So I'll be playing a Kenku in an upcoming campaign to which I am very excited. I love trying new things and especially love anything that might make the Roleplay aspect of D&D richer.
I understand the only being able to speak via mimicking sounds. I've got a general idea of the kinds of things my Kenku will have heard in their short life thus far. I've done some reading on how not to be annoying about it, like I won't bark like a dog but say "Clink makes a sound like a barking dog" etc. I chose Kenku mostly because I'll be a bit more of an advanced player in a group of new players, and I want to make sure I'm in a background role and the new players get a chance in the spotlight.
I'm struggling with the other curse though, the loss of Creativity.
What defines creativity? My Kenku can't write poetry or come up with an idea and paint a painting. She could forge a painting, but not create one from her own imagination. But how far does it go? If she wanted to keep a journal, could she do sketches of scenes that happened if they are an exact replica of the scene, or does turning a 3D memory into a 2D sketch require creativity? Likewise if she wanted to keep a journal. She heard the Barbarian tell the Rogue to check that chest for traps, but could she take that spoken sentence and turn it into a written one? And how far does it go? If my Kenku is starving, instinct will push her to eat, but will she just gobble down the first thing she sees that is edible, or could she formulate the simple plan to go to the inn and buy some food, or maybe lurk near a food cart and take a pie when the vendor isn't looking, or do even simple plans like that require the creativity she lacks? If the party goes into a dungeon and she somehow finds herself alone in a room with 2 passages in 2 different directions, does choosing a passage require creativity? If there is a door with a face on it and the face asks a riddle, could my Kenku solve it, or would they only be able to solve it if they've heard the riddle before? Like maybe I'd make an INT check to see if I'd ever heard that riddle before? (But that seems unfair if the DM would rather the players work out the riddle themselves).
I'm trying to establish a baseline of what my Kenku could decide to do on their own, and what they'd have to rely on the group to suggest/lead/plan.
I'd love some thoughts and opinions on how other people interpret the creativity curse of the Kenku.
To me the key to interpreting the "lack of creativity" is the observation that kenku function well as minions to a more powerful master. They aren't stupid - it's more that they lack the initiative to come up with plans on their own. To use your examples, it's very basic knowledge that inns serve food, or that pie carts have pies. Deciding to go to an inn for some food or to steal a pie aren't "creative" solutions to the problem of hunger; they are some of the most basic solutions around. So your kenku would of course be able to do either of those things without a problem.
Choosing a passage to go down doesn't necessarily require creativity - if she just picks one at random, that's not creative at all. Nor would having a basic rule like, "When in doubt, always go left," be "creative" in my book. However, if she were to, for example, cast produce flame and use it to determine whether a fresh breeze was coming from either passage by observing any change in the flickering of the fire, that would arguably be using creativity, and maybe she wouldn't be able to do that unless she'd observed someone using a similar technique in the past.
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"We're the perfect combination of expendable and unkillable!"
I agree with what Nat_30 said. I would say if your Kenku sees a beautiful flower or a fierce monster and wants to paint a picture of it later, I would think it would have no problem getting some paints and some canvass and doing that... now if you didn't have any paints and no one ever showed you how to make your own... you would not be able to come up with any fancy plans to smash flowers or use bug guts or anything like that to get it done... And you probably wouldn't have any crazy ideas for making your own canvas or using something in it's place either.
I play a Kenku in one of my campaigns and I kind of cheated with the speaking. I am a warlock that warships the "great old one" so I can use telepathy to communicate with people when I am having a hard time using my mimic ability.
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So I'll be playing a Kenku in an upcoming campaign to which I am very excited. I love trying new things and especially love anything that might make the Roleplay aspect of D&D richer.
I understand the only being able to speak via mimicking sounds. I've got a general idea of the kinds of things my Kenku will have heard in their short life thus far. I've done some reading on how not to be annoying about it, like I won't bark like a dog but say "Clink makes a sound like a barking dog" etc. I chose Kenku mostly because I'll be a bit more of an advanced player in a group of new players, and I want to make sure I'm in a background role and the new players get a chance in the spotlight.
I'm struggling with the other curse though, the loss of Creativity.
What defines creativity? My Kenku can't write poetry or come up with an idea and paint a painting. She could forge a painting, but not create one from her own imagination. But how far does it go? If she wanted to keep a journal, could she do sketches of scenes that happened if they are an exact replica of the scene, or does turning a 3D memory into a 2D sketch require creativity? Likewise if she wanted to keep a journal. She heard the Barbarian tell the Rogue to check that chest for traps, but could she take that spoken sentence and turn it into a written one? And how far does it go? If my Kenku is starving, instinct will push her to eat, but will she just gobble down the first thing she sees that is edible, or could she formulate the simple plan to go to the inn and buy some food, or maybe lurk near a food cart and take a pie when the vendor isn't looking, or do even simple plans like that require the creativity she lacks? If the party goes into a dungeon and she somehow finds herself alone in a room with 2 passages in 2 different directions, does choosing a passage require creativity? If there is a door with a face on it and the face asks a riddle, could my Kenku solve it, or would they only be able to solve it if they've heard the riddle before? Like maybe I'd make an INT check to see if I'd ever heard that riddle before? (But that seems unfair if the DM would rather the players work out the riddle themselves).
I'm trying to establish a baseline of what my Kenku could decide to do on their own, and what they'd have to rely on the group to suggest/lead/plan.
I'd love some thoughts and opinions on how other people interpret the creativity curse of the Kenku.
To me the key to interpreting the "lack of creativity" is the observation that kenku function well as minions to a more powerful master. They aren't stupid - it's more that they lack the initiative to come up with plans on their own. To use your examples, it's very basic knowledge that inns serve food, or that pie carts have pies. Deciding to go to an inn for some food or to steal a pie aren't "creative" solutions to the problem of hunger; they are some of the most basic solutions around. So your kenku would of course be able to do either of those things without a problem.
Choosing a passage to go down doesn't necessarily require creativity - if she just picks one at random, that's not creative at all. Nor would having a basic rule like, "When in doubt, always go left," be "creative" in my book. However, if she were to, for example, cast produce flame and use it to determine whether a fresh breeze was coming from either passage by observing any change in the flickering of the fire, that would arguably be using creativity, and maybe she wouldn't be able to do that unless she'd observed someone using a similar technique in the past.
"We're the perfect combination of expendable and unkillable!"
I agree with what Nat_30 said. I would say if your Kenku sees a beautiful flower or a fierce monster and wants to paint a picture of it later, I would think it would have no problem getting some paints and some canvass and doing that... now if you didn't have any paints and no one ever showed you how to make your own... you would not be able to come up with any fancy plans to smash flowers or use bug guts or anything like that to get it done... And you probably wouldn't have any crazy ideas for making your own canvas or using something in it's place either.
I play a Kenku in one of my campaigns and I kind of cheated with the speaking. I am a warlock that warships the "great old one" so I can use telepathy to communicate with people when I am having a hard time using my mimic ability.