A spell scroll bears the words of a single spell, written in a mystical cipher. If the spell is on your class’s spell list, you can read the scroll and cast its spell without providing any material components. Otherwise, the scroll is unintelligible. Casting the spell by reading the scroll requires the spell’s normal casting time. Once the spell is cast, the words on the scroll fade, and it crumbles to dust. If the casting is interrupted, the scroll is not lost.
If the spell is on your class’s spell list but of a higher level than you can normally cast, you must make an ability check using your spellcasting ability to determine whether you cast it successfully. The DC equals 10 + the spell’s level. On a failed check, the spell disappears from the scroll with no other effect.
The level of the spell on the scroll determines the spell’s saving throw DC and attack bonus, as well as the scroll’s rarity, as shown in the Spell Scroll table.
Spell Scroll
Spell Level | Rarity | Save DC | Attack Bonus |
---|---|---|---|
Cantrip | Common | 13 | +5 |
1st | Common | 13 | +5 |
2nd | Uncommon | 13 | +5 |
3rd | Uncommon | 15 | +7 |
4th | Rare | 15 | +7 |
5th | Rare | 17 | +9 |
6th | Very rare | 17 | +9 |
7th | Very rare | 18 | +10 |
8th | Very rare | 18 | +10 |
9th | Legendary | 19 | +11 |
A wizard spell on a spell scroll can be copied just as spells in spellbooks can be copied. When a spell is copied from a spell scroll, the copier must succeed on an Intelligence (Arcana) check with a DC equal to 10 + the spell's level. If the check succeeds, the spell is successfully copied. Whether the check succeeds or fails, the spell scroll is destroyed.
VARIANT: SCROLL MISHAPS
A creature who tries and fails to cast a spell from a spell scroll must make a DC 10 Intelligence saving throw. If the saving throw fails, roll on the Scroll Mishap table.
Scroll Mishap
d6 Result 1 A surge of magical energy deals the caster 1d6 force damage per level of the spell. 2 The spell affects the caster or an ally (determined randomly) instead of the intended target, or it affects a random target nearby if the caster was the intended target. 3 The spell affects a random location within the spell’s range. 4 The spell’s effect is contrary to its normal one, but neither harmful nor beneficial. For instance, a fireball might produce an area of harmless cold. 5 The caster suffers a minor but bizarre effect related to the spell. Such effects last only as long as the original spell’s duration, or 1d10 minutes for spells that take effect instantaneously. For example, a fireball might cause smoke to billow from the caster’s ears for 1d10 minutes. 6 The spell activates after 1d12 hours. If the caster was the intended target, the spell takes effect normally. If the caster was not the intended target, the spell goes off in the general direction of the intended target, up to the spell’s maximum range, if the target has moved away.
Notes: Utility, Consumable
Certain aspects of Spell Scrolls remain unresolved. For example, a spell scroll requires no material components because the scroll takes care of that part of spell. However, some spells have a material component that is required as an ongoing aspect of the spell's (potentially indefinite) operation.
Take Drawmij's Instant Summons, for example: casting the spell upon a specific item requires a sapphire that must later be smashed in order to summon the item to the caster. That sapphire is the material component of the spell. If the spell is cast from a scroll then there is no sapphire. How does the spell function? (Locating further examples is left as an exercise for the reader).
I think the key distinction here is the difference between your class’s spell list and spells that you already have in your spell book, ie. spells you know even if you don't currently have them prepared. There are a zillion Wizard spells, after all, and a given wizard will only know a limited subset of them. Casting a spell from a scroll requires that the spell be in your class's spell list, but it is not required that the wizard already know it. So the limitation is a sort of middle ground — scrolls DO allow you to cast spells that you don't know, but NOT spells that appear only on another class's spells list.
Note that I'm describing spell scrolls that were not created by the person reading the scroll, eg, scrolls found during adventuring. If you are creating spell scrolls for your own use then, yes, you will of course be limited to those spells that you already know, because knowing the spell is a prerequisite for creating the scroll of that spell.
This is incorrect, the spell must be on your class' spell list, aka be a spell that you would in time be able to cast given enough levels in said class.
I guess that means you could multiclass several casters and go wild with scrolls, but I doubt that's optimal.
I guess I'd House Rule that you crush the scroll, as the gem was used up in the making of the scroll.
Nobody has pointed this out but the wording here is unclear:
It doesn't state if the caster knows how long this will take or if the DM makes the roll and is the only one in the know. I would use the latter reading myself.
Technically an artificer of 14th level can use any spell scroll from any class and level thanks to the magic item savant feature.
Yes.
Is one required to draw the scroll using a free action with a free hand from where it is being stored if not in hand already?
LOL
You are misunderstanding what defines a spell on your spell list.
Until an Arcane Trickster chooses which Enchantment spell to know, they don't yet exist on their defined spell list.
Can a multiclass Bard with 1 level of wizard (or 3 levels of Eldritch Knight) use his Charisma modifier when attempting to cast a Wizard spell from a scroll that is a higher level than he can cast? The rules just say you do an ability check using your “Spellcasting Ability.” Can it be any spellcasting ability? Or for a Wizard spell scroll does the multiclass Bard specifically need to do an ability check using his Intelligence modifier to cast a spell which is at a higher level than he cast cast?