Piper the kenku bard

[fenrirlokison]

Piper
Race: Kenku Sex: Female Age: young adult
Size: Small Height: 5 foot Weight: around 50ish lbs
Alignment: Neutral good Background: 
Class: Bard Deity: N/A

"Hello~ Would you like me to play for you? You'll never forget it and it will make you happy."
 

Personality "Let's laugh and sing together!" I have a joke for every occasion, especially occasions where humor is inappropriate. Sarcasm and insults are my weapons of choice. I love a good insult, even one directed at me. Ideal "No worries! I will make everything better by singing!" Beauty. When I perform, I make the world better than it was. (Good) People. I like seeing the smiles on people's faces when I perform. That's all that matters. (Neutral) Bond "I'm gonna share the gift of music with everyone!" All my instruments are my most treasured possessions. I have a family, but I have no idea where they are. One day, I hope to see them again. Flaws "Oh yeah, well watch me!" I can't help but pocket loose coins and other trinkets I come across. I'll do almost anything to win fame and renown. I'm horribly jealous of anyone who outshines my handiwork. Everywhere I go, I'm surrounded by rivals.

Just a bit more on personality

- Quirks: Takes pride in their feathers, Tends to laugh a lot (even when scared), Moves around when talking (from hand gestures to her whole body), gets distracted by most things in the like list, 
- Goals: To fly, find her family one day, to become well known and famous
- Fears: Straw people, people that stand in one spot for a very long time
- Likes: Music, attention, dancing, wind, heights, colorful yarn/string, shiny things
- Dislikes: Silence
- Hobby: Playing on one of her instruments

 

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Description

There is no doubt that Piper is a kenku. Black, glossy feathers appear well taken care of and anything that does not belong in them gets removed with a quickness. Light blue eyes, with big pupils shine with friendliness. They squint with happiness as her beak opens up into an unmistakable smile. It is not uncommon to see her skipping and hopping about, although only standing about 5ft, she may get lost in a tall crowd. Even in a tall crown, one might catch the sight of a greenish-blue hood or a red scarf bouncing about. If it wasn't a flash of color, it's likely the sound of a pan flute as she makes her way to where ever she is aiming for. Random colorful patches are worked into the greenish-blue garment. Colorful yarn and string are worked together in braided knots that hang here and there on her garment. She tends to not wear shoes, preferring the feeling of ground on her feet and the flexibility.

 

Backstory

Short and sweet:

Born as Rowdy, she was taken as a young child and sold to a gang in Rosohna, who named her Arty. The gang used her for forgery. Arty met a bard and found her calling. She escaped the gang and renamed herself Piper.

Rough:

Piper has had a couple of names. Her parents named her Rowdy, as she seemed far nosier than other children around her and continued to be as she grew up. Kenku's tend to be good at criminal activities, which make them rather appealing to certain groups. Rowdy was taken while she was still rather young, sold to a gang in Rosohna, and given the name Arty. It wasn't too bad working for this group, they weren't horrible to her. As a matter of fact, they were pretty nice to her, once she got good at what they wanted her to do. Like most Kenku's, Arty had the skill of forgery. Her best work delt with signatures or paintings. She loved their praise, but wanted more. No one outside the gang could know what she did, she couldn't point at it to show it off. The signatures and paintings were just copies, she had no freedom to do anything to them that would change them in any way. She didn't really know why it bothered her, wasn't the praise from those around her enough? The gang may as well have been her family after all, they did raise her from the young age that they got her and taught her things.

 

Arty noticed people that got attention from others and there was none better than a bard, particularly the ones that come from other places. Rosohna is a dreary metropolis, it's cloudy skys wasn't the only thing grey. Either the grey took over the people or they fought it off with bright colors. More often then not, the grey was ever present. Arty had always been enamored with bards and felt like music was the best thing that ever existed, even the sad ones that seemed ever so present. It took a little while for it to occur to the kenku that she could become one and the attention was one of the things she was missing in her life. It seemed to hit her out of the blue one day, as she listed to a bard playing. She could do that. After the bard's performance, Arty went out to get an instrument, only to find that all stores were closed. Impatient, she finds the bard and out right asks them if they would give her one of theirs. The bard was rather surprised by the request, signed a pan flute, and handed it to Arty. Arty was actually rather surprised it worked. This bard just gave her an instrument, for free! The kenku thanked the bard profusely and then ran off to practice it. Before she got too far, the bard called her back and offered to teach Arty a thing or too before they continued on their way. Arty was a quick learner and happily played the pan flute most of her free time. The gang didn't mind much, it was free entertainment after all.

