Prerequisite confusion - what ability score do I need for scrolls?

[Midnight_Angel]

PRD (in the UMD skill) wrote:

To cast a spell from a scroll, you need a high score in the appropriate ability (Intelligence for wizard spells, Wisdom for divine spells, or Charisma for sorcerer or bard spells).

I am aware that this text precedes the invention of the oracle (and a bajillion other casters, as well).

If taken literally, this would imply several... interesting effects.

- Since Sorcerers and Wizard share a spell list, any arcane scroll with such a spell would need to be defined whether it is written by a Sorc, Wiz, Witch, or whatever. Which, of course, never takes place.

- Officially, divine scrolls need Wisdom. Which would force a Pally or Oracle (both being divine Charisma casters) to have an appropriate Wisdom score to use auch a scroll... even if they wrote the scroll themselves.

Many groups state that when using arcane scrolls with spells from the Sorc/Wiz list, one can choose which stat to use, implying you can complete the spell both the Sorcerer and the Wizard way.

So, can I do this with spells from the Oracle/Cleric list as well? Or am I stuck with WIS, since the text above never was changed?

What if I don't have the spell on my class list, and use the scroll via UMD? Do I get to chose whether I want to use Cha or Int... or Cha or Wis, respectively?

Should a scroll not only define its nature (arcane vs. divine), but its 'flavor' (Wiz, Soc, Witch, Pally), as well? If so, is the required stat the one the writer of the scroll used, or is it always WIS for divine spells?

Or does the user get to choose the casting statistic if a scroll of the given type is on more than one spell list? (Sor/Wiz, Cle/Ora... but also things like an arcane scroll of CLW, which might be Bard (Cha) or Witch (Int))?

[JHFizban]

In my weekly game, we haven't run into the issue of scrolls just yet, but when we do, I intend to handle it as follows:

Scroll of Mage Armor (Wiz 3, Int)

Listing the spell, the caster type, the caster level, and the attribute. The last bit might seem redundant, but I'm just thinking of possible weirdness, such as a scroll created by one of those sorcerer types that can use Wisdom as their primary attribute, or whatever.

Same would go for wands. Just a minor add-on at the end there. To anyone who would argue that you can't possibly know who created some random scroll found in a forgotten library, my response would be: of course I know, I'm the GM. ;)

Good gaming!