’d seen work before
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I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
My groups Kenku Druid negotiated with a Thri-kreen sailing crew. Never played a Kenku myself but roleplaying a 7 foot tall mantis approached by a 3 foot tall mockingbird was entertaining for everyone at the table. Lots of clicking mandibles and kakawing to say the least.
I have a friend who isn't playing a kenku, but he is playing a character who is mute. Not being able to easily speak with your party isn't as hard as you might think, so long as you don't expect to be the party face or the guy with the plan. It does take some solid improv chops to make fun, though.
Can't speak to the other aspects of playing a kenku.
Sir Doge McCaw, Lord of Memetic Song, The Great Plagiarist.
Former Member of Philosophical Goldfish.
He was a tall lanky sort of dirty white albino with a few black feathers peppering his chest. He was a bard. The last place (a palace) he'd performed for, he'd snuck off to the king's magician's quarters and stolen a scroll for what he thought was a permanent fix for flight. It however was a one shot spell and pretty much worthless since he didn't know how to read. Or how to perform magic. Since he was an outcast of his tribe due to albinism he was more keen on the racial ambition of flight than most kenku. He wanted to be the hero of his village. But he was a chronic screw-up. He was very unlucky except for the fact that he ripped off the most talented singer's voices/songs and used them to make a living.
I also used Vine Soundboards to communicate. Yes, I found the most annoying ratchet vine soundboard I could. Along with a Donald Trump soundboard (just because my DM was kind of a jerk and said he was going to make me play every weekend or he'd kill my character and he hates Trump).
Communication was fine I just copied people, so if someone called the other person a bastard or whatever I just called them that over and over again in that same person's voice instead of the character's name. I was sooooo annoying about it. I was fun to play with... :D I was constantly insulting my party-members through vine because that's the only way Sir Doge knew how to communicate.
Since Sir Doge had already been adventuring through the land, he had a decent sort of lexicon. Of course, whatever he said came out in a million different voices, which I did role play.
He made a good bard because I'd just, play a random song on spotify and roll my check and pass it.
He was fun and really irritating. After three games of my mayhem, the DM gave up his campaign and never tried forcing me to play every weekend again.
You just have to be really creative and have fun with him.
This is a little of topic as I haven't already played a Kenku but I wanted to share my idea with you guys.
One of my players in the game I DM suggested he could do a little One-Shot as part of the campaign when his character "retires", so that I would be able to be a player for like one or two sessions.
I thought about creating a Lawful Neutral Kenku Samurai (Fighter). I'm not sure about the name, maybe Wolfkling (wolf because his flock roams the wilds and they use wolf sounds to identify each other and kling as in the noise swords make when they clash) who used to be the protector of his flock that would roam around the realm and search for artifacts that could grant flight. He would join the group as he lost his flock and is terribly struggling with traversing the world alone because he is used to just following orders and protect his flock.
And since I would be able to start at something around 6th to 8th level I could have a Flame Tongue greatsword (+2d6 fire dmg when you ignite it using the command word) that was made for him to fulfil his role. The command word would be his own name, but with a wolf howl and the sword kling sound.
In terms of RP I'd try to mostly not speak in character and just describe what noises he would make to communicate. He will - of course - follow his orders to the very letter when he is giving one by the group (once they're "friends" aka his new flock).
I'm still not sure who the master of his old flock should be. It could be another Kenku of course, but I was thinking that it could also be another creature. I'm not sure what could actually fit though.
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#OpenDnD. #DnDBegone
So I'm new to dnd and I want to play a Kenku and I'm mostly scared of the curse of creativity and I don't know how to go around that? I could ask the dm if he can just go over that or I could make some deep lore about how he followed an army and does everything they did but like there's only so much you can do with that. Any suggestions?
"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
― Oscar Wilde.
The real problem isn't the language - that can be worked around a little. The thing that makes them unplayable is that they have no creativity. They lack the spark of creativity.
