Hey! I'm planning on having a queen kenku, I will gladly like to try and see her string words together, but is there a solid reason for her to have orignal thoughts? Also, what would be a good base, and background?
One of my players is running a Kenku grave cleric. Me and the party essentially decided that a Kenku could talk by stringing together syllables that one heard, like computer speech.
With the creativity thing, I don't think it'd be a thing where they just could not survive in a new environment or come up with new thoughts, or else they'd have gone extinct a long time ago. I think they just wouldn't be able of coming up with "art" or be able to solve really complex problems. So a Kenku would able to find out how to tell someone something, but it wouldn't be able to write a novel.
I ran a Kenku Bard a while back. The original idea was that he communicated through song lyrics, but 70's disco classics just don't translate well in a D&D setting.
He mostly just followed the rest of the party round in the end, and said odd words he'd heard, such as "Gold", "Grog", and "Kenku".
What we tended to do was, we'd have OOC conversations, and every while the DM would look at me after I said what I was planning to do in English, and say; "Nope don't understand a word you're saying."
I would the just reply, "Kenku, kenku, grog, gold." and point.
I DMed a 6 hour one shot where they players were heading up an assassination in a foreign city.
One of my players went Kenku... Knocker, the ranger. Probably the most entertaining character i've seen. He did everything through imitation and repurposed quotes fantasticly. Everything he said was taken from our campaign (which props to him because I told him he could prepare lines).
My favorite part was that he took the line of "It's a good trade to be in!" from a half drunk dwarf running a winepress. At the end when they carried out the assassination (it was a bit brutal) he pointed at the scene, and shouted out "It's a good trade to be in!"
You need to be the right player if you want to try it, but their restriction is what can make them be a lot of fun for a welcoming group.
Primarily not being able to create original sounds/speech.
The restriction to their creativity seems to be more of a limit on their artistic ability... But I could see a neat Kenku Bard who is a poet/storyteller who retells stories he's heard.
Groups can do what they want, but if you just want to ditch the lore I think you could be limiting your own enjoyment. It's like flaws in character creation. More often than not the flaws and bonds make a character more interesting than their positive attributes do.
In addition to Notes the Bard I mentioned a while back I've had the luck to play a few other adventure birbs. Fizzle, an evocation wizard, being the most recent. Since a lot of spells have somatic components I started off with him using the voice of his teacher for most of those. After a while the other players noticed that I was only using spells up to a certain level, most of them thought that was just me being strategic and using higher level spell slots to strengthen my spells. Eventually, in one of the "free talk" sessions, the bard of the group asked Fizzle if they could read his spellbook out loud for him. After that, I started using more of the higher level spells and using the bard's voice for the somatic components. The DM and I had agreed that Fizzle needed to actually hear the words for the somatic components, or the sounds in some cases before I could use them. It was my idea, the DM liked it, and none of the players picked up on before the bard.
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GM of The Bonus Role - We are playing a 5E game set in my homebrew world of Audra check us out Sunday's at 10 AM CST and follow us at the following social media links. https://www.twitch.tv/thebonusrole @BonusRole
I applaud your patience. I have a hard enough time waiting to level up for spells, let alone limiting myself until my party would figure that out. That's really awesome.
I play a Kenku and here's how I work through the vocal issues.
I have a list of short, common phrases that I learned outside of meeting the adventure group. I'll put funny, demonic, serious, etc voices to them to show that I'm mimicking
I add to the common list, new phrases I hear from the DMs NPCs or from the party itself.
If there isn't a short phrase I know, then I just tell everybody I'm making a sound that they understand. It can be serious or ridiculous, it's all up to you. For example I told the group, "I'm making the sound of a thumbs up." Who knows what that actually sounds like, but it still keeps it fun.
Remember, the Kenku cannot speak, only mimic, but that doesn't mean they are stupid.
I made a Kenku warlock and at 3rd level I got pact of the chain and got an Imp, and since you can telepathically communicate with it, and it speaks common, I just told it what to say pretty much.
I'm about to play a kenku for the first time and this is what I'm going to try: He's going to be a bard named Warble and the idea is that he will be well travelled, making his communication skills pretty advanced. He will "speak" mostly in story and song, things he's learned from listening to other bards all over the land and commited to memory. He loves to learn songs and he loves to perform, but because of the curse, he can't come up with any original content. He's driven by two things: his fascination with music and poetry and to learn as many stories and songs that he can and add them to his vocabulary, and to find a way to break the kenku curse so he may one day have the creative ability to write a song of his own.
My DM probably wont expect me to write a bunch of songs to pull this off and I'll probably focus on describing what he is singing about and what he's trying to communicate. As well as letting him know enough simple phrases he picked up to get by. These I'll probably just pick a few voices for and go for it.
