Homebrew DragonLance Kender For 5e Species Details

“Where were you? You were supposed to be here an hour ago!” said the storekeeper with an impatient tone.

“I know, I know.  I’m sorry. You know I get distracted sometimes.” Answered Taywin Moonwillow, a young inquisitive kender, as if there were any other kind.

“You’ll be glad you waited.  I brought you something”.

“I know. That’s the only reason I still deal with you when many others won’t.  You have a way of finding remarkable things.  What did you steal this time?”

"I don’t steal! I borrowed it from a shipwright, who had stolen it from his captain. The shipwright got caught and hung, and the captain left town with the rest of his crew, so I have no one to return it to.  You can have it.”

Taywin reaches inside her bag of many things and pulls out a beautiful coffer.  The small box by itself looked valuable.  It was meticulously hand carved and was adorned with precious stones.  With shaky hands, the storekeeper grabs the coffer and opens it.  Inside lie several gems. “Magnificent!” he says in an incredulous whisper. “This is very valuable. Are you sure you don’t want to keep it?”

“Why?  I already opened it.” Answered Taywin with a confused look on her face.

The storekeeper smiles as he suddenly remembered kender have little use for money and for them the true value of things lay within their hidden corners.  Once discovered, the kender quickly loses interest.  He smiles at Taywin and says, “You have done well my little friend.  Today, you get your pick from the entire store.  What would you like?”

The young kender did not have to think long.  She already knew what she wanted. She fixes her eyes on a mysterious looking clockwork device.  It had several delightful gears moving in hypnotic rhythm.  Occasionally, the device would chime several times and a little mechanical dragon would come out and puff a wisp of smoke.  With bright eyes and an impish smile, the kender points at the device and says, “I want that one!”

-Mayana Bravo Santos, The Not So Great DM.                                                                                                                                       

 Kender are slim, yet muscled creatures that retain a youthful appearance throughout their life. Their faces bear the intense, bright-eyed inquisitiveness of children and can sometimes be mistaken for young teenage humans. They typically stand between 3'6" and 3'9" tall, and weigh between 85 and 105 pounds.

Happy kender grin madly while sad kender wear an intractable pout. When throwing taunts, kender look impish and shout in an incredibly grating tone. Their voices range from the shrill tones of childhood to the husky growls of old age. When excited, kender speak very quickly or very loudly to make themselves heard. At other times, kender tend to ramble, producing convolute logic and illogic. Their emotional intensity is infectious.

Hair coloration in kender ranges from sandy blonde to dark brown, with some coppery red or red-orange hues. Most kenders prefer longer hair kept in braids, ponytails, knots, and combed manes. However, they cannot grow beards or mustaches. Their eye color varies from pale blue, sea green, olive, light brown, to hazel. Kender have naturally fair skin, but tan quickly and become nutbrown by midsummer. 

Kender prefer rustic outfits with bright natural colors and ribbons. They wear shirts, pants or breeches, and soft leather boots or sandals. Others prefer tunics or dresses with laced sandals. Regardless of their taste, one thing all kender have in common is countless pockets and a bag of many things where they toss their many findings inside for later examination. 

-Player's Guide to DragonLance, p.67.

Insatiable Curiosity

Kender are curious about absolutely everything. They are natural explorers. They rifle the contents of locked cupboards and delve into deep caverns. Very little escapes a kender's notice. Kender study every detail in a room, no matter how often they have been there. This curiosity extends especially to unusual things. Kender love magic items and rare creatures (chimeras, centaurs, unicorns, and dragons topping the list). Gadgets—especially gnomish gadgets—also catch kender eyes. Kender seek beauty in all things: they might prefer an old tarnished coin to a gleaming, newly minted one merely because the tarnished one is unique.

Fearlessness

Kender are often fearless. They cannot grasp their own mortality and thus feel invincible. This fearlessness combines with kender wonder to wash away any dread they may feel (and any common sense they may have). Kender fearlessness does not, however, equate to stupidity. In moments of danger, kender battle bravely while others cower behind. And kender rarely let their fearlessness endanger anyone but themselves.

Taunting

Kender, like human children, possess a calculating sense of insult. Their intense curiosity wins for them all sorts of shocking insights into a creature's private life. These insights become weapons in moments of wrath. Kender lash out not only to injure an enemy's pride, but to drive him to irrational behavior. An opponent's lapses in judgment following a kender taunt often allow the kender to land a killing blow. 

Handling

Kender are oblivious to matters of ownership. If a kender needs something that another person is not using, the kender will innocently borrow the item and put it to use. Curious kender often pick up items for closer examination, then distractedly forget to put them back. Although dwarves and other creatures cannot distinguish this action from theft, handlers and thieves differ drastically. Thieves steal maliciously, knowing they break moral and governmental laws; but handlers take things innocently, unaware the rules governing property would make their actions malicious.

 

 “What I have is a malevolent curiosity. That’s what drives my need to write and what probably leads me to look at things a little askew. I do tend to take a different perspective from most people.”       

-David Bowie, Forever The Goblin King.                                                                                                                       

Wanderlust 

Around age 20, kender are overwhelmed by a desire to wander and see the world. Full of youthful energy, kender dread boredom and seek excitement, entertainment, and fun. Fun for a kender may be spending hours watching an industrious ant climb over various obstacles. Risky undertakings hold at least as much allure for kender as safe ones. While other party members grimly gird themselves to follow a grueling trail with near-certain death at its end, a kender flippantly chooses to come "just for the fun of it."

Kender Names

Kender are sometimes named after objects or events.

Male: Ricochet, Lockpick, Krill, Splat, Thornbriar

Female: Tempany, Trinket, Taywin, Mint, Lili

 

DragonLance Kender For 5e Traits

Your kender character has a number of traits in common with all other kender.

Ability Score Increase

Your Dexterity score increases by 2 and your Charisma by 1.

Age

A kender reaches adulthood at the age of 20 and can live to be 100 years and beyond always retaining their youthful flair for life.

Alignment

Kender are compassionate andkind-hearted   They love to make life-long friends, therefore lean towards good.  However, their propensity to "borrow", and an inability to fully consider the consequences of their actions steers them towards chaos.

Size

Kender average about 3.5 to 3.9 feet. On rare occasions can reach up to 4.5 feet.  They weigh between 85 and 100 pounds. Your size is Small.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 25 feet.

Bag Of Many Things

Your insatiable curiosity prompts you to constantly pick up things that that are laying around.  Often, you are not even aware of it.  Your bag of many things quickly fills up with mundane and wonderous items. When the need arises, you can reach into your bag of many things and have a 5% chance to find exactly what you are looking for! To do so, use an action to search through the bag.  On a critical roll you succeed! You may use this feature once per long rest.

Infuriating Audacity

As a bonus action, you can make a performance check contested by the creature's wisdom. The creature must be able to see or hear you, although it does not need to understand you. On a success, the creature is utterly annoyed with you and distracted by your actions. For the rest of its turn it has disadvantage on all its attacks against creatures other than you.  However, if the creature attacks you, it does so with advantage.

Handling

You have advantage on Sleight of Hands checks.

Darkvision

You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Fearlessness

You have advantage on saving throws against being frightened.

Observant

You have proficiency with the Perception skill.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Kenderspeak, Gnomish, and Common.