A figurine of wondrous power is a statuette of a beast small enough to fit in a pocket. If you use an action to speak the command word and throw the figurine to a point on the ground within 60 feet of you, the figurine becomes a living creature. If the space where the creature would appear is occupied by other creatures or objects, or if there isn't enough space for the creature, the figurine doesn't become a creature.
The creature is friendly to you and your companions. It understands your languages and obeys your spoken commands. If you issue no commands, the creature defends itself but takes no other actions.
The creature exists for a duration specific to each figurine. At the end of the duration, the creature reverts to its figurine form. It reverts to a figurine early if it drops to 0 hit points or if you use an action to speak the command word again while touching it. When the creature becomes a figurine again, its property can't be used again until a certain amount of time has passed, as specified in the figurine's description.
Bronze Griffon (Rare). This bronze statuette is of a griffon rampant. It can become a griffon for up to 6 hours. Once it has been used, it can't be used again until 5 days have passed.
Ebony Fly (Rare). This ebony statuette is carved in the likeness of a horsefly. It can become a giant fly for up to 12 hours and can be ridden as a mount. Once it has been used, it can't be used again until 2 days have passed.
Golden Lions (Rare). These gold statuettes of lions are always created in pairs. You can use one figurine or both simultaneously. Each can become a lion for up to 1 hour. Once a lion has been used, it can't be used again until 7 days have passed.
Ivory Goats (Rare). These ivory statuettes of goats are always created in sets of three. Each goat looks unique and functions differently from the others. Their properties are as follows:
- The goat of traveling can become a Large goat with the same statistics as a riding horse. It has 24 charges, and each hour or portion thereof it spends in beast form costs 1 charge. While it has charges, you can use it as often as you wish. When it runs out of charges, it reverts to a figurine and can't be used again until 7 days have passed, when it regains all its charges.
- The goat of travail becomes a giant goat for up to 3 hours. Once it has been used, it can't be used again until 30 days have passed.
- The goat of terror becomes a giant goat for up to 3 hours. The goat can't attack, but you can remove its horns and use them as weapons. One horn becomes a lance, +1, and the other becomes a longsword, +2. Removing a horn requires an action, and the weapons disappear and the horns return when the goat reverts to figurine form. In addition, the goat radiates a 30-foot-radius aura of terror while you are riding it. Any creature hostile to you that starts its turn in the aura must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or be frightened of the goat for 1 minute, or until the goat reverts to figurine form. The frightened creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. Once it successfully saves against the effect, a creature is immune to the goat's aura for the next 24 hours. Once the figurine has been used, it can't be used again until 15 days have passed.
Marble Elephant (Rare). This marble statuette is about 4 inches high and long. It can become an elephant for up to 24 hours. Once it has been used, it can't be used again until 7 days have passed.
Obsidian Steed (Very Rare). This polished obsidian horse can become a nightmare for up to 24 hours. The nightmare fights only to defend itself. Once it has been used, it can't be used again until 5 days have passed.
If you have a good alignment, the figurine has a 10 percent chance each time you use it to ignore your orders, including a command to revert to figurine form. If you mount the nightmare while it is ignoring your orders, you and the nightmare are instantly transported to a random location on the plane of Hades, where the nightmare reverts to figurine form.
Onyx Dog (Rare). This onyx statuette of a dog can become a mastiff for up to 6 hours. The mastiff has an Intelligence of 8 and can speak Common. It also has darkvision out to a range of 60 feet and can see invisible creatures and objects within that range. Once it has been used, it can't be used again until 7 days have passed.
Serpentine Owl (Rare). This serpentine statuette of an owl can become a giant owl for up to 8 hours. Once it has been used, it can't be used again until 2 days have passed. The owl can telepathically communicate with you at any range if you and it are on the same plane of existence.
Silver Raven (Uncommon). This silver statuette of a raven can become a raven for up to 12 hours. Once it has been used, it can't be used again until 2 days have passed. While in raven form, the figurine allows you to cast the animal messenger spell on it at will.
Notes: Summoning
Onyx dog creates a talking mastiff with Intelligence of 8. It tells nothing about the creature's alignment. In Monster Manual, a giant owl with the same Intelligence score is Neutral. Of course in my home game the mastiff is Neutral Good.
They're all good boys Peter!
i normally rule neutral.
