Spell Scrolls 5e
Scroll, rarity varies
A spell scroll bears the words of a single spell, written in a mystical cipher. If the spell is on your class’s spell list, you can read the scroll and cast its spell without providing any material components. Otherwise, the scroll is unintelligible. Casting the spell by reading the scroll requires the spell’s normal casting time. Once the spell is cast, the words on the scroll fade, and it crumbles to dust. If the casting is interrupted, the scroll is not lost.
If the spell is on your class's spell list but of a higher level than you can normally cast, you must make an ability check using your spellcasting ability to determine whether you cast it successfully. The DC equals 10 + the spell's level. On a failed check, the spell disappears from the scroll with no other effect.
Once the spell is cast, the words on the scroll fade, and the scroll itself crumbles to dust.
The level of the spell on the scroll determines the spell's saving throw DC and attack bonus, as well as the scroll's rarity, as shown in the Spell Scroll table.
Spell Scroll
| Spell Level | Rarity | Save DC | Attack Bonus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cantrip | Common | 13 | +5 |
| 1st | Common | 13 | +5 |
| 2nd | Uncommon | 13 | +5 |
| 3rd | Uncommon | 15 | +7 |
| 4th | Rare | 15 | +7 |
| 5th | Rare | 17 | +9 |
| 6th | Very Rare | 17 | +9 |
| 7th | Very Rare | 18 | +10 |
| 8th | Very Rare | 18 | +10 |
| 9th | Legendary | 19 | +11 |
A wizard spell on a spell scroll can be copied just as spells in spellbooks can be copied. When a spell is copied from a spell scroll, the copier must succeed on an Intelligence (Arcana) check with a DC equal to 10 + the spell's level. If the check succeeds, the spell is successfully copied. Whether the check succeeds or fails, the spell scroll is destroyed.
Commentary by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold
Spell Scrolls are ways to get access to all kinds of various magical spells in the form of an item, and are great ways for DMs to get specific, niche effects in the party’s hands without asking specific players to learn or prepare them.
There are some interesting rules around them that can be helpful to clarify ahead of using them!
Characters can typically only read and cast spells if the scroll’s spell appears on their class’s spell list.
Multi-class characters with multiple spell lists, then, can read and use a wider variety of spell scrolls!
If a spell scroll is for a spell level higher than you have access to, you make an ability check with no skill proficiencies with a DC equal to 10 + the spell’s level, casting it successfully on a success, and watching the scroll vanish and failing to cast it on a failed check.
Scrolls have their own spell save DC and attack bonus; when you cast a spell from a scroll, you use their save DC and attack bonus in place of yours and is determined by the level of the spell being cast.
Wizards can copy spells from spell scrolls by making an Intelligence (Arcana) check with a DC of 10 + the spell’s level, adding the spell to their book on a success. On either a success or failure, the scroll is destroyed.
The Scroll Mishaps variant adds some consequences to failing an ability check made to cast a spell with a spell scroll, and ranges from 1d6 damage to the caster per spell level to the DM improvising consequences based on the spell’s typical effects.
Spell Scrolls’ rarity is tied to their spell level, with higher level spell scrolls being of higher rarity, and ending with 9th level spell scrolls being legendary, putting them on the tier just below artifacts.
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