D&D 5E Scroll of Revivify

[stormtrigger]

I've been prepping to run lost mines of phandelver and I noticed in the Cragmaw Castle there is a Scroll of Revivify (in the owlbear room). So I guess my question is, isn't the chance of a character being able to use this particular item awfully small? Did the designers of this adventure not realize how scrolls would work in 5e? Or is this item and perhaps other treasures meant to be homebrewed to fit the party?

Just found this kinda of unusual and was wondering what some of you have run this adventure thought or just any more experienced individuals in general. Thank you in advance.

 

[werecorpse]

DC13 wisdom ability check for the cleric to bring someone back to life - seems like a pretty good item when otherwise you have no chance.

 

[stormtrigger]

But doesn't the cleric have to have that spell on their list??

 

[werecorpse]

the spell just has to be on the classes spell list even if it is higher than the character can normally cast. It doesn't have to be in memory or to be able to be cast at your level - just on the list. So all clerical spells are on the clerics spell list. That's one of the cool things about finding a scroll, it gives you a chance of casting a higher level spell.

So a 1st to 4th level cleric with an 18 wisdom just needs to roll a 9 (+4 for wisdom) to cast revivify. A 5th or higher level cleric can use it automatically without rolling. A paladin could also try and use the scroll because it's on their spell list, to use it without rolling they need to be 9th level.

Another example: To use a scroll of raise dead a below 9th level cleric would need to get a total of 15.

Don't forget mishap chance on page 140 of the DMG if they get it wrong - makes it really interesting when your 2nd level sorcerer is thinking of using the scroll of lightning bolt : )


In olden days the chance of casting a spell from a scroll was based on how far off the required level you were (ie a 4th level cleric had a better chance than a 1st level cleric) but that doesn't seem to be the case anymore (I prefer it - maybe as GM you could allow the proficiency bonus to apply, or just use the old method which was you rolled d20 and added your caster level and had to get a number that was at least equal to the minimum caster level required for the spell.)

 

[S'mon]

Personally I recommend adding caster Proficiency to scroll use attempts so they don't fail as often, so eg Cleric 4 WIS 18 would get +6 on check and need 7+ to use the scroll successfully.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

I think that Stormtrigger is actually questioning the assumption that there would be a Cleric in the party. What other Classes have Revivify on their lists? Paladins? Bards? Druids? (I'm AFB at the moment.)

Although given the previous posters seem to have assumed the presence of a cleric, maybe the writers of the module were justified in making that assumption as well.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

I think that Stormtrigger is actually questioning the assumption that there would be a Cleric in the party. What other Classes have Revivify on their lists? Paladins? Bards? Druids? (I'm AFB at the moment.)

It is only available to the Cleric and Paladin, though a Bard would do well to pilfer it.

 

[Rya.Reisender]

Lost Mine of Phandelver pretty much assumes you are playing with the starter set characters: http://media.wizards.com/downloads/dnd/StarterSet_Charactersv2.pdf

That includes a Cleric that can use the Scroll of Revivify for sure.

 

[CapnZapp]

The greater question is: should scrolls be confined to those with the spell on their spell list?

If you only separate between arcane and divine, then it might make sense to uphold a restriction, since chances are good each party will have at least one spellcaster of each "sphere".

But when each and every class has its own spell list?

I definitely think there can be made a case for a house rule that allows any spellcaster to try to use a scroll.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

The greater question is: should scrolls be confined to those with the spell on their spell list?

If you only separate between arcane and divine, then it might make sense to uphold a restriction, since chances are good each party will have at least one spellcaster of each "sphere".

But when each and every class has its own spell list?

I definitely think there can be made a case for a house rule that allows any spellcaster to try to use a scroll.

Not a bad idea, although I think that if you're going to allow casters of different power sources to use scrolls of spells that aren't usually available to them, you may as well throw it open to non-spellcasters as well.
Probably make it an Arcana check, even for clerical or similar scrolls. Hopefully the rarity of scrolls will prevent it becoming almost a must-have as UMB became in 3.5/PF.
What sort of difficulty do you think, and should a failure destroy the scroll, or just prevent retries?