These rules are taken from those in Forged by Dragon's Fire and the text here is largely lifted from WoD: City of Angels.

Finding and Claiming your Familiar

Creating the Familiar
Calling Out
The first step is finding the spirit or being that you hope to coax into being your Familiar. Then you have to actually find a spirit of the sort you've chosen that's cooperative. There are two ways to do this. First, you can travel and head to the natural habitat of the spirit you're looking for. For a tiger spirit, head to the deep jungles of Bangladesh, for instance.

The other way is to use the simple Spirit 2 rote, Call Spirit. However, this one's a little more risky. If you want to join with the spirit as a familiar, you don't want to anger the spirit by making that tiger spirit make the long journey from Bangladesh to find you and make you happy.

One way or the other, the mage and spirit have to be face to face. Then the bargaining process begins. This process is similar to the process for creating a fetish, but it's also remarkably easier. Unlike fetishes, this generally doesn't involve epic quests or incredible favors. It usually requires only the agreement upon the terms of the pact.

Making the Body
So, you've found your spirit and you've made your deal. Now, you just need to get the spirit a body. The easiest and most common way for a mage to do this is to have the spirit use the Materialize Charm to it's full extent, expending all it's Power in such a manner as to manifest fully and completely in the physical plane. The mage then uses a Prime 3 effect to make that form permanent. If the spirit can't Materialize, the mage may also use Spirit 4, Breach the Gauntlet, and allow the spirit to simply walk into the material plane physically.

If neither of those is an option, the mage may also either use Life 5 or Matter 4 to create a body for the spirit, or use an existing body that's available such as the technomage using a PDA or laptop or other construct to contain the spirit. This, obviously, is the most common way of making a body for a Familiar which exists as a construct. Creating a specific body in mind, may require other knowledges such as Technology or Computer.

If that method is used, then the spirit must then possess the body using the Possession Charm and the mage must use Prime 3 to seal the possession in place much in the same way as making a Manifestation permanent. If the spirit doesn't have the Possession Charm, then the mage must use Spirit 4 to bind the spirit into place and then use Prime 3 to make it permanent.

The next option is to use an already existing body that's still alive. In this method, the spirit uses the Possession Charm on a still living being. The mage then uses Prime 3 to make the possession permanent, killing the soul within and leaving only the Familiar in its place. Another option is to have the mage and familiar engage the currently inhabiting spirit in combat in the Umbra and defeat it, allowing the familiar to take its place in the empty shell.

Finally, if none of the previous options are available, the mage may simply supply the spirit with a corpse of a deceased creature. This is the most common way of creating Undead type Familiars. Once again, the spirit possesses the body and the mage uses Prime 3 to make the possession permanent. The mage may also want to repair or augment damage to the body with Matter.

Forging the Bond
The actual forging of the bond once the Familiar has a body is a relatively simple Spirit 4, Prime 3 effect. The mage needs to successes per level of the Familiar to be created and must also spend one Quintessence per point of Familiar.

The bond creates the following effects:

Spending the XP
The last step to creating a Familiar is to spend the XP for the purchase. Like Wonders, Familiars cost 2XP per level of the Familiar purchased, or 1 Background dot per level at creation. Note, as below, that further increases in the Familiar's power requires the mage to spend his xp as per the chart. This purchase is only for the initial creation of the Familiar and once created does not go up in level again. This level of Familiar is permanent.

Gifted Familiars
Sometimes, you either can't or don't have the energy to go through all the effort above to create yourself a Familiar. It's also possible for another mage to give you his Familiar. However, there are usually strings attached.

To Gift a Familiar, the more powerful mage does all the work for them and then simply does the Binding on the younger mage's behalf.

Caring for Familiars
Feeding your Familiar
Many familiars have certain dietary needs. Tigers like meat. PDAs need batteries. But Familiars need something more than just the basic dietary needs of the bodies they've been given. They also need Quintessence. Specifically, they need a number of points of Quintessence equal to the level of the Familiar per week. This can be given all at once or spread out to be given every other day or so.

The mystical connection between the mage and familiar simply allows the mage to channel his Quintessence to the Familiar. Some familiars may put specific restrictions on the the way in which they are fed their Quintessence. If the Quintessence needs to be given in a certain way, you may treat these as Flaws such as with Talismans or Familiars. However, rather than reducing the cost of the Familiar, they reduce the Quintessence needed each week to keep the Familiar active, down to a minimum of 1 Quintessence per week.

A Familiar which goes a whole week without being given any Quintessence begins to take 1 bashing damage per day for each day that it goes without being fed. This damage isn't healed until the Familiar is fed it's full weekly amount again after having been starved.

