Scribe Scroll questions: DC 5 or 10 + level, and why the failure chance?

[Noumenon]

First off, why does Magic Item Creation say "The DC to create a magic item is 5 + the caster level for the item" and Item Creation Feats say "Successfully creating a magic item requires a Spellcraft check with a DC equal to 10 + the item's caster level"?

If the second is true, why did they add a 15% failure chance to a 1st level wizard scribing a 1st level scroll? Is that supposed to make up for not having to spend XP? (Edit: it's not really a "failure chance," but they set the DC high enough that a trained caster has that chance to fail.)

 

[undeaddan]

Jason Buhlman has said that he believes that CL+5 is the correct DC.

Where are you seeing the 15% failure chance for scribing? I cannot find it.

 

[Noumenon]

15% is derived from a DC of 10 + 1 for a first level scroll, and a Spellcraft check of +7 from being trained and a 16 ability score. I guess it would be even worse for clerics.

So I appreciate the quick answer, but I don't really know who Jason Buhlman is... it would be nice if they put the answer in their rulebook so you could figure it out without asking on a forum.

 

[undeaddan]

Jason Buhlman wrote the Pathfinder RPG Core Book and is currently the Lead Developer for the PFRPG. I'd expect to see this in a future errata update.

 

[IronWolf]

undeaddan covered who Jason Bulmahn is, but here is the post where he states the interpretation of the rule:

List of Errata in Pathfinder Core Rulebook

Also, the link in the Item Creation page you linked to from the d20pfsrd also has a subnote that links to the errata that notes the question about this difference in the rules.

As undeaddan said, hopefully this gets put in the next errata update, though it has been hanging around out there for awhile now.

 

[Ahnehnois]

Is that supposed to make up for not having to spend XP?

Yes.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

15% is derived from a DC of 10 + 1 for a first level scroll, and a Spellcraft check of +7 from being trained and a 16 ability score. I guess it would be even worse for clerics.

Take. 10.

 

[Noumenon]

Also, the link in the Item Creation page you linked to from the d20pfsrd also has a subnote that links to the errata that notes the question about this difference in the rules.

Your forum link is helpful and authoritative, but the subnote link didn't help me because it links to h ttp://www.d20pfsrd.com/extras/pathfinder-faq#TOC-Magic-Item-Crafting and the actual anchor should be h ttp://www.d20pfsrd.com/extras/pathfinder-faq#TOC-Magic-Item-Crafting-5-5-10- (their autogenerator is incorporating the date). So I just ended up at the top of the page, searched for "scribe scroll," got zero hits, and came here to bother you guys instead.

 

[Noumenon]

Yes.

The Spellcraft check is not going to do a very good job of making up for not having to spend XP if the DC is 5 + caster level and you can take 10. That means a caster with Int 10 and 1 rank in Spellcraft can create up to a 9th-caster-level item with no chance of failure. What's the point?

 

[undeaddan]

Actually since a character with a 10 Int can only case 0 Level spells, his failure rate for scribing scrolls of anything other than 0 Level spells is 100%.