Psychic scrolls and wands - are thought and emotion components necessary?

[keerawa]

I've just started a psychic in PFS play. I'm not sure about if I can use scrolls and wands if I am unable to provide the normal thought and emotion components.

For example, if I am shaken, can I pull out a scroll of remove fear and use it? Can I use a wand of ill omen?

Worst case scenario, I can just stock up on potions of remove fear, but I'd like to be sure, since most of the local GMs don't seem as familiar with psychic casting.

[Ascalaphus]

That's a good question, and the answer is different for scrolls and wands.

Core Rulebook > Magic Items > Using Items wrote:

To use a magic item, it must be activated, although sometimes activation simply means putting a ring on your finger. Some items, once donned, function constantly. In most cases, though, using an item requires a standard action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity. By contrast, spell completion items are treated like spells in combat and do provoke attacks of opportunity.

Activating a magic item is a standard action unless the item description indicates otherwise. However, the casting time of a spell is the time required to activate the same power in an item, regardless of the type of magic item, unless the item description specifically states otherwise.

The four ways to activate magic items are described below.

Spell Completion: This is the activation method for scrolls. A scroll is a spell that is mostly finished. The preparation is done for the caster, so no preparation time is needed beforehand as with normal spellcasting. All that's left to do is perform the finishing parts of the spellcasting (the final gestures, words, and so on). To use a spell completion item safely, a character must be of high enough level in the right class to cast the spell already. If he can't already cast the spell, there's a chance he'll make a mistake. Activating a spell completion item is a standard action (or the spell's casting time, whichever is longer) and provokes attacks of opportunity exactly as casting a spell does.

Spell Trigger: Spell trigger activation is similar to spell completion, but it's even simpler. No gestures or spell finishing is needed, just a special knowledge of spellcasting that an appropriate character would know, and a single word that must be spoken. Spell trigger items can be used by anyone whose class can cast the corresponding spell. This is the case even for a character who can't actually cast spells, such as a 3rd-level paladin. The user must still determine what spell is stored in the item before she can activate it. Activating a spell trigger item is a standard action and does not provoke attacks of opportunity.

Also (from the Wands section): wands use the Spell Trigger method.

So for wands, you certainly don't need emotion/thought components.

Now, for scrolls, it's slightly murkier. It depends on whether the scroll is arcane, divine or psychic.

• If it's an arcane or divine scroll, you'd need to provide verbal and somatic components; and if you're a psychic, then this scroll wasn't meant for you and you need to Use Magic Device your way through it.

• If the scroll was written by a psychic caster, then probably it would have thought/emotion components instead of verbal/somatic components. Because scroll spells normally have the same components as the original spell, except that material components/foci are already baked-in.

  But you could go for a hardline literal reading of the scroll rules and insist that it isn't so, that a psychic reading a psychic scroll uses classic verbal and somatic components. Which I would say is an unreasonable forced interpretation.

• It gets another shade murkier in PFS, because PFS doesn't distinguish between arcane/divine/psychic scrolls/wands, for the same of convenience:
  PFS RPG Guild Guide v8, p. 20 wrote:

  For the sake of simplicity, there is no difference between an arcane, divine, or psychic scroll or wand. Thus a bard and cleric may both use the same scroll of cure moderate wounds.

  So when a psychic uses a scroll, assume it's a psychic scroll for as long as he's holding it.

It's not 100% clear, but if I had to rule on it in PFS I would say that when used by a psychic caster, scrolls use psychic-style components. That seems the least-surprising rule to me.

[Nixitur]

For wands, the answer is quite clearly that you can use them. Wands use the spell trigger activation method and while the rules text is obviously written for arcane and divine spells, the implications are clear.

Core Rulebook wrote:

No gestures or spell finishing is needed, just a special knowledge of spellcasting that an appropriate character would know, and a single word that must be spoken. Spell trigger items can be used by anyone whose class can cast the corresponding spell.

So, wands containing spells on your spell list can just be used with no problem, no components required.

With scrolls, the rules state that the scrolls have to be of the correct type for you to be able to cast from it, i.e. psychic scrolls in your case.

Occult Adventures wrote:

Psychic spellcasters aren’t affected by effects that target only arcane or divine spellcasters, nor can they use arcane or divine scrolls or other items or feats that state they can be utilized by only arcane or divine spellcasters.

So, you can't cast from arcane or divine scrolls without Use Magic Device. Psychic scrolls are fine, though, but they are explicitly stated to be rarer than arcane or divine ones. In PFS, the distinction between those types of scrolls don't exist, though, so go ahead with casting those. I don't know if you would have to provide somatic and verbal or emotion and thought components, though.