D&D 5E Learning from Spell Scrolls

[Kryx]

I was under the impression that a Wizard could learn from a spell scroll by simply paying the 50 gold per spell level as defined on page 114 of the PH.

Copying a Spell into the Book. When you find a wizard spell of 1st level or higher, you can add it to your spellbook if it is of a level for which you have spell slots and if you can spare the time to decipher and copy it.
Copying a spell into your spellbook involves reproducing the basic form of the spell, then deciphering the unique system of notation used by the wizard who wrote it. You must practice the spell until you understand the sounds or gestures required, then transcribe it into your spellbook using your own notation.
For each level of the spell, the process takes 2 hours and costs 50 gp. The cost represents material components you expend as you experiment with the spell to master it, as well as the fine inks you need to record it. Once you have spent this time and money, you can prepare the spell just like your other spells.

However I then Read the DMG

A wizard spell on a spell scroll can be copied just as spells in spellbooks can be copied just as spells in spellbooks can be copied. When a spell is copied from a spell scroll, the copier must succeed on an Intelligence (Arcana) check with a DC equal to 10 + the spell's level. If the check succeeds, the spell is successfully copied. Whether the check succeeds or fails, the spell scroll is destroyed.

Does this mean that spells from spellbooks succeed always, but spells from scrolls have a chance to fail?
If so should NPCs charge more for Wizards to read their spellbooks instead of a scroll?


What about for Ritual Caster? Learning from scrolls for that and Book of Ancient Secrets Warlocks should be the same, right?

 

[Staffan]

Sounds right to me. It's like being served a meal at a restaurant, and getting the recipe for that meal. If you have the recipe (spellbook), you won't have any problem figuring out how to make the meal yourself, but if all you have to go on is the actual meal you have to study it to figure out how it was made, and you might not succeed.

 

[CapnZapp]

AND you have to eat the meal (the scroll is destroyed)

 

[Staffan]

AND you have to eat the meal (the scroll is destroyed)

I think my metaphor works better if you have to take apart and analyze the meal instead of eating it. After all, you can either cast the spell from the scroll (eating the meal, using it as it was intended) or scribe it (analyzing it).

 

[g0gmag0g]

It's a good question because the PH and the DMG do appear to give different rulings. In the PH - immediately before the section quoted in the original post - it says, "You could discover a spell recorded on a scroll in an evil wizard's chest..." as an example of when you might find a new spell.

It's not covered in the recently released errata either, even though there are two other clarifications to the spellbook rules on PH p.114. Not that that necessarily means the PH is correct and the DMG magic item listing is wrong, of course.

TBH, I like the suggested meal vs recipe analogy which makes sense: the additional detail (plus scribbled notes, corrections, etc) you'd probably find in a spellbook would make it a more reliable source than a scroll version. Maybe it'll show up in PH Errata v1.2 ...