The Drizzt novels have a good explanation of how they work. You have a statue that links you to a creature that is bound to a pocket plane where they go once they're time runs out or enough damage is done to them. They share a color with their figurine, but have the normal physical characteristics of their species. Also as far as I can recall they remember their former masters and can have opinions on them if they so wish.

@TheXell

2 жыл бұрын

So they're essentially Pokemon.

@dlewdm

2 жыл бұрын

It’s not a pocket plane - it’s the astral plane and they remain tethered to it when summoned to the material plane

@jefflevy606

2 жыл бұрын

i think drizzt’s cat is special because it used to be a regular astral cat before being bound to the statue to save its life, while most others i think are made with the figurine. been a while since ive read the books tho

@twilightgardenspresentatio6384

2 жыл бұрын

@@TheXell nice.

@novaiscool1

2 жыл бұрын

@@jefflevy606 I've only finished the underdark trilogy to completion, so that might come up in a later book. I just new roughly what was described in those ones

in the Forgotten Realms, at least, the figures are linked to real animal spirits in other planes - usually the astral plane, but the nightmare is probably from hell.

@soggycracker5934

2 жыл бұрын

This. The Drizzt novels describe it in detail.

@MrChupacabra555

2 жыл бұрын

Wasn't the panther companion of that Iconic Edge Lord, Drizz't, a Wondrous Figurine as well? Does 5th Edition no longer have the Panther one?

@Reddotzebra

2 жыл бұрын

@@MrChupacabra555 Gwenhwywar... Guenhwyvar? Seriously, whatever she's called there are way too many w:s in there...

@samgoggin7593

2 жыл бұрын

@@MrChupacabra555 She was and has a lengthy backstory. If im correct though, she is a unique case. Most are not pulled from other realms. Correct me with sources if im wrong. Im already doubting myself.

@Cr3zant

2 жыл бұрын

That's only Drizzt's special panther one, hence why when his broke it kept his out in the material plane permanently but when yours breaks it just stops working and you lose it.

1:25 it's even worse! People on the prime material plane think elementals are stupid because of how smart they appear when summoned there but for the most part they're just as smart, if not outright smarter, than humans when they're back on their own plane of elemental _____. Think of it like summoning a human to a place with low oxygen and then claiming they can't talk because they have trouble breathing. They're ALREADY having a tough time just existing and you're forcing them to do physical labor at best or fight to the death in your stead at the worst... "Sorry kids, daddy can't come home because he died on the prime material plane when some asshole wizard wanted to go murderhobo on an orphanage when the kids called him stinky."

@seandunbar7364

2 жыл бұрын

Well the good news is outsiders just go back to their home plane

@judeblack4360

2 жыл бұрын

I feel really bad for fire elementals in particular, because you don't just find large amounts of open flame just lying around. The others can find their native environment pretty easy by floating around in the upper atmosphere, hiding in solid rock, or jumping into a lake, but how many volcanic calderas or burning gas craters do you find on a daily basis? I'd imagine it's like taking a camel to Siberia and expecting it to still carry your stuff without issue.

@VisonsofFalseTruths

2 жыл бұрын

@@seandunbar7364 beat me to it. No outsider actually dies on the material plane. Maybe fey but that’s debatable. Fiends, celestials and elementals absolutely don’t, they just go home: you wanna actually kill a demon you gotta send it home and then FOLLOW IT TO HELL and kill it again.

@funnyvalentinedidnothingwrong

2 жыл бұрын

@@VisonsofFalseTruths Just imagining a Vengeance Paladin who's specialty is demon slaying, who specifically carries an Obsidian Steed that hates his guts so he can use it to teleport down to hell and permakill the demon he just banished. Doomslayer, but with a cool horse.

@Norwyn

2 жыл бұрын

@@VisonsofFalseTruths But demons are home to the Abyss so killing one in hell won't do the job.

How did you forget that the Mastiff also has the ability to speak Common? Wouldn't that add a whole other layer of complication?

@Big_Man_Enjoyer

2 жыл бұрын

“Yes, I just talked, and am continuing to do so.”

@EDoyl

2 жыл бұрын

Oh no, imagine players asking the figurine itself how it works. It surely can't NOT know what it is, but you the DM certainly don't know what it is so what do you even say?

@spencertodd4860

2 жыл бұрын

@@EDoyl It took humans millennia to understand how we work since the conception of language. It's entirely possible that the figurine simply wouldn't know.

I know there's plenty of comments with the official explanation from the Drizzt novels, but I still want to point out that this is a universe where True Polymorph exists and you can turn a random pebble into a commoner (or any creature up to CR 9).

