A character who speaks trough his kenku companion. What do you think?

[.::Pr0 n00b::.]

So im thinking of a character who is a Paladin that was once a solider but retired after seeing to much death in his life. Now he worships the ideals of peace. He and his wife made a sanctuary for Kenkus. But one day some outlaws raid his little homestead. Being the peaceful man he is, he tries to negotiate with them and that leaves him open to an attack.

They burn the homestead steal everything he has kill his wife and for not liking his preachings they cut of his tongue and leaving him almost dead.

After he wakes up he finds out that one (or two, later on that idea) Kenku is alive. Seeing his wife and all of his Kenku friends butchered he burries them and breaks his Oath of peace becoming an Oathbreaker Paladin. Now he and his Kenku companion travel the lands to find the outlaws and get revenge.

Now the idea is that the Kenku companion speaks for the character. I was thinking two of them. One that has mostly recorded his peaceful voice while he was working on the sanctuary for normal convos and a kenku who traveled with him before he retired, that Kenku has the angry voice making them like the methaphoric angel and devil on his shoulder. Also they have recordings of his wifes voice too so they remind him every day.

[KorvinStarmast]

Now the idea is that the Kenku companion speaks for the character. I was thinking two of them. One that has mostly recorded his peaceful voice while he was working on the sanctuary for normal convos and a kenku who traveled with him before he retired, that Kenku has the angry voice making them like the methaphoric angel and devil on his shoulder. Also they have recordings of his wifes voice too so they remind him every day. If I were your DM, my answer would be "Go back to the drawing board. Kenku implementation in this edition, with the explicit constraint on normal communication, is terrible. Come up with a different back story, a different concept."
Other DMs would perhaps embrace the DMing challenge.

As another observation: you now have one player playing three PCs. Are the other players good with that? Your concept has massive potential for "spotlight hogging" (even if unintentional). It can become that if you aren't very careful in how you try to do this.

[togapika]

Cool idea, but what's to prevent a spell of healing from restoring his tongue and ability to speak?

[IsaacsAlterEgo]

Cool idea, but what's to prevent a spell of healing from restoring his tongue and ability to speak?

Regenerate is a 7th level spell and not exactly common.

Anyway, the Noble background lets you take 3 retainers as a feature, so you could use that and have your Kenku kids be your "retainers", just making sure not to involve them in combat and such. The difficulty will be them refusing to follow you into dangerous areas, making you unable to speak. You may want to work out some kind of system (Homebrew magic item? Have them both learn Message/Sending somehow?) where they are still able to communicate for him while they are distant and not in harms way? Makes things easier on the DM as well. That or you'll just have to deal with being unable to speak in some situations.

Also, an aside: How do the kenku know what your character wants to say, exactly? They may have heard him speak before but unless they're both GOOlocks or something they can't read his mind, so that may also be something you'll have to figure out with the DM.

It's a very creative idea, though! If I was your DM I'd let you do it but we'd have to work out a few homebrew solutions to make it work, I think. But be careful. A very stick-in-the-mud RAW only DM might make this too cumbersome to use in regular play, and a Killer DM might just kill the Kenku and then you're stuck playing a character that has no avenue of communication.

[.::Pr0 n00b::.]

Regenerate is a 7th level spell and not exactly common.

Anyway, the Noble background lets you take 3 retainers as a feature, so you could use that and have your Kenku kids be your "retainers", just making sure not to involve them in combat and such. The difficulty will be them refusing to follow you into dangerous areas, making you unable to speak. You may want to work out some kind of system (Homebrew magic item? Have them both learn Message/Sending somehow?) where they are still able to communicate for him while they are distant and not in harms way? Makes things easier on the DM as well. That or you'll just have to deal with being unable to speak in some situations.

Also, an aside: How do the kenku know what your character wants to say, exactly? They may have heard him speak before but unless they're both GOOlocks or something they can't read his mind, so that may also be something you'll have to figure out with the DM.

