When emulating having a class feature for the purposes of activating a magic item, your effective level is your UMD check minus 20. Theoretically, if you had a magic item that offered a benefit if you had a class feature available at (or at the level at) 15th level or higher, that'd be a possible reason to have a higher skill.
Also, like those of any other skill, the uses of Use Magic Device listed in the skill description are not exhaustive:
Skills represent some of the most basic and yet most fundamental abilities your character possesses. As your character advances in level, he can gain new skills and improve his existing skills dramatically. This section describes each skill, including common uses and typical modifiers. Characters can sometimes use skills for purposes other than those noted here, at the GM’s discretion.
Nearly every published adventure I've seen has at least one use of a skill not covered in the Core Rulebook, including Use Magic Device. Being able to disable the Big Bad's Immortality Engine artifact via three consecutive DC 40 successes could mean the difference between victory and defeat. : )
Keep in mind it is the only skill that will auto fail on a natural 1. So at least you have a chance to fail regardless of the bonus;) I don't recall a UMD DC higher then 34 off the top of my head but I am sure there is somewhere.
Actually, the highest DC would be for using a scroll not on your spell list, which is 20+Spell CL, or 37 for a 9th level spell. Not much higher than the 34 you mentioned, but a little bit anyway.
I guess you could get 38 for an Oracle only spell or Sorcerer only spell.
I don't know if there are any 9th level spells that would be affected, but THERE ARE ORCALE ONLY SPELLS, and they could be heightened to 9th level (although that particular spell probably wouldn't be worth the cost of making a CL18 magic item).
DC40 for any scroll casting at 20th level - not all scrolls are at the minimum caster level.
Technically and somewhat less seriously,, as I can't think of any specific reason you'd need to, but DC 41+ if you ever need to emulate an ability score of 26 or higher..
Probably good to go a little over in case you take a penalty.
Would that apply with a staff, which uses the user's caster level, if it is higher than that of the staff? A sufficiently buffed UMD check could get quite potent if that's the case, eg. a with a staff containing Holy Word...When emulating having a class feature for the purposes of activating a magic item, your effective level is your UMD check minus 20. Theoretically, if you had a magic item that offered a benefit if you had a class feature available at (or at the level at) 15th level or higher, that'd be a possible reason to have a higher skill.
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People have suggested this before. Since there's nothing specifically ruling it in or out in the rules, there's no way to end the argument.
Hi
Is there any value to very high Use Magic Device? The highest DC I see is 25 + spell level, which would be 34 for a 9th level spell.
Is this a skill that at very high levels you can stop improving, or is there a benefit to going beyond +33?
Jack
As with most skills there is a listed limit for the skill beyond which it doesn't seem to make sense to increase the skill further. But creative use of the skill may allow you to do things not normally possible provided a high enough check.
For example on a recent character I was playing, an enemy spellcaster was making use of a magic item to attack us with spells from a hidden location. So, my character took 10 on UMD (thanks to being a pathfinder savant) and achieved a check of 52 on it. This allowed my character to make use of the magic item and cast spells through the item back at the hidden spellcaster. In spite of the fact that this wasn't a normal function of the item.
People have suggested this before. Since there's nothing specifically ruling it in or out in the rules, there's no way to end the argument.Would that apply with a staff, which uses the user's caster level, if it is higher than that of the staff? A sufficiently buffed UMD check could get quite potent if that's the case, eg. a with a staff containing Holy Word...When emulating having a class feature for the purposes of activating a magic item, your effective level is your UMD check minus 20. Theoretically, if you had a magic item that offered a benefit if you had a class feature available at (or at the level at) 15th level or higher, that'd be a possible reason to have a higher skill.
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I dunno... it seems pretty clear to me... though the results may not be what one would expect or even remotely desirable...
You use UMD to emulate having a higher CL for the staff, the staff spell them activates with your lower CL... congratulations you just cast a CL 1 Fireball...
You can activate the staff as if you had a high CL, but don't actually have a CL. Therefore you use the staff's CL.
congratulations you just cast a CL 1 8* Fireball...
* assuming default staff.
/cevah