How Do Spell Scrolls Work in 5e?
You can cast from a Spell Scroll if its spell is on your class's spell list; if it's above the level you can cast, you first make a spellcasting ability check against DC 10 plus the spell's level. The chest holds three scrolls: one Shield, one Fireball, one Raise Dead. Your Wizard can use one for sure, one maybe, and one never. Here are the SRD 5.2.1 rules that decide which, quoted, and the odds of every roll in between.
Who can read a scroll
A Spell Scroll bears the words of a single spell, written in a mystical cipher. If the spell is on your spell list, you can read the scroll and cast its spell without Material components. Otherwise, the scroll is unintelligible.
"Your spell list" means your class's list. The Equipment chapter's version of the same item says so: "If the spell is on your class's spell list, you can read the scroll." A Wizard reads a Fireball scroll. A Cleric can't, because Fireball is a Sorcerer and Wizard spell. A Fighter with no spell list reads nothing.
Three more lines from the item:
- "Casting the spell by reading the scroll requires the spell's normal casting time." A 1-minute spell from a scroll still takes a minute.
- "Once the spell is cast, the scroll crumbles to dust." One use.
- "If the casting is interrupted, the scroll isn't lost."
No Material components, even costly ones
The scroll skips every Material component, priced or not. Revivify needs "a diamond worth 300+ GP, which the spell consumes." A Revivify scroll in a Cleric's hand needs no diamond at all. That makes a Revivify scroll the one item a party wants found on the table, not in a shop. Someone still paid for that diamond, though: see Scribing below.
A spell above your level
If the spell is on your spell list but of a higher level than you can normally cast, you make an ability check using your spellcasting ability to determine whether you cast the spell. The DC equals 10 plus the spell's level. On a failed check, the spell disappears from the scroll with no other effect.
It's an ability check with your spellcasting ability, and nothing in the item adds your Proficiency Bonus. A failed check wipes the spell, so the scroll is gone either way.
The chance to cast, by spellcasting modifier:
| Spell level | DC | Mod +3 | Mod +4 | Mod +5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 12 | 60% | 65% | 70% |
| 3 | 13 | 55% | 60% | 65% |
| 4 | 14 | 50% | 55% | 60% |
| 5 | 15 | 45% | 50% | 55% |
| 6 | 16 | 40% | 45% | 50% |
| 7 | 17 | 35% | 40% | 45% |
| 8 | 18 | 30% | 35% | 40% |
| 9 | 19 | 25% | 30% | 35% |
A level 1 Wizard with Intelligence 16 (+3) reads the Fireball scroll 55% of the time. That's a coin flip for a fight-ending spell four levels early. Bardic Inspiration adds its die to the check. Guidance doesn't: it adds 1d4 to "any ability check using the chosen skill," and this check uses no skill.
The scroll's own DC
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 following table.
| Spell level | Rarity | Save DC | Attack bonus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cantrip, 1 | Common | 13 | +5 |
| 2 | Uncommon | 13 | +5 |
| 3 | Uncommon | 15 | +7 |
| 4 | Rare | 15 | +7 |
| 5 | Rare | 17 | +9 |
| 6 | Very Rare | 17 | +9 |
| 7 | Very Rare | 18 | +10 |
| 8 | Very Rare | 18 | +10 |
| 9 | Legendary | 19 | +11 |
Your own DC doesn't apply to a found scroll. A level 5 Wizard with Intelligence 18 has DC 15 (8 + 3 + 4). A found Level 1 scroll of Sleep sits at DC 13, two points easier to resist than the Wizard's own casting. A found Fireball scroll sits at DC 15, the same. A Legendary scroll at DC 19 beats most casters' DC until high level.
Scribing your own
The Magic Items chapter lets a caster make scrolls:
To scribe a scroll, you must have proficiency in the Arcana skill or with Calligrapher's Supplies and have the spell prepared on each day of the inscription. You must also have at hand any Material components required by the spell; if the spell consumes its Material components, they are consumed only when you complete the scroll. The scroll's spell uses your spell save DC and spell attack bonus.