@Fleshwarper

Жыл бұрын

Thank you!

Pretty sure collecting these is the closest thing to being a Pokémon trainer in D&D

@julyol119

Жыл бұрын

Exactly! That's what I thought xD Also the eclectic abilities fit the pokemon idea as well xD

The way I see it, there's two main possibilities. Either the figurines contain the soul of a dead creature, and activating it transforms the figurines into a copy of that creature, or they're somehow bound to a living creature somewhere in the multiverse, and activating it transposes the creature with the figurine. So, either necromancy or conjuration.

@nicolrb2210

2 жыл бұрын

Imagine being a gold dragon and being roommates with a canary. And sometimes the Canary takes form and you can just watch through it’s eyes

@voidwalker5784

2 жыл бұрын

What if you're channeling the spirits of nature into the figurine and thus it becomes animated by the soul/spirit

@donutlovingwerewolf8837

2 жыл бұрын

Its definitely the latter, one time I saw a witch summon a golden dragon with a dragon figurine and one time I made a deal with a devil so that I can summon him anytime once by kissing a goat figurine he gave me

@pacoes1974

2 жыл бұрын

It looks like a Conjure Animals spell. I look at it as summoning a creature from the heavens. It also explains their intelligence. The item is a focus.

I feel like a lot of these questions could be answered by the books with drizzt since he has a figurine of wondrous power for his panther guenhwyvar, but I’ve never read them so I couldn’t tell ya

@glorialiedtke8931

2 жыл бұрын

Drizzt's statue Guenhwyvar is descripted as a big exception to typical summoned creatures because she still has her own free will.

@thayn2339

2 жыл бұрын

A real panther was sacrificed to finish her figurine.

@rosscalhoun3389

2 жыл бұрын

I had the exact same thought, but I *have* read them! Guenhwyvar is a highly intelligent creature of flesh, blood, and fur. It has a personality and holds a deep affection for Drizzt, but I think that's because of how Drizzt treats Guen, and not part of the magic. Being in statue form seems to be like "sleeping" for them. Guen isn't afraid of becoming a statue again, and only worries about it if doing so would leave Drizzt vulnerable. All in all, Statues of Wondrous Power are really just pokeballs.

@MechaMefi

2 жыл бұрын

@@glorialiedtke8931 But even if Guenhwyvar has it's own free will, it still tells you that it's an entity from the Astral Plane, and the statue is just it's personal gateway into the material plane if summoned, and while it's a living, breathing and bleeding creature, when it suffers fatal damage it instantly comes back to the Astral Plane to heal itself. Also, they tell you why there's a limit on the amoun of time they can be summoned. As Astral entities, being in the material plane is very taxing to them, so they must go back to their home plane to recover. and that's the cooldown to use it again. That's how it's told in Dritzz books, but I personally like it a lot, If I use one of these on a game, I'll use this as canon, adding that each type of animal has a different personality, and somes respond better or worse to good or evil orders.

@propain1551

2 жыл бұрын

@@rosscalhoun3389 The figurine was a doorway into the astral plane, if the figurine was destroyed Guen would just be stuck in the astral plane, they use this several times to save Ragis and keep him safe in the astral plane.

Warforged aren’t AI, they have real souls. Nobody’s really sure where they come from, but resurrection magic works on them and their shades appear in Dolurrh like anyone else in Eberron.

@apeanders

2 жыл бұрын

Who said AIs don't have real souls?

@Nyghtking

2 жыл бұрын

That and they have no class restrictions so they can be a paladin or a cleric and gain full benefits of the class.

@derandi2324

2 жыл бұрын

My personal opinion is that the warforged don't have straight up new souls. So my idea is whenever anything dies their soul leaves leftovers in the material plane (druids and dryads would know most about this) and until that's applied warforged for intents n purposes are just normal constructs. The actual soul is a a cobbled together patchwork of leftover remaining soul bits using nature magic, transmutation, evocation that eventually merges into a singular soul. Its the reason things can be revived because for a limited time there still remains some soul pieces in what's left behind before it decays and acts as nutrition for new life. This can be seen in flowerbeds or trees over graves and so on. But yeah thatd be my take

@Silverwind87

2 жыл бұрын

@@derandi2324 I wouldn't mind being reincarnated as an indestructible robot. And I'd never have to shit!

The canary is a reference to the canaries that follow Bahamut in his shapeshifted forms. He usually has a flock of gold dragons that are his secret service but they’re too noticeable when he’s out and about so they turn into golden canaries, making Bahamut look like a guy that just really likes birds =) So really it’s a figurine of adult gold dragon, but it can only manifest that much power once per long period of time.

