Does anyone have any more ideas of what kinds of things a raven can mimic? My ranger took one as her companion, and part of the reason why is to act as a distraction with mimicry.

Quote from Lindzlucy >>

Does anyone have any more ideas of what kinds of things a raven can mimic?  My ranger took one as her companion, and part of the reason why is to act as a distraction with mimicry.

 Volume is likely the primary limiting factor.  It couldn’t roar as load as a dragon, for example.  But, it could likely manage a distant wolf’s howl.

This is wrong. Crows and Raven (although look similar) are two different birds.

They both have different tail shapes. Ravens are diamond and Crows are rounded. The Raven is also larger. 

I noted there were quite a few comments regarding the real-world intelligence of these birds, and there perhaps was a need for some disambiguation between the terms "Raven" and "Crow".  My time working at the Museum of Southwestern biology preparing taxonomic bird specimens taught me that as with most labels in the animal kingdom,  it is we humans that aren't particularly consistent when it comes to what naming means. I think someone below mentioned correctly that Crows belong to the genus Corvus, though Ravens and Rooks also belong to this genus. Corvus, funny enough, itself is Latin for Raven (most taxonomic convention uses Latin and ancient greek to draw its names from. Some scientists choose to name every new species they describe after themselves or anything else they might find hilarious because as we are about to discuss, the only pattern is that there is no pattern.) There are over 45 species of birds that fall within this genus, only one species of which isn't a crow or raven by name, the common rook.  There is no true distinction among the remaining species that defines what a "crow" is versus what a "raven" is, save that in those labels that have been assigned (ie a choice has been made between "crow" or "raven," when naming the bird), the basis of a species size has surfaced organically through coincidence to say that; crows generally tend toward being considered smaller than ravens. That is not a hard rule that defines the difference since there are species of Crow that are larger than species of Raven, but it does sum up, in as little words, the sole tendency that can be distilled out of the chaos that is how naming these birds has gone so far. TLDR: There is no scientific characteristic that defines one versus the other. The only thing that can be described is the only tendency observed (again tendency, not rule) for those birds to be named along size when faced with the option of choosing between the two. That tendency does not at all apply to any of the birds which were not named by a scientist faced with that rare task and honor. Hooray, the only pattern is that there is no pattern. Now that that is out of the way:

Yes, Ravens and Crows, (aka Corvids, the same group we've now established) are far undervalued at an intelligence score of 2. (When measuring interspecies intelligence, more robust proxies intended for making viable comparisons such as Encephalization quotient (EQ), or put in simpler English) modern methods we can more accurately measure and compare intelligence between species who can have very different "types" "brands" "apples compared to oranges" forms of "being smart";  place the intelligence of Crows and Ravens ahead of the average Chimp, tieing with all but the smartest Chimps in animal smarts. (Chimps range an EQ of 2.2 to 2.5, Crows/Ravens about 2.49). Only the Orca (2.57-3.3), bottlenose dolphin (4.14), and tucuxi river dolphin (4.56) definitively beat a Corvid's smarts in the animal kingdom.  For comparison, the human EQ range is between 7.4 and 7.8. Here are some impressive Corvid feats of intelligence:

• Corvids have been shown to not only use tools but to create and customize their tools to better suit the requirements of a given task. 
• they have been observed to engage in their own form of sports (yes with rules they collectively adhere to, and resultant pecking order, all of it), 
• they have the ability to recognize faces and have been found to have an episodic memory like ours (you can think of it as a form of memory where each subdivided "episode" is storylike,  and stores and recalls the memory of an event)  
• they have been shown to be capable of using personal experience to make predictions for other members of the same species. 
• they have been observed to develop methods to safely butcher poisonous prey (not only avoiding poisonous parts but doing so in a way that does not contaminate the edible parts),
• and are one of the only creatures, alongside humans, ants, and bees, shown to be capable of displacement (communication about things that are not immediately present, in the present space or  present time)

Since both an Ape (our generic chimp stand-in) and a Dolphin have an intelligence of 6 and a Baboon and (flying) monkey have an intelligence of 4, a Raven should fall firmly at a minimum intelligence score of 5 and a maximum intelligence score of  6. 

Quote from Some_Randomer >>

This is wrong. Crows and Raven (although look similar) are two different birds.

They both have different tail shapes. Ravens are diamond and Crows are rounded. The Raven is also larger. 

 That's true.

I'm not quite sure what your issue is? I don't think anyone's mentioned crows before.

No its just that the minimum an attack can do well still hitting is 1 damage so thats why a lot of small animals just do a flat 1 

i was using this a pet for my charictar and i love it

Quote from Dr_Frederick >>

Quote from Gay_Dog >>

 Quite frankly... ravens shouldn't have a lower intelligence score than a housecat. They should probably be a little closer to the baboon or ape in intelligence.

Ravens are known to be extremely intelligent birds in real life, after all!

 

Quote from 54MU31 >>

Ravens are among the smartest of all birds. Therefore, I find the score of 2 for intelligence inaccurate. Would you kindly update this to be more accurate to the real-world?

 

I am surprised that people have such strong feelings on avian intelligence.

Now that I think about it though, smart ravens have been a staple since the Hobbit.  Like trees, all sorts of birds were sentient on Middle Earth (they had their own rulers, diplomatic relations, etc), but ravens were one of the few smart enough to learn common.

 So, the thing about animal intelligence as in game mechanics is, they stat doesn't necessarily represent the animal's actual intelligence, but rather how it will interact with our world with us, from our point of view. Most animals can count and do basic math, and varying degrees of problem solving (as in the case with crows, ravens, etc.) The number comes into play when we need to use the game mechanics to determine the outcome of a given animal's interaction with something that generally originates from or with one of the "intelligent" races.

can you give ravens magical Items? because if I gave him (or her) a way to turn invisible then the mimicry ability could be way better

I did read in some comments that people noit happy with Int of the raven. My opinon is that the " real life Int" which people say is more more the wisdom of the birds. And in 5e Int is more like education then understanding, or i´m wrong ?

my character *honk* would not approve of this 1 damage.

Why does a raven have an INT of 2?

Corvids are actually decently intelligent.

How does the attack "assume it is a dex based attack"?

It's probably just we can't make a raven do no damage because those things are nasty irl. Seriously they scary.

Once again nitpick (I wrote this right after I criticized the Brown bears intelligence) I feel like these guys probably should at least have 6 intelligence and a higher WIS as well. Corvids as a general rule a pretty dang smart for an animal, not just in the more wisdom based sense of perception and know when to run away but also being able to solve puzzles and remember faces.

Even more nit-picky I feel like these guys should be at least small. Ravens are bigger than tiny, but since I feel like ravens (and most beast) stat blocks are kind of a catch-all for animals of that type, I guess tiny is fine for representing something like a crow or jay

Thanks DukeCityCowboy. This was an interesting read :)

It has +4 to hit, which would require the use of Dex (14) rather than Str (2).

birb

I can't believe that this was an actual fact and an actual inquiry for my DnD party and I! A raven familiar was pecking at someone's hand and after a quick search, we deduced that the pecked person received 1 point of piercing damage. So funny!