Scribe Scroll and Use Scroll Question


Rules Questions


I'm creating a druid with scribe scroll and working with my GM to allow him to scribe them on bone or bark (IE a shoulder blade from a deer) vs paper.
My question is when a scroll is read, is the paper also consumed/rendered useless; or could it be recycled and have another scroll scribed on it? I guess I could harvest approx. 4 "sheet" sized bones from one medium sized animal, so it may not matter either way.

On a side-note
He's vowed to not use or possess metals and gems, including coins because miners are always removing from mother-earth and never replacing, so plans to sacrifice and rebury all metal, coins/gems he gains via adventuring, in order to replenish mother earths "stores". Meanwhile has taken the craft-sculpture skill and will create trinkets from bone, stone, wood to barter/trade. Am also working with my GM to get some "divine" assistance on these crafting so if he sacrifices say 1000gp of coins/metal items, he is able to shave some time off creating items that will sell/barter for similar value. At some point the time to craft would get oppressive - also not able to use metal tools means stone and bone knives, chisels, awls, etc would normally affect time to craft as likely being considered rudimentary.

thanks in advance.!

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
GM 1990 wrote:

I'm creating a druid with scribe scroll and working with my GM to allow him to scribe them on bone or bark (IE a shoulder blade from a deer) vs paper.

My question is when a scroll is read, is the paper also consumed/rendered useless; or could it be recycled and have another scroll scribed on it?

The paper is part of the cost of inscribing the scroll, so yes, it is rendered useless for scribing once the scroll is consumed.


LazarX is correct that by RAW and RAI the paper crumbles and you have to get new paper.

That said, what you are describing is just awesome flavor for your druid and if I was your GM, I'd happily be saying YES all the way to all that you had said. I would even let you reuse the bones for new scrolls and I'd even let it be slightly more durable because of the materials used. On the time to craft with subpar tools... You are already getting divine help, so stop overthinking it. You are on some seriously awesome flavor so it works! :D

As a GM, when I see a player doing stuff that is only adding flavor I tend to get very open to suggestions. But if you try to use that to get more power the openess tends to dry up pretty fast.

The Exchange

Scrimshaw Scrolls!

I think there was a "scroll" like this in Carrion Crown. It was a peice of mammoth horn with scrimshaw on it that acted as a magic scroll. If i remember correctly the horn and the carvings didn't crumble to dust, only the magic was used and it was just a pretty carving.

If you could convince him of that method, your DM could say your scrolls could be bartered with since they are carved peices of art at that point.


Lifat wrote:
LazarX is correct that by RAW and RAI the paper crumbles and you have to get new paper.

I don't think it actually crumbles:

"The writing vanishes from the scroll when the spell is activated."

But is does say, "All writing implements and materials used to scribe a scroll must be fresh and unused."

I think most GMs would allow it as long as you're not trying to get scrolls cheap somehow.


Matthew Downie wrote:
Lifat wrote:
LazarX is correct that by RAW and RAI the paper crumbles and you have to get new paper.

I don't think it actually crumbles:

"The writing vanishes from the scroll when the spell is activated."

But is does say, "All writing implements and materials used to scribe a scroll must be fresh and unused."

I think most GMs would allow it as long as you're not trying to get scrolls cheap somehow.

Fair enough, I stand corrected. The paper could technically be reused for other things than scrolls by RAW. And yeah, as you say, I can't see any GM disallowing using the paper again for scrolls unless you are trying to reduce price.


Lifat wrote:
Matthew Downie wrote:
Lifat wrote:
LazarX is correct that by RAW and RAI the paper crumbles and you have to get new paper.

I don't think it actually crumbles:

"The writing vanishes from the scroll when the spell is activated."

But is does say, "All writing implements and materials used to scribe a scroll must be fresh and unused."

I think most GMs would allow it as long as you're not trying to get scrolls cheap somehow.

Fair enough, I stand corrected. The paper could technically be reused for other things than scrolls by RAW. And yeah, as you say, I can't see any GM disallowing using the paper again for scrolls unless you are trying to reduce price.

just got back into gaming a few months ago after 20yrs....wow a lot has changed, and Druids (all spell casters really) have so much more to offer now. Its my son's first time GMing, so trying to run a character that he and the rest of our kids can get a sense of role-playing/spicing the character up with things not addressed in the rules, but that don't technically give you any game-mechanics advantage. Which will make the campaign I started running for them more fun as well...so a little investment in my own GMing you might say.

So not looking for an advantage, just trying to spice up play, I told him I'd take some kind of negative exchange rate on sacrificing metals to ensure I "use up appropriate cost of items preparing a scroll". In essence I'll be "spending" as much or more as I would just buying paper/ink.
Although I'm quickly realizing this "anti-metal" Druid is going to have challenges..most can be resolved with role-playing, but I figure to spend a lot of skills at lower levels in crafting so he can essentially "live off the grid". What got me wondering about re-use of items is the possibility of desert or ocean going where options for hunting a vertebrae might be far between, and unlike paper, carrying 10 or 15 scrolls worth of bone will really become cumbersome (and noisy)
I think I might offer to make something like a 20% chance each casting that a scrollbone crumbles from the magical strain (not repairable with mend). It'll keep me thinking about how I restock supplies (which in desert/ocean could create some fun opportunities as well), while not resulting in a permanent item for scrolls.

Any ideas about how to work it in-game would be welcome (or other ideas from those who've run druids). With "no metals" I'm going with his quarter-staff (two-wpn attack feat), and sling as primary weapons, and will use shillelagh to boost damage (that'll make him nasty enough at 1st level with a wolf-companion). The druid will use the Wolf-shaman totem and I'm planning to run him and his wolf as some-what of a "two-man-pack" teaming up on a foe and separating them from their group so to gain flanking.

The Exchange

Well the scrimshaw scroll in Carrion Crown actually had roughly 5 spells carved on it. You can always place more than one spell on a single scroll but you can only activate one spell at a time from my understanding. (if this is wrong, I would love for someone to correct me.) So as far as carrying "10 or 15 scrolls worth of bone" turns into like maybe, a single deer skull with 10 or 15 spells carved on it.


Jericho Graves wrote:
Well the scrimshaw scroll in Carrion Crown actually had roughly 5 spells carved on it. You can always place more than one spell on a single scroll but you can only activate one spell at a time from my understanding. (if this is wrong, I would love for someone to correct me.) So as far as carrying "10 or 15 scrolls worth of bone" turns into like maybe, a single deer skull with 10 or 15 spells carved on it.

You can indeed have more than one spell per scroll, but that is by adding length to the scroll. And you are correct that only one such spell can be activated at a time barring some kind of special ability (I doubt one such exist though).

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