My party in my last campaign had an onyx dog figurine and we treated it nearly the same way find familiar is treated, so when the players summoned the dog a specific fey spirit was pulled from the feywilds to take on the form of the dog and when he was just a statue the spirit would be chilling at home. Had some pretty hilarious interactions with it being super confused with the situations it would get thrusted into, especially since it can speak common.

I once homebrewed a Porcelain Prince. It had a wallet of 5,000 GP and had the accreditations of royalty, but it perceived whoever activated it from its porcelain frog form as its one true love

If my knowledge of the Drizzt series is of anything, the figurines essentially bond an animal spirit from the Astral Plane (which tends to be in a place akin to their natural habitat? when looking at Guen) to the figurine, allowing whoever who has the figurine to use the creature as a servant. They heal their wounds back on their home plane, and "dying" just auto-brings them back there. They have their own mind and traits (as seen with Guen) and can overcome their orders based on their desires (as seen yet again with Guen, but also the nightmare). Then again, Guen is a bit of a mystery since she's only really a thing in the FG drizzt series, as there's no official panther figurine, so the info about figurines with her can be treated as "eh, maybe not".

@FrostyTheSnowPickle

2 жыл бұрын

Guen is a special case. She used to be a regular astral panther, but after she was mortally wounded, she got linked to a figure to save her life.

I love my all seeing eye dog. He is such a good boy. It is hard to hide treats though.

Imagine using your miniatures as Figurines of magical power. So you could summon old friends and monsters to your side. This might also give the players a reason so buy miniatures for your group. Also this could be an interesting character backstory for a few oneshots (maybe the whole party are just figurines of wonderous power, summoned to stumble from one adventure to the other).

Shout out to my fellow old timers who remember drizzt do'urden, that charming dark elf who decided to try literally anything other alignment other than the one his people clung to like pointy security blankets. He had a wondrous figurine of a panther, and it give a few details as to how they work (or worked, this was back in 2ed). The figurine, when activated, swaps place with that particular animal which is currently hanging out on the plane of animals doing animal stuff. Same animal every time, and yes they do remember people. Drizzt's cat would occasionally throw a hissy fit and leave if the elf was being a twit, and when someone stole the figure it had to obey the new owner until it tapped into heroic willpower and yadda yadda.

@FrostyTheSnowPickle

2 жыл бұрын

One thing to keep in mind: Guen is special. Most figurines aren’t usually as sentient. Guen was actually a regular astral panther thing, but got mortally wounded and was linked to a figurine to save her life.

@epiccthulu

2 жыл бұрын

His story still lives on man, the latest novel was perfection

The ideia of it being a cursed creature trapped into a "toy" form, only being able to be freed sporadically by way of a magical word is actually pretty good and terrifying. Also, personally i would keep the texture (and even the material stats) of the figurines. I think it'd give it more personality.

The origin behind these items escapes me but maybe they work by bringing the idea of a creature/being into reality? Like some of the more esoteric abilities come from some folklore involving the creature that gets expressed due to that being what the creator of the items was thinking about when the figurine was made? Also, material may play a part in the power of a figurine. The silver raven isn’t as powerful because a connection to silver is loose but the ebony fly turns into mega fly because it is dead on. Perhaps weird material choices are chosen to prevent too strong of beings being made. Or maybe the Raven Queen kept stealing their ebony raven figurines cause they really work well in her living room so they went with silver as it clashes with her home’s color palette.

My assumption was that the items are made with one of the animals it's going to be shaped like as a component. Like you rip the soul out of an elephant and bind it to the marble sculpture. I also guess that while in statue form they're probably in like a half asleep feuge state, kind of like being zoned out of a boring conversation and only snapping back to attention if it involves you. Although you could have some interesting and morally challenging fun with the exact mechanics of how aware the figurine is, potentially painting the creators of the object as evil, misguided, cruel, or even sentimental and kind depending on how the object was made and why. Like say a wizard a thousand years ago turned his faithful watch dog into an onyx dog when it was nearing the end of its life as a way of keeping his companion alive, and when its dormant it does nothing but dream of contentment and paradise. Or say a civilization looking for cheap effective tools turned entire herds of elephants into figurines and the poor things are aware the entire time but stripped of free will, their only comfort being able to slumber peacefully while their statues. They can he great world building tools like that

@informedconsumer5293

Жыл бұрын

Another guy commented the animal is alive and teleports/swaps location with the figurine

Take an intelligent or awaked creature, bind it to an object that resembles it so they swap places when the command word is spoken. Creature gets immortality out of the deal. The gold canary is a reference to the dragon god Bahamut. He keeps the company of multiple ancient gold dragons that are shape shifted into canarys.

