Arcane and Divine Scrolls


Rules Questions

Dark Archive

I'm a little confused about the use of scrolls. Using divine scrolls as an example, in the Spell section it says "Only characters who have the spell (in its divine form) on their class spell list can cast a divine spell from a scroll." Simple enough. A druid can't use an arcane scroll. My confusion comes in under the Use Magic Device skill where it says under the "Use a Scroll" section, "Use Magic Device allows you to use a scroll as if you had a particular spell on your class spell list." So, from that I take it that a Druid could cast an arcane spell. At least, potentially. So which is it?


Timothy Johnson 692 wrote:

I'm a little confused about the use of scrolls. Using divine scrolls as an example, in the Spell section it says "Only characters who have the spell (in its divine form) on their class spell list can cast a divine spell from a scroll." Simple enough. A druid can't use an arcane scroll. My confusion comes in under the Use Magic Device skill where it says under the "Use a Scroll" section, "Use Magic Device allows you to use a scroll as if you had a particular spell on your class spell list." So, from that I take it that a Druid could cast an arcane spell. At least, potentially. So which is it?

You don't need UMD if its on your class spell list. Using it, anyone can cast any scroll. So, with enough UMD, a Druid can cast arcane spells.

Some spells can be either arcane or divine depending on who made them. For example, Cure light Wounds could be made as an arcane scroll by a bard. A cleric would then need UMD to cast the scroll, because its not divine. Same with a wizard, because its not on the wizard spell lists.


What UMD allows characters to do is to essentially trick the magic item (in this case a scroll) into thinking they are qualified to use that item. The druid, in this case, is tricking the scroll into thinking the druid is a bard and is casting an arcane Cure Light Wounds. Your wizard or sorcerer with enough UMD would need to do the same.

UMD has a list of essentially what traits you can fake having, such as race, ability scores and spell lists.

Dark Archive

Thank you. I was really hoping that that was the case.


You've got it right.

If its a scroll of a different type (arcane or divine) or its a spell not on his spell list (e.g. a bard trying to use an arcane scroll of Disintegrate), then he would have to use the Use Magic Device skill to activate the scroll.

Look at it like this...

In order to cast a spell from a scroll, all of the following conditions must be met:
a) the spell must be of the same type as the caster, arcane or divine,
b) the spell must be on the caster's class spell list, and
c) the caster must have a sufficient ability score to cast the spell (e.g. 18 Int to cast an 8th level spell).

If those three conditions are met, then he can cast the spell from the scroll. (If his caster level is below that of the spell on the scroll he'll have to make a caster level check).

If any of those conditions are not met, he could use the Use Magic Device skill to emulate satisfying the condition.

By making a UMD check with a DC of 20 + the scroll's caster level, he could emulate having the spell on his spell list (and also satisfying the arcane/divine condition).

If he doesn't have a sufficient ability score to then cast the spell, he would need to make another UMD, subtracting 15 from this check, to see what ability score he can emulate.

Example: A 10th level druid with 20 Wis, 14 Int, and 10 Cha has maxed his ranks in Use Magic Device, giving him a +10 to Use Magic Device checks. He took Skill Focus (Use Magic Device), so that gives him another 6 to the check (for having 10 ranks), for a total UMD of +16.

He finds a scroll of Teleport with a caster level of 10 and wants to use it. Since Teleport isn't on his spell list, he makes a UMD check with a DC of 30 (20 + scroll's caster level)to cast the spell. If he makes this check, he needs to make another UMD check to see if he can emulate the ability score needed since he doesn't have a 15 Int or Cha. (he needs a 15 after subtracting 15 from his UMD check, so in essence its a DC 31 for him).


Not sure how you came up with DC 31.

Changing your example for a minute, say the scroll is a 9th level Teleport spell. (to allow you and 3 other members to be affected) The druid only has a 12 Int.

Using UMD to bypass rule A&B, the druid would need to roll a 29 or better (base 20 + 9th level caster).

Your effective ability score is 14 (your UMD check of 29 - 15). Since the spell needs an Int score of 15, the druid has to emulate the ability score as well. What would the DC be?


You make two checks. One for the ability score and one for the spell level. So your first UMD check would need to be DC30 (as the DC is essentially 15 + Ability Score Needed) to emulate the ability score required to cast the spell. The second is the DC29 check to cast the spell from a scroll that is not on your class list.

Some DMs might rule that a single roll is used and compared to the various DCs needed to succeed.

The effective DC31 seems to be a mistake. It should be a DC30 since Father Dale specified a caster level 10 scroll. It would be DC29 for the CL9 scroll.


Thanks Mauril for the fast reply.

I am assuming that the ability check goes off the base score and wouldn't be affected if the character had Fox's Cunning cast. That would be a +4 to Int giving a temporary score of 16 in my example.


If an Int 12 druid had Fox's Cunning cast on him, he would not need to make a UMD check to cast a 6th level or lower Wizard spell. This is because, at that moment, his Intelligence is 16. The scroll doesn't know that it won't be in a little while.

However, if the same druid with Fox's Cunning wanted to cast a 7th level spell, he would need to make the DC32 UMD check to emulate an intelligence of 17.

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