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Message: <blockquote data-quote="HighlandsBear" data-source="post: 1378146" data-attributes="member: 12406">I can't believe people are worried about this. Frankly, it really isn't even that good a skill for bards and rogues unless you have a lot of money in your campaign, and easy scroll and wand access. The offensive spells are all low DC, most likely of a lower level than what a caster in your party will have, and again it gets expensive. It might be seen as a cost saver for utility spells like fly or cure light wnds that you might need to use a potion for without UMD, but is it really worth the skill cost and feats in this case? Consider the 10th lvl bard given in the above example. Bards are feat poor and really need them to make halfway decent fighters or spellcasters, and yet this bard has spent a fifth of his feats (assuming human here) and 2 out of his 7+int skills to gain this power. For this he gets half price and a third price comparing what potions cost to what scroll and wands cost. And this is totally at the mercy of what the DM allows to be found or purchased. Compare to a real spellcaster getting an item creation feat that drops prices by half and is less DM limited. The UMD user does also get access to a few spells not on the potion list and even more that are 4th lvl+. But this is getting back to the expense problem - that exponential cost is killer. A 5th lvl scroll costs 1125 gp and looking at the DMG a 10th lvl character is expected to spend 2329 gp on expenses over 13 encounters while getting to 11th lvl. So, 3 uses of an up to your level scroll during 4 adventures, not counting any  necessary uses of disposable magic you normally would have, and you're already cutting into what's expected to go into your permanent magic equipment. This is from the wealth comparison table in ch 3 btw, and I'm just using it as a form of argument since I doubt anyone adheres to it rigidly, but basically, even with the ability at 100% effectiveness you should be more than balanced by cost.</blockquote>

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