Reading under moon/star light?

[Quasqueton]

Can you read a scroll in shadowy illumination? I allowed the party mage to read a scroll at night under moon & star light [20% miss chance], but I'm thinking that should not have been possible.

Is there a rule on this? If not, what would you suggest?

Quasqueton

 

[Henrix]

I'd say no, but there's nothing in the rules that I can recall.

 

[Liquidsabre]

Hmm, I don't see anything about a caster needing to 'read' a scroll in order to activate it. You'd need to read the scroll if you didn't already know what the spell was but as long as the caster already knows what spell is on the scroll they have in-hand all they have to do is complete the spell with final gestures, words, etc. Though a blind caster would suffer a chance for the spell to fail but being in shadowy illumination this isn't the case.

Sounds like it'd work fine.

 

[vulcan_idic]

Sorry Triple Post

 

[vulcan_idic]

Sorry Triple post

 

[vulcan_idic]

In general I would say not unless they had low light vision or better.

 

[IronWolf]

Hmm, I don't see anything about a caster needing to 'read' a scroll in order to activate it...

From the SRD it says you do have to read from the scroll to activate it. From the 'Activate the Spell Section':

"Activating a scroll requires reading the spell from the scroll. The character must be able to see and read the writing on the scroll. "

As to the original question, the low-light section from the SRD lists this as a feature:

"A spellcaster with low-light vision can read a scroll as long as even the tiniest candle flame is next to her as a source of light."

Based on that I would say as some of the others have, only a mage with low-light vision could read a scroll in shadowy illumination.