What this really means is that they should not ever be able to come up with a solution - they should only be able to mimic something that they have seen in the past. put them in a situation that they have never seen before - they can't deal with it. Maybe that is an extreme view of the race - but that is what my group got out of reading the Kenku in Volo's. They can literally only do what someone tells them to do, or what they have been taught to do. They can't adapt that to solve a new puzzle, they can't invent a solution.
I kinda cheated the "unable to speak" difficulty by playing a Kenku GOOlock. As such, whenever I was "talking" to my party, I was speaking telepathically to one of them (e.g. whisper it to them), who would then voice my thoughts on the matter, like Raj from The Big Bang Theory.
My friends thought it was good damn hilarious and would often use it to comedic effect in our campaign, such as "my voice" saying something totally false, then me crying out "Liar" with the voice of a child with a tantrum.
"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
― Oscar Wilde.
For an example of somebody playing a Kenku watch
the latest episode (#20) of Critical Role.
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I dm a game where I enforce my kenku player to have to mimic what other people say, and it so far is amazing. He mostly speaks in curse words and repeating embarrassing stuff NPCs have said. I think it isn't that huge of a penalty for live games. For pbp/chat games, it depends. I don't mind letting kenku's talk, but having played one for a very short amount of time, I just made sure I made it very clear that whatever my kenku was saying was strung together in the voices of several different people.
Think of, if you know of it, the entity you face in the Oxen Free game. Like someone taking one word clips from the radio and stringing them together. Different pitches, voices, emotion behind the voices. I think Kenku have the potential to be an awesome RP experience, but it isn't very convenient.
DM: Adventures in Phandalin [Khessa], The Dread of Strahd [Darya], Dragons of Stormwreck Isle [Rook], Baldur's Gate Mysteries [4-Player]
Player: Oona in MO's Icewind Dale
Ru's Current Status
Seriously there are plenty of way to communicate. You have to be constantly aware of what people say and kind of mentally store it for use. Plus you can also use cantrips. My favorite would be minor illusion to communicate with small images if a phase cant be made. But like someone said bumble is the perfect example. As a campaign goes on to your party learns more things that you might say to construe the same point such as danger or stealth or things like that.
The frustrating thing about Kenku is that it's rather unclear what "incapable of creativity" actually means in practice, and many interpretations seem to simply be inconsistent, self-contradictory, or so constrictive as to render the race unable to perform basic adventuring tasks. For instance, we're told that they can't be creative, but that they can communicate by reorganizing previously-heard phrases into novel contexts to communicate... which seems like it would require some level of creativity. The fact that you're not using original sounds doesn't mean that you're not communicating something new, after all.
Ludic: adjective (formal). showing spontaneous and undirected playfulness.
On the subject of kenku creativity, consider other chunks of lore that have been misconstrued. Time always distorts legends. The has been used as a plot device since forever, adding last minute twists to all of our story based media. Who's to say that wasn't what happened to the kenku curse? Time has already forgotten who the kenku served before being rendered earthbound mimics, and the kenkus themselves either can't say due to the curse or because they themselves didn't preserve that history. So maybe the lore is only a loose approximation of the truth, as it usually tends to be.
My interpretation is that the curse wasn't ment to tear the creativity out of their soul, but stifled it instead. The kenku's ambition turned to conniving is the real thing that their former master hated, so he/she/it took all the things that would foster that creativity; take flight and song from the birds and cut them off from their coveted treasure and now they're basically a completely different people. This makes the distinction between kenku goons running amuck in back alleys and PC Hero kenkus super important. Most kenku have lost that ambition and let the curse define their people. They fall into the niche of "hopeless plagiarist" because it's easier than trying to break a near-deity's curse on the entirety of their race. They use their mimicry and forgery, honed after ages of adapting to their limitations, because that instinct is easier to follow than going through with something new, ambitious, and risky. Their is a definite curse on them, that the lack of creativity part becomes self fulfilling to every kenku that isn't a PC.
