The description of this arcana says that casting a spell from a scar is just like casting from a scroll, except you don't have to see the scar.
Since it functions like a scroll, you don't need any material components to cast it (the material components are used when inscribing the scar onto your skin).
Scrolls are spell-completion items, meaning that casting a spell from a scroll (or a scar) still requires any verbal and/or somatic components that the spell requires (i.e. speaking and gesturing). As such, depending on the requirement of the particular spell, you might need one hand free for the somatic component, or your ability to speak for the verbal part.
If you had the appropriate metamagic feats, you could inscribe a silent and still version of the spell (at +2 to the level), which you could then cast even if you were gagged and had both hands bound.
(As a side note, the teleport spell only has a verbal component, so you could cast it even with bound hands).
And as a final caveat for this arcana, you will still need to pay the costs for magical ink and paper when you inscribe a scar, just as if you had created a scroll. This costs (12.5 GP) x (the level of the spell) x (the caster level of the spell). So for a second level spell, cast at a caster level of 4th, the cost would be 12.5 x 2 x 4 = 100 GP.
(As another note, remember that you can save GP by inscribing a spell at a lower caster level. For example, if a 15th level magus wanted to scribe a scroll or a scar of the gaseous form spell, he or she could inscribe it at a caster level of 7th, which is the minimum level to cast a third level spell. The gaseous form would only last for 14 minutes instead of 30, but would cost less than half the price of inscribing it at the magus' full 15th level.)
Having said all that, there is one VERY IMPORTANT bonus that comes from taking this arcana that you might not notice right away. It is an extraordinary ability to use, and extraordinary abilities do not provoke attacks of opportunity. For a magus, who is often going to be in the thick of melee, this can be a pretty big deal. Having a vanish spell inscribed in a scar so that you can turn invisible without provoking AOO's could be very valuable.
They are 12.5 to craft. Half of the buy cost of 25.
Also, am I able to scribe spells on the wizard list that arent on the magus list and use them without failure?
Under magic item creation, the core rule book says that you must prepare the spell in order to make a scroll of it. So you would only be able to use the spell scars to inscribe spells you were able to prepare.
I'm playing a magus in a campaign who uses this arcana a lot.
I use it mostly for utility spells that I might only need to cast every once in a while, and often inscribed at a lower caster level if it doesn't hurt the spell much (obscuring mist, for example).
This leaves my prepared slots open for the damage- and combat-based spells that I know I'm going to cast every combat.
Sorry to dig up this thread but I really want to know this :)
Having said all that, there is one VERY IMPORTANT bonus that comes from taking this arcana that you might not notice right away. It is an extraordinary ability to use, and extraordinary abilities do not provoke attacks of...I always assumed that they would be casted as scolls are. As in a standard action that does provoke an AOO.
Do you have any official source stating otherwise?
The SRD rules says " He can cast a spell from a spell-scar exactly like casting from a scroll;"
For me it sound that BGG is right and you provoke an AoO. What do you think ? Although the fact that you don't have to hold a paper and focus on reading can explain the fact that you stay focused and don't provoke AoO.
Also what about spell combat and spell strike ? The rules don't say that you CAN use it, but it doesn't say you CAN'T. After all you do the same thing as when you use a spell (somatic/verbal component) but you the energy of the scar instead of your spell ...
(the same is true for a scroll, but you have to hold the scroll in your hand, so it seems hard to fight in the same time)
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Yes, it provokes, just like casting a spell in most other ways also provokes.
No, you can't use it in spell combat, since "read a scroll" is a different action than "cast a spell", and spell combat only works with the latter. This is similar to how you can't (normally) use a steal maneuver as part of a full attack.