If you hear a baby crying in an alley, walk the other way. That’s my advice to you.
Endroth Knag, City Watch Corporal in Waterdeep
Well. That’s a surprisingly creepy tone-setter.
Lore: Banished From the Sky
Wandering vagabonds, the kenku exist purely to sate their greed. They move as silently and softly as the wind and dress in unassuming rags to hide their true forms. Once, they flew upon the wind they emulate, serving a master whose name has been lost to time. Once their thieving ways were discover, their master cast them out, depriving them of the power of flight.
Unable to speak properly, a kenku mimics various sounds and sentences to get its point across. Conversing with one is a wild game of matching sounds and voices to meaning. Groups of kenku often develop secret codes between them, allowing for more coordinated efforts. They can even copy handwriting. Often times, they’ll frame another person for a crime they themselves committed.
Even now, the kenku yearn for the skies. To punish each other, they’ll often force false wooden or metal wings upon them. If they need to execute one of their own, they’ll fling them off of a cliff to give them one last taste of the wind.
There’s a surprising amount you can do with that! Maybe an NPC gets framed by a kenku and the party needs to solve a mystery to find the true culprit! Or maybe a kenku comes to them searching for a way to fly! You could put on your imagination cap and create an identity to their forgotten master and do something with that! These little dudes are packed with potential!
Design: Crow-Man
Ah, my favorite superhero. Crow-Man. Or is it Raven-Man?
This is a fun design. You can tell immediately what this dude is about. He’s a tiny thief with a lust for gold and, likely, your blood. From the hood to its dark body, you can tell this is a creature that resides in dark alleyways.
It isn’t an especially creative design. At least in comparison to some of the other monsters higher up on the list. But it’s still a fun and effective look. It’s distinctly fantasy, and distinctly Dungeons and Dragons. I really like it.
Stats: A Basic Starter
Unsurprisingly, this isn’t a strong monster. Thing is basically made of paper, with how low its AC and HP are. And its two weapons, a shortsword and shortbow, don’t do much damage.
It isn’t totally generic, though. With Mimicry, it can copy any sound its heard. Only with an Insight check of 14 or higher can one determine it’s a ruse. Should they fail to do so, they’ll likely be lured into an ambush. Which puts the kenku at an extreme advantage; with Ambusher, it gains advantage on attack rolls thrown on the first turn, so long as the targets have been surprised. If your low-level players have bad luck, they could quickly be overwhelmed by a kenku ambush.
But that’s about it. Once you get past the ambush, they make for a straight-forward low-level fight. Hit them until they die. Then move on.
Placement
The kenku are surprisingly great monsters! Their lore is strong and full of potential and their designs, while simple, are fun and distinct. Their stats can make for a pretty good starting battle, or a surprise encounter for newbies, but that’s about it. Still, a strong monster overall.
With all that in mind, let’s put the Kenku on the Best of the Bestiary!
- Beholder
- Death Tyrant
- Dragon Turtle
- Green Dragons
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- Couatl
- Behir
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- Chuul
- Gibbering Mouther
- Intellect Devourer
- Chimera
- Death Knight
- Fomorian
- Bone Devil
- Dracolich
- Faerie Dragon
- Kenku <——————
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- Green Hag
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