I think the vagueness of the curse is meant to allow such interpretations. It let's the player and DM get to choose who cursed them, how the curse is really worded, and how much of it is literal. The way I worked kenku into my world has put PC kenkus and a place where they're almost seen as trouble makers by their own kind, as if them trying to be more than beggars and thieves is just gonna anger the gods again. However, they can quickly inspire other kenkus by example of their own deeds and help their kin remove their own stigmas concerning their curse.
#OpenDnD. #DnDBegone
I ran a Kenku thief in 2E many years ago. He perceived the spell caster to be the one who "saved" him and so, whenever the spell caster cast a spell, he'd repeated the verbal and somatic components to no effect. He'd twiddle his fingers, ruffle his feathers, all sorts of responses whenever his spells didn't work. He'd even step up to the spell caster and lean in, trying to hear the words, thinking he was mispronouncing the incarnation. He wasn't. But it made for some fun roleplaying.
I've been playing a Kenku in our 5e campaign for quite a while now, and out of all the games our group has played, this is by far my favourite character. Not being able to freely converse is an obvious drawback, however the longer you play, the more quotes and sound effects you get, means you constantly grow and evolve as a character, even moreso than levelling up etc. Definitely not for everyone though, and your group has to be open minded, and above all willing to help teach you phrases.
For a race that lacks creativity however, it is the one that you will require the most creativity to play, figuring out howto use the phrases you have learnt in order to get across what you desire. And being able to use that very specific sentence in a completely different setting, with it making sense, not only feels good, but your group will also have constant flashbacks to the story that you have all been on.
As for classes, I play a sorcerer with wild magic. My background is charlatan, and so it was written that I grew up on the streets, taught how to be a con artist by a mentor, and lived life grifting. My signature trick was the ball in a cup con, with 3 cups, a ball, and the player had to guess which one it was. Typically this con would be done via sleight of hand and performance, to try and hide the ball. My kenku however: used minor illusion to fake a ball being there, and then used mimicry to perfectly mimic the sound of a ball rattling in a cup. I also started with phrases such as "Pay the speaker, pick a beaker; find the ball, win a haul", "Winner winner, chicken dinner!", "Hand over the money", "Bad luck friend, maybe next time".
A lot of people also ask what use a Kenku is to the party. One, a great source of gold income. As above I know how to con people. Another thing I did one session in a new city, was I bought an arena ticket. Used forgery to make dozens of perfect copies, and sold them. Another is passing messages on, or recounting conversations, or fooling npc's. I've used mage hand to steal a guards keys, and mimicry & throw voice to mimic the sound of them jingling. Or thrown voice while intentionally "failing" a sleight of hand check to pickpocket somebody in order to start a riot between npc spectators inside an arena.
All in all, play a Kenku. It is just fun.
I played one but it died too quickly, a task required imagination... go figure what happened
I played an urchin kenku cleric of trickery to 18th level in a long running campaign. I interpreted the proclivity for henching and lack of creativity as being very curious and supportive to the efforts of party members and friendly npcs. I manifested the loss of flight part of the curse as a strong interest in items and spells that offered temporary flight. But the real growth of the character came in the form of near obsessive people watching. He voraciously used divination magics, his training in illusions and stealth to break into places and spy on people's conversation and correspondence. Roleplaying wise my conversations were very limited to start with descriptions of sounds and direct mimicry, but as the game continued I practiced doing impressions of other characters. This would lead to copying certain key phrases at first, but over the course of years I would say original phrases but in my impression of there voices. So if I wanted to bravely fight or counsel moral good do an impression of something our paladin would say. Our GM used downtime mechanics, and we worked out a deal where I spent downtime basically spying and using divination ultimately trying to develop more and more of an approximation of my own voice through an amalgamation of experiencing so many conversations. And of course as I leveled I gained access to divine intervention, which is not a solution for most characters but worked pretty well. My thought is the mimicry and lack of creativity is really a built in flaw, and a stricter interpretation is not tenable. The game is never the totality of what your character experiences, so an abstraction of life experience has to happen on some level.
