Starfox
Hero
I like magic to be ritualized; for casters to be able to prepare their magic ahead of time and be able to achieve effects they could never do with instantaneous casting. For 3.5. I did a feat for this, but I never liked the result - it ended up being endlessly complicated. I thought about how to do this in pathfinder, and realized it is already there in the rules for magic item creation, most specifically the Scribe Scroll feat.
By the rules for magic item creation in Pathfinder, the only absolute requirement to write a scroll is the Scribe Scroll feat. Actually knowing the spell, or having sufficient caster level to cast the spell, is not required* - it only makes the difficulty lower. This means that when a 1st wizard wants to cast say remove curse, a 4th level spell, he can do so by scribing a scroll. This scroll will be costly and hard to create, and using the scroll is also failure-prone and even dangerous, but it is possible with the expenditure of time and money. Any spell on the wizard's spell list can be made into a scroll this way.
* This is not strictly true when I check the rules, read the final paragraph.
Some classes are better at this than others thanks to the Use Magic Device skill. This skill lets you use scrolls of spells outside your own class. And writing a scroll of a spell outside your own class is no harder than writing a spell of your own class that is too high level for you. It is risky, but possible. There is an additional complication to using the scroll with Use Magic Device, but again it is possible.
Sorcerers, bards, and magi are very good at this. They all have Use Magic Device as a class skill, and with Charisma powering both their normal spellcasting and the UMD skill, there is a nice synergy. Bards and Magi have full caster level, meaning a 11th level magus has sufficient level to cast a level 6 wizard spell - it is not on his spell list, but the caster level prerequisite is met. And with Use Magic Device, even divine scrolls can be written and read.
When I first noticed you could use Scribe Scroll in this manner, I thought it was abusive. But then I realized it fits very well with my idea of how ritual magic should work - it is risky, costly, takes time, and you can have assistants provide certain prerequisites. I think it is a feature, not a bug.
Reading the create magic items rules again, I find this is not strictly allowed. They say "In addition, you cannot create potions, spell-trigger, or spell-completion magic items without meeting its prerequisites." This means that you cannot write a scroll of a spell you don't know. I must admit my article above was written without taking that into consideration, and it is a rule I might ignore IMC because I like the idea of ritual magic.
By the rules for magic item creation in Pathfinder, the only absolute requirement to write a scroll is the Scribe Scroll feat. Actually knowing the spell, or having sufficient caster level to cast the spell, is not required* - it only makes the difficulty lower. This means that when a 1st wizard wants to cast say remove curse, a 4th level spell, he can do so by scribing a scroll. This scroll will be costly and hard to create, and using the scroll is also failure-prone and even dangerous, but it is possible with the expenditure of time and money. Any spell on the wizard's spell list can be made into a scroll this way.
* This is not strictly true when I check the rules, read the final paragraph.
Some classes are better at this than others thanks to the Use Magic Device skill. This skill lets you use scrolls of spells outside your own class. And writing a scroll of a spell outside your own class is no harder than writing a spell of your own class that is too high level for you. It is risky, but possible. There is an additional complication to using the scroll with Use Magic Device, but again it is possible.
Sorcerers, bards, and magi are very good at this. They all have Use Magic Device as a class skill, and with Charisma powering both their normal spellcasting and the UMD skill, there is a nice synergy. Bards and Magi have full caster level, meaning a 11th level magus has sufficient level to cast a level 6 wizard spell - it is not on his spell list, but the caster level prerequisite is met. And with Use Magic Device, even divine scrolls can be written and read.
When I first noticed you could use Scribe Scroll in this manner, I thought it was abusive. But then I realized it fits very well with my idea of how ritual magic should work - it is risky, costly, takes time, and you can have assistants provide certain prerequisites. I think it is a feature, not a bug.
Reading the create magic items rules again, I find this is not strictly allowed. They say "In addition, you cannot create potions, spell-trigger, or spell-completion magic items without meeting its prerequisites." This means that you cannot write a scroll of a spell you don't know. I must admit my article above was written without taking that into consideration, and it is a rule I might ignore IMC because I like the idea of ritual magic.
