SteelDraco said:
The difference is that the scroll and the spellbook have different things in them. I think of it as the distinction between source code and compiled code for a computer program. A spellbook has all the instructions necessary to prepare the spell for a wizard, to build the magical pattern in his head so that he can cast it later. The scroll has the magical energy put together in a more completed way - it just takes a skilled person reading it to make it go off.
That also explains why you need Spellcraft to transfer a spell from a scroll to a spellbook. Decompiling a program isn't easy, and that's effectively what you're doing, in a manner of speaking.
You are right and wrong.
I am sure you are right from a rules stand point, and even a logical stand point, but from a gamming stand point, I think there are way too many people on the WOTC payroll who are, no offense to you, computer geeks.
That explaination makes sense to someone who thinks the same way you do, which is most likely a bunch of rule pushers, logic thinkers and computer programing nerds, again, no offense meant.
To the lay man though, it breaks our logic cause we can't relate to your compiling of computer programing skills. It is like my job, I am a graphic artist and do a lot of work on photoshop and other computer programs, which were not made by graphic artists, but by computer geeks who have no idea of what an artist is looking for from a program. In fact, if you take a moment to look at the way the programs are set up, they aren't even coherrent to any pattern and often times just frustrating cause some nerd in a cramped cubical has no idea what the end users really want or the way they will use them.
So, I guess you have a point, and agian, I'm not trying to slam your way of thinking, but it is not my way of thinking and I fear that I am in the majority. Personally, I think when people try to apply logic to D&D you really start messing up the game, as odd as that sounds.
EDIT: I don't want to turn this into a bash thread or anything so in hind sight I should erase the above, but I think it is a frustration that I am not alone in so I will leave as is for now. If you want a friendly debate about it, glad to hear your views and offer some of mine, but otherwise, let's concentrate on scrolls. I'm at work not, but when I get home I'll try to post one or two I was thinking of making to see if they work out properly.
Also, really, I am not trying to bring hate, so don't take it to heart if you are easily offended.