Homebrew COPY OF Kenku homebrew Species Details
KENKU TRAITS
Cursed by the gods: (see culture at bottom)
Revoked creativity they can not invent or create without having seen/heard/experienced before, unable to create their own sound, only to mimic others. Due to reclusiveness with other races and other flocks culture and science advancements are practically non existent. Mimicry still requires proficiency in the skill to make/repair items and will not restore magical power to repaired items.
Revoked speech: Some flocks have adopted the language of the winds, others have a mix of musical instruments and the loud cracking sounds of felling trees. Often Kenku will only find meaningful communication with new beings through written language and gestures until a balance of this and mimicry is found.
Revoked flight:, the gods stripped the Kenku of flight and as such they crave any form of the ability making scrolls and spells that can give even the briefest of time flying are the most coveted items of the Kenku.
Ability Score Increase: Your Dexterity score increases by 2, and your Wisdom score increases by 1.
Age: Kenku have shorter lifespans than humans. They reach maturity at about 12 years old and can live to 60.
Alignment: Kenku are chaotic creatures, rarely making enduring commitments, and they care mostly for preserving their own hides. They are generally chaotic neutral in outlook.
Size: Kenku are around 5 feet tall and weigh between 90 and 120 pounds. Your size is Medium.
Speed: Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Expert Forgery: You can duplicate other creatures’ handwriting and craftwork. You have advantage on all checks made to produce forgeries or duplicates of existing objects.
Kenku Training: You are proficient in your choice of two of the following skills: Acrobatics, Deception, Stealth, and Sleight of Hand.
Mimicry: You can mimic sounds you have heard, including voices. A creature that hears the sounds you make can tell they are imitations with a successful Wisdom (Insight) check opposed by your Charisma (Deception) check.
Languages: You can read and write Common and Auran, but you can speak only by using your Mimicry trait.
KENKU CULTURE/BACKSTORY
The actual origins of the kenku aren’t clear (largely due to conflicting lore between editions) but while the proper nouns may have changed around the story has the same notes. The kenku started as proper bird-folk with wings, creative talent, and a voice of their own. They served some sort of dark master and attempted to betray them by stealing some extremely important shiny bauble. The kenku were caught and given an all-mighty deity level punishment and were nerfed to oblivion, then they were let loose to wander around the material plane.
The result of all this is a deeply wounded culture that focuses on regaining what was lost.
Each kenku instinctually misses their ability to fly and their dreams take them skyward. Kenku flocks are drawn to high places, and since they rarely have any real resources of their own, they usually settle in ruined towers or high forgotten places amongst the city sprawl. Spells and magic items that provide flight are especially prized, and many kenku study magic explicitly to one day take to the sky.
Kenku have no empires or fortunes, they scrape their way by making use of what talents their people have left, mimicry and thieving. Each kenku can repeat the things they hear perfectly but have no voice of their own. They create their “vocabulary” out of words they’ve heard, and their speech is often choppy and segmented. This “lack of voice” applies to their artistic voice as well and kenku find it nearly impossible to create something new, a wound still aching from their ancestral curse. Without an artistic voice kenku remain a cultural echo, always on the edge but never forming a real culture of their own.
COPY OF Kenku homebrew Traits
Expert Forgery - Kenku Training - Mimicry | Languages: read/write Common + Auran but only speak using MimicryBroken Languages
Broken Languages: You can read and write Common and Auran, but you can speak only by using your Mimicry trait.
Expert Forgery
Expert Forgery: You can duplicate other creatures’ handwriting and craftwork. You have advantage on all checks made to produce forgeries or duplicates of existing objects.
Kenku Training
Kenku Training: You are proficient in your choice of two of the following skills: Acrobatics, Deception, Stealth, and Sleight of Hand.