I like that these can have personalities. As DM, I roleplayed a PCs familiar to have not only a specific personality but was also a more devout follower of that warlock’s patron ( the player had chosen arbitrarily so the confusion was hilarious)

I imagine that they're regular beasts (Or non beasts in some cases), where their souls have been placed inside the statues as a form of sympathetic magic. Granting them magical abilities is probably a part of the figurine creation and wielding the figurine gives you some (but not total) control over the creature. That's just my take on it tho.

@trinitydalfae8478

2 жыл бұрын

That's exactly how our group played them back in 2E. Our party's druid even had a figurine containing the soul of her ancestor's animal companion.

The way I see it, true polymorph can turn objects in to creatures so there's some solid precedent for this kind of thing. Also the goats come in three probably as a reference to the three billy goats gruff.

@scepta101

2 жыл бұрын

That’s a good point and also horrifying. Like… are these things some twisted transmutation magic that once transformed these poor animals into figurines and locked them into an eternal hell of being summoned, killed, and resummoned?

@oldmanjankins4092

2 жыл бұрын

@@scepta101 Well they kinda get something close to immortality out of it, so maybe it is worth it

@nicknametaken5886

Жыл бұрын

​@@oldmanjankins4092how is immortality worth it?

From what The Legend of Drizzt as taught me, it's that figurines are basically able to call forth spirit animals that do have their own personalities. Pretty dope, honestly. Personally, I think the soul is tied to the figure. So you could, for example, bind a guard drake to the figure.

I like the tought that figurines are imbued with their craftsman's understanding of the creature they are sculpting, and the more profound this understanding and knowledge is, the more "realistic" the creature becomes once summoned

This might help: in the Dragonlance books Fizban’s golden ring is a portable form for his dragon friend, an old golden dragon who fought in ancient times. At least in dragon lance, the golden dragon figurine seems to be just a regular dragon who lets himself be turned into a ring for ease of movement

According to Drizzt's books, it's more of summoning a creature from a pocket dimension/spirit plane, and one boom has the halfling buddy go to the pocket plane with gwuenhvar

Ever read the True Polymorph spell? It's that, but inside each of the figurines, and they only target the figurines themselves. And they're limited to the listed forms. If the DM allows it, yes, other figurines can be made and of different materials.

Someone already mentioned other creatures linked to planes outside of the material in the Forgotten Realms setting, so I'll skip over that. When I stopped to think about it I immediately thought that they could be permanent castings of a spell that you see in the Witcher books and game where a creature can be bound or transmuted into a statue, where time doesn't pass for them until the spell is broken. A spell that I don't think exists in 5e but easily made. Or maybe an explanation is that it's True Polymorph, enchanted on a loop. We're the statue becomes the creature for a time or the creature was permanently turned into the statue that can be released for a time

@clayxros576

2 жыл бұрын

This sounds most likely, as Conjuration runs the risk of the creature on the inherent end dying and being unavailable from then on. Plus these things are typically always the same creature, ergo remembering past masters. But what could instill such a loop?

In my own homebrew setting, the figurines are carved in the shape of constellations and their spirits are like a copy of the mythical creatures they represent. Basically they’re like servants in the Fate series, where they are created as copies of some real godlike being in the astral plane, but the individual spirit is just like a Find Familiar spirit. I also made an artificer subclass that lets you specialize in using these figures like Pokémon, spending spell slots to recharge them, forming bonds with them, and fusing with them to empower yourself.

for an Icewind Dale campaign I had tweaked a reward players would get. Instead of ordinary scrimshaw carvings they go a Scrimshaw Walrus, it turns into a Giant Walrus for up to 24 hours and recharges after a week. My characters called it Big Love(because that's what's carved on the figurine), it wears a top hat and suit, and Barry White music follows it wherever it goes.

I always assumed that the raven was Silver as a reference to a Greek myth about Apollo, basically they had white feathers until he got mad at them.

Ivory goats being a triad might have been inspired by the three billy goats gruff, and the idea of the duo of lions was probably taken from leonic statues that sometimes sit or lie "guarding" doors.

@AuntieHauntieGames

2 жыл бұрын

It definitely was. But also, the Figurines of Wondrous Power are based on real life menagerie figures in general. Stuff like the Staffordshire Dog Figurines. It was not uncommon for menagerie figurines to be made as paired or triplet figures in a set and they were very popular collectibles in the 19th and early 20th century.

