Karen: I think you’re spot-on there. Does this infusion make the artificer/wizard combo more attractive? Yes. Does that break the game? Probably not. It’s not like it’s free.

Ashley: I can certainly see where you’re coming from, but I just want to point out one thing: a wizard can only make scrolls of spells he knows how to cast; that is, spells that are already in his spellbook. An artificer can make scrolls of any spell, period. If a wizard goes into a store to buy a scroll for a new spell, one he doesn’t know yet, is the assumption that it was created by another wizard, or by a sorcerer? I thought artificers were the ones that created all the magic items.

Thanks very much for your comments; they are always appreciated.

Brian

If most people making magic items are artificers, and most people using them are bards, rogues, adventuring artificers and maybe sorcerers, then why doesn’t this make sense? I mean, Wizards can make their own scrolls. They get that feat at first level. So wizards buy Wizard scrolls – I mean, who else would understand their arcane scribbles anyway?

As for clerics – what cleric buys scrolls from a shop? They get them from the church of their god. Cause… does it even make sense that a cleric could cast a divine scroll of another god? Wouldn’t a Soverign Host cleric have trouble casting a scroll with Silver Flame scripture all over it? Or Blood of Vol undead loony ramblings? Anyway, point is, a cleric is probably going to buy scrolls created by clerics of their church. The same goes for druids… and tree bark or whatever druids make scrolls on.

So that leaves artificers, bards, rogues, and sorcerers using the scrolls that are typically for sale. And everyone but the sorcerers is used to using Use Magic Device skill to cast off of scrolls anyway. All four classes have a high charisma score, or should if they want to be using one-shot magic items. So it shouldn’t be a problem for any of them to use artificer scrolls with use magic device checks.

Now, maybe I’d house rule that artificer scrolls are easier to use with the use magic device skill than normal scrolls, cause that’s how they’re meant to be used in the first place. But otherwise, it should work fine. And makes sense because the people good at using scrolls this way are the people most likely to buy scrolls from artificers.

So, from a comerce point of view, it all makes perfect sense.

And anyway, that only increases the spells in the Wizard’s spell book (which is insanely low in the first place – I never play a Wizard without that “Academy Wizard” feat that doubles his free spellbook spells per level). It doesn’t give the Wizard any additional spells per day (unless he uses the scrolls that way rather than adding them to his book). All it does is increase the Wizard’s versatility… which is supposed to be the point of the class. If a Wizard can’t be versatile, the player might as well be a Sorcerer and have the increased spells per day. And, sure, sometimes it’s nice to make the Wizard work for a really interesting spell… but only once in a while, otherwise it gets old really fast. The more mundane stuff should be easier to get.

So yeah, I think that the “artificer wizard power game” rationalle for that rule is innane. It pointlessly punishes spellcasters and makes no economical sense.

And really, if you still see a problem, take into account the fact that this infusion 1.) uses up an infusion slot, 2.) takes an hour to cast (or an action point), and 3.) includes a costly material component equal to 10 x caster level x spell level.