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View Full Version : D&D 3.x Other Kenku as a playable race- PEACH



themourningstar
2014-03-03, 09:02 PM
Hi people! I am working on a homebrewed setting, and since Ive always liked the idea of the kenku- but have never actually seen them utilized- I decided to make my own version as a playable race.

I am wanting to see if yall think that the race as I've envisioned it is balanced as a level one playable race. I've never seen their stats, and I'm not worried about making mine match whatever is in the monster manual- I want crowlike humanoids with a fetish for death as a playable race. :D

Kenku

Devoted worshippers of a goddess of death, the kenku are barely accepted throughout most of Aeryandor. Crowlike humanoids, the kenku are adabtable and resilient to survive in some of the harshest of places, and tend to either live in small tribal communities or in large metropolitan cities of other races. Focused on death to a degree that unnerves most other people, the kenku tend to stick to the edges of civilized areas.

Personality: Before all else, kenku worship their death goddess, Modra. Having based their culture upon the worship of such a deity for such a long time has caused the kenku to almost completely lose the fear of death- death in the service of Modra is the path to eternal paradise, obviously.

This complete and utter lack of death is uncomprehensible to most other beings, but what is immediately obvious is that a person does not bother a kenku unless they are prepared for the worst. While the kenku are not innately evil, the concept of surrender or of a “fair fight” is beyond their understanding. If they die, then so be it- and if they send their enemies to Mordra, then even better.

Though not greedy in the traditional sense, kenku love small shiny objects. It is not uncommon to find one carrying a small bag full of buttons, smooth pieces of glass or metal, and even gems or unusual coins. Other than this, kenku don’t tend to own much. They are more interested in the afterlife than in the current one, and anything they own tends to be dirty and used, if not broken.

Kenku are strict carnivores, and cannot be forced to eat vegetables or fruits. They cannibalize their dead ritualistically, and have no issue with eating the dead of other races- a fact that does not contribute to their acceptance amongst the other more “civilized” races.

Kenku are very secretive, and tend to not speak to outsiders. Their voices are very high pitched and they speak very quickly, and some of the other races find them hard to understand. Kenku bond for life- if their lifemate is killed, a kenku will stop at nothing to get revenge. For most kenku, when their mate dies, the survivor will leave their tribe and seek out death in some fashion.

Physical Description: Kenku look like humanoid ravens. Their heads are entirely raven shaped, with large black, unblinking eyes and a wickedly sharp beak. Their hands end in short claws, and their feet end in talons. A kenkus body is entirely covered in short soft black feathers, though males grow thicker “ruffs” across their shoulders and neck. Kenkus have longer feathers that protrude from the backs of their arms, and a short rudimentary feathered tail- combined, these features can allow the kenku to glide short distances.

Tribal kenku tend to wear as little clothing as possible, while civilized kenku wear clothing specially made for them, so that they can use their gliding ability if they need to. However, many kenku wear a large number of necklaces, bracelets and anklets, usually with some small shiny object attached to them. Kenku do not need to wear boots and rarely do so.

The typical kenku is around five and a half foot tall, but only weighs around 100 pounds due to their avian like bone structure. Kenku universally have black plumage, though a very rare few have pure white feathers- these kenku are considered touched by Mordra, and are thought to be blessed by her.

Relations: Dwarves distrust the kenku on principle- how can your forebears rest comfortably if you ate them?- while elves despise them for their reliance on their death goddess. Of course, the kenku could care less. Kenku generally get along with humans, and fit in amongst their cities better than in any other races. Both tieflings and warforged tend to get along with kenku, as all three are treated as outcasts in many places. The hobgoblins actually allow the kenku a place in their society- they find their cannibalistic tendencies useful in disposing of both their own dead and that of their enemies, and Mordra is even worshipped by some hobgoblins. It is rare to find a kenku on a gnome ship, but it is not unheard of- there is no general animosity between the races. Interaction between sand kings and kenku is extremely rare, but the two sometimes find common ground in their religious beliefs.

Alignment: Kenku naturaly lean towards neutral, but unfortunately, there are more evil kenku than good. This does nothing to contribute to their reputation as cannibals, murderers, and death worshippers, but again- the kenku could care less.

Kenku Lands: The kenku do not have any “kingdoms” or cities as such- they simply aren’t organized enough for such things. Most kenku live in temperate to cold climates, in small hunter-gatherer tribes. The leader of a tribe is always the most senior priestess of Mordra, and the kenku frequently have huge intelligent ravens (treat as a giant eagle) guarding their homes- and sometimes undead.