When it comes to these kinds of things in RPGs, i just like to apply Occams Razor. How do these weird unexplained things work? The simplest way we can all agree on. My take is a mostly obediant animal is created, then uncreated. For some figures, they create an animal with an attitude. If you want to write in extra stuff, you can, but this is the simple answer.

@zacho.463

2 жыл бұрын

I went the other way 😂

I saw these as equipment on dndbeyond and had questions. Theres actually a lot of equipment tucked away in there that made me have questions.

I used these items as an inspiration. I have a giant octopus my party met in his garden in the feywild. He crafted a figurine of himself to entrust the druid of the party to only use in the most dire times to summon himself to the material plane. It was a great act of trust for him to craft and gift this object.

Warforged are actually even weirder than that, they are magical AI with bodies that register as "alive" to pretty much anything that cares about that sort of thing despite being made of wood, stone and metal, plus they have actual bona fide souls. Where do these souls come from? What crazy and probably horribly immoral thing did house Cannith do to pull that off? And if they're not stealing souls from somewhere, how were they able to make new ones? I desperately want to play a campaign that goes into these and many other questions (Obviously with my already premade dragonmarked variant human artificer on his personal information junkie trip into deeper understanding and probable madness, or not, since he's mostly interested in how stuff works and wouldn't know an ethical conundrum if it booped him on the snoot.) That will never happen though, since nobody wants to play in Eberron for some stupid reason.

@TheRealMycanthrope

2 жыл бұрын

Just lie and tell them it's Planesca- no, that won't work either.

@Invaric

2 жыл бұрын

Warforged also come from Lantan in Faerûn if that helps. They also originated from the same soulforges as Genasi if I recall correctly.

One of my PCs rescued a baby giant bat early in campaign and raised it to adulthood, but it was never going to have more than 30ish HP, so it was getting squishy by mid levels. An exotic mount seller sold her a magically infused stone pellet for the bat to swallow to turn it into a figurine. Now when the bat hits 0 hp or they need to go where it can't follow, it just turns back into a stone bat carving for a day before she can re-summon it.

I like to think becoming a figurine is like sleeping for them.

Others have suggested they're likely linked to the spirits of animals on other planes (which just makes me imagine cursed/flawed ones that have incorrect spirits in them sometimes), but I like to imagine they're actually like advanced simulacrums. They are not only constructs of whatever their maker made their bodies, but their minds... the permanent ideal personality of whatever the being that made them *thought* they would have in life (and thus is rife for exploitation as much as the notion of misapplied totems, as their makers are in no way guaranteed to know how they should behave).

This is basically the best series on KZread

Simple answer, they function the way conjugation (creation) spells do in 3.5 you're taking magical energy and shaping it into a copy of a living creature the energy is stored in the statue and when they're broken the creature stops exsisting

my DM actually gave us the goat figurines, but they're one time use so we're saving them for emergencies. which is probably never because who the fuck knows when the appropriate time to summon a magic goat is.

@thomaspoteete4119

2 жыл бұрын

When in doubt Goat out

More dives into oddities of the games please! Loved this one Logan.

There is actually a story abouthow these are made in forgotten realms lore. Pretty famous one actually. Gwen, Drizzt's panther, was a real living panther that was captured by a wizard like hundreds of years ago. Wizard spent months preping an onyx figurine and gwen to bind the two together. It creates a place on the astral plane for gwen to live and whoever owns the figurine is in control of gwen. Gwen very much kept her personality but did die in the process of making the figurine. ( though that was due to some giants if i remember correctly not sure if the process would have killed her otherwise. )

my favorite items in all of dnd. i give my players that fly always as one of the first magic items. they don’t know how to abuse it

Reading Cugel's Saga by Jack Vance I discovered their origin. An archeologist/wizard found a set of three ivory female figurines in an ancient ruin and discovered soaking them in water turned them into a trio of identical young women that creepily copied each other movements.

I remember one of my first times DMing I thought it'd be funny to randomly generate treasure, because I like the idea of parts of my story not being 100% in my or my players' control, and I was curious what might come up. I got a Silver Raven figurine, it rolled as being a cursed, sentient item (like the figurine ITSELF was sentient, which I carried into the raven), with an int of 15 (which was higher than the party) and a cha of 13. It was also chaotic evil. I basically had the thing pose as an emissary for an evil god and really screw with the party. It derailed their questing for a while until the Paladin started getting suspicious of their raven friend. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that sometimes, the random treasure table can be a fun source of ideas if you want it.

