I'm creating a muto-maga ex misc who cannot cast spells on animals at all (Restriction):
What kind of a familiar could she take?
Akelpie (thing of virtue from RoP:M) maybe?
Hi,
She would need a Virtue in order to take a Familiar.
There are a few virtues in canon that allow her to do this: Any of the Goetic Arts allow her to bind a demon or spirit, and TMRE has two minor virtues that also allow a spirit familiar, and in one case a daimonic aspect.
RoP:M suggests that a magus might be able to initiate a virtue that allows him to bind a Magical Thing, at the discretion of the troupe, but notes that this virtue does not exist in canon.
Thus, unless she has a virtue, no familiar.
Anyway,
Ken
I don't see the point: familiar need to have might to be familiar. Thus they are magical animal and not animal.. then no restriction...
Am I missing something?
Hi,
Yes: A magical animal is an animal.
Anyway,
Ken
Hum but if the maga whom we speak is Morphiste, last time i checked, her flaw restriction apply on non magical animal only 
(see Fire in The North saga on this forum)
Thank you Exarkun, I overlooked the obvious
RM5ed pg 104. You can use Auram for birds or Aquam for aquatic animals. Animal or Vim can be used for magical animals.
Any familiar need might to establish the link. Aquam and auram are obvious form for fishs and birds... but always magical ones.
Consider also the Major Hermetic Virtue, Awaken Device (p. 80, Ancient Magic). If you get it, you can make your familiar to taste. You lose the chance to access non hermetic magic, but it's int score is only limited by your CrMe score, and you can "implant" any skill you have into it in a season as well. +15 (or more) to your lab score is not to be sneezed at.....
Well Ancient Magic is powerful... it's for that reason this is a "full of optional hedge integration in Hermetic Magic book" ^^
Ancient Magic has got some very powerful stuff to be sure. But "Awaken Device" is pretty calm, to the point that many have replaced the Automaton Mystery of House Verditius with it. While I would be very careful about incorporating most of that chapter, "Awaken Device" looks like it would be a clean five year or so project, for a mage that otherwise can't have a familiar. Shorter if you could only awaken one device, which had to be your familiar. I am a little uncomfortable with the animal / magical animal idea. If you had a focus in "animal", it would cover animal, magical animal, spirit animal, etc. Shouldn't this "anti-focus" be similarly broad?
Am I missing something? Since when does a familiar need to have Might?
Chris
A Familiar doesn't need Might. That is just the most common variety of magical animal. An animal with Warping but no Might wuold still work, as would an animal without might that posesses the Magic Blood Virtue (it is descended from a Beast of Virtue or some such, but does not itself have a might score).
And yes, magical animals are still animals.
Yes, the canon says "The first step in getting a familiar is finding an animal with inherent magic". So I don't think Warping is enough. The would be familiar has to be able to do something. But that doesn't require a Might score, anymore then the Enchanting music virtue does.
As some pointed out, one option is to redefine the flaw and thus partly redefine the character. But that's working around (and reducing) the flaw, not answering the question.
In Mysteries Revised there is a Minor Mystery Virtue: Spirit Familiar (p 66), which allows a mage to bind themselves to a ghost or spirit rather than an animal. If the mage has ties to another Realm, that spirit could be from that Realm instead of the magical. This would solve the problem nicely, and avoid the "but it's still an animal!" problem.