You misunderstand. I’m saying that if you tradition has only one Virtue, you could teach it rather than initiating (or similar), as your apprentice has the Gift.
You were replying to this part from the opening post, where I clearly talk about ex Misc magi getting the ability from their House Virtue as a favored ability and that this makes no sense to me under the RAW.
If you get the virtue, you get the corresponding ability at score 1. If you want to lean only the ability from a teacher, you forego the House Virtue.
It’s not wrong, it’s a direct quote from Rival Magic p. 9. RoP:I is the only book to say that you “do not need to subtract their scores in these [Favored] Abilities when learning other Infernal Supernatural Abilities.”, and restricts it to other Infernal Abilities. Other books are silent on the issue or say the opposite, such as RoP:F p. 118
The scores in non-Favored Supernatural Abilities still penalize the Source Quality when learning Favored Abilities, and vice versa.
This matter was already discussed in another thread:
Your co-author Richard Love argued for the other position:
Just from reading the books, it seems that how favored abilities work in RoP:I seems to be an exception.
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I think Favored Abilities should work consistently across realms, not penalizing any study totals, because that’s how I intended them to work. If you think they work better the way they are described in HMRE and other books, we can agree to disagree. 
I actually don’t have an opinion on how I’d like them to work. I only noted that there are different opinions and there does not seem to be a consensus.
Another question: ErikT noted that in the Core rulebook and the DE, when learning a new supernatural ability, the sum of the scores in other supernatural abilities penalizes the Source Quality, while in many other books, the sum is subtracted from the Advancement Total (i.e. after applying changes from Virtues and Flaws). Was this an oversight or an intentional change?
I think RoP:F provides a good reason for some very slight variations. The Faerie version of it lifts the Faerie Sympathy restriction. That’s important, as otherwise the traditions probably couldn’t exist.
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It was someone else. Their note is correct. I’d have to find the post, though, as I don’t remember who it was right now.
I misremembered: it was ErikT.
Alas, it was up to me, and I thought it should be harder.
The way I intended the rules to work (in general) was that Favored Abilities do not interfere with each other, but do interfere with learning other Abilities. Otherwise magi could learn lots of Supernatural Abilities, which is not how the background is supposed to work.
Infernal power is easier to get. Infernal power is always easier to get…
But as the rules are now out and Open, people are most definitely free to create variants that work differently.
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Thanks. Well, the way you intended is almost always the way it reads.
While you’re around, any thoughts on Source Quality v. Advancement Total being penalized? Apparently it’s been written in different ways in different places. Myself, I default to the core/DE rule, which penalizes the Source Quality.
In general, DE is my considered opinion. Things will have slipped through, although hopefully not many, but if the ArM5 line was inconsistent and ArMD takes a side, the side ArMD takes is almost always the one I thought was better.
This is not an exception.
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Reading some of the Ex Misc stuff in HoH: Societates I realized I’m not sure how it’s supposed to work with the later rules on Favored Abilities. For example:
- Beast Masters get the Favored Ability of Summon Animals, but are required to have Animal Ken… prospective apprentices must have the Virtue or must be initiated into the Virtue? Otherwise, their score in Animal Ken would count against advancing Favored Abilities.
- Pralix section says “Those wizards who do not (or cannot) adopt Hermetic magic upon joining the Order are encouraged by the Lineage of Pralix to consider training an apprentice in both the Hermetic and non-Hermetic traditions, and a Pralician maga often volunteers to assist… She begins by opening the Arts for the Gifted child, but before he is taught any Hermetic magic he is inducted into the magic of his non-Hermetic parens.“ So, the apprentice’s Arts are 0 so they don’t penalize learning the non-Hermetic Abilities but he can’t be double-opened and doesn’t get the non-Hermetic Abilities as Favored Abilities. Presumably one becomes the Ex Misc free Major Virtue… but most traditions have multiple Favored Abilities. How does that work?
For Beast Masters refer to ArMDE p.243f: "Every apprentice of this tradition was abandoned by his master in areas of wilderness at a very young age, where he had to fend for himself. During this time he developed a particular Affinity for a specific group of animals, which forever shapes his magic. Due to this unusual training, all Beast Masters also have the Virtues of Animal Ken and a Minor Magical Focus with a specific group of animals."
That means, that apprentices of this lineage usually need to acquire these Virtues with Virtue points at character creation - or use the rules for Apprentices p.10f Inherited Virtues and Flaws to acquire them later.
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The apprentice could again use Apprentices p.10f Inherited Virtues and Flaws to get these Virtues and Flaws - but generally not as Favored Abilities.