Care and Grooming
The mage still has to also care for the physical needs of the Familiar. Animals need regular grooming and brushing, and vetinary care should they fall ill. A Familiar laptop is going to need the most up to date anti-virus software and needs constant scans and a de-bugging if it does get a virus or other problem. Some, more esoteric Familiars, need even more exotic methods of caring for the Familiar.

Death of a Familiar
When a familiar dies, it often comes as a great shock to the mage. The moment a familiar dies, the mage suffers the following ramifications:


Paradox
Familiars are static spirits. Any Paradox they generate is channeled through the connection and onto the mage instead. When a Familiar acts in such a way that reality does not accept as "kosher" (a cat smoking a cigar, a squirrel talking to you, the sight of a dragon) then the Familiar causes Paradox based on the Familiar rating. Of course, this requires that Sleepers witness the Familiar performing this activity. As such, it's always going to be based on "vulgar with witnesses". So, the mage is going to gain Paradox equal to Familiar rating + 1.

However, Familiars may also be used to mitigate the effects of Paradox on the mage. Using the Paradox Absorption capability of all Familiars, the mage may channel any Quintessence in their Pattern to the familiar instead. This may be used to channel away Paradox that the Familiar generates, however, it may not be done on the same turn as the mage gathers the Paradox. The mage must take a full turn to focus and channel the Paradox away. Therefore, it must wait until at least the turn after the Familiar generates the Paradox.

The Familiar may hold up to 5 points of Paradox per level of the Familiar. A Familiar who tries to take just a single point more than this will cause the entire amount to backlash, not on the Familiar, but on the mage. It's for this reason that mages are hesitant about treating their Familiars as nothing more than a Paradox battery.

Those Familiars with the Paradox Nullification Charm can shunt Paradox stored within them into the Umbra, as per the description of the Charm.

Essence and Charms
Essence is a Trait that is unique to Familiars. It's a measure of the Familiar's spiritual power and ability. Familiars eat Quintessence. This energy goes to sustain them just as a cheeseburger goes to sustain your average college student. However, some of this energy is converted instead into Essence. A Familiar regains Essence in one of two ways:


Also, not that just as a mage gives a familiar Quintessence and a familiar may take Paradox from the mage, the mage may also draw Quintessence from the Familiar in the form of taking his Essence. There's no roll for this, it simply transfers via their mystical connection. Keep in mind however, that the more power you take from the familiar, the less Essence it has to fuel its Charms.

Charms are the spiritual powers of the familiar. They vary from Familiar to Familiar, but one thing remains the same: Charms are static magic from their spiritual nature and as such do not draw in Paradox. Even if done in public, the Charms do NOT generate Paradox. Familiars draw in Paradox from their existance violating reality, not from using their spiritual heritage.

Designing the Familiar
Familiars come in five basic varieties. They are as follows:

Animal
Bygone
Construct
Elemental
Undead

All bygones have the Quintessence Grazing Charm at no cost.

Constructs cannot heal natural damage, they must be repaired. However, they are immune to poison and disease and automatically gain the Soak Lethal Charm at no cost (and can buy the Soak Aggravated Charm at 2pts). If the construct is obviously well beyond modern technological capabilities, it garners Paradox if Sleepers sight it (vulgar with witnesses).

Undead familiars and bygones cause Paradox when seen by their very nature.

All undead familiars have the Soak Lethal and Resilience Charms for no cost. They can buy the Soak Aggravated Charm at 2pts, and additional Resilience levels at 3pts each. They can also reduce their beginning one-dot Charisma rating to zero and add the dot to any other Attribute.

When creating a Familiar, select a Nature, Concept, and Type from above and use the following stats to create your pet and companion.

Attributes: 5/3/1 (free dots in all Attributes EXCEPT Appearance)
Abilities: 7/5/3
Willpower: 3
Essence: 1
Freebies: Familiar Background rating x 10

Freebies are spent as follows:
Attributes: 5 per dot
Abilities: 2 per dot
Willpower: 2 per dot
Essence: 1 per dot
Familiar Charms: cost of Charm

Charms that the Familiar take must be of the appropriate type. For descriptions of the various Charms, see Forged by Dragon's Fire, pg. 84 - 89.

At ST discretion, charms (Special Advantages) from the Bygone Bestiary that aren't already printed in Forged may be taken.

Spending Experience Points
Once the Familiar is created either in play or during character creation, the player does not raise the Familiar's stats by increasing the Background trait. That need only be bought once. Instead, the player raises the stats of the Familiar by spending the mage's own XP on the Familiar's stats using the following costs:

Attribute: current x 4
Ability: current x 2
New Ability: 3
Willpower: current x 1
Essence: current x 2
Familiar Charm: Charm cost x 3

Totem and Spirit Ally Creation
"One extremely common ability among shamans of all sorts is having a close tie to some totemic spirit. Many shamans, including both Dreamspeakers and lesser shamans, have totems. On the shaman's side, the totem offers advice, wisdom and assistance. On the Spirit's side, the shaman acts as a living intermediary for the totem, and he gifts the totem with power through adherence to the totem's beliefs and patterns." - The Spirit Ways

The Totem background has been printed several times, but we use the following system, based primarily on The Spirit Ways and Dreamspeaker Revised. It's also received several updates to abilities they can take, which have been combined here.