 

The problem came when the tengu expressed wanting to play in other areas. She was only allowed to go so far. The gang never let her out of their sight and she could only travel inside their territory. Arty started to feel caged in. She wanted to go out into the world and play music for people. She had to escape. The first time she got caught trying to escape, all her freedom was taken. She was no longer allowed outside of the main building and her security increased. She needed a distraction, but wasn't sure what to do. Simply playing her music wasn't enough, she waited for when they had a reason to celebrate. When the time came, she encouraged drinking and carefully saw to getting everyone as drunk as they could. There were a few she had to spike, but managed to get enough drunk enough to escape. In order to try and stall any tracking her down, she took a forged note that was the leader of the gang, confessing what he did and lead the authorities to the gangs location. Arty started calling herself Piper in worry that her old gang might find her, not to mention as a sign of changing her life. She actually feels rather bad about what she did and misses them. As she traveled, she caught herself thinking about them and her family that she was taken from. What if her parents were in Rosohna? Would she ever be able to go back there? She remembered her parents and her actual name, but where she grew up was a bit of a blur. She finds herself in Jigow mostly by chance, sometimes she stowed away on a caravan, sometimes she preformed as her payment of travel. Piper wasn't so much concerned about where she was going, only that she was getting away from Rosohna.

The Questions

• What's one small heroic deed you've already accomplished? She likely helped the Aurora Watch along with taking a gang down.
• Do you give your trust easily, or do people have to earn your trust? Yes
• What's one thing you want more than anything else? How will being an adventurer help you achieve it? Attention and to become famous. The only way to get real fame is travel.
• Why is your character in Jigow? What brought them here? Circumstance mostly.

ABILITIES & SKILLS
Proficiency Bonus: +2

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
10	15	12	8	10	18
Bonus +0 | Save +0	Bonus +2 | Save +4	Bonus +1 | Save +1	Bonus -1 | Save -1	Bonus +0 | Save +0	Bonus +4 | Save +6
Athletics +0+1*	Acrobatics +4 Sleight of Hand +4 Stealth +4		Arcana 1 History 1 Investigation 1 Nature -1+1* Religion -1+1*	Animal Handling +0+1* Insight+0+1* Medicine+0+1* Perception+2+2 (EX) Survival +0+1*	Deception +6 Intimidation +4+1* Performance +4 +4(EX) Persuasion +6

Bold denotes proficiency (saves & skills) | * denotes jack of trades | (EX) denotes expertise

PROFICIENCIES & ABILITIES

Proficiencies	Class Abilities		Feats
• Armour: Light • Weapons: Simple weapons, hand crossbows, longswords, rapiers, shortswords • Tools: Drum, pan flute, horn • Languages: Common, Undercommon	Bardic Inspiration Jack of All Trades Song of Rest Expertise	Bard College (Lore) Cutting Words	N/A

ATTACKS

WEAPON	TO HIT	DAMAGE	PROPERTIES / (RANGE)
Rapier	+4	1d8+dex piercing	Finesse
Dagger	+4	1d4+dex piercing	Finesse, light, thrown (20/60)

Short Bow

+4

1d6 piercing

Ammunition 20/20 , range (80/320), two-handed

 

EQUIPMENT READIED

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Equipped Items:

ARMOR	WEAPONS	READIED ITEMS
Studded Leather Armor	Rapier Dagger Short bow	Rapier Pan flute Drum Some money

 

EQUIPMENT STORED

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Stored Items:

IN BACKPACK	STRAPPED TO BACKPACK	IN STORAGE
crowbar x2 hammer 10 pitons 10 torches tinderbox 10 days of rations some money	Bedroll Waterskin

 

MAGIC ITEMS

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Magic Items:

NON-ATTUNED	ATTUNED 0/3
	N/A

Shamelessly stolen format from Rum

Opps, rolled one too many times. I'll just ignore the last one.

Edited February 11 by fenrirlokison (see edit history)

[fenrirlokison]

 Piper HP: 21/21 | AC: 16 | Pass percep: 14

"Hello! I will sing you my song and make you happy!"

Which song should I sing? , Piper thought.

 

 

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For other things, like keeping up with effects, stating actions, and ooc stuff.

