Scribe Scroll

Scribe Scroll is an artificing technique that allows a spellcaster to store the power of a spell in a piece of paper. Spells up to and including 9th level can be added to scrolls, including Neverwinter Nights standard spells and Avlis' added spells. Note that on Avlis, a player character does not need to have the Scribe Scroll feat in order to scribe scrolls.

Materials

To scribe a scroll you need special paper: not just any paper will do. The better the paper you use, the better the spell you can put on the paper.

By default, spells are scribed at the minimum caster-level required to cast them. For example, a scroll of the spell Fireball will be scribed with a caster-level of 5. But, it is possible to scribe a scroll with a higher caster-level using special inks. You can apply multiple ink bottles to a single scroll to further increase the caster-level of the finished product.

Further information about paper, inks, their in-game locations and how to use them in scribing scrolls should be treated the same way as crafting recipes. This information can only be shared in-character.

Metamagic and Other Modifiers

When scribing scrolls, you can enhance the spells stored with metamagic feats. You may use any combination of spells memorized using feats you know, metamagic feats stored in rods, or metamagic applied using psi-magic. However, the paper used must be able to hold the full power of the modified spell.

The spell DC of a finished scroll is the same as that of the spell as cast by the artificer. This takes into account all relevant modifiers, including spell focus feats, bonuses from AMS, Favored status, and Vortex Rank.

Bonus caster-level from AMS, Favored status, and Vortex Rank will also be taken into account when scribing a scroll. But no other bonuses or effects of from these sources will be applied.

Determining Success

The base DC for scribing a spell is listed below. This DC is increased by 1 for every 4 caster-levels invested in the scroll.

Trivial (Base DC 10) - The level of the spell you are attempting to scribe is lower than your artificer level. Creation of these scrolls fails only about 1% of the time, but grant you no artificer experience upon completion.

Easy (Base DC 15) - The level of the spell you are attempting to scribe is equal to your artificer level. Creation of these scrolls fails only about 2% of the time and grant you artificer xp equal to 25% of the xp you expend in the scroll's creation.

Challenging (Base DC 20) - The level of the spell you are attempting to scribe is one greater than your artificer level. Creation of these scrolls will fail about 5% of the time, even if you are well-versed in magic. Scribing a challenging scroll will grant artificer xp equal to 60% of the xp you expend in the scroll's creation.

Difficult (Base DC 30) - The level of the spell you are attempting to scribe is two greater than your artificer level. Creation of these scrolls will fail 10% of the time even if you are very well-versed in magic. Scribing a difficult scroll will grant artificer xp equal to 100% of the xp you expend in the scroll's creation.

Improbable (Base DC 40) - The level of the spell you are attempting to scribe is three levels greater than your artificer level. Creation of these scrolls will fail 50% of the time even if you are extermely well-versed in magic. Scribing an improbable scroll will grant artificer xp equal to 120% of the xp you expend in the scroll's creation.

Impossible (Base DC 100) - The level of the spell you are attempting to scribe is four or more levels greater than your artificer level. Attempted creation of these scrolls will fail 100% of the time.

Examples:

A fireball scroll, of 5th caster level, scribed by a level 1 artificer, will have a DC of 31 and a minimum failure rate of 10%.

A fireball scroll, of 5th caster level, scribed by a level 2 artificer, will have a DC of 21 and a minimum failure rate of 5%.

A fireball scroll, of 10th caster level, scribed by a level 2 artificer, will have a DC of 22 and a minimum failure rate of 5%.

Artificing Check Modifiers

When attempting to scribe a scroll, an artificer makes an artificing check with a DC based on the difficulty of the scroll being scribed. Modifiers to this roll are gained based on the caster's primary spell casting ability bonus (WIS, CHA, or INT), and various skills (Spellcraft) and pertinent feats that the caster has:

+1 per your spell casting ability modifier bonus

+1 per 5 points (ranks plus bonuses) in Lore

+1 per 5 points (ranks plus bonuses) in Spellcraft

+2 for Spell Focus (Transmutation)

+2 for Greater Spell Focus (Transmutation)

+2 for Epic Spell Focus (Transmutation)

+2 for the Scribe Scroll feat

XP Cost

As with all artificing, every scroll carries with it an XP cost, the formula for a given scroll is:

(Adjusted spell evel) x (Caster level) x 0.75.

