Do accelerated abilities have specialities? The text in "Hedge Magic" infers that they are in all ways like regular abilities that advance as arts?
If so, then presumably Viktir (who's runes are accelerated abilities) presumably have a speciality for each of their runes?
I would argue that they probably shouldn't; in the sample characters in Hedge Magic runes get listed like Arts rather than Abilities. Likewise for other Accelerated Abilities like the powers of the Goetic Art in RoP: Infernal. Also, serf's Parma, but don't Methods and Powers on the sample characters in RoP: Divine and RoP: Infernal have specialties? They're basically what gets called Difficult Arts in later books, and they get listed like Abilities on the character sheet too.
In the saga where I play a Franciscan with Methods and Powers, we do allow specialties and I think that the description in RoP:D does specifically list appropriate specialties.
Personally, I think that it is OK since the advancement is so darn slow, having a narrow focus where you can add 2 to your "casting" total seems appropriate. Accelerated Abilites seem to have a narrower scope so maybe not in those cases.
Just my two cents.
-K!
They should do. They are Abilities.
Difficult Arts should not, because they are Arts.
Is there any reason this has never been errata-ed?
It’s very interesting because if they are abilities, they are susceptible to faerie sympathy - which can help greatly - but Hedge magic say two opposites things: first that they are abilities (accelerated), but also in their example vitki, not putting those and writing them as arts.
I checked the errata and… nothing.
So I’m quite lost as if they are in far arts, and “accelerated abilities” was a previous version idea, or they are really abilities, and the specialties were not listed (what could they be? a guideline?)
I’m really thorn on this, with no clear idea of what the intent of the author(s) was.
Aren’t most accelerated abilities supernatural? I don’t think you can use sympathies on supernatural abilities. I just checked and yes, supernatural abilities can not benefit from sympathies. See page 102 of RoP:F.
Though they are meant to be treated as abilities in all respects by the XP progression, in majority of the books they appear in, Accelerated Abilities do not have a listed specialty, even though by their definition they should. Still can’t benefit from Faerie Sympathies though.
Off the top of my head Through the Aegis lists two members of Corrguineach (Irish Sahir equivalent) tradition. They both have their Sihr listed with a specialty.
Thrice Told Tales also lists a Goeticist with a specialty in their “arts”, as it should.
But anywhere else Accelerated Abilites appear, they are frequently just listed under “Arts” section of sheet and no specialty is given.
For a comprehensive list, all of the below should have a specialty:
On a side note; the fact they’re treated as Abilities in almost all respects would have interesting results for the qualities of Books they can produce…and they can be trained rather than taught if one prefers. Both would result in some high numbers for a specialist.
Nice reminder, I forgot this :D.
For presentation and use, difficult art, I understand, but accelerated abilities when you have so much cases as runes, I don’t get. Those should be art and it would avoid the trouble to find those specialties. For Goetic/fabulous arts, warding banishing and sihr, they are quite few and thematically easy to find because they are used a abilities. Settut, I remember the book having examples but I didn’t check that really for the last 8 years easily so serf’s parma.
I understand that they tried to remain consistent with the “art+ art + charact” vs “ability + charact” scheme but still. Edit: but didn’t the divine with the method and powers already break this?
Thanks for the example of the example of Goetic in TTT, even if goetic arts are among the “normal numbered” skills which are not so problematic to find specialties for because they are clearly defining their uses. The fact that for runes there are no suggestion is quite annoying. Are “this guideline” or “this material” acceptable ones? how would we know without examples. Some runes are almost only interesting for one guideline, and if the specialty can be a guideline, that most interesting will be chosen; and as for material… just choose what you will use anyway in your scripts (due to focus or availability). It’s… weird.
I think i’ll consider “this material” to be the normal specialty, and just consider giving +1 to the value of the rune to npc using runes, easing applicability in game, or go the other way and consider they have no specialties in any case because no vitki npc example is showing them. I’m quite undecided, as I was before, even if my initial goal is no more possible ^^’.
Also, I’m not sure anymore but aren’t abilities supposed to open at 1, where arts open at 0? and nothing in the book says they start at 1.
Indeed, Maleficia, Miraculous Effects and Faerie Wizardry all break the pattern on which “Arts vs. Accelerated Abilities” was founded, as they’re all abilities, even though they should by the same pattern be Difficult Arts.
But that brings us to a different problem…well maybe. I cannot find anything directly forbidding it, but the general census seems to be that you cannot be taught Arts and must instead be initiated or born with them. As it stands, anyone with a point of Infernal warping can be taught Maleficia - it is an easy route to power after all. Divine version already requires True Faith (or initiations) and Faerie Wizardry is reliant on Faerie Rank as a starting point.
As for the material as a medium, that could be an interesting solution. I don’t recall Vitkir being required to carve runes on specific materials, so squeezing that extra +1 through the material most commonly associated with a given rune could be a nice solution to the specialty.
Gift Opening always opens the traditions’ Arts or Favored Abilities at the score of 0. It’s only through virtues that (standard) Supernatural Abilities start at 1.
If nothing else, having a specialty for each of the twenty four runes would take up so much space on a character sheet. That said, since the Runes are described with two somewhat unrelated effects, it wouldn’t be hard to find specialties for them.
I’ve been away from the forums for a long time, sorry for casting The Shadow of Post Renewed. 
This is one of those situations where there were multiple authors and what they wanted to do conflicted with each other.
I wrote the first Difficult Arts (Methods and Powers) in RoP:D, and they were just Abilities that worked like Arts (Characteristic + Method + Power + bonuses), so they had specialties and started at 1 and got a +2 bonus from Puissant, etc. Then I wrote the Goetic Arts for RoP:I, and I wanted them to work like Arts in that they didn’t have specialties and opened at 0 and got +3 from Puissant, but because I misunderstood the authors’ guidelines (which I thought said that formulae had to be either Char + Ability + bonuses or Char + Art + Art + bonuses) I wrote their formulae with two variables instead of one (Characteristic + Art + Realm Lore + bonuses), even though I had intended them to work like Abilities (Characteristic + Ability + bonuses including Realm Lore). So, (Goetic) Summoning was probably the first Accelerated Ability, even though it advanced like an Art and was supposed to be treated as an Art.
By the time Hedge Magic Revised Edition was being written, we had several different types of variables that all worked differently depending on who the author was, and the line editor had to decide how we were going to go forward. I advocated for a system that whether or not a variable was an Art or an Ability was based on how it advanced with experience points, not how it was used in the game formulae. I lost that argument, and from then on there were Difficult Arts and Accelerated Abilities.
When I wrote things afterward, I tried to specify how they worked differently, but I don’t think I succeeded in convincing my fellow authors or the line editor on this. For example, the Solomonic Arts are canonically Accelerated Abilities, even though I envisioned them as working like Arts (the text of the Virtues specify that they are opened at 0, for example) and always called them Arts even though I lost a lot of my wordcount explaining the difference.
My advice is to treat the various game variables differently depending on what makes the most sense thematically. For example, in my opinion, Puissant Solomonic Alchemy should give a +3 bonus instead of a +2 bonus, and vitkar Runes shouldn’t have specialties. I don’t see what benefit we get as players or authors by calling them Accelerated Abilities or treating them as Abilities.