So my first level wizard found a vendor who will sell him a scroll of a first rank arcane spell that he does not have in his spell book. That will cost him 4 gp. As I read the rules, he can learn this spell from the scroll, basically transcribing it to his spell book.
Questions:
1. Is the scroll destroyed by doing this?
2. Will he have to pay the 2 gp price from table 4-3 to learn the spell? This would be in addition to the 4 gp purchase price for the scroll, which seems to make learning from a scroll a bit steep.
Once he has the spell in his spell book, he can craft his own scrolls. But...
1. "Like other consumables, scrolls can be crafted in batches of four. All scrolls of one batch must contain the same spell at the same level, and you must provide one casting for each scroll crafted." Presumably, since the base time to craft anything is four days, this means he has to devote one spell slot each day (and he must do daily preps each day) to this spell. Or he can devote two slots, and thus the casting he must do in crafting this batch of scrolls can be done over two days. Do I have this right?
2. The cost of a rank 1 scroll is 4 gp, so the "raw materials" cost is 2 gp, and he would need to have 8 gp to cover the cost of crafting one batch of four scrolls. Right?
Have I missed anything?
Maybe this: if I want to spend only the 8 gp base cost, and considering … uh, oh, I forgot something. If I'm gonna make these things, I need to be trained (at least) in crafting, and have the "magical crafting" feat, which is second level. So I can't do it at first level, but I can at second. My daily craft checks, assuming they're all successful (but not critically successful) would let me deduct 3 sp from the remaining 40 sp each day. So it would take me 40/3 rounded up, or 14 more days to finish the project. 18 days of downtime to give me 4 1st level scrolls. Hm.
Learning a spell:
1) No, it does not destroy the scroll. It also does not destroy the wizard if you elect to learn a spell directly from another Wizard.
2) Yes. You do have to pay the prices listed in the Learn a Spell activity.
Other classes do have special rules in addition to this. Witch specifically can simply have the familiar consume the scroll. That does not have a skill check or any additional cost, but it does destroy the scroll.
Crafting a scroll:
1) Crafting always takes at least 4 days. No matter the batch size of consumables created.
I have heard rumors that the crafting process is being changed in the Remaster.
And there are variant rules in some book or other. Treasure Vault, perhaps.
2) Yes, you do have to pay material cost for each scroll crafted.
Additional note, you only make one crafting check for a crafting process. You do not roll separately for each day spent crafting. You make the check after the first 4 days of setup time and continue to use that result for any further days of crafting.
Addendum: You can only reduce the cost of crafting to half the total price. Additional days of work beyond that point will not be effective.
It also does not destroy the wizard if you elect to learn a spell directly from another Wizard.
Thank you for pointing that out. I'm sure many Wizards were concerned about that.
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Learning a spell:
1) No, it does not destroy the scroll. It also does not destroy the wizard if you elect to learn a spell directly from another Wizard.
Addendum: You can only reduce the cost of crafting to half the total price. Additional days of work beyond that point will not be effective.
ROFL!! Thanks, I needed a laugh. :-)
Re: addendum. Yeah, I figured that.
To add to the above, learning a spell doesn't cost much as you progress in levels. It is only seeming steep because you are level 1 and relatively unskilled/lacking gold.
At level 2 you also have magical shorthand as an option.
There are no rules or costs for this, but you could theoretically learn the spell without buying the scroll. The wizard could teach you or could let you borrow their spell book.
It's an unfortunate omission, much like what an NPC should charge to transfer a rune.
If I were an NPC, and someone asked me to transfer a rune for them, and it's going to cost me 3.5 GP to do it, I'm going to want to be charging him at least 3.85 GP (for a 10% profit margin). Maybe more if I don't get asked very often.
I suppose if I were a wizard and a good friend asked if he could copy a spell or two out of my spell book, I probably wouldn't charge him for it.