Thassalonian Arcanist through School Savant?

[Zandari]

So, Inner Sea Magic says "Only wizards can truly follow the ancient philosophies created by Thassilon’s runelords, for only wizards have the
capability to specialize in a school of magic."

However, a School Savant Arcanist is also capable of specializing a school of magic.

Can a School Savant Arcanist take Thassilonian Specialist?

[Pirate Rob]

No.

[Zelda Marie Lupescu]

I wouldn't outright say no, since the Arcanist didn't exist when Inner Sea Magic was written. That statement was true mechanically. It no longer is. Now, if Rob were the GM then of course his No. would apply, but if I were the GM, I would probably allow it.

That said, I am definitely curious what the official word is, so I think it deserves a FAQ. So, here is a ACG friendly wording of your question for FAQ purposes.

Q: Can a School Savant Arcanist take additional campaign specialties available to a wizard (for example, Thassilonian) or are they limited to the core schools?

[Zelda Marie Lupescu]

Also, I will note that while Archives of Nethys decided to put Thassilonian Specialist as an archetype of wizard, it is not presented that way in the actual book. They are just presented as an alternate way of handling specialty schools.

[Milo v3]

It's probably going to get a similar result to the witches taking the spell mastery feat FAQ.

[Casual Viking]

There is absolutely no requirement for School Savants to stick to Core schools. They can't take Wizard archetypes of course, but most schools are not archetypes.

Thassilonian schools are not archetypes, they are options. ISM postdates APG, so archetypes were an established thing when it came out.

The wording is a little weird. For example, it's not entirely clear whether or not Thassilonian specialists get school abilites (but I think published characters illustrate that they do).

AFAICT, School Savants can go Thassilonian. They get an extra prepared spell of every level (prepared twice, for no great benefit*), at the cost of hard-banning two schools.

[Zelda Marie Lupescu]

Milo v3 wrote:

It's probably going to get a similar result to the witches taking the spell mastery feat FAQ.

Darn you! You can't just mention a juicy FAQ like that then not at least link to it! Haha!

Can non-wizards take Spell Mastery?

But the thing is, ISG says in FLAVOR text that only wizards can specialize. That's not a RULE, except in that it was true. If that's taken as a rule, it's then saying that the School Savant cannot exist because only wizards can specialize. So, I don't think it needs to be 'house ruled' just recognized as the flavor text that it is.