Powers as Tricks

Commanding a magical creature to perform one of its Powers is exactly like commanding a tame animal to perform a trick, as described in Realms of Power: Magic (page 82). The character issuing the command makes the following roll:

Command Beast: Presence + Animal Handling (or Ride or Magic Lore) + stress die vs. Ease Factor

The Ease Factor depends on the cost of the Power. Creatures naturally conserve their energy, using it only when necessary. For example, a deer only runs when threatened, and a lion only runs when hunting or attacking. Since Powers cost Might Points, it stands to reason that cheaper Powers tax the animal less than costly Powers. The Ease Factor is three, plus three times the point cost of the Power.

Ease Factor: 3 + (3 x Power's Cost)

In the wild, a magical beast totally depletes its Might Pool only in the most dire situations. Saving its life is one example. Because of this tendency to reserve Might, each magical creature has a threshold of its Might Pool that it resists being commanded to perform. This threshold number is the absolute value of the beast's Cunning Characteristic. Commanding a beast to perform a power when its Might Pool is below this threshold doubles the Ease Factor.

Only magical creatures with Cunning can be tamed and trained. Intelligent creatures are too smart to be bound so, and so a character must create another type of relationship with an Intelligent beast if he wants to include it in his menagerie. Keeping an intelligent beast in a menagerie is not universally praised, though, and some magi even liken it to keeping slaves or prisoners.

Taming is not essential in breeding beasts, and the proprietor of a magical menagerie could certainly succeed without training a single individual. It all depends on how he wants to profit from his stock. If he wants to offer domesticated magical creatures to fellow magi, he might want to train it to do a few tricks. If he is merely basking in the glow of having these creatures live captive in a zoo, or breeding them for vis, simply containing and managing them will suffice.