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All right, here's my first attempt interpretation of how Kenku might work as a PC race:





KENKU

Average Height: 5'0" - 5'6"
Average Weight: 110 lb. - 150 lb.

Ability Scores: +2 Charisma and either +2 Dexterity or +2 Intelligence
Size: Medium
Speed: 6 squares
Vision: Low-light

Languages: Common, choice of one other
Skill Bonuses: +2 Bluff, +2 Stealth
Flock Effect: When you aid another, you grant your ally a +3 bonus instead of the normal +2 bonus. In addition, select one of the following benefits at character creation (this selection can be retrained):
- When you have combat advantage against an enemy for flanking it, you gain a +3 bonus to your attack rolls against that enemy instead of the normal +2 bonus.
- When any of your allies have combat advantage against an enemy for flanking it, you gain combat advantage against that enemy as well.
Mimicry: You can mimic sounds and voices. A successful Insight checks opposed by your Bluff check allows a listener to determine that the effect is faked. You gain a +5 bonus to such a Bluff check.
Opportunistic: You gain the opportunistic power.

Opportunistic (Kenku racial power)
Encounter
Free Action, Personal
Trigger: You make an attack roll against an enemy that has been hit by one of your allies' attacks since the end of your last turn.
Effect: You gain a +2 bonus to the attack roll. If the attack roll hits, then the next attack roll made against that enemy by one of your allies before the end of your next turn gains a +2 bonus.





I was actually pretty torn between whether their third possible ability score bonus should be CON or INT, but considering the flavor surrounding them as sly and secretive and their being based on the cunning raven, I decided that INT would probably be the best fit. Yes, they ended up with an ability score set-up identical to that of the Changeling. No, I do not have a problem with this.

I like Flock Effect, but it was unacceptable that its major benefit was completely useless unless a character were to select a primarily melee class and role. When this is a problem, my typical response is to alter the original effect such that it simply becomes more broadly applicable, but that was next to impossible to do in this instance without dramatically overpowering the ability, so I instead the decided to simply offer characters an alternative racial feature. This alternative option that I provided was based on the Distant Advantage feat.

Mimicry is mostly a fluff feature, but we might as well make it a good fluff feature, so I decided to grant it the same +5 bonus that the Changeling was granted to its own deceptive ability when it made the transition from NPC race to PC race.

Finally, the racial power. I'm still not 100% on whether it's balanced, but I very much like the fluff behind it. The Monster Manual goes on and on about Kenku working well as a flock and being very opportunistic, and so I decided that this would translate well into a racial power. The idea is that the Kenku itself takes advantage of an opportunity opened up by an ally and simultaneously opens up an opportunity for one of its allies to take advantage of as well.

"Also, minor nitpick" Show