I played a Kenku pirate once who only spoke in pirate jargon. *That* was a lot of fun, and I want to play that character again some day. I’m also the type of player to be totally okay with the “lack of creativity” aspect, as I took that as a roleplaying challenge. Ultimately my Kenku was basically content to be a minion of the rest of the party. My fun came from how I messed with that perception and circumvented the party’s plans using my own ‘plans’ that I’d seen work before
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
My groups Kenku Druid negotiated with a Thri-kreen sailing crew. Never played a Kenku myself but roleplaying a 7 foot tall mantis approached by a 3 foot tall mockingbird was entertaining for everyone at the table. Lots of clicking mandibles and kakawing to say the least.
I have a friend who isn't playing a kenku, but he is playing a character who is mute. Not being able to easily speak with your party isn't as hard as you might think, so long as you don't expect to be the party face or the guy with the plan. It does take some solid improv chops to make fun, though.
Can't speak to the other aspects of playing a kenku.
I've played a Kenku. I annoyed my DM to death. :D
My whole name was:
Sir Doge McCaw, Lord of Memetic Song, The Great Plagiarist.
Former Member of Philosophical Goldfish.
He was a tall lanky sort of dirty white albino with a few black feathers peppering his chest. He was a bard. The last place (a palace) he'd performed for, he'd snuck off to the king's magician's quarters and stolen a scroll for what he thought was a permanent fix for flight. It however was a one shot spell and pretty much worthless since he didn't know how to read. Or how to perform magic. Since he was an outcast of his tribe due to albinism he was more keen on the racial ambition of flight than most kenku. He wanted to be the hero of his village. But he was a chronic screw-up. He was very unlucky except for the fact that he ripped off the most talented singer's voices/songs and used them to make a living.
I also used Vine Soundboards to communicate. Yes, I found the most annoying ratchet vine soundboard I could. Along with a Donald Trump soundboard (just because my DM was kind of a jerk and said he was going to make me play every weekend or he'd kill my character and he hates Trump).
Communication was fine I just copied people, so if someone called the other person a bastard or whatever I just called them that over and over again in that same person's voice instead of the character's name. I was sooooo annoying about it. I was fun to play with... :D I was constantly insulting my party-members through vine because that's the only way Sir Doge knew how to communicate.
Since Sir Doge had already been adventuring through the land, he had a decent sort of lexicon. Of course, whatever he said came out in a million different voices, which I did role play.
He made a good bard because I'd just, play a random song on spotify and roll my check and pass it.
He was fun and really irritating. After three games of my mayhem, the DM gave up his campaign and never tried forcing me to play every weekend again.
You just have to be really creative and have fun with him.
I miss Sir Doge.
The chaotic neutral good person over there...
This is a little of topic as I haven't already played a Kenku but I wanted to share my idea with you guys.
One of my players in the game I DM suggested he could do a little One-Shot as part of the campaign when his character "retires", so that I would be able to be a player for like one or two sessions.
I thought about creating a Lawful Neutral Kenku Samurai (Fighter). I'm not sure about the name, maybe Wolfkling (wolf because his flock roams the wilds and they use wolf sounds to identify each other and kling as in the noise swords make when they clash) who used to be the protector of his flock that would roam around the realm and search for artifacts that could grant flight. He would join the group as he lost his flock and is terribly struggling with traversing the world alone because he is used to just following orders and protect his flock.
And since I would be able to start at something around 6th to 8th level I could have a Flame Tongue greatsword (+2d6 fire dmg when you ignite it using the command word) that was made for him to fulfil his role. The command word would be his own name, but with a wolf howl and the sword kling sound.
In terms of RP I'd try to mostly not speak in character and just describe what noises he would make to communicate. He will - of course - follow his orders to the very letter when he is giving one by the group (once they're "friends" aka his new flock).
I'm still not sure who the master of his old flock should be. It could be another Kenku of course, but I was thinking that it could also be another creature. I'm not sure what could actually fit though.