I'm looking at familiars and considering a raven. I've got the form sorted out (animal) but what technique would be appropriate, or would all of the following be appropriate
Creo - Nope
Intellego - Ravens have a grand tradition as wise and far seeing birds
Muto - struggling to justify it
Perdo - Carrion birds, feasting on the battlefield, seems appropriate
Rego - struggling to justify it
I'd bind it with my best Technique and Form, respectively?
If it's perfect for me, surely it will be in harmony with me.
Technique and Form to bind a familiar depend on the individual animal, not its species.
But if you need a rulebook to argue, the magical Raven of Virtue in the ArM4 Medieval Bestiary on p.65 might help, which is best bound by Intellego Mentem.
Cheers
Edit: Tellus is right, of course, in that a magus will choose a familiar fitting him, and hence bind it with his strongest Arts.
Thematically Intellego. Both Ravens and Owls.
My understanding was more the other way round - that an animal for whom your best form and technique worked to bind it would automatically be in sympathy with your magic, but not necessarily vice versa.
Going back to the original question, I agree Intellego sounds right.
Interesting, I'd always assumed that a magus could find a familiar to bind with his best arts but these would be appropriate to the animal species, rather than to the individual animal, although now I consider it, there would be sufficient variation amongst magical animals to be able to find an animal of a certain type to match your arts.
Interesting. Muto Animal it is then.
From a similar discussion we had at our table:
"Mice are usually associated with Terram? How nice. This mouse is associated with Imaginem, which happens to be [character]'s specialty. What a coincidence." - said in about as dry a tone as you can imagine.
When my magus Darkwing bound a raven (what else was I going to do, with a name like Darkwing?) I used Intellego Mentem, as most appropriate for the creature. I was better at Creo, but Intellego fitted my familiar of choice better so I went with that.
Also, using InMe means you get a +10 bonus on enchanting InMe effects in the familiar bond, so shared senses and mental communication become trivial to enchant. As you're going with MuAn, I presume you'll be binding buffing effects for your familiar into the bond?
Actually Darkwing, I had entirely forgotten about that. Might have to have a think there. Maybe Muto Corpus would be better to buff the magus. High arts are Muto, Animal, Corpus.
Or I could go with MuAn and let the familiar shape shift instead. Familiar raven becomes familiar bear in times of danger. Could be helpful.
[quote="Tellus"]
And if it can use PeIm to become invisible, one might even call it anonymouse.
If it's a zombie, it could be posthumouse, MuAn to become large would make it enormouse...
There are mice for every combination, which is very mice indeed.
I see what you did there.
Yeah, but do you really want your lab to become the House of Mouse?
Anyway, generally, if you want a familiar of a particular TeFo, you should usually have to get an animal that fits with the TeFo, not "oh, my mouse is a Mouse of Creo Imaginem." On the other hand, you can do it either way - either the mouse in question has sympathies in the direction you're looking (as in, you found such a mouse in-story), or you can come up with a Vulgar Alchemy-style sympathy based on how mice fit with CrIm, and then play Convince The Troupe for it.
Hi,
If you're a necromancer, think of it as a mouse-oleum.
What the above posters have said is correct but if your looking for a more thematic reasons why the raven you have found is of your best arts, remember that it has its own magical qualities which would lean it towards a specific form/technique
ie
Rego if it can paralize creatures with its stare
perdo if it creates diseases
mentum if it can mentally communicate
ignem if it can make its own shadows