Favored Ability

Certain mystical traditions hold a particular set of Supernatural Abilities as Favored Abilities. This allows them to learn them without the Quality penalty usually associated with learning supernatural abilities.

The baseline is set by the core rulebook. In chapter 10, when discussing learning supernatural abilities from a Source of experience points such as by Teaching, a book, or so on, the core rulebook (Definitive Edition) says

Only characters with The Gift […] can learn Supernatural Abilities associated with the Magic realm using these rules … Other realms have different conditions, described in the appropriate Realms of Power sourcebook.
The initial teaching in a supernatural ability must be by Training or Teaching, as described above. Once the character knows the Ability, it may be advanced normally.
In order to learn a [NEW?!] supernatural ability, the student must reach a score of at least 1 in the first season. That is, he must gain at least 5 experience points. However, he must subtract the total of his scores in other supernatural abilities from the Source Quality.
Supernatural Ability Source Quality: Normal Source Quality – Total Score in Supernatural Abilities
If the student has had the Hermetic Arts opened […], he must subtract 15 or the sum of all his Art scores, whichever is higher, from the Source Quality.

Thus the acquisition of a Supernatural Ability is set apart from its advancement. If acquired by learning from a Source,

the first Season can only be by Teaching or Training (not a book or Practice, for example),
the student must gather at least 5 XP, and
the Source Quality is reduced by the sum of all the character's supernatural ability scores and Arts (with 15 as a minimum for the Art total).

In practice, this makes it impossible for magi to learn a new Magical supernatural ability, but other characters with The Gift may be able to learn a new Supernatural Ability, depending on whether they know others and to what level.

These limitations only apply for acquiring the ability. Once acquired , the ability can be learned from any Source (e.g. a book), and without the penalty.

Supplements introduced the idea of "Favored Abilities" to allow characters to learn certain new abilities (or Arts; in the following, the rules apply to both) without suffering the penalty. This allows members of a tradition to teach one another the supernatural abilities that underlie the tradition's magic. Each tradition has a list of Favored Supernatural Abilities/Arts, that its members may study without the penalty.

As noted below, different supplements define the mechanics of how favored abilities work slightly differently. In a thread in the Atlas Forum, the author of the Hedge Magic Revised Edition text on the subject, Richard Love, noted that

"the intention was for Favoured Abilities/Arts to work the same everywhere. If the rules are apparently different in different places it is (I think) merely a mistake and comes down to different authors writing different things and mis-understanding the others."

He recommended using the following mechanics [with slight re-wording]:

When you learn a Favored Superantural Ability/Art for the first time, you suffer no penalty to your Source Quality due to other existing Supernatural Abilities/Arts.
When you learn a non-Favored Supernatural Ability/Art for the first time, you suffer the full penalty to your Source Quality based on all your other existing Supernatural Abilities/Arts (including Favored ones).
If you already have a score in the Supernatural Ability or access to the Art, your study total is not penalized at all by your scores in other Supernatural Abilities/Arts or by access to them.

Note that a character can only gain this benefit from the one tradition. If he later joins another tradition, he does not gain the Favored Abilities/Arts of that tradition. This is stated in several places; for example, in Realms of Power: The Divine:

characters may only ever receive this benefit from one tradition; there is no mechanical advantage to joining a second tradition after learning the favored Abilities of another. That is, they can still learn new Supernatural Abilities, but with the study penalty.

While this text does not explicitly say so, this is understood to apply regardless of Realm. For example, if you joined a Magical hedge magic tradition and thus gained its Favored Abilties, and later join a holy tradition, you do not gain the Favored Abilities of the holy tradition.

The number of Favored Abilties that a tradition has may vary. In a thread on the Atlas Forum, author Erik Dahl, who wrote most of the texts on Favored Abilities and related hedge traditions, stated that

"I remember that I made some effort to limit the Favored Abilities of each tradition based on the numerical value of the virtues. For divine traditions, they got 10 points of virtues (3 Majors and a Minor), for infernal they got 12 points of virtues (4 Majors), and faerie wizards only get 6 (1 Major and 3 Minors). I think that all the hedge wizards and societates got 10 points– at least the ones I wrote."

