Weekly Wonders – New Figurines of Wondrous Power by Alex Riggs and Joshua Zaback is a role playing game supplement published by Necromancers of the Northwest for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. As such, it is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result.
This is a seven page PDF which is available from RPGNow at the regular price of $1.49 but was purchased at the reduced price of $1.24. Two pages are the front and rear covers, one page is the front matter and one page the Open Game License, leaving three pages of content.
It begins with an introduction discussing how certain types of magical item – such as feather tokens, ioun stones and, of course, figurines of wondrous power – seem to be designed with the intention of adding new items. It then follows with some generic information relating to figurines of wondrous power in general and the following ones specifically. There are twelve new figurines introduced in this supplement.
The brass cobra can make attacks of opportunity against those attacking its user, and is also poisonous.
The copper grizzly can be used for combat, transport or as a beast of burden, and is immune to non-magical weapons but vulnerable to magic.
The darkwood porcupine damages those who attack it and can be used as a source of spears, javelins, arrows and bolts. Such are magical and disappear after 10 minutes.
The ivory frog can swallow creatures whole, transporting them to an extradimensional space.
The jade monkey – which seems to have a definite feel of the Monkey King about it – is intelligent, can shapechange into other humanoids, speaks multiple languages and has various thieving skills, can be used to retrieve items, but is a bit chaotic in nature.
The jet butterfly spreads a cloud of extradimensional spores and pollen which has a negative effect on those within it.
The jeweled dragon transforms into a true dragon of CR 15 at most. It will only obey characters whose alignment has one element in common with that of the dragon.
The pearl tyrannosaurus rex can swallow creatures whole, gaining extra abilities as long as the creature is inside of it.
The porcelain badger remains inanimate once activated, serving as a guardian for an area or object and only animating when an intruder approaches that which it is guarding. The owner is also notified.
The ruby triceratops can serve as a mount or combatant and can absorb spells.
The steel shark confers on its rider the ability to breathe and move freely underwater.
The user of a wooden squirrel can seen through its eyes and hear through its ears, and the squirrel can speak and is intelligent.
Weekly Wonders – New Figurines of Wondrous Power in Review
The PDF is exceptionally well bookmarked for its length, with all major and minor sections linked. Navigation is very good for such a short supplement. The text maintains a two column format and the only possible errors were in formatting – sometimes the names of individual figurines were in italics, sometimes not. There are no illustrations; pictures of the items would have been nice but undoubtedly expensive.
New figurines of wondrous power are always interesting, and there is quite a range of new ones. Each figurine has different abilities and uses, making them all stand out. It’s not simply a case of each will transform into a potential combatant; there are significant differences between them, making them useful in different situations. Not only do they have different abilities, the amount of time they remain active for, and how this is divided up, varies. The jeweled dragon is potentially a problem; it’s the most expensive admittedly, but it’s also pretty powerful. It should definitely not be given to low level parties – having a dragon for even 24 hours a year could seriously unbalance things.
Weekly Wonders – New Figurines of Wondrous Power is a great, and well-differentiated, collection of new figurines, and it can be bought by clicking here.
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