Unbound Scroll

[Ramza00]

Dragonmarked has a gnome prc called the Unbound Scroll. It is a gnome prc for arcane/artificers which have the least dragonmark of scribing and have done a favor for the Viceroy of the Ninth College

It is 4/5 spellcasting (loses spellcasting level at the third prc level) and has multiple abilites with the focus on scrolls. I will be focusing on the ability called Master Scribe which you get at class level 1. For every class level reduce the GP and XP cost of scribing a scroll by 5%*Class Level. Thus 5 levels will reduce the cost of scribing scrolls by 25%. This stacks with Legendary Artisan and Extraordinary Artisan for a total of 50%.

The creation formula for scrolls originally is
GP:12.5 × level of spell × level of caster
XP:1/25 × 12.5 × level of spell × level of caster
The market value for scrolls formula is
GP:25.0 × level of spell × level of caster

Throw on 3 UA bloodline levels and/or legendary champion and suddenly you can actually scribe scrolls even cheaper. Legendary Champion will also progress your spellcasting (for you gain a spell level every level except the 3rd one) and the Master Scribe is based on class levels. I will not focus anymore on legendary champion for its interpretation is “quasi” I will focus on UA bloodlines for they are more definite in the benefits you grant.

Now for some math
Normal cost to buy a scroll of maze (8th lvl Spell, Caster level 15). I picked an 8th level spell with Caster Level 15 for the math is easier and nicer looking, no decimals.
3,000 gp
Cost to scribe it yourself without feats
1,500 GP + 60 XP
With Extraordinary Artisan and Legendary Artisan (25% reduction)
1125 GP + 45 XP
With 5 lvls of Unbound Scroll+Extraordinary Artisan and Legendary Artisan (50% reduction)
750 GP + 30 XP
With 3 bloodline levels+5 lvls of Unbound Scroll+Extraordinary Artisan and Legendary Artisan (65% reduction)
525 GP + 21 XP

Note if you read the Resource text you see your bonuses improve even further (most people don’t read the resource and flavor text, it is their lost). You can buy any scroll or legal spell component at 10% discount at the Ninth College. Thus if you have easy access to the Ninth College you gain an additional 10% discount on the cost to create items (it specifically says it stacks with similar bonuses including Legendary and Extraordinary Artisan) now your costs look like this.

With Ninth College+5 lvls of Unbound Scroll+Extraordinary Artisan and Legendary Artisan (60% reduction)
600 GP + 24 XP
With Ninth College+3 bloodline levels+5 lvls of Unbound Scroll+Extraordinary Artisan and Legendary Artisan (75% reduction)
375 GP + 15 XP

Also in the Resource text you can sell your scrolls at 65% of their market value at any House Sivis enclave. You can also receive free room and board with no need to work in exchange.

With Sivis Enclave+ Ninth College+5 lvls of Unbound Scroll+Extraordinary Artisan and Legendary Artisan (60% reduction, plus selling it back at 65% base price)
Profit 1950 GP-(600 GP + 24 XP)=1,350 GP-24 XP
With Sivis Enclave+Ninth College+3 bloodline levels+5 lvls of Unbound Scroll+Extraordinary Artisan and Legendary Artisan (75% reduction, plus selling it back at 65% base price)
Profit 1950 GP-(375 GP + 15 XP)=1,575 GP-15 XP

Note though in the Resource section these discounts are only for devoted Sivis heirs. They give these discounts for they expect you to someday do something that will benefit the house (such as if you researched a new spell for yourself, they expect you to give a copy to the library so everybody prospers). If you are seen as blantly withholding your fruit of your labours and not doing anything that will benefit the house (now or later) you lose the 10% discount and selling stuff back at 65% cost. You do not lose the PRC though, just the discount.

Note a couple things if you do this as an artificer (which most likely you would) you will lose a total of 4 levels of infusions (3rd lvl of Unbound Scroll causes a spell level loss, and 3 levels of blood lines) but you will only be 1 level behind a typical artificer and 1 level ahead a non artificer in crafting items. This is because bloodlines also progress caster level (but not spell level)

I shall not mention how good this class will be in Gestalt where you have full artificer on one side, and then use this class on your other side with some other spellcaster (only progresses arcane or infusions) :smallwink:

Gnome Artificer 8/Bloodline 3/Unbound Scroll 5/X 4
Levels will look like this


Artificer 1
Artificer 2
Bloodline 1
Artificer 3
Artificer 4
Bloodline 2
Artificer 5
Artificer 6
Artificer 7
Artificer 8
Unbound Scroll 1
Bloodline 3
Unbound Scroll 2
Unbound Scroll 3
Unbound Scroll 4
Unbound Scroll 5
X 1
X 2
X 3
X 4

The only downside with this build is that you don't gain the bonus feats, craft reserve, and infusions that you get with pure artificer levels. That said it is perfect for an artificer cohort. Then again most of the good artificer feats are front loaded in the first 8 levels of the class.

Finally the Quill of Scribing in Complete Mage, for 1,750 gp or if you craft it yourself 875 gp, 70 XP you can create a quill which will scribe a spell for you by itself. Treat this just as if you were scribing it, including gp cost, XP cost, time, and all other construction requirements. Like a Dedicated Wright but only works with scrolls, it is cheaper (2,100 gp + 160 XP for the Wright) and you only need to use a standard action instead of a full 1 hour to start the process. Have the quill of scribing make your scrolls, while your dedicated wright does your wands and staffs.

[Hamster_Ninja]

Does the part that says you can sell scrolls say at market price +65%?Because if not thats actually quite a bad deal.
IIRC there is some errata that you can only have one of the artisan feats

Forgot about the sell at half price thing.

[Jack Mann]

You can normally only sell scrolls or other magic items at 50% of the market price, so an extra 15% isn't too bad, especially since your costs go down significantly.

[PinkysBrain]

Good thing bloodlines are variant ... as for legendary champion advancing a class beyond it's normal limits, that's rather questionable.

[Arbitrarity]

No, the errata says you can't take the same artisan feat more than once, which he isn't doing.

No, if he wanted to be cheap, he could take the magical artisan (scroll) thingy from faerun. -25% to GP, XP, and time.

Then his scrolls cost nothing.

EDIT: That's what I said.

[Ramza00]

No, the errata says you can't take the same artisan feat more than once, which he isn't doing.


I am not taking the same artisan feat more than once.

Extraordinary Artisan Reduce the cost of GP for crafting any magical item by 25%.
Legendary Artisan Reduce the cost of XP for crafting any magical item by 25%.
Unbound Scroll Reduce the cost of XP and GP for crafting any scroll by 5%*Class level (25%)
Unbound Scroll buy spell component items at 10% less thus reducing crafting costs by 10%

All these are supported by the example in Dragonmarked it says they all stack.

The only thing I am doing additional is 3 levels of UA bloodlines which reduces the cost by another 15% because instead of having 5 class levels of Unbound Scroll it is like there are 8 of them.

[Ramza00]

Does the part that says you can sell scrolls say at market price +65%?Because if not thats actually quite a bad deal.
IIRC there is some errata that you can only have one of the artisan feats
You can have all three artisan feats, you just can't take them more than once. :smalltongue:


Page 49: Feats Table—Item Creation Feats
Remove the superscript “2” after the feats Exceptional Artisan, Extraordinary Artisan, and Legendary Artisan. Each feat can be taken once only, not multiple times.