Kenku tend to build their villages along cliff edges, or amongst the tops of massive trees, in order to take advantage of their ability to glide.

Religion: Kenku whorship one being and one being only: Mordra. An ascended humanoid of an unknown race, Mordra is a deity of death, magic, and darkness. Worshipped primarily by the kenku, she has a small following amongst the hobgoblins, and amongst some necromancers and sorcerers. Though neutral evil in her own right, Mordra does not actively push the kenku towards evil. She allows them their own choice, and rewards them according to her own wishes. Suicide is anathema to Mordra however. The rewards of death are to be earned, not given.

Language: The native kenku tongue, skwa, sounds more like the caws and whistles of a bird than that of a language, but the kenku can pass along detailed information using it. A person not knowing skwa and unable to see a person speaking it must make a DC 15 intelligence check to even realize a language is being spoken.

Names: A kenku typically has two names- their first name, which is generally an adjective that they feel describes themselves, and their second name, which is that of their tribe. When in their own communities, most of their names are in skwa, though many kenku translate them into the common tongue when in the civilized lands.

Adventurers: Many kenku adventure out of a natural sense of wanderlust. Others are trying to spread the worship of their goddess, both by evangelizing and through their deeds. Still others might be seeking out the good death, ready to go to their goddess and her shadowed realm.

Racial Traits: Male and female kenku are equally able to pursue any class they choose, and their abilities are not affected by their sex.

-Ability Scores: +2 Dexterity, -2 Constitution. +2 Wisdom, -2 Intelligence. Kenku are very quick, and very perceptive, though they are not as intelligent or sturdy as some of the other races.

-Medium. As medium creatures, kenku have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.

-A kenku has a base land speed of 40 feet.

-Natural Attack: A kenku can deliver a vicious bite with their curved beak. This bite is treated as a primary natural attack, and does 1d6 damage with a critical rating of 19-20/x2.

-Dark vision: Kenku can see in the dark up to 60 feet. Dark vision is black and white only, but it is otherwise like normal sight, and kenku can function perfectly fine with no light at all.

-Death lover: Due to their natural attraction to death, kenku have a -2 racial penalty to saves against spells or effects with the death descriptor.

-Glide: Though their wings and tail are simple compared to a true avians, kenku can still glide over a short distance. A kenku can glide 20 foot forward with poor maneuverability for every ten foot that they fall. A kenku wearing armor or clothing not specially designed and crafted to allow for flight cannot glide, and a kenku cannot glide while carrying a medium or heavy load.

-Weapon Proficiency: Kenku treat the boomerang, bolas, and the sling shot as martial weapons instead of exotic weapons.

-Automatic Languages: Skwa and Common. Bonus Languages: Goblin, abyssal, gnoll, giant, and infernal.


Also, on a side note- this was all very nicely formatted at one point. I simply copied and pasted it from my wordsheet, and now it looks like crap after t has been posted. Sorry :c

Realms of Chaos
2014-03-04, 10:53 AM
Um... where is this coming from? :smallconfused:

You seem to be aware that kenku are playable race in DnD and it isn't really like kenku are much of a thing outside of D&D (they trace their origins to Japanese crow-tengu, I think) so... I really can't figure out where this is coming from?

Did you see a picture of a kenku and decide to write a race based on the picture? Did you hear a story of a campaign that had a kenku? Did you already want to make an anthropomorphic crow and hear that they're called kenku in D&D? How does one learn about kenku and like the idea of kenku without knowing what kenku in D&D are? I can't find references for Kenku outside of D&D. And where does the fascination with death come from?

I'm sorry. I'm not the best to ask about balance. I just has to post because this... just... so many questions.

themourningstar
2014-03-04, 01:28 PM
Well, I suppose a passive aggressive response is better than none. :D I don't know hardly anything about the kenku, other than that they seem to be evil crowlike humanoids. I wanted a race focused on death, and a crowlike humanoid seemed to fit the bill- I like the idea of them focusing on death and such. Im not sure if the fluff I made for them is offensive or something, and I apologize if it is- I just wanted a race for my setting. :s

Adam1949
2014-03-04, 01:37 PM
Well, I suppose a passive aggressive response is better than none. :D I don't know hardly anything about the kenku, other than that they seem to be evil crowlike humanoids. I wanted a race focused on death, and a crowlike humanoid seemed to fit the bill- I like the idea of them focusing on death and such. Im not sure if the fluff I made for them is offensive or something, and I apologize if it is- I just wanted a race for my setting. :s

While I agree that Kenku are cool, RoC wasn't being exactly Passive-Agressive; he was saying that the Kenku as a race exist. In fact, typing up "Kenku" into Google will give you their statblock and racial information. Here it is (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/iw/20040912b&page=4), actually.

