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Message: <blockquote data-quote="uzagi_akimbo" data-source="post: 1870760" data-attributes="member: 15945">The artificer can of course create a fireball scroll at 3rd level due to the circumstance that his caster level is always treated at +2 his actual level, with the exception of the actual spell's effect - hence the allusion to the "weak" 3D6 damage fireballs in the example given on page 32 EbCS. Supposing he had access to the spell through some means. But I fail to see how one shoddyily written example (for an entirely different rules question ) prooves that the artificer class can pen scrolls (or create other items ) far in excess of its own capabilities. Like say, a scroll of "disintegrate" (UMD roll of 31 - feasible with 8 skill ranks in UMD at 5th, synergy boni +2 from 5 ranks Spellcraft, +2 from 5 ranks Decipher Script, +2 from magical aptitude feat , Cha bonus of +3 or better, +3 from Skill focus feat (UMD) = +20 on UMD skill roll (before looking for a cheap CHA item, or a cha boosting spell ) , = 50% to write a "disintegrate" scroll. And with UMD +20, he faces no real problems to activate said spell from the scroll. Market price = 1650 gp, creation cost half that (825 gp), and that is before even thinking about artificer creation feats. Pretty cheap for a using 6th level  spells, 6 levels before the party's wizard gets access to them.  It can also be safely assumed that any artificer will have invested into at least one Artifice feat (reducing the creation cost by 25% or 50% at 5th level ) by then. "Disintegrate" for 413 gp a pop sounds rather like a bargain to me....Sole disadvantage - less spell penetration power than usual, often not too major a bother. Feeblemind (UMD 29) , Enervation (UMD 27), Flesh to Stone (UMD 31)..... pretty nice spells, which play all too well into an artificer's hands, if there wasn't actually a requirement for expending an infusion/spell of the appropriate level. EVERY other class capable of scribing scrolls on the other hand has to have access to the spell to be written first. The artificer is supposed to get the feat for free AND without regard to actual access to spell slots of the level AND basically can emulate any spell he has conceivably heard of ? Let's take 3 levels in Artificer and stock up on the rest with rogue levels - far more effective, if no actual spell access is needed....And no, scrolls have no actual prequisite level necessary for their creation, normally they are limited with regard to this by the actual caster level.As for the limitation of the Artificer to create only such items as can be created with 6th level spells - what is the special relevance ? For one, how many items are there that require level 7 and higher spells in the first place ? And get created by PCs on anything like a regular base ? Also a bard, ranger or paladin, along with many multi-classed chracters face the same problem, and hence, cannot create such items either. But that doesn't mean - because there is not a single line of rules that say so - that the artificer doesn't have to expend a spell slot/infusion (per day of creation) to do so. If he were exempt, don't you think they would have mentioned it specificially ?Besides, like every other item creator he can fall back onto supplying the needed high level magic through access by another caster, or even through an item (DMG p. 283 ), like a "ring of three wishes", or a spell cast into an item of spell-storing. Because, he is not exempt from that option by the rules either.</blockquote>

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