The minimum XP cost for scribing a scroll are as follows:

0th - 1 x 1 x 0.75 = 1 XP

1st - 1 x 1 x 0.75 = 1 XP

2nd - 2 x 3 x 0.75 = 5 XP

3rd - 3 x 5 x 0.75 = 12 XP

4th - 4 x 7 x 0.75 = 27 XP

5th - 5 x 9 x 0.75 = 34 XP

6th - 6 x 11 x 0.75 = 50 XP

7th - 7 x 13 x 0.75 = 69 XP

8th - 8 x 15 x 0.75 = 90 XP

9th - 9 x 17 x 0.75 = 115 XP

Notes:

• Sorcerers and other casters that have different spell progression tables than wizards will find these minimums slightly higher, due to the higher minimum caster level for those classes.
• Cantrips and orisons are consdiered 1st level spells for artificing and so do cost XP.
• Additional XP is spent based on caster-level per PnP rules.

Creation Time

It takes time to scribe a scroll. The minimum time is 1 minute. For every 1,000 gp value (rounded up) of the completed scroll, the scroll takes an additional 6 seconds to scribe.

Viewing Scroll Information

An item called a scroll viewer is required to view information about player-created scrolls. When using a scroll viewer, five pieces of information will appear:

• Spell Name
• Caster Level
• Metamagic Feats Stored (if any)
• The scribe's name.
• What world the scroll was created on.

Stacking and Splitting Scrolls

Only scrolls of the same type (DC and Caster Level) can be stacked in the inventory. Player-created scrolls will not stack with Bioware scrolls. They will only stack with themselves, and only if the caster level, spell DC and metamagic feats used to create the scroll were the same. If scrolls from two different casters are combined, the entire stack will look as if it was created by one of the two casters. Also note that when scribing, the scrolls never automatically stack. Even if two scrolls should stack, you will have to manually stack them as you scribe them.

Player-created scrolls are not split-safe! If a stack of scribed scrolls is split then the new stack will not have any special properties on the scrolls in the new stack, i.e. meta-magic feats and caster level.

Scrolls & Persistent Storage

Player-created scrolls are p-merchant, ep-chest and p-chest safe. Putting player-created scrolls in p-merchants and ep-chests will erase the information about who created the scroll, but not the other information. Also, scrolls will be distinguished by DC, even for spells that have no use for their DC. For p-merchants and ep-chests, there is a special format for the entry that will describe the power of the scroll, it is:

(Caster Level) [Metamagic Feats] DC# (Quantity)

The metamagic feats are abbreviated as:

• X: Extended
• E: Empowered
• M: Maximized
• a: Acid
• c: Cold
• f: Fire
• l: Lightning
• s: Sonic

So an 11th caster level, extended, sonic substituted Flame Weapon scroll would show up as:

Flame Weapon (11) [Xs] DC21 (1)

Scrolls & BioWare Merchants

Note that artificing is intended to be a gold sink. You are not meant to make money scribing scrolls and selling them to Bioware vendors for large markups. Don't sell any scroll with a Bioware caster level higher than the caster level you invested in the scroll. So if you use the scroll viewer on the scroll and the level it reports is equal to or greater than the Bioware level on the scroll, you can sell it.

Selling scrolls with a higher Bioware caster level than the caster level on the scroll is exploiting the engine and is a bannable offense.

Glossary

DC: Difficulty Class. A number that you must equal or beat after rolling 1d20 and adding appropriate modifiers.

Spell Casting Ability: This is the ability score that is tied to a spell caster's ability to cast spells. For wizards this is Intelligence. For bards and sorcerers it is Charisma. For clerics, druids, rangers and paladins it is Wisdom. When casting a spell the score that is used is always based on the class used to cast a spell.