- Today we're gonna be discussing
one of my favorite races
in "DnD," the "Kenku."
Kenku are a curse at people,
stripped of their flight
in their true voices
and left to wander the material plane.
Introduced back in third edition of "DnD"
as a simple cackling monster,
Kenku have been given a fighting chance
and are finally a playable
race on their own.
Flocks of Kenku carve out
territories among slums
and downtrodden cities.
They are clever thieves
of both coin and culture
lacking a creative voice of their own
but perfecting the art
of mimicry and forgery.
Recently made even more popular
due to critical roles character Kiri,
the raven folk are flocking
to game tables around the world.
Playing a Kenku is a
marvelous acting opportunity
for anyone who chooses one
as you cobbled together
your voice through stolen
fragments and chaotic noise.
Follow us deep into
the criminal underbelly
as we discuss everything you
need to know about the Kenku.
The actual origins of the Kenku
are a little lost in mystery,
largely due to the conflicting
lore between additions.
But while the details have changed,
the overall broad strokes remain the same.
The Kenku started as a
proper bird folk with wings,
artistic talent and a voice on their own.
They served some sort of dark master
and attempted to betray them by stealing
an extremely important and shiny bauble.
The Kenku were brought and given
an almighty deity level punishment
and were nerf to all oblivion.
Then they were let loose to
wander around the material plane
with very little else but their ability
to mimic what they heard.
The result of all this is
a deeply wounded culture
that focuses on regaining
what they once lost.
Each Kenku instinctively
misses their ability to fly
and their dreams will
often 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 ruin
towers or high forgotten places
amongst the city sprawl.
Spells and magic items that
provide flight are especially
prized by Kenku, and they
will often study magic
with the explicit intent of
one day taking to the skies.
Kenku have no empires or fortunes
that probably doesn't need
to be said, but they don't.
They scrape by by making
use of what talents
people have left and
also mimicry and forgery.
Each Kenku can repeat
things that they hear
with absolute perfection.
But they have no voice of their
own, which is quite tragic,
the more I think about it.
They create their own vocabulary
out of words they've heard
and their speech is often
choppy and segmented.
This lack of a voice supplies
to their artistic voice as well,
and Kenku find it nearly impossible
to create something new and original,
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.
So what does a Kenku look like?
Unlike most 5e races,
Kenku are limited in their appearance.
Unlike Aarakocra who have a wonderfully
let's say broad description
of "like a bird,"
Kenku have a solidly
raven-like appearance.
You have a bit of wiggle room
when it comes to what type of crow
or raven appearance you have,
as that family actually has more,
let's say variation than people realize.
Crows, ravens and magpies
all share quite a bit
of stereotypical black feathers after all,
but you can play around with
the modeled white feathers,
the black patterns or
the spectral iridescence
of the finest raven feathers.
The real jackpot of the creative space
is not really your Kenku's
appearance, but their voice.
As a Kenku your voice
should be derived from words
and sounds that you've heard
in your character's past.
Well educated Kenku may very well
speak fluidly and articulately,
but a Kenku thief off
the street would probably
speak with broken sentences
and sound effects.
Nobody expects you to be a
great voice actor mind you,
but try coming up with
some odd sound effects
or speech fragments to
throw into your character
like phrases spoken in awkward
or incorrect inflections
or even by slipping in
the odd sound effects
every once in a while.
Your players however, might be annoyed
with this attempt at a performance
so if they seem to be getting
annoyed by what you're doing,
feel free to break character
every once in a while.
So what should you name your Kenku?
Well Kenku names are
literally sound effects
rather than something
that can be written down.
They're perfect mimicry
means that a Kenku's name
could be the bang of a gunshot,
or the Autumn wind among leaves
or the squeak of a rat even.
Kenku names have no regard for gender
but tend to relate to a
Kenku's professional role.
Warriors will have names
that relate to the sound
of battle like a sword clang
or the tag of a bowstring.
Kenku within city underbellies
will often mimic the sounds
of alley animals such as rats and pigeons.
Finally, Kenku with regular professions
will often take on a name that
is related to it in some way,
such as the Spraying of
an Ocean for a sailor
or Wood Shavings for a carpenter.
Obviously, nobody but Kenku
can pronounce these names.
So Kenku will often provide other people
with literal translations of their name.
A Kenku whose name is
the sound of hammering
might be called Hammer,
or a Kenku whose name is
the sound of a sword slice
would be called Slicer.
The following list that
we're throwing up here
has some other names that we can suggest.
However, one example from
a campaign that I ran
is we had a Kenku merchant
that followed the group around
his name was the sound of
coins clanking in a pocket
but we simply called him Fiscal.
