Scribe Scroll houserules

[Arkturas]

Just curious as to what hourserules people use for Scribe Scroll in a 3.5 campaign. We want to alter ours to remove the XP cost, but don't want to risk things getting out of hand.

[RFLS]

Just curious as to what hourserules people use for Scribe Scroll in a 3.5 campaign. We want to alter ours to remove the XP cost, but don't want to risk things getting out of hand.

There's a rather substantial set of houserules known as "Pathfinder" that does, in part, this.

[Deaxsa]

just make them pay 100% of the base price, not 4%. and make them pay it all in GP, none is XP. Additionally, you could increase the formula to (Spell Level*Caster level*40) (changing that last variable) to some number you think is appropriate. heck, you could even change the formula to (Spell level*Spell Level*Caster Level*some constant) to get an exponential price.

[tyckspoon]

just make them pay 100% of the base price, not 4%. and make them pay it all in GP, none is XP. Additionally, you could increase the formula to (Spell Level*Caster level*40) (changing that last variable) to some number you think is appropriate. heck, you could even change the formula to (Spell level*Spell Level*Caster Level*some constant) to get an exponential price.

.. I didn't get anything from OP's post that said he had an actual problem with scrolls being cheap, and certainly not enough to warrant dramatic price increases like you're suggesting. The XP cost of a scroll is largely irrelevant as is; even a 9th level scroll only costs 153 XP to make. That doesn't really need to be compensated for.

@ poster: See above. Scroll XP costs are trivial. Simply removing them outright should not cause significant problems and does not, IMO, need any further adjustments made to the rules to 'balance' it. (That's Scrolls, specifically- other kinds of magic items get much more expensive, have correspondingly larger XP investments, and should get more careful consideration as to how you want to work them.)

[Ravenica]

the main one I tack on to the pathfinder rules is they can make more than one scroll per day up to 1000gp worth...

providing they have the spell slots, although I've seen at least one player abuse the heck out of it for cantrip scrolls as a cleric so he could prepare other things too heh

[killem2]

My DM and I (I am also a dm), we were talking about the idea of with ANY magic item, that after a certain number of creations you get so good at it, that you don't need to burn xp anymore. The number for the variable is where we got hung up on.

[ericgrau]

It's not much xp and when you fall behind you get a big boost in xp anyway.

The only reason I rarely take the feat is that the cost savings aren't worth it vs. buying scrolls. Unless a DM is stingy with buying low level items and yet not stingy with gp, which is a rare combination I think.

If you want to make the feat more appealing then I would give a bigger gp discount.

[Duke of Urrel]

I can imagine that if making a scroll carried no experience-point cost, a number of things would change (all other things being equal): every spellcaster would scribe scrolls, every spellcaster would effectively have a much greater daily spellcasting limit, magic scrolls would be much more commonplace, and every bard and rogue would invest more in Use Magic Device skill. It would be a slightly different world, and I would take that into consideration before waiving the XP cost for scrolls.

I like scrolls, but as a DM, I'm pretty strict about magic items of all kinds, particularly when it comes to storage. I allow you to squeeze up to three magic scrolls into each scroll case. You need to attach some colored ribbon to each scroll to make it distinguishable from the others that are stored in the same case. Since you can't easily look over your shoulder to see which scroll you're pulling out of a scroll case, you must store identical scrolls in scroll cases you that you hang behind your shoulders (or that you set inside your backpack with their tops exposed), because otherwise, you'll mix them up. Basically, for me the main problem with magic scrolls is not how many you can create, but whether you can organize the scrolls in your gear so that you don't get them mixed up and don't have to waste time rummaging around for a scroll when you need one. (An Unseen Servant is always a good help.)

I allow NPCs of certain classes (Commoner, Expert, or Aristocrat) to gain XPs by what I call "quotidian" means, that is, without regularly having to risk their necks fighting deadly opponents. NPCs who advance this way don't gain Hit-Dice or increase their Base Attack Bonus or base save bonuses, but they do gain feats, skill points, and ability increases, and if they have some experience in a spellcasting class, they can create magic items. (Many experts and aristocrats in my world are actually adventurers in retirement.) This accounts for the easy availability of magic items in most urban areas, even including rather small towns. It also makes it possible for high-level experts, commoners, and aristocrats to exist who may be highly skilled in specialized ways, but who are pushovers in combat. I think the existence of quotidian advancement makes non-adventuring, "average" folks a lot more realistic.