In the last game I ran. I had a Kenku NPC that became popular with the group. I limited him to mainly say coin repeatedly, nicknamed Coin Coin. We RPed that since he was a rogue, he knew theives cant. So when interacting with the rogue, he was able to sign and talk in code normally with him, while the rest of the party stood there clueless.
In my homebrew campaign setting, there is a guild known as "The Glorious Guild of Scribes and Scroll Makers" who has a branch office in a magic academy. It consists of four Kenku siblings, who copy scrolls and books for students, named Scribbles, Scratches, Scuffs, and Sigh. They report and work for the guild chapters leader who taught them all specific phrases to use with students. These phrases include:
"One hour to copy, one hour to deliver. Room?" "Five Doves per page, a Crown per book." (Coin denominations in the setting are Iron Spark, Copper Dove, Silver Raven, Gold Crown, and Platinum Honor. An Iron Spark is worth half a copper and is generally used to give children allowances or for fractional sums.) “Let's take a look inside a book” (Only Scuffs uses this phrase and it does not come from the guild boss, she uses it when she is trying to help a student with research, in this case, she wanted to show the party a copy of "Laws and Orders of the Seven Great Courts of the Fae" as they are about to make an excursion into the Countless Courts of the Fey Realm to gather exotic materials for crafting their signature arcane foci)
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GM of The Bonus Role - We are playing a 5E game set in my homebrew world of Audra check us out Sunday's at 10 AM CST and follow us at the following social media links. https://www.twitch.tv/thebonusrole @BonusRole
I avoided playing a Kenku specifically because I think if you're going to play one, you should actually try to limit yourself to some simple phrases or concepts that every day people from where your Kenku resides would say.
I made a Kenku warlock and at 3rd level I got pact of the chain and got an Imp, and since you can telepathically communicate with it, and it speaks common, I just told it what to say pretty much.
Now I'm tempted to play an Imp with a Kenku "master".
I’m currently creating a Kenku that only makes different noises except when alone with another PC. When alone all it does is sing songs that Michigan J Frog sang in Looney Toons. DM approved it instantly.
Havent quite decided on class but background is entertainer.
I’m currently creating a Kenku that only makes different noises except when alone with another PC. When alone all it does is sing songs that Michigan J Frog sang in Looney Toons. DM approved it instantly.
Havent quite decided on class but background is entertainer.
Trickster Cleric seems fitting. That way at the end of the day if you haven't used it yet channel divinity to make a copy of themselves for twice the showmanship.
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GM of The Bonus Role - We are playing a 5E game set in my homebrew world of Audra check us out Sunday's at 10 AM CST and follow us at the following social media links. https://www.twitch.tv/thebonusrole @BonusRole
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Hey! I'm planning on having a queen kenku, I will gladly like to try and see her string words together, but is there a solid reason for her to have orignal thoughts? Also, what would be a good base, and background?
One of my players is running a Kenku grave cleric. Me and the party essentially decided that a Kenku could talk by stringing together syllables that one heard, like computer speech.
With the creativity thing, I don't think it'd be a thing where they just could not survive in a new environment or come up with new thoughts, or else they'd have gone extinct a long time ago. I think they just wouldn't be able of coming up with "art" or be able to solve really complex problems. So a Kenku would able to find out how to tell someone something, but it wouldn't be able to write a novel.
Hombrew: Way of Wresting, Circle of Sacrifice
So disable her ability to solve complex tasks, come with with unique art, and write unique things? Thanks btw!
I ran a Kenku Bard a while back. The original idea was that he communicated through song lyrics, but 70's disco classics just don't translate well in a D&D setting.
He mostly just followed the rest of the party round in the end, and said odd words he'd heard, such as "Gold", "Grog", and "Kenku".
What we tended to do was, we'd have OOC conversations, and every while the DM would look at me after I said what I was planning to do in English, and say; "Nope don't understand a word you're saying."
I would the just reply, "Kenku, kenku, grog, gold." and point.
And they'd say; "Okay roll initiative..."
I DMed a 6 hour one shot where they players were heading up an assassination in a foreign city.
One of my players went Kenku... Knocker, the ranger. Probably the most entertaining character i've seen. He did everything through imitation and repurposed quotes fantasticly. Everything he said was taken from our campaign (which props to him because I told him he could prepare lines).
My favorite part was that he took the line of "It's a good trade to be in!" from a half drunk dwarf running a winepress. At the end when they carried out the assassination (it was a bit brutal) he pointed at the scene, and shouted out "It's a good trade to be in!"
You need to be the right player if you want to try it, but their restriction is what can make them be a lot of fun for a welcoming group.
That is neat! Though what should be some restrictions?
Primarily not being able to create original sounds/speech.
The restriction to their creativity seems to be more of a limit on their artistic ability... But I could see a neat Kenku Bard who is a poet/storyteller who retells stories he's heard.