Fluff itself doesn't matter much; you can fluff a race however you want, so you're perfectly fine on that. It's just, there is already racial stats for the Kenku (in fact, like RoC stated, D&D is the only place that mentions Kenku, while everything else would call them a variety of Tengu).

Now, on the formatting side; please separate your paragraphs. It makes it difficult to read otherwise, since it currently looks like a big ol' block of text.

themourningstar
2014-03-04, 03:07 PM
Ah, so the basic idea is that I need to give them some kind of new name; there is no point in re-statting an existing race. As to the format... Like I said at the bottom of my original post, it was correctly formatted on microsoft word- and when I copied and pasted it it looked like it kept the formatting.. But once it was posted it was gone :/
Regardless- does anyone have an opinion on whether this could be a +0 level adjustment race, and if not.. How could I fix it?

Debihuman
2014-03-04, 03:59 PM
Ah, so the basic idea is that I need to give them some kind of new name; there is no point in re-statting an existing race. As to the format... Like I said at the bottom of my original post, it was correctly formatted on microsoft word- and when I copied and pasted it it looked like it kept the formatting.. But once it was posted it was gone :/
Regardless- does anyone have an opinion on whether this could be a +0 level adjustment race, and if not.. How could I fix it?

Word formatting is pointless in HTML that's why there is formatting on this site.

Not sure why the Kenku have a land speed of 40 feet as they are medium sized.

Natural attacks should only crit on a 20 not on 19-20. That's what the feat improved critical is for. I am not crazy about a PC race that could bite for 18-20 with that feat.

Are these Monstrous Humanoids or Humanoids?


Weapon Proficiency: Kenku treat the boomerang, bolas, and the sling shot as martial weapons instead of exotic weapons.

That's not how you should have written this. Those weapons are still exotic weapons. Just say that these creatures are proficient with them. Can they use light weapons too? What about shields?

Weapon Proficiency: Kenkus are proficient with boomerangs, bolas and sling shots.

Seriously, break up that wall of text; it's hard to read.

Debby

themourningstar
2014-03-04, 07:39 PM
Yes mam Miss Debbie, I at least separated the paragraphs lol. The bite shall be fixed, and I'll cut the speed to 30 feet. I like quick moving creatures, that was why I put that.

EdroGrimshell
2014-03-05, 08:59 AM
That's not how you should have written this. Those weapons are still exotic weapons. Just say that these creatures are proficient with them. Can they use light weapons too? What about shields?

Weapon Proficiency: Kenkus are proficient with boomerangs, bolas and sling shots.

He wrote it as it shows up on the dwarf and orc for their racial weapons, like how the dwarf treats the Dwarven War Axe as a Martial Weapon instead of gaining instant proficiency with it.

Debihuman
2014-03-05, 09:48 AM
If those were Kenku racial weapons it would make sense, but they're not. They are regular weapons.


Weapon Familiarity: Dwarves treat dwarven waraxes and dwarven urgroshes as martial weapons, rather than exotic weapons.

Debby

themourningstar
2014-03-05, 03:07 PM
I did the weapon Prof as Edro said- like the dwarves. I did it so that not every Crowthing (kenku being verboten now) would be able to use them- only the "warriors"

Amechra
2014-03-05, 03:22 PM
How about Krähemann? German has just enough harshness (that h is voiced, by the way) that it sounds crow-like.

Debihuman
2014-03-05, 07:44 PM
I did the weapon Prof as Edro said- like the dwarves. I did it so that not every Crowthing (kenku being verboten now) would be able to use them- only the "warriors"

If kenku had racial specific weapons then it makes sense but not for regular weapons. You can make kenku specific weapons for example.

Debby

RedWarlock
2014-03-06, 01:05 AM
No, Debi, it's fair for his kenku to appropriate weapons for their own, he can write it that way if he wants to. You're forcing restrictions to match your preference, rather than any actual rules that say it MUST be so. Stop that, please.

The Kenku speed could be 40ft if we wants, too, Catfolk have a 40ft speed, and Goblins and Kobolds have a 30ft when the small-sized standard is 20. If he really wants it, let him do it.

