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So I'm looking at the familiar archetype https://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/wizard/familiar/familiar-arch etypes/figment-familiar-archetype/ and it got me wondering. Presumably when manifest its as real as any other being. So can it go hunting, kill and eat a mouse (and yes I know things are going to get messy when it dissipates on your falling asleep), drink water, mark its territory if its a dog? Basically I'm trying to get a handle on just how real this figment is when its present.
Dreams can affect the world very directly on Golarion. A figment is a physical creature (with the magical beast type usually; magical beasts eat and drink) and can do all that.
Figments work because similar to how eidolons worked before the Unchained version. Difference is it calls forth a creature from their own mind rather than something from the void. Figments aren't illusions like the subschool figment. They're part of their master's imagination given physical form by will, magic, overactive imagination, or whatever. This physical form can do all the things you described. But, once the master looses consciousness, the binding keeping them in the material plane breaks and they get pulled back into their master's mind, possibly with messy results, possibly not as magic often violates the law of conservation of mass along with most other physics rules.
It's not actually a figment, in the Illusion(Figment) meaning of the word. It's more of a "creation" of your mind. So, much like a fireball, the familiar is quite real once it enters the world.
(Paizo really needs to start distinguishing game terms in their flavour texts.)
Why nightmares? A cat which has caught and killed a mouse is proud and dreams very happily. It's only on waking that the master would be disturbed by the dreams.
A cat which has caught and killed a mouse is proud and dreams very happily.
But the cat always was part of the master's psyche. The mouse isn't, and it died in agony and abject terror...
A cat which has caught and killed a mouse is proud and dreams very happily.But the cat always was part of the master's psyche. The mouse isn't, and it died in agony and abject terror...
Only an evil spellcaster would have a figment cat as a familiar, you're right. It says terrible things about your psyche.
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It gets really fun if you combine figment and egotist . . .
An egotist believes itself to be the real master in the relationship—the power behind the throne. It often attempts to communicate “orders” for its master as best it can, interfering in matters ranging from spell choices and tactical combat decisions to its master’s love life.
I like the combo of figment and sage. My imagination is smarter than me.