Kenku? Other monsters?

[SmootRK]

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What a cool picture. I love the style you use here, the notes surrounding it just adds to the presentation. I like the vagueness of the graphic, rather than most artists who try to make all the details look accurate.

[Solomoriah]

NICE picture. Some thoughts:

Bird knees work exactly the same as people knees... the knee is just closer to the body. The joint that bends backward is actually the ankle, while the "foot" comprises the bones which, on a primate, would be found in the ball of the foot and the toes.

Tenku (let's use that name) should have wings, and the hand consists of two fingers and a thumb at the outer wing joint; the wing contains the bones of the outer two fingers (ring and pinky), stretched into supporting "spars" for the wings. Fewer grasping fingers doesn't affect gripping power (the remaining grasping fingers are just stronger) but they would be less able to use longswords and other long one-handed weapons; I'd represent this with a penalty "to hit."

Some Tenku should be mostly flightless, able only to glide; others might be lighter (and thus have less hit dice) but be able to fly with a modest maneuver rating, 15' perhaps.

[billiambabble]

I like the vagueness of the graphic, rather than most artists who try to make all the details look accurate.

Yes, yes, the vagueness is very deliberate. It's a really tiny sketch. Most artists are much better at a sort of graphic design approach - I'm a scribble-blur man.

[billiambabble]

Bird knees work exactly the same as people knees... the knee is just closer to the body. The joint that bends backward is actually the ankle, while the "foot" comprises the bones which, on a primate, would be found in the ball of the foot and the toes.
.. the hand consists of two fingers and a thumb at the outer wing joint; the wing contains the bones of the outer two fingers (ring and pinky), stretched into supporting "spars" for the wings.

I was looking at a 1930s art anatomy book the other night and this makes a lot of sense. One forgets where the thigh is on a bird. I also forgot that birds have no other bones stretching into the wing (like bats) - it might be possible to have 3 fingers and a "thumb" and still have the wing support-to-feather-tip bone/spar. I like the idea that this limits certain weapon use, especially two-handed swords.

(Random bird skeleton link)

Thanks for the praise guys.

[LordPasty]

Thanks for the praise guys.

... and here's some more... Loved the Kenku/Tengu/Whatever-guy so much I had to Google you!



Great stuff, all of it.

I'm new here, so hello all!

[SmootRK]

I'm new here, so hello all!

Welcome!!

[billiambabble]

Thanks for the praise guys.

... and here's some more... Loved the Kenku/Tengu/Whatever-guy so much I had to Google you!

Great stuff, all of it.
I'm new here, so hello all!

Greetings, Lord Pasty!
Thank you, I am honoured and flattered. I've been thinking about adding my Deviant art page to my sig.
I was hoping that if I draw pictures I might get away with not submitting any well thought through stats.
I post another Tengu picture soon, I'm sure, now we've established the whole wings and fingers thing. Although I've been distracted by Trolls of late...

[billiambabble]

Couldn't sleep again the other night and I needed a break from some other stuff I've been drawing. I thought I'd do another very quick scribble of a Tengu. This time I wanted to explore the notion of the two(3) fingered claw as part of the wing with light weapons. That's supposed to be a hood or cowl around his neck.
Sorry it's so scrappy and the proportions are all over the place but I thought I'd share anyhow.


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