Ex Miscellanea

Houses of Hermes: Societates introduced the idea of Favored Abilities. It says,

As a Gifted character learns Supernatural Abilities, it normally becomes more difficult to learn new ones (ArM5, page 166). However, many traditions have a group of Favored Abilities. Scores in these Abilities do not penalize the Source Quality for learning other Favored Abilities. The Source Qualities to learn Favored Abilities are still penalized by scores in other Supernatural Abilities, and scores in Favored Abilities penalize the Source Quality to learn other Supernatural Abilities. For most magi, the Hermetic Arts are the Favored Abilities, although as they are all opened in one season this is largely an academic distinction. Magi Ex Miscellanea treat the Hermetic Arts and the Supernatural Ability of their tradition as Favored Abilities.

Thus,

Only characters with The Gift can learn a new Magical supernatural ability from a Source.
A member of a hedge tradition does not count the scores of his tradition's Favored Abilities when learning a new Favored Abilitiy.
For most magi, the Hermetic Arts are the Favored Abilities; for magi Ex Miscellanea, the Supernatural Ability of their tradition is also a Favored Abilty. This is an academic distinction, however, as magi start the game knowing all of these and in practice cannot learn new ones.

Note that the Societates text contradicts the texts below, and Richard Love's recommendations above. In particular, under these rules if you attempt to learn a new Favored supernatural ability you are penalized by all non-Favored scores, whereas in the recommendations above there is no penlaty at all.

Hedge Magic Revised Edition

Hedge Magic Revised Edition writes the following on Favored Abilities,

Some traditions have a set of favored Supernatural Abilities. Gifted characters who belong to these traditions do not have to subtract the total of their Supernatural Ability scores from the source quality to learn other [NEW?!] Abilities that are favored by that tradition. Usually, the character has to undergo some sort of ritual — Opening The Gift — before he gains this benefit of the tradition.

Thus,

Only characters with The Gift can learn a new Magical supernatural ability from a Source.
A member of a hedge tradition does not suffer the penalty of the total score in all supernatural abilities when learning a new Magical supernatural Favored Ability from a Source.
To gain this benefit, the member must have undergone an Opening the Gift ritual. Just being a member of the traditions does not suffice. This appears to be a unique feature of Magical supernatural abilities.

The number of favored abilities varies by tradition. For example, Folk Witches have seven.

The Divine

Realms of Power: The Divine says

…holy traditions are organized around the divine Abilities that define how they serve God. These are called favored Abilities — each tradition only favors a few Abilities… Just as characters with The Gift may learn Magical Supernatural Abilities, characters with True Faith may learn [NEW?!] Supernatural Abilities associated with the Divine realm. And, if they study one of their tradition’s favored Abilities, they do not have to subtract the total of their Supernatural Ability scores from their Advancement Total

Thus,

Only characters with True Faith can learn a new Divine supernatural ability from a Source.
A member of a holy tradition does not suffer the penalty of the total score in all supernatural abilities when learning a new Divine supernatural Favored Ability from a Source.

There is no equivalence to the need to Open the Gift to enjoy this benefit. Just being a member of the holy tradition seems to be enough.

The number of favored abilities is usually four.

The Infernal

Realms of Power: The Infernal says

Any companion characters or magi who have somehow been touched by evil can learn Supernatural Abilities associated with the Infernal realm — gaining a Warping Point from an Infernal source is sufficient, for example, as is making a deal with a demon. Any sort of Infernal Virtue or Flaw makes it possible to learn these Abilities. This study activity follows the same rules as for magi learning magical Supernatural Abilities (ArM5, page 166) — you must subtract the character’s scores in other Supernatural Abilities from the total experience gained in a season of study, and you must reach a score of 1 in that season to learn the Ability.
Infernal traditions usually have four Supernatural Abilities in which they specialize (these are called their Favored Abilities). Members of the tradition can learn these Supernatural Abilities without suffering a penalty to their study totals, and [IN ADDITION?!] do not need to subtract their scores in these Abilities when learning other Infernal Supernatural Abilities. However, characters can only receive this benefit from joining one Infernal tradition in their lifetimes.