 

 

Edited February 15 by fenrirlokison (see edit history)

[fenrirlokison]

I was thinking about using the top character post for this, but thought it was big enough.

Background equipment: A crowbar, a set of dark common clothes including a hood, and a pouch containing 15gp

Shopping!

200g +15g = 215g

- Studded leather 45g

- Rapier 25g

- Dagger 2g

- Dungeoneer's Pack 12g (Backpack, a crowbar, a hammer, 10 pitons, 10 torches, a tinderbox, 10 days of rations, and a waterskin. The pack also has 50 feet of hempen rope strapped to the side of it.)

- Pan flute 12g

- Horn 3g

- Drum 6g

- Short bow 25g

- 20 arrows 1g

-----------------------------

84g

 

I'm honestly not sure of what to buy in D&D 5e, but I have a feeling the amount of gold she has isn't really enough for an armor upgrade or like some magical item that adds to AC or something.

 

Edited February 8 by fenrirlokison (see edit history)

[Brian Skies]

Your Dexterity should be a 15. Dex-based skills and AC should be modified accordingly.

Your maximum HP should be 21.

You get an additional 5 skills to be proficient in (2 from kenku recall; 3 from College of Lore).

You have expertise in Perception and Performance. However, you only marked the expertise for Perception. Also, instead of writing 2x2 for Perception, write 0+4 to remain consistent with all the other skills. Likewise, Perception should be 4+4.

For Jack of all Trades, apply the proficiency bonus to Athletics, not your Strength Modifier.

Unearthly Chorus is UA material, which we aren't using. You can replace it with a 1st or 2nd level spell.

You have proficiency with 1 type of gaming set and with Thieves' Tools. Please include these with your other proficiencies.

Instead of gaining starting equipment from the class, we are using Max Starting Wealth by Class. As a bard, this means you start play with 200 gp to buy your equipment with. You still gain the items granted by your background.

Everything else looks good. Make the changes listed above and I can mark your application as approved.

[fenrirlokison]

Oh my. Thank you! Sorry about the oversight.

Dex is fixed, as well as dex skills and AC.

I'll go with History, investigation for Kenku recall and Sleight of hand, Acrobatics, Arcana for College of Lore.

The perception should just be 2+2 right? Changed the x to + on here and character sheet. Added the +6 to performance on character sheet.

Ah, on the skills under the abilities get the +1 for jack of all trades then? I see I didn't add it to all of them on this thread, corrected.

Hmmm... I think I'll go with suggestion instead then.

Nice! so from sales and the 15g she gets from her background she has 235g.

[Brian Skies]

For your skills, I'm assuming you are doing "Ability modifier + Proficiency bonus". Your Perception has expertise, which would make the proficiency doubled. So it would be 0 + 4 (Wis Mod + Double Proficiency Bonus). Likewise, your Performance would be 4 + 4 (Cha Mod + Double Proficiency Bonus).

It doesn't matter how you write your skill bonus so long as the total bonus is correct. The only incorrect skill bonus right now is Performance which should be at a total of +8, not +12.

Expertise only doubles the proficiency bonus, not the total skill bonus.

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You begin play with just 200 gp and the items given to you by your background. I don't know where you're getting extra gold from sales.

You do not get any equipment from your class.

You have to buy all the equipment you want from the gold you start with.

[fenrirlokison]

10 hours ago, Brian Skies said:

For your skills, I'm assuming you are doing "Ability modifier + Proficiency bonus". Your Perception has expertise, which would make the proficiency doubled. So it would be 0 + 4 (Wis Mod + Double Proficiency Bonus). Likewise, your Performance would be 4 + 4 (Cha Mod + Double Proficiency Bonus).

It doesn't matter how you write your skill bonus so long as the total bonus is correct. The only incorrect skill bonus right now is Performance which should be at a total of +8, not +12.

Expertise only doubles the proficiency bonus, not the total skill bonus.

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You begin play with just 200 gp and the items given to you by your background. I don't know where you're getting extra gold from sales.

You do not get any equipment from your class.

You have to buy all the equipment you want from the gold you start with.

Ah. I understand. Thanks again and I will fix it once I get back home after work today.

[fenrirlokison]

@Brian Skies Alright, I think I fixed things. Spent money for the items. I noticed I thought I got instruments for free, but saw it did not state that anywhere, just that she can play them, so bought what I wanted her to have. updated the skills.