Mimicry and manipulation, play as this skillful avian race with our optimisation guide.
What are Kenku?
Kenku are a cursed race in D&D 5e. They were once creatures capable of flight with their own voices, but had these abilities stolen from them by an evil master. They are now bound to the ground and must rely on mimicry to speak. They retain their raven/crow appearance, appearing as a short humanoid with feathers, talons and a beak.
As a broken people, they are rarely accepted by society at large and instead find themselves living off the scraps of society. They have become adept at thievery, forgery and imitation, using these skills to survive.
The kenku are a playable race in D&D 5e and our guide will help you know what they can do and how to play as one.
Is a Kenku right for my character?
Dungeons and Dragons lets you take a flexible approach to building a character, but if you’re going to stick to typical culture and the best-optimised build for a Kenku you might consider the following:
Choose a Kenku if you like…
- Being a party face
- Like to deceive and trick with your voice
- Making use of loads of skills
A Kenku might not be for you if…
- You prefer to solve problems with your fists instead of words
- Prefer in combat capabilities
- Don’t like lying, or talking much
If you think a Kenku isn’t for you, not to worry, there are dozens of playable races for you to pick from, just check out our races guide to find out about all of them. For an alternative charismatic race, you could consider a Changeling or a Tiefling.
Kenku Features in 5e
| Ability Scores | +2 to one ability score and +1 to another or +1 to 3 different ability scores |
| Creature Type | Humanoid |
| Size | Medium or Small |
| Speed | 30ft |
| Languages | Common and 1 other |
| Traits | Expert Duplication, Kenku Recall, Mimicry |
| Proficiencies | Any 2 skills |
| Resistances | None |
| Darkvision | No |
| Innate spellcasting | None |
| Book found in | Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse, Volo’s Guide to Monsters |
Kenku Tactics
Fake it till you make it: Mimic the voice of a key NPC, create distractions, or even forge documents by imitating written language you’ve seen. This can open up new possibilities for problem-solving, especially in stealthy parts of a session.
Mimicry in combat: Kenku’s mimicry ability allows them to imitate sounds and voices they have heard. This can be creatively used in combat to confuse or distract enemies. Mimicking the sounds of reinforcements or a commanding officer might create openings or cause enemies to hesitate. Be aware that the effectiveness of such tactics rely on your charisma and proficiency bonus so make sure you play a high charisma character.
Thrills for skills: Kenku receive proficiency in two skills of their choice. Consider skills that complement your chosen class and play style, such as stealth, persuasion or deception. In fact, Kenku are the absolute masters of skills and can give themselves advantage on particularly crucial checks. This can be hugely important in dangerous stealth and social interactions where a failed check will result in devastating consequences. You could also consider playing as one of the master stealth classes; bards and rogues. With these classes, not only do you get a lot of skill proficiencies, but you also get expertise to enhance skill checks further. Alternatively, use these skills to boost someone like a sorcerer, paladin or warlock into a proper party face.
Reliable skills: Even better, you can apply advantage to a skill check a few times per day to make yourself extremely reliable at passing skill checks. Just make sure you apply it to really crucial checks you need to make. If playing a strength-based martial, consider using advantage on your grapples to make yourself more effective in combat.
Choosing a class for a Kenku
With the introduction of Monsters of the Multiverse and Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, races can now choose what ability scores they gain in from their race. This means that you can style your character more closely to the class you’re playing with. What this does mean is it’s a kenku’s traits that matter most when it comes to determining which class works best with their features.
Most kenku abilities will primarily help you outside of combat but 2 of the 3 do have broad usage. Expert duplication is probably the most limited option you have. Advantage on checks to duplicate writing or craftwork is fine but its application is very situational.
Kenku recall though has benefits whatever class you choose (though some will gain more from it). You gain proficiency in 2 more skills of your choice but can choose to have advantage on certain crucial checks if you have proficiency in it making passing these checks even more certain. This means the more skill proficiencies you have, the better (looking at you bard)! Mimicry is also a great ability for copying voices of others. If you have low charisma though, you’re less likely to succeed here so Kenku do lend themselves well to charisma based characters.
