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.
Silver Raven. 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
Given that the Raven transformation lasts for 12 hours, and as per the Animal Messenger spell description a flying beast travels 50 miles per 24 hours, does this mean that after 12 hours and up to 25 miles of travel the Raven will revert to its figurine form regardless of where it is?
Plus there doesn't seem to be any indication that the raven returns to the owner after delivering the message succesfully.
Trying to get my head around how to use it properly, as a beginner DM and player, help would be greatly appreciated.
RAW indicate to me that yes, if you tried to send the Raven to fly 50 miles, it would disappear halfway there as a figurine. Of course, as a player, you can ask your DM, whom might tell you directly, or might let you find out.
As a DM, you could modify it however you want. Though some caution is warranted; you should evaluate if the limitations are what fit well with your campaign:
- If you make the figurine more useful, like it lasts longer, flies faster, automatically returns to it's user...does that nerf too many challenges for the party? Does it diminish the value of the skills or abilities your party has invested in?
- If you make the figurine less useful, does that cheapen the item to make it worthless or uninteresting? (Though, removing utility could also work if you want to treat it as a less valuable treasure.)
With all that in mind, the rarity of the item as written is just "Uncommon" so that also serves as a suggestion to how valuable it should be. But a DM could make uncommon items extremely rare and "rare" items show up everywhere...One of my players told me about a game (they either played in, or heard a podcast of, I forget which) where there was a "Magic Item Costco" style supermarket :D
I'm pretty new to DMing myself, but I think the biggest reason to apply limitations whether as written, or customized, is to keep the story interesting and challenging. That makes it good to start from things RAW but improvising and inventing along the way is a fantastic way to make the adventure yours.
I amthinking of using it as the raven flys off the base of the figurine, and grows into a full raven then 12 hours later it reappears on the base, so it can fly 50 miles to deliver a message and it will not lose it that way
I think that's "The Adventure Zone", a podcast. The Balance arc had a magic item shop called Fantasy Costco. It had a great jingle too, look it up.
It is weird, but the game is both higher magic and lower magic than it used to be. There are a ton of character powers that would have been nearly unthinkable, at least at lower levels. But then magic items are much more limited than they used to be. 10th level characters running around with bags of holding full of +1 and 2 "vendor trash" weapons and armor, and with with a dozen different items on them ready for use, was pretty normal.
The Animal Messenger spell however says the animal will return back to where it came, however that woudl take more travel time... so half the distance... about 12 Miles + speakign message 12 miles back..
Still it could be situationally useful for a scout if they havn't got another way to contact the people they need to reach within that distance. Maybe they have to stay put but have to warn some other people of an evolving situation that they need to continue monitoring.
Just been asked to me.. Hey DM does the silver raven retain consciousness when it is in the silver form?
We have been talking about it and seems if it did, it could potentially be very angry or depressed if it sat in a horde for a very long time.
Not sure how you guys are getting 50 mile flight range. 50' speed = 6 miles per hour x 12 hours active = 72 hours (the 50 mile travel is for roughly 8 hours of travel time)
The 50 miles comes from the "Animal Messenger" spell mentioned on the items, which states "The target beast travels for the duration of the spell toward the specified location, covering about 50 miles per 24 hours for a flying messenger, or 25 miles for other animals." And given that it is a Raven and a flying messenger, it is capable of 50 miles. The figure only lasts 12 hours though, so that's where people are also mentioning 25 miles.