Figurine of wondrous power: nightmare. Can it ruin my game?

[Thalantyr]

I want to give one of my characters (a duskblade 3/dread necromancer 1) a nightmare as a mount, as the reward of completing her personal plot in the future. But my game is low-level, intended to take them from 4th to 9th level, and I'm concerned about the flying speed and the astral projection and etherealness at will of the monster. Can a Figurine of wondrous power: nightmare ruin my game? Should I remove those qualities or just re-fluff a horse being black and having flaming hooves and mane?

[Fizban]

You can use the Lesser Nightmare from Planar Handbook. It only has Flaming Hooves and Smoke, and is valued at 5,500gp.

[Uncle Pine]

Seconding the lesser nightmare: it's a great way to introduce all the cool visual part of a nightmare at low levels without starting a planar hopping sidequest/plot derailment.

[Thalantyr]

The lesser nightmare is exactly what i was looking for. Thank you very much!

[CasualViking]

Or, the binding could be imperfect. The owner of the figurine can compel it to take form and serve as a mount, but plane travelling services have to be bartered for.

[Xervous]

Or, the binding could be imperfect. The owner of the figurine can compel it to take form and serve as a mount, but plane travelling services have to be bartered for.

On this note I am curious how much the flight speed plays a part of undesired abilities in the hands of the PCs at the current level.

As a side note an Obsidian Steed Figurine is priced at 28,500 gp. Essentially a nightmare, 24 hr span once per week. Obviously this is too much wealth to be handing out to a player in your given level range (disregarding whether or not it is fairly priced).

[Jowgen]

For completeness: Horseshoes of Flame, from Savage Species p. 57, turn any given Horse into a nightmare (effectively) for a total of 21 hours/day for 30,240 gp