Below I’ve put together a score for how well each class works with a Kenku based on how well the racial traits work with each class:
Artificer⭐⭐⭐
Barbarian ⭐⭐⭐
Bard ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Cleric ⭐⭐⭐
Druid ⭐⭐⭐
Fighter ⭐⭐⭐
Monk ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Paladin ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Ranger ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rogue ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Sorcerer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Warlock ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Wizard ⭐⭐
*Star ratings scored out of 5
Best classes for kenku
Bard
Bards are definitely the best class for kenku. Thematically they fit nicely with their role as secondary rogues, imitators and performers. They also have the high charisma that makes the most of mimicry and have many skill proficiencies to take advantage of kenku recall. This means that there will be many skill checks you can choose to gain advantage on making your bard nearly impossible to fail on certain skill checks.
Rogue
Rogues are also skill masters with lots of proficiencies to pick from and the need to use skills quite often. This makes a Kenku’s skill based traits extra useful. While high charisma isn’t as necessary for a rogue as a bard, rogues do typical need to do a lot of deceiving and persuading as they use subterfuge to their advantage, and with only dexterity being a crucial ability to optimise, it’s easy to prioritise charisma alongside it. Forging, mimicry and skill checks are all very much in a rogue’s wheelhouse and they’ll get loads of usage out of a Kenku’s abilities.
Paladin
Paladins also tend to have high charisma so benefit most from the mimicry trait. While paladins have less skill proficiencies than some other classes, having 2 extra will definitely be a benefit and there are many charisma based skills for paladins to take advantage on and ensure they regularly pass these skills as a likely face of the party.
Warlock
Warlocks are in a similar boat to paladins. High charisma allows them to benefit most from mimicry while 2 extra skill proficiencies helps the warlock round out on what are likely to be more charisma-based skills. Advantage on these skills will allow the warlock to make a very reliable face of the party. If a Kenku took the Great Old One as a patron, they should use the Awakened Mind ability so they communicate pseudo-telepathically. This makes an interesting incentive for a character to make a shady deal with a mysterious elder god.
Worst classes for Kenku
Kenku are a very role play focused race and any class that is unlikely to invest in charisma or skills is likely to gain least. Wizards tend to get less out of a Kenku’s traits than any other class. This is mainly because they tend not to be charisma based characters and there are very few intelligence based skills for the wizard to utilise. This means they’ll gain less from the extra skill proficiencies a Kenku offers. In addition, wizards already have ways to gain advantage in skill checks such as using a familiar to offer help or the utilising the Enhance Ability spell.
About Kenku
Appearance
Kenku are raven-looking humanoids with a black, feathered body and beaks. Despite their avian features, they are in fact flightless. No one really remembers why the Kenku lost the ability to fly, but one popular legend tells of a powerful wizard that the Kenku upset leading to him placing a curse on the entire species, removing their flight and stealing their voices, causing them to have to use the voices of others to speak.
Many Kenku crave the ability to fly and will often congregate in high towers, yearning for the skies. Most Kenku live in the Shadow fell and the material planes.
Personality
Kenku are generally shunned by much of society. It’s hard to know if their deceptive nature has tarnished their reputation or if it’s a byproduct of desperate circumstances, but either way, they are generally maligned. This often leads to 2 sets of circumstances. Some Kenku rely on one another, gathering in large groups and supporting the flock. Others, particularly in large cities or places where there isn’t a large group of Kenku, will end up on the streets or in gangs where their ability to mimic can be put to good (criminal) use.
Roleplaying a Kenku
You’ll want to lean into your Kenku’s capabilities when playing as one. Consider some of the following ways of roleplaying a Kenku:
- Life of crime – Many Kenku turn to a life of crime, and they are great at it. This doesn’t have to be you, but if it is, use your skills to your advantage. Forge important documents to swindle a bank or noble, mimic a sergeant to gain access to an important location or use that silver tongue to persuade your target.
- Fringes of society – You’ve likely spent your life as an outcast or on the fringes of society. You might have been bullied by larger races or at best, neglected and ignored. How do you feel about other races? Do you distrust them? Or do you aspire to emulate the traits that can lead them to success in life?
- How have you survived? – In a society that likely shunned you, how did you manage to survive? Did you attach yourself to a gang or master? Does this leave you with some skeletons in your closet? An unpaid debt to the mob could come back to haunt an unlucky adventurer.
- Yearning for the skies – Kenku innately want to fly. Find ways to get closer to the skies. If you can find a way to actually fly, that’s the ideal, but climbing high places and standing on the edge of ledges (even if it scares your fellow adventurers) could be a good way to show your lust for the air.
