Use Magic Device and Arcane Apothesis

[Ughbash]

OK, I would never allow it as a GM.... But is it legal.

If Arcane Apotehsis is a class feature for a 20th level Arcane bloodlien sorcerer. It says "Whenever you use magic items that require charges, you can instead expend spell slots to power the item. For every three levels of spell slots that you expend, you consume one less charge when using a magic item that expends charges."

Use magic device says "Check: You can use this skill to read a spell or to activate a magic item. Use Magic Device lets you use a magic item
as if you had the spell ability or class features of another class, as if you were a different race, or as if you were of a different alignment."

Now lets say you are a bard and have one charge left in your "Staff of Life" but need to ressurect 2 people.

Could you use "Use magic device" to emulate the class feature of Arcane Apothesis, supply the spell slots you have as a bard and NOT burn the charge on the staff?

[Fatespinner]

Ughbash wrote:

Could you use "Use magic device" to emulate the class feature of Arcane Apothesis, supply the spell slots you have as a bard and NOT burn the charge on the staff?

No. The "emulate a class feature" aspect of UMD simply allows you to "trick" the item into believing you HAVE such a feature, it does not actually allow you to USE said feature. For example, say that an item says "characters with the smite evil ability treat this weapon's enhancement bonus as +2 higher than normal." You can use UMD to "pretend" you have smite evil and thus coax the extra +2 out, but you could not actually declare a smite target and get all the bonuses that go along with it.

[Ughbash]

Fatespinner wrote:

Ughbash wrote:

Could you use "Use magic device" to emulate the class feature of Arcane Apothesis, supply the spell slots you have as a bard and NOT burn the charge on the staff?

No. The "emulate a class feature" aspect of UMD simply allows you to "trick" the item into believing you HAVE such a feature, it does not actually allow you to USE said feature. For example, say that an item says "characters with the smite evil ability treat this weapon's enhancement bonus as +2 higher than normal." You can use UMD to "pretend" you have smite evil and thus coax the extra +2 out, but you could not actually declare a smite target and get all the bonuses that go along with it.

The thing is as it is written you can use it as if possessing the class feature. The class feature lets you substitute in spells for charges. I picked bard rather then rogue becuase it actually DID have spells levels. The item "is tricked" into thinking you can feed it magical energy, and you (due to having spell levels) have the magical energy to feed it.

[james maissen]

Ughbash wrote:

Could you use "Use magic device" to emulate the class feature of Arcane Apothesis, supply the spell slots you have as a bard and NOT burn the charge on the staff?

No, no more than you could trick a staff into thinking you had sneak attack to deal extra dice of damage.

UMD is about activating magic items, not about getting class abilities.

Likewise you cannot emulate class feature to channel energy via a phylactery, etc.

-James