A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Figurines of Wondrous Power

Figurines of Wondrous Power by Creighton Broadhurst is a role playing game supplement published by Raging Swan Press for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. As such, the supplement is covered by the Open Game License with some parts being considered Open Game Content as a result. This is one in a serious of Player’s Resources.

The supplement is available as a bookmarked PDF from RPGNow at the regular price of $2.99 but was it purchased at the greatly reduced price of $0.13 as part of a special bundle.

This is a twenty page PDF of which two pages are the publisher’s standard plain front and rear covers, one page is blank, two pages are the front matter, one page is the Contents and Open Game License, one page is a standard one on reading stat blocks, explaining how they are laid out, and one page is an ad for Horns of Valhalla. The supplement comes in two formats, one optimised for print and more powerful devices and the other for screen.

The supplement begins with Figurines of Wondrous Power. This lists the different standard types of figurines and their appearance and cost, as well as how to activate and destroy them. A brief note is made on construction and there is an extensive list of different quirks that an activated figurine may possess, as well as some example command words.

The next section is Alternative Figurines. There are six groups of examples of what shapes could be used by different cultures and races for their own figurines; for example, an ebony fly could be designed as an ebony buzzard in the desert and an ebony bat underground. The areas covered are desert, frigid north, forgotten world, otherworldly, underground and underwater. There is also a sidebar on designing alternative figurines and then a list of each figurine by type with different forms, so a bronze griffon has such as dire boar, dire wolverine, giant stag beetle etc. as alternatives.

Next is a section on Intelligent Figurines, similar to intelligent weapons, including presences for the different types.

A brief section on Cursed Figurines gives a brief table of half a dozen curses that could affect a figurine.

Following this, each figurine is then listed with its abilities and a stat block.

Finally, there is a page on Riding & Protecting a Figurine. This gives prices on saddles of different types, saddlebags and bits and bridles, as well as different weights of barding.

Figurines of Wondrous Power in Review

The PDF is well bookmarked with major and minor sections listed; only sidebars are missing. The Contents, although not as thorough, are hyperlinked. Navigation is therefore above average, especially for a short supplement. The text maintains a two column format and a few minor errors were noted. There is also a black and white illustration for each figurine, which is really helpful.

Figurines of wondrous power have been around since the game’s early days, but they haven’t received much coverage apart from in the Drizzt Do’Urden novels, where one was a major character, nor have there been many new ones created (an exception to the latter is in Treasury of the Pharaohs where there was essentially precursor, less powerful, figurines).

This supplement doesn’t add any outright new figurines to those from the Core Rulebook. Instead it adds more detail to those that are provided. They can be tweaked to be more appropriate to a particular culture or region, given personality quirks to make them more individual, or intelligence to make their individuality even more so. Finally, each figurine has an expanded description paired up with its stat block; quite useful as normally this requires referring to the Core Rulebook and the Bestiary.

Figurines of Wondrous Power may not, strictly speaking, add any new figurines, but it does add a host of material for expanding existing ones and it can be found by clicking here.