UMD, scrolls and low caster level

[jasin]

Is it possible to use UMD to emulate a lower level caster and cast a higher level scroll with an additional check?

Say you have a CL 7th scroll, and your UMD check is 26 (instead of the required 27). Could you cast the spell like a 6th-level caster would, requiring a caster level check vs. DC 8?

This occured to me when I noticed that use a wand (DC 20) and use a scroll (DC 20 + caster level) could both be argued to be special cases of emulate class feature (DC 20, effective level = check result - 20): to use a wand you need to emulate having the spell on your list, but caster level is irrelevant, so it's only 20; to use a scroll without additional hassles, caster level needs to at least match the scroll's caster level.

So perhaps it wouldn't be unreasonable to say that if you successfully emulate a caster that would have to check to use the scroll (rather than just activating it), you can check too, instead of just failing outright?

 

[Christian]

I was about to write that that's how it does work. Then I checked the text ... I'd sworn I'd read rules exactly like that somewhere, and even in one of the core rulebooks, but it took me a bit to figure out where it was.

In the Use Magic Device skill description in the 3.0 PH.

Given that they clearly intentionally removed that part of the description of using scrolls in the revision, I'd have to say that it does not work that way in v. 3.5. I don't know why this was done--maybe too much dice rolling. For your rogue to cast a spell from a scroll, he'd have to decipher it, activate it, and then possibly make a caster level check ...

 

[BlackSeed_Vash]

the UMD rules where moved to the DMG with the scroll in the magic section

 

[Christian]

Page? I don't see it in mine ...

 

[Hypersmurf]

Is it possible to use UMD to emulate a lower level caster and cast a higher level scroll with an additional check?

Say you have a CL 7th scroll, and your UMD check is 26 (instead of the required 27). Could you cast the spell like a 6th-level caster would, requiring a caster level check vs. DC 8?

As written, no. To Use a Scroll with UMD, "The DC is equal to 20 + the caster level of the spell you are trying to cast from the scroll." If you roll a 26, you have failed to meet the DC of the skill check, and nothing happens. You don't activate the scroll with a caster level of 6; rather, you fail to do anything.

Unless you roll a 1, in which case you fail with additional consequences.

-Hyp.

 

[Doug Sundseth]

Don't forget that you also need a casting stat high enough to use the spell or else you also need to "Emulate an Ability Score". It's not completely clear from the description of the skill whether you need to "Emulate a Class Feature" to emulate the appropriate caster level or take a failure chance for casting from a scroll when below the required level.