Same for the crit range. It's very powerful, but there's precedent for natural weapons having expanded crit ranged without having Imp. Critical as a bonus feat. (which you could do, if you do think it's too much.)

Adam1949
2014-03-06, 04:46 AM
No, Debi, it's fair for his kenku to appropriate weapons for their own, he can write it that way if he wants to. You're forcing restrictions to match your preference, rather than any actual rules that say it MUST be so. Stop that, please.

The Kenku speed could be 40ft if we wants, too, Catfolk have a 40ft speed, and Goblins and Kobolds have a 30ft when the small-sized standard is 20. If he really wants it, let him do it.

Same for the crit range. It's very powerful, but there's precedent for natural weapons having expanded crit ranged without having Imp. Critical as a bonus feat. (which you could do, if you do think it's too much.)

I agree with this, with one caveat; the crit range for a PC natural weapon without level adjustment should only be on a 20. However, I am with you for the rest of it; birds theoretically can be quick (although, with the ability to glide it might be a bit much). The weapon thing is definitely true, though; since the listed weapons are Exotic, the ability to treat them as Martial weapons is fair to do, and it is not strictly needed to make them automatically proficient just because they 'aren't racial weapons'. To look at a Pathfinder example: One alternate racial ability for Half-Orcs allows them to treats Whips and Spiked Chains as Martial weapons; neither is called "Orcish Whip" or "Orcish Spiked Chain", yet the text still only allows them to be treated as Martial weapons.

Debihuman
2014-03-06, 07:47 AM
Fair enough. However, as a "playable race", which is what he wanted and the feedback to go with it, I don't think my critique was too restrictive. It was based on standard races.

Here is my in-depth PEACHING. You asked, I'm giving.

Racial Traits:

Male and female kenku are equally able to pursue any class they choose, and their abilities are not affected by their sex. [fluff, however this implies that they have no racial HD and so they get their HD from whatever class they have. It should be stated explicitly that they have no racial HD.]

Ability Scores: +2 Dexterity, -2 Constitution. +2 Wisdom, -2 Intelligence. Kenku are very quick, and very perceptive, though they are not as intelligent or sturdy as some of the other races. [Being fast isn't really related to agility so you could simply mention it below in speed where it belongs.]

Medium. As medium creatures, kenku have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size. [Again balanced and standard; also Type should be stated here.]

A kenku has a base land speed of 40 feet. [Fast was mentioned above but should really go here; this does make dealing with non-kenku more difficult as parties generally only move as fast as their slowest members. Anyone playing this race will be waiting for the rest of the party to catch up and runs the risk of "I don't have to outrun the tiger, I just have to outrun you" mentality.]

Natural Attack: A kenku can deliver a vicious bite with their curved beak. This bite is treated as a primary natural attack, and does 1d6 damage with a critical rating of 19-20/x2. [overpowered with additional critical range so this will add to CR]

Darkvision: Kenku can see in the dark up to 60 feet. Darkvision is black and white only, but it is otherwise like normal sight, and kenku can function perfectly fine with no light at all. [If this is a monstrous humanoid, it comes standard, if humanoid it doesn't, which is why you need to state Type]

Death lover: Due to their natural attraction to death, kenku have a -2 racial penalty to saves against spells or effects with the death descriptor. [Normally aversion would be the penalty and attraction would be a boon so this makes them look rather suicidal as if they are actually looking to be hit with death spells and the like. If that is the case, it's rather off-putting.]

Glide: Though their wings and tail are simple compared to a true avians, kenku can still glide over a short distance. A kenku can glide 20 foot forward with poor maneuverability for every ten foot that they fall. A kenku wearing armor or clothing not specially designed and crafted to allow for flight cannot glide, and a kenku cannot glide while carrying a medium or heavy load. [Gliding isn't flight but since they don't gain flight either, it's not really adding to CR. If this helps with falling damage that should be added.]

Weapon Proficiency: Kenku treat the boomerang, bolas, and the sling shot as martial weapons instead of exotic weapons. [As I said earlier this would be cooler if these were actual kenku specific racial weapons.]

Automatic Languages: Skwa and Common. Bonus Languages: Goblin, Abyssal, Gnoll, Giant, and Infernal.


BTW, Kenku are in MM III.

Overall a strong CR +0. To be fair, I'd never pick this race because of the death lover ability.

Debby

themourningstar
2014-03-06, 08:09 AM
Thanks tons for all of the advice everyone, and thank you very much for the indepth critique Debihuman. :) My question is officially answered.