Background:

There are a lot of general rules that apply specifically to 'figures'. These include being affected by attacks, blocking movement except by friends, blocking LOS and probably more.

Monsters, Lts, Avatars and heroes are all specifically referred to (or infered as) figures, whether they use a plastic of metal figure or just a token on the board. Villagers have been described as figures, as well as tokens. But monkeys? The hero figure is replaced by a monkey token, so it seems to not be a figure anymore - on the other hand it is still referred to as a hero, and therefore arguably is a figure still. And if it is not a figure then it is not officially affected by attacks*.

So what actually makes a figure be a figure?
Having wounds? - there are quests and dungeon levels which include props with wounds that are clearly not figures.
Being able to move? - familiars can move, and are probably not supposed to be figures - they certainly share very few rules with figures.
Having wounds and moving? - possibly...
Having an independent activation? - very possibly. This covers monsters, heroes, Lts, Avatars, monkeys, and villagers so far.

We do need to get clarity for monkeys, but other situations may come up, so it i better to have a general rule that can be applied if it is possible.

* that is a second problem - perhaps attacks should affect "anything with wounds" rather than just figures - special rules aside of course, such as ships in SoB not being affected by normal attacks. Certainly if a monkey is declared to not be a figure then this rule also needs addressing, or else monkeys cannot be affected by attacks!

Question:

Q. Are Monkeys Figures? What defines a figure?
A1. Yes. Anything which can move and has wounds counts as a figure.
A2 . Yes. Anything which has an independent activation counts as a figure.
A3. No. Only monsters, heroes and villagers are figures up to Sea of Blood. Advanced Campaign Avatars and Lieutenants are monsters, so are also figures.
A4. something else

Possible Q2, if Monkeys are not figures
Q. What can attacks affect?
A1. Attacks can affect anything which has wounds whether it is a figure, a token, a prop or anything else.

For completeness, we could add tentacles here, although this is already asked in a different thread.

Wouldn´t A1. include vessels, which is probably not intended?

A3. contradicts itself. "No, a monkey is not a figure, but it is still a hero, which is a figure."

Parathion said:

We can still add tentacles in to the background section.

Parathion said:

Yes it would - probably an explicit exception (or it is a good reason not to choose A1).

Parathion said:

fixable by adding " (while not a monkey)" after hero.
I actually think monkeys should be figures. They just don't seem to be at the moment according to the rules.

Monkeys are described in the instructions as transformed heroes. The transformation is described in the same section (in the middle in fact) that the lingering effects. From my point of view that's enougth to consider that a monkey is a hero and hece a figure.

Familiars have activation turns (played inmediately after the owner hero turn) but are not figures, so A2 is wrong. At least as worded. The haunt in the WoD first quest is another example, but it's not so clear as with hero's familiars.

A1 says that all figures can move, and that's true only sometimes. In ToI quest 3 the boss is a bane spider (so it is a figure) but it cannot move. The spider queen can't move either (it does activate and uses MP, but never moves). In the AoD last quest there is a chaos beast (figure) that doesn't uses MP nor has any number of wounds.

It doens't seem to matter how it's defined, but there is always some exception, specially when it comes to named monsters.

How about this?

Up to SoB, the term "figure" include and is limited to heroes, monsters and villagers whatever their condition is (so monkey-transformed heroes are still figures). Lieutenants and avatars are considered to be monsters with name, so they are figures.

That's very similar to A3, but it allows monkeys to be treated as figures. Otherwise, it can be a more general question:

Q Which ones among this list are considered figures? Transformed heroes (monkeys), familiars, boats, vesels, props that are specifically said to have wounds...