Are familiars material beings guided by Otherworldly spirits, or spirits who’ve materialized in the human world? Really, they’re both. In previous Mage sourcebooks, though, familiars were presented with two different sets of rules. The Book of Shadows, Ascensions’ Right Hand, The Bygone Bestiary, and various other books regarded familiar characters as mortal beasts with mystical powers; the familiars chapter in the Mage sourcebook Forged By Dragon’s Fire, however, presented a new set of rules that treated familiars with the rules given for spirits, not for material creatures. Those rules define familiars as spirits who occasionally manifest on the human side of the Gauntlet, yet continue to use the rules given for ephemeral entities. That book’s treatment of Charms, and the ability to build ephemeral player characters, differ from many of the rules presented in various other Mage and Werewolf rulebooks and sourcebooks, and may be too complex for certain playstyles.

You can use whichever approach suits your preferences. For the sake of simplicity and consistency, however, Gods & Monsters treats familiars as material beings in terms of the systems involved. For more details, see this book’s Chapter Five, with the Traits and rules associated with materialized familiars, p. XX.