Your Kenku will have the
following racial traits.
Starting off with your
ability score increase.
Your dexterity score increases by two
and your wisdom score
will increase by one.
This is a solid boost for
most wisdom-based classes
and dexterity-based martial classes.
Rangers, Clerics Druids, Monks, Rogues
and Dexterity Based Fighters
are all excellent choices for a Kenku.
As for their age, Kenku have
shorter lifespans than humans,
they reach maturity around 12 years old
and can live up to about age 60.
This rarely matters in 5e
unless you plan on jumping large swathes
of time for some reason.
But, it's still good to keep in mind
that they live comparatively
on the shorter side.
So what kind of alignments are Kenku?
Well, Kenku are chaotic
creatures rarely making
enduring commitments or packs,
and they are mostly out to just
save their own skin really.
They are generally chaotic neutral
in the grand scheme of things.
As for your size, Kenku
are around five feet tall
and weigh anywhere
between 90 and 120 pounds.
They're on the small side of
medium but medium nonetheless.
As for your speed, you have a
base walking speed of 30 feet,
which is not that special.
But what is special about the Kenku
is their expert forgery ability.
You can duplicate other creatures
handwriting's and craft work.
You have an advantage on
all checks made to reproduce
forgeries or duplicates
of existing objects.
I don't think I have to
explain how this can be useful,
especially in espionage
type campaigns and missions
or perhaps if you wanna be
a little bit more diplomatic
with nobles or get into an
art community of some kind.
Another great asset is
your Kenku training.
You're proficient in your choice of
two of the following skills,
whether it be acrobatics,
deceptions, stealth or sleight of hand.
Bonus skill proficiencies are a godsend.
And you get to choose
two of some of the best.
Grab whichever proficiencies
you don't already
have granted to you by either
your background or your class.
And now for the real reason
you picked a Kenku, mimicry.
You can mimic sounds that
you've heard, including voices.
A creature that hears the sound you make
might be able to tell it's an imitation
with a successful wisdom, or insight check
as opposed by your charisma
or deception check.
This is an iconic ability
that the whole Kenku identity
is wrapped up in.
But sadly, I would say it's more good
than just great mainly
because of the developers
felt the need to weigh it down a bunch.
And finally, for languages
you can read and write
and comment in Auran,
but you can only speak
using your mimicry trait.
Auran is a pretty rare language
unless you plan on chatting
it up with Aarakocra,
who we also covered in another video
if you wanna go check that out.
But it's not really likely to come up
in most of your adventures.
Let's end this video
with some Kenku builds.
5e DnD is amazingly flexible
and no class or backgrounds
you pick for your next Kenku
will be objectively wrong.
However, if you're
interested in optimization,
the following build ideas can be a great
starting point for you.
The Graveyard Raven.
Rogues are already a good
thematic fit for the Kenku,
but the new Rogue subclass, the Revive
fits this class even better,
and has an excellent synergy with
the Kenku expert forgery ability.
Revive Rogues gained an ability
called Tokens of Past Lives
that lets them trade out new tool
or skill proficiencies every long rest.
Odd tool proficiencies are
often the missing piece
to the forgery puzzle.
Swooping Crane.
Their lot doesn't exactly
make a whole lot of sense
for monks unless you really
get creative with it.
But the bonus to dexterity and wisdom
lines up absolutely perfectly.
The Kenku abilities will
allow you to play your monk
more stealthily scouting out
the opponents and perhaps
misleading them away from your allies.
It's a strange synergy, but it works.
Twin Birds.
Kenku abilities already lined up nicely
with Clerics and their stealthy abilities
will mix well with the Trickery Domain.
You'll end up playing a
Cleric that can also play
a lot of the Rogue's role.
So definitely pick this
if your party lacks both
and needs someone that
can supply them with both.
The Invoke Duplicity
ability is also amazing
with their mimicry ability,
since you can use it in
conjunction with Minor Illusion,
both your voice and the copies,
let's just say "Voice" will be identical.
Have fun confusing those guards
with that Doppelganger
Kenku that you just made.
I have always enjoyed
when one of my players
or fellow adventurers
decides to play a Kenku.
It means there is a
certainty of uniqueness
to be hard in the session and
I find it rather difficult
to play the same type of Kenku twice,
much less recreate a performance twice.
They offer an unbeatable form
of role playing potential
and even have a few
mechanical advantages to boot.
Thank you so much for watching this video.
I really appreciate it.
Please like and subscribe
if you wanna see more content from us.
Let us know in the
comments what kind of Kenku
that you're planning on building
for your next campaign as well.
My name is Patrick Ferguson,
and I'll see you guys in the next one.
- [Narrator] Thanks for joining us.
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