Does a figurine like the lion or elephant require an action to command after being summoned? Does it act on your initiative or have its own? When you summon it with an action can it act the same turn? If you summon the elephant 60' in the air above a target and it takes the 6d6 falling damage what happens to the target? I can't find anything one way or another to any of these questions
How come Drizzt Do'Uren could get a panther out of one of these? THERE IS NO PANTHER!!!!!!
Guenhwyvar was a unique, one of a kind wondrous figurine.
To speak is a free action on your turn, so to command your figurine would be a free action, as long as the command was very simple. In my games I rule that the figurine takes its turn directly before your next turn when you command it (realistic reactive timing). To summon it would be a bonus action (the summoning word and the tossing of it.). I rule you can give it the simple command upon summoning, but again, realistically, it will take a few seconds (game time) for it to do what you say, so it will do your command at the beginning of your next turn. R.A.W. says you have to toss it to a point you can see on the ground in order to activate the figurine, so throwing it up above will not only not fulfill the activation parameters, but also risk damaging and destroying the figurine itself, which ruins it forever.
Just as lunalupis said, Guen is unique because the statue doesn't just transform into an animal in that likeness, instead the statue is the anchor that allows Guen's true astral planar body to enter the material plane. They are similar, but not the same. However, if you have read the stories and recall how the Astral Plane works, there could theoretically be other statues built in the likeness of other Astral animals, like the elk that Guen hunts. And yes, as you can guess from my username, I love R.A. Salvatore, I hope to be able to talk with him sometime, or even join him for one of the d&d sessions he hosts live. That would be so freaking cool.
I read “neuter.” Those poor boys.
It follows your verbal commands so no action required to command it. It is a creature of it's own so since it doesn't say it acts on your initiative I'd say default to it having it's own. You can't summon it in the air: "If you use an action to speak the command word and throw the figurine to a point **on the ground** within 60 feet of you..."
I gave the Golden Lions to our group's pirate. He named them Simba and Aslan.
7 Days between uses? That's pretty ridiculous.
I was planning on giving one of my players a Silver Raven figurine, but the description leaves me with a rabbit hole of questions:
A. If the figurine can only be in raven form "for up to 12 hours," does this mean that its animal messenger duration is only 12 hours, instead of the full 24 that the spell normally allows?
B. The description states that "At the end of the duration, the creature reverts to its figurine form." Does this mean that if the raven is in "mid-messenger-ing" at the 12-hour mark, it will just poof back into a figurine, mid-travel?
If both A and B are the correct, we must assume that for the silver raven's power to be used AND successfully make it back to its bearer before it turns back into an inanimate object, the recipient of the message can be a MAXIMUM of 6 hours away. From here, the question remains as to how far the raven can travel in 6 hours:
In terms of distance, assuming option 1 or 2 just makes for a crappier version of the animal messenger spell, but assuming option 3 makes it into a significantly more powerful item, as it inherently allows the message to be delivered in a quarter of the time compared to the original spell.
Does my assessment of the RAW make sense to everyone? More importantly, what about that pesky messenger distance?
I agree that with an Intelligence of 8, the onyx dog is not unaligned, but can be of any non-chaotic alignment. The one in my campaign is lawful neutral.
If I get an ebony fly, I want it to turn into a caterpillar fly. Look it up, it's so pretty.
They last for hours. By the time you should be acquiring one in your game, you should be high enough level where downtime should equal days/weeks at a time. Traveling as a high level with magic items means that the vast majority of would-be dangers are no longer a threat to be dealing with meaning that you shouldn't be running into situations to use it that often back-to-back outside of the fights of attrition times like long dungeon crawls where the cooldown is intentional. There is a reason find familiar is such a weak spell because having a strong magical companion 24/7 would break the game.
My druid has given himself the personal quest to gather ALL the FoWP! I first gave the Lions to my Bloodhunter and then the Druid found the Owl. Since my Bloodhunter is leaving he has already talked her into handing over her Lions (named Auger and Ayun) before she goes into hiding. He renamed the Owl Jellybean. He also has the staff of the Python(Tadpole) and the Staff of the Adder(Coconut) from random loot drops. I've decided to allow this and now it has become it's own series of side-quests. He has since collected the Goats(Scuddle, Chopper, and Flufkins) one by one, the dog(Rascal), and the raven(Cupcake).Now he's searching out clues for the fly. I figure he'll get the new canary last and I might even invent a couple new ones for him just to draw it out and he's beyond excited at the idea.
This is so cool I can't believe these are a thing
For the ivory goats, can you only summon one at a time?
The figurine must be thrown onto the ground to transform.
I feel that. I thought the same thing.