Groups can do what they want, but if you just want to ditch the lore I think you could be limiting your own enjoyment. It's like flaws in character creation. More often than not the flaws and bonds make a character more interesting than their positive attributes do.
I guess your right. Its just really difficult to tell what a kenku can or can't do.
In addition to Notes the Bard I mentioned a while back I've had the luck to play a few other adventure birbs. Fizzle, an evocation wizard, being the most recent. Since a lot of spells have somatic components I started off with him using the voice of his teacher for most of those. After a while the other players noticed that I was only using spells up to a certain level, most of them thought that was just me being strategic and using higher level spell slots to strengthen my spells. Eventually, in one of the "free talk" sessions, the bard of the group asked Fizzle if they could read his spellbook out loud for him. After that, I started using more of the higher level spells and using the bard's voice for the somatic components. The DM and I had agreed that Fizzle needed to actually hear the words for the somatic components, or the sounds in some cases before I could use them. It was my idea, the DM liked it, and none of the players picked up on before the bard.
GM of The Bonus Role - We are playing a 5E game set in my homebrew world of Audra check us out Sunday's at 10 AM CST and follow us at the following social media links.
https://www.twitch.tv/thebonusrole
@BonusRole
I applaud your patience. I have a hard enough time waiting to level up for spells, let alone limiting myself until my party would figure that out. That's really awesome.
I play a Kenku and here's how I work through the vocal issues.
Remember, the Kenku cannot speak, only mimic, but that doesn't mean they are stupid.
I made a Kenku warlock and at 3rd level I got pact of the chain and got an Imp, and since you can telepathically communicate with it, and it speaks common, I just told it what to say pretty much.
I'm about to play a kenku for the first time and this is what I'm going to try: He's going to be a bard named Warble and the idea is that he will be well travelled, making his communication skills pretty advanced. He will "speak" mostly in story and song, things he's learned from listening to other bards all over the land and commited to memory. He loves to learn songs and he loves to perform, but because of the curse, he can't come up with any original content. He's driven by two things: his fascination with music and poetry and to learn as many stories and songs that he can and add them to his vocabulary, and to find a way to break the kenku curse so he may one day have the creative ability to write a song of his own.
My DM probably wont expect me to write a bunch of songs to pull this off and I'll probably focus on describing what he is singing about and what he's trying to communicate. As well as letting him know enough simple phrases he picked up to get by. These I'll probably just pick a few voices for and go for it.
Sounds good. He has a motive, some spunk, and sounds like a good kenku character.
In the last game I ran. I had a Kenku NPC that became popular with the group. I limited him to mainly say coin repeatedly, nicknamed Coin Coin. We RPed that since he was a rogue, he knew theives cant. So when interacting with the rogue, he was able to sign and talk in code normally with him, while the rest of the party stood there clueless.
In my homebrew campaign setting, there is a guild known as "The Glorious Guild of Scribes and Scroll Makers" who has a branch office in a magic academy. It consists of four Kenku siblings, who copy scrolls and books for students, named Scribbles, Scratches, Scuffs, and Sigh. They report and work for the guild chapters leader who taught them all specific phrases to use with students. These phrases include:
"One hour to copy, one hour to deliver. Room?"
"Five Doves per page, a Crown per book." (Coin denominations in the setting are Iron Spark, Copper Dove, Silver Raven, Gold Crown, and Platinum Honor. An Iron Spark is worth half a copper and is generally used to give children allowances or for fractional sums.)
“Let's take a look inside a book” (Only Scuffs uses this phrase and it does not come from the guild boss, she uses it when she is trying to help a student with research, in this case, she wanted to show the party a copy of "Laws and Orders of the Seven Great Courts of the Fae" as they are about to make an excursion into the Countless Courts of the Fey Realm to gather exotic materials for crafting their signature arcane foci)
GM of The Bonus Role - We are playing a 5E game set in my homebrew world of Audra check us out Sunday's at 10 AM CST and follow us at the following social media links.
https://www.twitch.tv/thebonusrole
@BonusRole
I avoided playing a Kenku specifically because I think if you're going to play one, you should actually try to limit yourself to some simple phrases or concepts that every day people from where your Kenku resides would say.
Now I'm tempted to play an Imp with a Kenku "master".
I am one with the Force. The Force is with me.
I’m currently creating a Kenku that only makes different noises except when alone with another PC. When alone all it does is sing songs that Michigan J Frog sang in Looney Toons. DM approved it instantly.
Havent quite decided on class but background is entertainer.
Trickster Cleric seems fitting. That way at the end of the day if you haven't used it yet channel divinity to make a copy of themselves for twice the showmanship.
GM of The Bonus Role - We are playing a 5E game set in my homebrew world of Audra check us out Sunday's at 10 AM CST and follow us at the following social media links.
https://www.twitch.tv/thebonusrole
@BonusRole