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What familiar is the best for a beginning sorceror?

ahhh if your going solo i suggest the rabbit (true neutral) as alot of people would because it can actually detect traps.... if your puttin your guy into a party i suggest (chaotic nuetral) fairy dragon... it has the ability to cast invisibility radius 10 and has the max available hitpoint for a familiars so it frees up a spell slot in my party while all the other familiar would do nothing other than suppy hitpoints ... i'll give you a list from dan simpsons walkthrough: (remember your sorceror has to be your pc or you will not be able to get a familiar)

Familiars:
----------

Alignment Familiar AC HP Abilities
--------------- ------------- -- -- ----------------------------------
Lawful Good Pseudo Dragon -2 24 50% magic resistance, renders
victims unconscious, casts Blur

Neutral Good Pseudo Dragon -2 24 (same as above)

Chaotic Good Fairy Dragon 4 24 32% magic res., casts Invisibility
10' Radius & Mirror Image 1/day

Lawful Neutral Ferret 0 24 50% magic res., 75% Pickpocket,
40% Stealth, 20% Detect Traps

True Neutral Rabbit -4 16 50% Detect Traps, 30% Stealth,
75% resistance to fire, cold, elec

Chaotic Neutral Cat 0 24 Pickpocket, 99% Stealth,
50% magic res.

Lawful Evil Imp 2 18 Polymorphs, 25% magic res.

Neutral Evil Dust Mephit 6 24 Casts Glitterdust 2/day, 10% magic
res.

Chaotic Evil Quasit 2 24 Casts Horror, 25% magic resist.

If you're planning on soloing, I'd go with any of the neutral abilies. The Ferret can pick pockets for you, the Rabbit detects traps (and have fire attacks - good for finishing off trolls) and the Cat can scout well.

If you don't solo, I would say it hardly matters which you get. Maybe you have a preference as to which alignement to play? Worth to notice is also that different familiars give you different number of Hit Points.

Here is a list of familiars according to the spell description (with version 1.1 of Dialogue.tlk from Baldurdash). This is for those who have installed the bugfix from Baldurdash, since the familiars are a bit different from the list in Dan Simpsons' walkthrough.

LAWFUL GOOD, NEUTRAL GOOD: Pseudo Dragon
Armor Class: 0, Attack Base Damage: 1D6, THAC0: 13, regenerates 1 HP/6 seconds when injured
Resistances: Magic=50%
Special abilities: Can cast Blur, movement rate: 10.

LAWFUL NEUTRAL: Ferret
Armor Class: -4, Attack Base Damage: 1D6
Resistances: Magic=50%
Special abilities: Pick Pockets=85%, Hide in Shadows/Move Silently=50%, Detect Traps=25%, Open Locks=15%.

LAWFUL EVIL: Imp
Armor Class: -2, Hit Points: 18, Attack Base Damage: 1D6, regenerates 1 HP/6 seconds when injured
Resistances: Magic=25%, Fire/Magical Fire=100%, Cold/Magic Cold=100%, Slashing/Crushing/Missile Damage=50%
Special abilities: Can cast the Polymorph Self spell, movement rate: 10.

NEUTRAL: Rabbit
Armor Class: 1, Attack Base Damage: 1D6 + 1 fire
Resistances: Fire/Magical Fire=125%, Cold/Magical Cold=75%, Acid=75%, Electricity=75%
Special abilities: Detect Traps=55%, Hide in Shadows/Move Silently=40%, Pick Pockets=30%, Open Locks=15%

NEUTRAL EVIL: Dust Mephit
Armor Class: 2, Attack Base Damage: 1D6, regenerates 1 HP/6 seconds when injured
Resistances: Magic=10%, Fire/Magical Fire=100%, Slashing/Crushing/Missile Damage=50%
Special abilities: Cast Glitterdust 2 times per day, movement rate: 10

CHAOTIC GOOD: Fairy Dragon
Armor Class: 0, Attack Base Damage: 1D6 + 1 electrical
Resistances: Magic=32%, Electricity=125%, Fire/Magical Fire=100%
Special abilities: Can cast Mirror Image and Invisibility 10' Radius, movement rate=10

CHAOTIC NEUTRAL: Cat
Armor Class: -4, Attack Base Damage: 1D6, one extra attack/round
Resistances: Magic=50%
Special abilities: Hide in Shadows/Move Silently=109%, Pick Pockets=30%, Open Locks=15%, Detect Traps=5%

CHAOTIC EVIL: Quasit
Armor Class: -2, Attack Base Damage: 1D3, regenerates 1 HP/6 seconds when injured
Resistances: Magic=25%, Fire/Magical Fire=100%, Cold/Magical Cold=100%, Electricity=100%
Special abilities: Can cast Horror and Blur, movement rate=10

Note: Each familiar has 24 Hit Points, a base THAC0 of 17 and base attacks/round of 2, unless otherwise noted. The thieving skills and Armor Classes of each familiar include the Dexterity bonuses for those with a high enough Dexterity to receive them.