It's a very creative idea, though! If I was your DM I'd let you do it but we'd have to work out a few homebrew solutions to make it work, I think. But be careful. A very stick-in-the-mud RAW only DM might make this too cumbersome to use in regular play, and a Killer DM might just kill the Kenku and then you're stuck playing a character that has no avenue of communication.

Yes that is exactly what im thinking of the noble retainer option. Only for communication and the constant voice of his wife being mimiced for some hardships. I dont control them so basically i only have one character. I do feel them being able to die is cool also, so protecting them will be a bonus struggle.

The communication part is the only thing i cant make sense of rigjt now. If he has telepathy its kinda obsolete for him to talk trough the kenku.

Thanks for the suggestions

[PhoenixPhyre]

If I were your DM, my answer would be "Go back to the drawing board. Kenku implementation in this edition, with the explicit contraint on normal communication, is terrible. Come up with a different back story, a different concept."
Other DMs would perhaps embrace the DMing challenge.

As another observation: you now have one player playing three PCs. Are the other players good with that? Your concept has massive potential for "spotlight hogging" (even if unintentional). It can become that if you aren't very, very careful in how you try to do this.

Yeah. Especially the latter part. You've now got 3 PCs. That's 3x the turn length, a world of headache (what happens if they're separated? Or is that just off the table? What happens if one (heavens forfend) dies?), and balance issues galore.

This would be a hard no from me. And that's even before getting to the stock Kenku implementation. I only allow Kenku because I've removed that entire part of their race root and branch (they're just now excellent mimics, having been created to serve as spies, messengers, and agents).

[IsaacsAlterEgo]

Yeah. Especially the latter part. You've now got 3 PCs. That's 3x the turn length, a world of headache (what happens if they're separated? Or is that just off the table? What happens if one (heavens forfend) dies?), and balance issues galore.

This would be a hard no from me. And that's even before getting to the stock Kenku implementation. I only allow Kenku because I've removed that entire part of their race root and branch (they're just now excellent mimics, having been created to serve as spies, messengers, and agents).

With retainers they aren't PCs at all. They're commoners that refuse to engage in combat or go anywhere dangerous, they aren't taking turns in combat or dropping spells or anything. They're essentially just for flavor and some very minor tasks. I don't even think the player would really be in any control of them aside from their speaking roles for this unique situation, since they're essentially just quoting the player character. It's basically some free hirelings, which I don't think most DMs object to?

[PhoenixPhyre]

With retainers they aren't PCs at all. They're commoners that refuse to engage in combat or go anywhere dangerous, they aren't taking turns in combat or dropping spells or anything. They're essentially just for flavor and some very minor tasks. I don't even think the player would really be in any control of them aside from their speaking roles for this unique situation, since they're essentially just quoting the player character. It's basically some free hirelings, which I don't think most DMs object to?

Which means that anywhere that's dangerous, he's mute. That's a no go. "Hey adventurers, take me along. I can't communicate unless there are these two commoners next to me, and they won't go anywhere dangerous." That's not going to fly in any campaign I'm willing to run.

Edit: or anywhere where taking a bunch of additional people with no skills, gear, status, or utility other than being his voice wouldn't be appropriate. Sorry, but having a "speaking-mouth bird" just doesn't cut it in 90% of adventuring situations.

[Segev]

It's an interesting idea, but how do the Kenku know what to say for him?

With Ritual Caster or Magic Initiate, he could have find familiar and a raven, which has mimicry, and a bit more justification to speak for him. Add that to the retainers, and he could have an excuse in all situations, as the familiar can ride his shoulder.

[KorvinStarmast]

It's an interesting idea, but how do the Kenku know what to say for him?

With Ritual Caster or Magic Initiate, he could have find familiar and a raven, which has mimicry, and a bit more justification to speak for him. Add that to the retainers, and he could have an excuse in all situations, as the familiar can ride his shoulder. Or a parrot. :smallsmile:

[Segev]

Or a parrot. :smallsmile:

Sure, but I was leaning into the Kenku theme. ;)

[KorvinStarmast]

Sure, but I was leaning into the Kenku theme. ;) For sure, and I think your post has some very good advice. (I do tend to default to "Pirates!" these days, hence the parrot).