Rules and Contact

A mage can only have one totem, and mages cannot pool their Totem Background dots (each must take the trait separately, even if they all have the same totem).

There are various ways to get into contact with a Totem. The Spirit 2 effect, Call Spirit, while it can't contact an Incarna directly (unless they're specifically listening for you), can call a member of the Incarna's brood to speak with a mage. Spirit 3 can be used to try and contact an Incarna directly, summoning an 'avatar' or similar. In some cases, they may be able to instead find an Avatar of the totem in an umbral realm, depending on the specific entity. Finally, sometimes the Incarna (or its brood) may contact the mage instead.

The system for taking a Totem isn't nearly as complex as forming a familiar. A mage simply speaks to the Incarna, one way or another, and they form an agreement for their pact. Generally, this is as simple as the mage following the ban and the totem granting its benefits, so long as the two see eye to eye. Once that's done, the Totem fuels the pact and a fragment of itself is made into an avatar spirit that stays with the mage.

In general, a Totem will occasionally ask for a mage's help with a task related to the Incarna's outlooks and tendencies, but these will usually be minor and infrequent. More demanding Totems might be represented by the Spiritual Duty flaw, however.

Cost and Template

The Totem background costs 3xp per dot (or 1 Freebie). Each dot gives 2 points to spend on it. The text below gives the point values needed for each aspect of the Totem. In addition, every Totem starts out with Airt Sense and Reform for free, 10 dots amongst Rage/Willpower/Gnosis, and 10 Power points. They also have the ability to speak with the Shaman when nearby, whether they can currently see the penumbra or not.

*1 per 3 extra points of Rage/Gnosis/Willpower
*1 per +5 Power
*2 per Innate ability granted (see below)
*1 for any charm but Materialize
*2 for Materialize
*1 for Totem to be respected by other Umbrood
*1 for the Totem to be able to rapidly find the mage
*1 for Disembodiment Shield (Infinite Tapestry, pg 34)
*2 per die of soak against Avatar Storm for Essence Shield (Infinite Tapestry, pg 34)

Innate Abilities really need to be clarified, so the list below goes over how to calculate 'Innate Ability' amount, for the sake of converting a Totem from the Werewolf books, or for making a new one. For existing ones, just use the number listed. For totems listed in both Spirit Ways and Dreamspeaker Revised, use the latter's description. Remember, 1 innate ability is 2 points, that is, a full background dot.

*1 Ability dot is 1 Innate ability, whether a primary or secondary.
*1 Attribute dot is 2 Innate Abilities.
*+1 Dice or -1 Difficulty to a specific task (eg. Gathering information off the streets) that isn't attached directly to an ability is 1 Innate Ability.
*+1 Dice or -1 Difficulty to more general tasks (eg. Fighting) is 2 Innate Abilities.
*1 Background dot is 1 Innate Ability.
*2 Merit dots is 1 Innate Ability. Rather, Merit dots are 1 to 1 with points.
*For powers granted, the Innate Ability amount should be approximately the Sphere rating you'd need. So, being able to detect resonance inherently would be 1 Innate Ability, whereas shapeshifting into a cat would be 4. In the case of Garou Totems being converted, those that grant Gifts CAN have those powers transferred, but use this scale. So, a Totem that grants you the equivalent of Mother's Touch would have that costing 4 Innate Abilities, not 1, as mages have a hard time healing aggravated damage.

Spirit Allies

Spirit Allies are generally Jagglings, Gafflings, Majordomos, or Subordinates (The terminology depends on the tradition or specific mage and whether it's an Astral Spirit or Middle Umbral spirit), rather than fragments of an Incarna, and thus can be contacted with Spirit 2 alone. These pacts aren't as inherently binding, and generally impose no Ban upon a mage, but make no guarantees past respect or magic used about the Spirit's loyalty.

A mage can have as many Spirit Allies as seems reasonable, and these use the same point system. However, Spirit Allies may not grant Innate Abilities, may not be 'respected' any more than any other spirit, and may not grant Disembodiment or Essence shield. They also may not cost more than 2 background dots (thus, 4 creation points). On the plus side, they can choose another charm instead of Reform to start with.

Note: While the Dreamspeaker/Spirit Ways books lets you create ghosts with this system, we don't. If you want a ghost, you'll need the Spirit Companion merit.