Use Magic Device provides something for nothing

[cmanos]

I fthe door were just a magic item that req'd a Dwarven Cleric or Paladin to open, two UMD's would do it, one to emulate dwarf and one to emulate cleric/paladin. Requiring the PC to expend a turn attempt, muddles things a bit. The rogue cal anulate the ability to turn undead but does that emulation give him the ability to turn undead? No. It is clearly stated under the Emulate Class Ability paragraph.

This skill does not let you actually use the class feature of another class.

Activate Blindly muddles things a bit and I may allow that.

Best bet is to do rent yourself a dwarven cleric for a couple hundred gold.

 

[Vraille Darkfang]

A door is not a magical item that the rogue possesses. He cannot use UMD on it at all.

Ummm. The door is in front of him. He sort of DOES possess it. Unless you want to say he has to Physically OWN it.

This would make it impossible to activate a Gate/Portal the party comes across, as the rogue doesn't POSSESS it. The guy who built it does.

What of a magical door that only allows gnomes to pass? No UMD roll to emulate a gnome as he doesn't POSSESS the door?

If the rogue grapples with a wizard & graps a wand upon the wizard, can he UMD on it? IF both are holding on to it, who has possession. One? Both? Niether? 50%? Dischage at half effect?

You'll want to make sure your players now how you define posession. Otherwise they might get ticked off when they realize they can only activate items the own.

No problem with it, just possession is a word with a lot of subtle connotations.

 

[Shadeus]

I would look at it this way. If the door was undead and it needed to be turned to shrink back to allow passage, then I would agree that UMD wouldn't work. If you just need to fake having an ability, like turning or the ability to invoke a flaming ball of fire, then I'd say it would work.

The designers obviously think that is the way UMD is supposed to work because they put an example of exactly using a turn check. Apparently there is some debate because the rules aren't airtight enough to 100% support this example. But really, it takes more effort to write out the example.