@Runesmith I'm so happy right now. Your videos always make me smile. This one just made me laugh out loud. This type of "confused philosophy" is so my style. Follow you since you left XP to lvl3 and I'm always happy when I see you have a new upload. Thanks a lot for all the smiles you gave me 😊

This just gives me an idea to make a character that obsessively whittles and talks to nonmagical figurines under the guise of it being a "hobby" or "out of boredom". But he secretly hopes one of them talks back because he knows _of_ wonderous figurines, in so far as the (maybe?) flawed information of "it's a tiny, living figurine". He knows nothing about how they _actually_ work or are made, and just wants a tiny animal friend that he's carved, himself. XD

New question, how do the Bags of Tricks work? Can they remember their previous owners? Why can't I simply look in the bags and choose which one I throw? What happens if I dump the whole bag out? I had a character who was a Wild Mage with a traveling magic show. He leaned very hard into the whole random chance gimmick, so he had a Bag of Tricks and would use it for rabbit-out-of-a-hat tricks, but he always ran the risk of summoning a Giant Elf in the middle of the tavern.

@SupahTrunks7

2 жыл бұрын

Our dm has made it so it's a set of three spirits which alternate which forms they take when coming out of the bag and they remember previous summons

@RaethFennec

Жыл бұрын

To answer your questions: Read the rules text. No. You can, you just don't know what it does until it activates. However many are left for the day fall out.

For the physical appearance of the animals: The Forgotten Realms set in Magic the Gathering features a Silver Raven figurine, the art shows it seemingly in the process of casting Animal Messenger, so it must be activated in the illustration. It's metallic, like the figurine just started moving without changing in appearance except for maybe size. It's up to you how much weight to put on MtG art when it comes to interpreting a different game entirely, but the art brief must have specifically asked for a metallic bird.

I like the idea that their command words are them- they are magical linguistic beings (like, living words) who have chosen to take on a material form and impersonate creatures while doing so in an effort to understand our world better.

I'm a bit late to the party, but the gold canary one is kinda cool. Bahamut has seven gold canaries that fly around him while in human form that are the spirits of faithful adult dragons which can polymorph back into their dragon form on a whim. The figurine might just be a reference or an actual conduit to borrow one of those gold dragons much like how the other ones might be pulling animal spirits from the places like the beastlands or the feywild, and generating a temporary body for them.

This was a great clip, so many amazing questions! I LOVE the "Plastic Barbarian" figure, I am absolutely sending my players on a quest to find all 12 to complete the set/ defeat the evil "Porcelain Lich!" 😃

I'd bet money that the gold canary is a reference to old lore about Bahamut which states that he often wanders the mortal realm in the guise of an elderly man, accompanied by 12 yellow canaries which are actually polymorphed gold dragons. Edit: apparently I'm not the only one who remembers this :v

@BigusGeekus

Жыл бұрын

I was looking to see if anyone else remembered that.

I kinda assumed it would work kinda like Shazam, when you speak to it the figurine essentially swaps places with whatever entity you summoned, explaining why some have personalities

So many questions that I never knew I had about the figurines. At least 8 hours of work this week will be spent not working, but pondering for a deeper understanding. Lol! Great video, thank you for the thought exercise. Cheers!

Check out Guenhwyvar from the Drizzt novels. She's a Wondrous item, as well. If you take her creation story and adapt it, you can get some pretty damn cool reasons for why these statues exist, and how to create them. The basic jist is that they're creatures from the material plane that, through a ritual, become part Astral creatures, and get infused into a statue. That's why they can have personalities, because anyone who's been around animals can attest that even animals can have personality traits, even if somewhat basic ones. In Guenhwyvar's case, she was a pinnacle example of a panther. She is fiercely intelligent, loyal, and powerful, and she practically sacrificed her life protecting people even as a normal ass panther. The ritual was actually done to save her life, and it turned her into an incredibly powerful weapon that is just as iconic to Drizzt as his scimitars or green cloak. Wondrous items are bonkers and awesome, especially when you know the lore.

3:48 I'm left dumfounded. I completely and totally agree with you!

They're pokeballs. Each has a small pocket realm in it that contains the creature depicted. The token acts as a summon spell for you, and pulls the creature from its time-stopped poket realm for a time. YOu see this in many of the older TSR books when this comes up (Drizzt famously has one). I *believe* but am not certain because its been 20 years, that they were created by the Nethril Empire back in the days before Karsis's Avatar, and thus use magic no longer possible in the Realms.

Excited for the sunken islands. Love all of your content!

Hmmm. I'm gonna say, cursed creatures, bound to a suitably crafted medium in the hour of their demise. The medium determines abilities, creature determines form and will, if material allows. Aware only while activated, but fully so within the limits of the medium, and capable of memory.