So a scribed scroll uses your DC, not the table's. A scribed cantrip "works as if the caster were your level." Because you must have the spell prepared, you only scribe spells you can already cast. The Revivify scroll that needs no diamond cost its scribe one diamond.
| Spell level | Time | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Cantrip | 1 day | 15 GP |
| 1 | 1 day | 25 GP |
| 2 | 3 days | 100 GP |
| 3 | 5 days | 150 GP |
| 4 | 10 days | 1,000 GP |
| 5 | 25 days | 1,500 GP |
| 6 | 40 days | 10,000 GP |
| 7 | 50 days | 12,500 GP |
| 8 | 60 days | 15,000 GP |
| 9 | 120 days | 50,000 GP |
Each day is 8 hours of work, and the days "needn't be consecutive." Levels 1 to 3 are cheap: a Shield scroll is one day and 25 GP. The cost jumps tenfold at levels 4 and 6.
What a scroll is worth
The value of a Spell Scroll is double what it costs to scribe the scroll.
That matches the shop list in Equipment: Spell Scroll (Cantrip) 30 GP, Spell Scroll (Level 1) 50 GP. A Fireball scroll is worth 300 GP, a level 9 scroll 100,000 GP. Scrolls are also the exception to the consumables rule: other consumable magic items are worth half their rarity's value, scrolls aren't.
Copying a scroll into a spellbook
The Wizard class says you "could discover a Wizard spell on a Spell Scroll, for example, and then copy it into your spellbook," at 2 hours and 50 GP per spell level, for a spell "of a level you can prepare." The scroll adds a check:
When a spell is copied in this way, the copier must succeed on an Intelligence (Arcana) check with a DC equal to 10 plus the spell's level. On a successful check, the spell is copied. Whether the check succeeds or fails, the Spell Scroll is destroyed.
This check names a skill, so Arcana proficiency counts, and so does Guidance with Arcana chosen. The chance to copy:
| Spell level | DC | Arcana +5 | Arcana +7 | Arcana +9 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 11 | 75% | 85% | 95% |
| 2 | 12 | 70% | 80% | 90% |
| 3 | 13 | 65% | 75% | 85% |
| 4 | 14 | 60% | 70% | 80% |
| 5 | 15 | 55% | 65% | 75% |
A level 5 Wizard with Intelligence 18 and Arcana proficiency has +7, so a Fireball scroll copies 75% of the time and costs 6 hours and 150 GP on top. One in four times, the scroll and the spell are both gone. Ask the table first: casting it in the next fight is the sure use.
The Thief who reads anything
At level 13 the Thief Rogue gains Use Magic Device. Its Scrolls benefit:
You can use any Spell Scroll, using Intelligence as your spellcasting ability for the spell. If the spell is a cantrip or a level 1 spell, you can cast it reliably. If the scroll contains a higher-level spell, you must first succeed on an Intelligence (Arcana) check (DC 10 plus the spell's level).
Any scroll, any class list. Here it's an Arcana check, so proficiency applies. Arcana isn't a Rogue class skill, but the Sage background gives it, and Expertise doubles it. A level 13 Thief with Intelligence 14 (+2) and Expertise in Arcana (+10) has +12: a Fireball scroll never fails, and a level 9 scroll of Wish needs a 7, 70%. On a failure, "the scroll disintegrates."
At the table
- Read the scroll's level and your class's list before the fight, not during it.
- A scroll above your level is a gamble that eats the scroll. Spend Bardic Inspiration on the check.
- Found scrolls use the table's DC. Scribed ones use yours.
- Scribe Shield, Healing Word or Feather Fall on a quiet day: 25 GP and one day each.
- Copying a Wizard spell burns the scroll on success or failure. Decide which you want before the roll.
The Book of Dice covers the d20 behind every ability check in Part III, The Rolling.
This work includes material from the System Reference Document 5.2.1 ("SRD 5.2.1") by Wizards of the Coast LLC, available at dndbeyond.com/srd. The SRD 5.2.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
