Number of spells on a random scroll

[indyjoe]

While whipping together my Magic Item Shop Random Inventory Generator, I noticed that a random minor scroll will have 1-3 spells, a medium one will have 1-4 spells, and a major one will have 1-6. But the major one will also have the most powerful spells, which should also be longer to copy and leave less space for other scrolls. So I felt the minor and medium scrolls should have the same chances for the same number number of spells as major scrolls. Or even it should be the opposite of how it was set up.

Can someone explain why it was set up the way it was? Thanks

[Kerrick]

You missed one detail - they never state a limit on how large/long a scroll can be. It's always long enough to hold as many spells as needed.

When I did the magic items for Project Phoenix, I put a couple limits on it:

Scrolls are considered to be equal to 10 spellbook pages, but a given scroll can have no more than 6 spells on it - 1st-3rd, one page; 4th-6th, two pages; 7th-9th, three pages. A 0-level spell (cantrip) takes up half a page.

[frankthedm]

The 3E limit of how many spells are on a scroll is that the scroll is made of paper.

Physical Description
A scroll is a heavy sheet of fine vellum or high-quality paper. An area about 8 ½ inches wide and 11 inches long is sufficient to hold one spell. The sheet is reinforced at the top and bottom with strips of leather slightly longer than the sheet is wide. A scroll holding more than one spell has the same width (about 8 ½ inches) but is an extra foot or so long for each extra spell.

Magic items, unless otherwise noted, take damage as nonmagical items of the same sort. A damaged magic item continues to function, but if it is destroyed, all its magical power is lost.

Paper or cloth
0 hardness
2 HP per inch of thickness

[indyjoe]

Thanks for the replies... but let me try to restate my question without trying to hold a baby in one arm (as I was doing when I first posted.)

Going by the book, a minor scroll gets 1-3 0th to 3rd level spells, medium gets 1-4 2nd to 5th level spells and a major scroll gets 1-6 4th to 9th level spells.

My thinking is that the scroll's power (minor, medium or major) should define only the level of the spells on the scroll. I don't see the reason that one might put 4, 5 or 6 high level spells on a major scroll and never put 4, 5 or 6 lower level spells on a minor scroll. I thought that 1-6 spells should be on a scroll of any power level.

But Frank gives a good reason why one might not want to put too many spells on a given scroll of any power level. If I'm a 3rd level wizard, I probably don't want to put 5 or 6 1st or 2nd level spells on one scroll that can be easily burned or lost or whatever. Likewise if I'm a 13th level wizard I don't want to put 5 or 6 spells of 5th or 6th level, for example.

Getting back to my original question, to sum up my thinking: The major scroll is already much more powerful simply due to which spells are on it. It doesn't need to have even more spells on it than a minor scroll in order to be more powerful.