D&D Santa hired an entire fay settlement to make these figurines to unleash them on an unaware world and confuse and confound you as a player and as a person.

Please make a porcelain gnome magic item description! Also, I'm excited for the new Kickstarter and have already backed!

The goats come in three goats of different sizes as a Billy Goats Gruff story reference.

Adding to the chorus of comments about the Drizzt novels, there's a short story that details the creation of Guenhwyvar, which goes into how the figurines are made from living animals through this arcane ritual. Guen is a bit of a unique one, since she's summoned from the figurine instead of transforming into it, but the general concept is the same.

Technically you could make a figurine out of anything and have it be anything but it is important to note that you have to use the actual animal you are making in the creation process. So the guy or gal that made the knightmare stallion actually summoned a knightmare, bound it in a ritual circle, and cut its throat to make that statue. Its also probably why the stallion has issues with who it lets ride it. You should also keep in mind that if the figurine becomes to badly damaged it won't work anymore so making it out of something like soapstone or straw probably isn't a good idea.

My guess from old AD&D was that they started out as living creatures that were then bonded with sculpted versions of themselves to turn them into magic items. Given the info about the golden sparrow that can turn into a gold dragon, it seems more likely that they living creatures (or spirits like familiars) that are conjured critters specifically linked to the specific statues. Maybe both depending on origin.

I've think it's mention in a very elusive manor that warforge are basically the first two constructs mixed. They have the soul of a primordial or something along those lines but was so bound by their magical parameters they didn't start to gain full sentience until the "big boom" and basically factions had to sign agreements not to make any more warforged.

Always figured it was raw magic/Weave that granted them “life” and otherwise self contained with the statue form ‘holding’ or using up that magic to keep it in said form, the command word releasing the magic like opening a cage. Alive by using the magic as its life force in beast form but in statue mode the same magic being the restraining force keeping it “non-creatured.”

Polymer Carp of Somewhat Wonderous Power

The easiest way to create a figurine of wonderous power seems like it would be to take a normal animal train and enchant it, and then petrify it when not in use so that it doesn't age. Seems perfect for the elven high mage that wants to maximize the time he can spend with his pet. Just set up a trigger command that stops the reduce object and removes the petrification for a short period, and bam fido never ages except when he's in your presence doing things you both enjoy. As far as he knows he's got the best master in the universe who spends every waking moment with him. Gets a bit grim when the original enchanter dies and the figurine winds up in the hands of a bunch of nitwit adventurers who want to use him like a Pokémon though.

I actually played in a game where a player received an ebony fly, named a Fly of Bealzebub. He was a wizard with no wisdom who was obsessed with bugs and it killed and ate 10 people while terrorizing the town. He ended up falling off of this creature and crashing from 70ft in the air.

I see the drizzt novels have been evoked for explanation on summoning a spiritual creature from another plane. And did the short stories that actually talks about Gwen's creation. She was actually a panther and a wizard was trying to create the figurine of power and somehow through the spell sent one of our spirit to the astral plane and vound it to the figurine. Not sure if this is how they are all made but that's how this one was answered.

I actually love the Wondrous figurines, but I never have an opportunity to use or even see them in the games I dm or play in. I want the goats so bad, especially since they would work perfectly for the newest Character I'll Never Get To Play that I made up not too long ago XD

I don't remember of Fizban's mentions it but the canary figurine is a reference to Bahamut and his 7 guardians, who are celestial great Wyrm gold dragons that take the form of golden canaries accompanying bahamut in old man form.

this video is just a stealth writing prompt for us, very nicely done

Runesmith’s R&M reference Ending. 🤣 * Weeping Jerry: “HE WAS IN MY HOUSE! WHERE I KEEP PHOTOS OF MY PARENTS!” Hahaha 😂

I figured they were items based on a combination of Enlarge/Reduce, True Polymorph, and maybe a Wish thrown in to cover all bases. When activated you're just triggering a really specific form of polymorph magic. The question of whether they remember their past owners is an interesting one with a lot of story telling potential in it.

The idea of a telapathic owl friend that can Only Make owl hoots has me fucking losing it. Like imagine having to put up with that all day

There propably is are a few stories where exactly such a thing appears. I can't think of on of the top of my head. They combine a few concepts. Like the beliefs that anything has a soul of some kind, that you can change a thing into another like in Cinderella or give othwise dead matter a life like a golem. Also the magic of art and craftsmanship since they're all made of expensive materials. And petrification of living beeings. For me it is mostly like a dedicated animation. Like, it is gold imitating a Lion or something exept the nightmare wich seems more like a banned demon. Maybe comparable to the statues of Hogwarts in the las Harry Potter book. I am abit sad that I can't think of an older, more folklore story to explain the idea a bit better

Just had an idea, an Adamantium Warrior of Great Power. Literally just a little statue of a guy in full plate standing at attention with sword and shield, when activated you get a fighter in adamantium full plate with a sword and shield that will fight for you.

