Suppose my Level 8 Bard acquired a Staff of Fire to add some offensive power to his repertoire. Obviously, to use this item, he has to succeed on a DC 20 UMD check. But, what about recharging this item?
Would a UMD check allow him to "fool" the staff into believing one of the spells is actually on his spell list, allowing him to add a charge to it? If so, what is the DC? Is it 20, also?
Also, would it be possible to use UMD to substitute say, one level 3 and one level 2 spells (what the bard actually has access to) in place of a level 5 spell, so he could add a charge? What would the DC of that check be? Maybe, 20 + the level of spell to be duplicated, and the spell slots are lost whether or not the check succeeds?
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1. No, UMD allows him to activate a magic item. Recharging a staff is not activating it.
2. There's no reason to add this undescribed use to UMD, nor is it reasonable at any time to add a 3rd and 2nd level spell to equal a 5th level spell. Recharging doesn't work anyway, but if he was trying to activate a device that required a 5th level spell, he would have to make the UMD check to emulate having a 5th level spell. His lower-level slots wouldn't help him at all.