Training
Training in Ars Magica has two possible meanings.
Training a Person
Training is a method for gaining Experience Points and thereby improving a character's Abilities or Arts. Training requires one-on-one interaction between a trainer (called a "master") and a trainee (student) for an entire Season. The master works at his trade (or laboratory activity) and shows the trainee how to do it as he works. The trainee gains experience points according to the master's level of knowledge (see p. 164 of ArM5 for the exact Source Quality). The master gets experience due to exposure. There is an additional limitation that makes sense but rarely comes into play: the trainee cannot gain enough experience points to raise his Art or Ability score higher than the master's score. (Note that the limit is the master's Art or Ability score, not his total number of experience points).
Training is commonly used during apprenticeship in the Order of Hermes because, unlike teaching, it requires no special skill on the part of the master.
Training an Animal
Rules for training an animal are given on page 81 of Realms of Power: Magic. These are mainly intended for training a magical animal such as a Beast of Virtue, but the rules are applicable to mundane animals as well. As might be expected, training animals relies on the Animal Handling Ability.
- An animal must be tamed before it can be taught anything by training. This takes at least one season.
- The social effects of The Gift interfere with taming or training an animal
- Magi can tame or train creatures using their Art scores
- Characters with the Master of (Form) Creatures Supernatural Virtue can train creatures based on the trainer's Magic Lore or Might Score
- Mundanes can also train beasts but are not very effective at training beasts that have a Might Score
Training may be used to teach an animal tricks, to give it experience points in Abilities, or to teach it to fight as part of a trained group (with a human handler acting as the leader of the group).
References
Legacy Page
The history of this page before August 6, 2010 is archived at Legacy:training