Thus,

Any character touched by the Infernal (by Warping, by a Virtue or Flaw, or through roleplaying) can learn a new Infernal supernatural ability from a Source.
A member of an Infernal tradition does not suffer the penalty of the total score in all supernatural abilities when learning a new Infernal supernatural Favored Ability from a Source.
if instead he tries to learn a new Infernal ability that isn't one of his tradition's favorite abilities, then he must subtract the total of his supernatural ability scores but does not count his tradition's favorite abilities towards this total. This appears to be a unique feature of Infernal supernatural abilities.

There is no equivalence to the need to Open the Gift to enjoy this benefit. Just being a member of the infernal tradition seems to be enough.

The number of favored abilities is usually four.

Apparently, author Erik Dahl did not intend the last bullet-point as a perk to encourage Infernal corruption (though it does), but rather "intended Favored Abilities to generally work the same for everyone". In a post on Atlas Forum, he explained his rationle:

"The reason for that clause about Favored Abilities not penalizing learning other Supernatural Abilities was to discourage the mechanical advantage of characters that are built with lots of non-Favored Abilities, either learned or as Virtues, with the intention to learn all the Favored Abilities after character creation in play. Without that clause, it makes a lot of sense to, say, make a member of the Priory of St. Nerius, whose Favored Abilities are Holy Magic, Intervention, Premonitions, and Purity, but take True Faith, Meditation, Transcendence, and Ceremony with their starting Virtues. The player can easily justify knowing someone to teach them the tradition’s abilities, and since they aren’t penalized it doesn’t matter that the character has a bunch of points in other powers. Adding this means you can do it either way, so you might as well design the character as you imagine them and develop as makes sense in the saga."

Faerie

Realms of Power: Faerie says

Any characters who are strongly aligned to the Faerie realm can learn [NEW!] Faerie Supernatural Abilities. This works exactly like Gifted characters learning Magic Abilities (ArM5, page 166), in that the sum of the scores of all other Supernatural Abilities or Arts the character possesses must be subtracted from the character’s Advancement Total for the season.
However, because gaining new powers depends so strongly upon the character having a positive relationship with the Faerie realm, the maximum number of experience points the player can gain towards learning a new Faerie Ability or Art is also limited by the character’s Faerie Rank, so that the sum of the character’s strongest positive and negative Sympathy Traits must equal at least 5 at the start of the season for him to learn a new Ability in this way.
Every tradition of faerie hedge wizardry typically has four Favored Abilities, which are easier for them to learn and teach to each other. Characters who have been initiated into the tradition can learn any of these Abilities or Arts without subtracting the value of the others from their Advancement Totals, and without limiting their Advancement Total by their Faerie Rank.

Thus,

Any character strongly aligned to Faerie (i.e. having Sympathy Traits, such as by havinga Faerie-related virtue or flaw) can learn a new Faerie supernatural ability from a Source.
In addition to the usual penalty of the total supernatural ability scores to the Advancement Total, there is another limitation: the Advancement Total may not exceed the Faerie Rank. This means that in practice only characters with high Sympathy Traits, usually requiring Warping 5 or more, will be able to learn a new (non-Favored) Faerie supernatural ability from a Source.
A member of a faerie hedge wizardry tradition does not subtract the values of "the others" when learning a new Faerie supernatural Favored Ability from a Source. It isn't clear whether this means that he does not suffer the penalty at all, or that he need not count the favored abilities towards the total.
in addition in this case his Advancement Total is not limited by his Faerie Rank. This is a unique feature of how Favored Abilities work for Faerie supernatural abilities.

There is no equivalence to the need to Open the Gift to enjoy this benefit. Just being a member of the faerie hedge wizardry tradition seems to be enough.

The number of favored abilities is usually four.

References

HoHS 106
See also Supernatural Ability

Legacy Page

The history of this page before August 6, 2010 is archived at Legacy:favored_ability