5:33 From what I can remember, Guenhwyvar, Drizzt panther companion, would "rest" in her pocket plane by endlessy hunting other (imaginary?) creatures in a loop, until it was called by Drizzt again. Guenhwyvar does seem to have impact in it's own plane, and it recognizes as it's resting place. As it is descibed "during that time of endless, liberating thrill of the hunt, Guenhwyvar would rest and enjoy itself with it's beautiful and sublime movement.." or somenthing like that. It was introduced in the final book for the Trilogy of the Crystal Shard if I recall.. They do recall their prevoius users, but eventually they can forget them if they are not as "linked" emotionally. (If the owner of the figuring abuses it's power or not aligned to their alignment ecc.. Even calling the creature too many times can have severe reprecussions from the creature..depending from X damage that was given to it. SPOILERS Guenhwyvar fell into a lake of acid in the first books, but was "fine"..sort of END OF SPOILERS In Drizzt case, Salvatore says that the panther will eventually forget it's previous masters but will never, ever forget Drizzt, proving that these figurines do have emotions and emphaty. Of course this in Guenhwyvar's case.

They are explained in the legend of Drizzt books. They are animals from other planes that are bound to the figurine. So they don't actually turn back into the figurines but go back to their plane of origin when the summoning time runs out.

I always assumed it just summoned an extraplanar creature. Like you use the obsidian steed and a nightmare from somewhere in hell just gets teleported in for a few minutes.

I figured that figurine mode was like sleeping to them. Simultaniously conscious and living only when activated. That their stream of memory pauses as a figurine.

I don't know how they work, but I made a citrine sabertooth tiger for one of my NPCs. He's a high level wizard and what says, "more magic and time than i know what to do with" better than a custom figurine of wonder? He uses it as a riding mount.

The owl part about "what, you get a hoot every now and then?"

if i recall right legend of drizzit seemed to imply they are alive have personalities and remember what happened in prior moments of form. so i'd argue for a cursed animal origin maybe hags sell them as a side hustle edit: wait actually the panther in drizzit was the embodiment of panthers summoned from the astral plane. so you are summoning the embodiment of a creature and the material is presumably just magic flavor.

I imagine them to be creatures that have been bound/cursed into their current form and that's where their life and personality comes from.

Actually, I bet it's a flavor of the True Polymorph spell. I have a villain in my campaign who does this to people, except she turns them into marbles. She keeps all the marbles in a bag, and will sometimes assume their identities to accomplish goals, steal things, or generally mess with people. It's also practical, since she can cast summon greater demon whenever she wants by simply undoing a polymorph on a marble and killing the person within for their blood.

Fantastic line of questioning

Taming a nightmare typically required complete domination of the creature, with it and its potential rider dueling to determine its fate. Only when it was clear the only alternative was death would nightmares submit, but they didn't lose their individuality and wouldn't blindly follow commands.

Then there's one of my players whose derpy basilisk found a homebrew unicorn figurine of wondrous power so it ate it and gained the powers of the figurine. Its colors became blue pink and purple, has a unicorn horn, and when she wants to use the figurine transform part she places it onto the ground and it turns into a large basilisk with the stat block of a unicorn but it has wings and can fly. She named him Lathanders Holy Grace, because she was a light cleric lathander zealot. It was beautiful and made me as a dm smile way to much. Out of abyss was great. Other player also grabbed a basilisk egg that hatched and then it fused with his magical bubble pipe. Whenever it opens its mouth it blows bubbles forever until it closes its mouth. Great memories.

With a few alterations this video's script could pass for a mad medieval alchemist's treatise

check out the Legend of Drizzt, I think either the first or second book has a good bit of explaination as to what the statues are, what the command word/the names used to call them are, and where the animal form goes when its not on the material plane. His Panther, Guenhwyvar, is one such figurine

usually the figures act as a link to another plane. for instance Drizzt Do'Urden's panther companion Guenhwyar is a black panther figurine. her spirit eternally hunts in the astral plane and is called to the material plane whenever Drizzt calls her.

I would love to see more of these done on artifacts, maybe just a video covering some cool magic items.

4:08 does this mean you can force someone into "riding" it, and I long as the Nightmare doesn't like them, it can work as a one way trip to hell? 🤔 Very interesting...