studying from raw vis

When studying from raw Vis, is there anything that reduces potential botch die?
Perhaps "Cautious with Magic Theory"?

Improving the Lab's Safety

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And improving a Lab's Safety is not that hard. While at first glance you would think of the virtues to do it and enchanted items, it actually improves as a side effect of increasing the Lab's Refinement. Additionally there are some virtues that you can get for "free" such as the higher quality tools and equipment by adding skilled craftsmen to the Covenant. For your personal lab chances are very high that you will be putting in a few points of Refinement, especially as your Magus gets older and more powerful.

Often times you will find that your lab can end up with a high Safety without even setting out to do it. If you do set out to do it, it can be done fairly easily.

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That would be a house rule, since studying from vis is not a lab activity. It is probably a common house rule though.

Familiar's Golden Cord should apply, I think, but that may be the only one in RAW.

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Actually, Covenants p.111 seems to explicitly consider vis study among the activities that benefit from Safety:

The higher the Safety, the lower the risk of lab accidents, and vice versa. The Safety score is subtracted from the number of botch dice on all lab activities. (Thus, a negative Safety results in more botch dice.) Labs with a zero or better Safety are fairly trustworthy places — there is only a significant danger of an accident with certain categories of lab activities (those requiring a stress roll, such as when using experimentation, or when studying from vis).

OK, I stand corrected.

A bonus challenge for those who have study bonus/requirement.

It's part of why Study Requirement is a Flaw. Because you can't study Vis in the Lab, unless your lab is placed in some outdoor area, and isn't walled in. For study Bonus, it's just a matter of whether you want the +2 XP, or less chance of a Botch.

All things being relative. I find that study bonus / requirement only gets a significant effort after lvl 20.

When Study Requirement was written, the Covenant rules for Lab Totals did not exist yet, so that would not have been a factor in defining Study Requirement.

Also, many of the requirements for Study Requirement/Study Bonus are quite easy to fulfill inside your lab. For a few of them, a lab is probably the easiest place to fulfill them.

True, but most Magi will be studying Vis when their scores are high, since they would find few books that can help them improve their knowledge. And while tractaitii are still useful, it will both get harder to find ones they haven't read, and studying Vis, because it's a stress die, has the potential to yield a lot more than a tractatus.

After level 20 is also when studying from vis becomes a significant alternative. And with increasing level, we simultaneously see more trouble with getting the inspiration into the lab, and the more need to get into the lab to avoid botches ...

No doubt, but study bonus / requirement also applies to reading a book.

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