Low-ish level ways to get high CL scrolls

[Harrow]

I've had a fascination with the Unbound Scroll prestige class for a while. Particularly, I've been interested in their Ghost Writing ability, which lets them create free copies of scrolls up to 6th level spells. It just seemed so cool to be able to generate (sometimes expensive) consumables like that. But, in practice, I find it difficult to justify a 5 level prestige class that loses a caster level for a free 6th level spell every day, when I could just be a full caster and get many free spells every day, hypothetically up to 9th level.

Then, while ruminating on this one day, I realized that the class puts a limit on the spell level that you can duplicate, but places no similar restriction on caster level. If I had a character, Artificer 5 / Unbound Scroll 5, that managed to get their hands on a variety of good-scaling spell scrolls, I'd be in business! Magic Vestment, Greater Magic Weapon, Wings of Flurry, Kelpstrand could be useful if I could get the caster level high enough... Oh. I need to actually acquire a real scroll with a really high caster level to be able to make copies of it.

This is where I run into a snag. I've never actually had a DM who would let me just buy a CL 20+ scroll. That mostly implies the existence of level 20+ casters running around that are willing to take commissions from the party, which hasn't ever been the case in the relevant campaigns. Which brings me to the thread title. What are ways to get high caster level scrolls when the party is around 10th level, and the campaign world isn't much higher?

The best method I've been able to come up with is to use Planar Binding to call an Efreeti, pay it a reasonable sum (probably market rate for the wanted item) to use a Wish to create the necessary scrolls. I find this plan... lacking. Both from an in-game perspective of not wanting to anger or otherwise gain the attention of an Efreeti by calling it, and from a more meta-perspective of not wanting to deal with the Wish spell when it's ever avoidable.

Anyone got any better ideas? While we're at it, I would also appreciate spell suggestions for what spells an Unbound Scroll should be using Ghost Writing on.

[Maat Mons]

I've never looked at Unbound Scroll before. It's interesting. But you could already activate scrolls without expending them via Astral Projection. And you could already get Astral Projection early by binding a Nightmare.

Maybe you could craft high-CL scrolls by being a Red Wizard?

[Harrow]

Maybe you could craft high-CL scrolls by being a Red Wizard?

You know, I've been assuming that magic item creation worked off of, like, innate caster level. But, now that I'm thinking about it, I'm not sure if the rules ever make a distinction between "base" caster level and "effective" caster level. Does anyone know if a Wizard 15 with an orange prism ioun stone could make a scroll of Greater Magic Weapon at caster level 16?

I was thinking of trying to chain the Strong Words class feature of the Unbound Scroll, making a single original scroll at a reasonable caster level and then boosting its caster level by +4 and using it to supply the spell for the next scroll, which could then be boosted again, but it looks like Strong Words caps at your character level +2. Sure, there's ways around that (Lycanthropy, becoming a barghest and eating people) but I don't know of any method that wouldn't get a book thrown at you at any table I've ever played at.

I guess it's time to go diving for resources on increasing caster level, then hoping I can convince a decently-leveled caster to help me with my scrolls...

[Tohron]

If you can scrounge up enough money to pay a high-level wizard to cast a Wish, then there's no upper bound on the CL of scrolls it can create. However, the cost would be 26,610 gp plus 40% the cost of the scroll in question (so 26,610 + 5 * spell level * CL gp), which puts it on the upper bound of what you can afford. If you are willing to splurge that much and can get a large UMD bonus (at much higher level, Shapechanging into a Lilitu gives you automatic success on UMD checks, but that's outside the bounds of the request), then any spells with uncapped bonuses and no expensive material components can get quite silly. One good spell is Improvisation(bard spell, large pool of luck bonuses to skill checks, ability checks, and attack rolls). If your party has a Wisdom-based caster, using Owl's Insight scrolls on them would be pretty potent too.

Oh, and if you have Chain Spell, applying it to the high-CL scroll with Metamagic Scroll would add quite a lot of potential.

[ruleof5]

You know, I've been assuming that magic item creation worked off of, like, innate caster level. But, now that I'm thinking about it, I'm not sure if the rules ever make a distinction between "base" caster level and "effective" caster level. Does anyone know if a Wizard 15 with an orange prism ioun stone could make a scroll of Greater Magic Weapon at caster level 16?


I don't see any reason this wouldn't work.

You could even use spells like Suffer the Flesh and Spell Enhancer to increase the CL further.

[sleepyphoenixx]

Iirc Words of Creation gives a free CL increase when making good magic items.

You can also increase the DC for free with Enhance Item (ELH, but not actually an epic feat).
That makes a lot of spells that require a save but don't much care about CL viable to put on scrolls.

[Harrow]

In case anyone (most likely myself, lol) ever finds this thread in the future, a combination of the spells Adept Spirit, Create Magic Tatoo, Harmonic Chorus, and either paying a given Wizard NPC to cast Spell Enhancer themselves or casting Hymn of Praise on a divine caster, all on top of a bead of karma, gets a 10th level NPC up to caster level 20, the cap for a lot of spells.

Oh, and, if someone wanted pull this off in an E6 environment (I'm not sure why you would, with Ghost Writing requiring character level 10, but I'm not here to judge what you do with your single-use scrolls) or wanted to get beyond CL 20 for spells that benefit from that, you can pull off the "boost a spell from a scroll to supply a spell for another scroll, repeat" trick I mentioned in a previous post. Unbound Scroll won't help you here, but there is a pathfinder feat, Cypher Magic, that boosts the caster level of all scrolls you use by 1. It would be expensive and time consuming to do, and AFAIK there isn't a pathfinder equivalent to Unbound Scroll and its Ghost Writing, so you're inherently mixing the two systems to pull it off, which I know not everyone likes.


You can also increase the DC for free with Enhance Item (ELH, but not actually an epic feat).
That makes a lot of spells that require a save but don't much care about CL viable to put on scrolls.

Hey, that's a good find! And, as an [Item Creation] feat, you can use it as another target for Magical Artisan. Not that anyone ever had enough feats to utilize all of those, between Legendary, Extraordinary, Exceptional Artisan, and side needs like metamagic.