Of course, the main tool in the hand of a spellcaster crafting scrolls is his pen. Ranging from a benign pigeon feather roughly cut into a writing implement to a powerfully enchanted and ancient artifact, the crafter's pen largely determine whether a scroll will be successfully infused with magical energy or ressemble a toddler's first art project. Below, are some guidelines to help you determine the DC modifier of your quill. The art of fabricating such piece of equipment is reserved for the most patient and meticulous minds as it needs to be made with extreme precision.

Fine inks are required to craft the most powerful scrolls. The durability and viscosity may limit the amount of details that can be drawn on the scroll which, in turn, increases the likelyhood that either a mishap happens upon unleashing the energy contained in the scroll or the crafting fails altogether. These inks are a luxury for the common man and somewhat hard to come across. They are typically sold in small bottles containing just enough ink to write 1d4 + 5 pages.

Parchements are characterized by two defining features which determine how easy it is to write details on it and how powerful a scroll can be, namely the finish and strength of the pages. The base price for a plain, unstable parchment page is 1gp. In the tables below, you will find price multipliers which determine how much each type costs.

The main ingredients required for crafting scrolls, aside of course from the ability to cast spells, are parchments, some ink and a quill. The writing of a magical scroll being a tedious and meticulous task since one has to reproduce the fine calligraphic details of the arcane language and symbols, the quality of the tools used in the process directly influences the amount of power that can be stored in the scroll and the likelyhood that everything will work as planned.

Writing scrolls, for most adventuring wizard, constitutes an important ressource management strategy. Indeed, a spellcaster may wish to cast a spell now and store its power in a magical scroll that it can release at a later time without expending a spell slot.

Crafting

When a wizard writes a new spell in a grimoire, he does so while experimenting, scribbling away, scratching and doodling in the margins, in a way that only he can understand quickly. This process requires 1 hour and 1 page per spell level. When he writes a scroll however, not only does it has to be meticulous and precise such that the magical energy will be properly stored in it, but it is also required that he be able to decipher his own writing in the thick of combat, wielding combat staff in on hand and unleashing the magical energy from the other, in a timely fashion. Therefore, it is usually the case that, unlike for grimoires, magical scrolls can be read and used by anyone with spellcasting abilities. It also implies that the spell needs to be written in compact form and usually fits on a single page. Also, although the writing must be assiduous, the spellcaster necessarily already knows the spell and does not have to experiment with it as when he is writting in his own grimoire. Therefore, he only requires 30 minutes per spell level to craft a magical scroll added to the standard casting time of the spell in question.

Arcana Check

When a spellcaster writes a scroll, he does so while casting the various components and parts of the spell in a way which enables said spell to be contained in the scroll, ready to be unleashed. He or she must succeed an arcana check in order to produce a magical scroll. This check includes not only the action of storing the magical energy in the parchment, but also the ability of the caster to successfully reproduce all of the writing, the magical symbols and the general format which must be respected while crafting such items in order for anyone to be able to read it and unleash the spell successfully. The DC associated with this check depends on the spell level that is being casted and the parchement, ink and quill quality. The general formula is:

DC=10 + Spell level + parchment + ink + quill

Critical Failure

If the check fails by 6 or less, the scroll remains usuable although there is a higher risk of critically failing the spellcasting upon trying to use the scroll. In this case, the spellcaster rolls a d20 and, depending on the degree of failure, the critical failure range goes from 1 to 10 as listed below.

Crafting Failure Scroll Critical Failure (d20) 6 fumbled 1-10 5 butchere 1-8 4 damaged 1-6 3 spoiled 1-4 2 tarnished 1-2 1 stained 1

In the case of critical failure upon reading the scroll, the spell fails and a magical mishap occurs and the wielder must roll on the wild magical surge table (PHB p.103).

When the crafting is failed by 1, thus producing a stained scroll, however, the caster may try to repair his error by rolling again with disadvantage. On a sucess, the scroll is restored. On a failure, the scroll becomes tarnished.

Critical Success

If the crafter rolls a natural 20 while performing the arcana check, when he or she uses the scroll, if applicable, the spell automatically becomes a critical success.

Casting

To unleash the magical energy stored in a scroll, the spellcaster must use a free interaction to pull the scroll out of its scroll case and another to read and activate it. If there are more than one scroll inside the scroll case, however, it may take much longer for the spellcaster to find the one he's looking for. In this case, he rolls a dice with as many faces as there are scrolls in the case (round up) and this represents the number of rounds the spellcaster must spend before he finds the scroll he needs.

Example

Hoögaard Ingfredsson, a 5th level human necromancer, is going on a tomb raiding adventure and wishes to write a couple scrolls of the spell 'animate dead' so that he may have some undead minion of his own and have both his 3rd level spell slot available to fight his way in or out of the tomb. He buys some weak (3rd level spell - DC+3) coarse (DC+2) parchment for 10 gp per sheet, a bottle of viscous (DC+2) ink for 10 gp and plucks a feather from a pigeon that he carves himself into a pen (DC+3). In order to sucessfully write a scroll of animate dead with such ressources, he must spend 91 minutes writing 1 page containing the arcane texts and symbols while casting the spell 'animate dead' and succeed on a DC 10 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 3 = 20 arcana check. The first time, he rolls a 14 and, with his +7 arcana modifier, succeeds into writing a scroll of Animate Dead which he packs away. The second time around, however, he rolls an 10 which then turns into a 17. This means he failed the check by 3 and so produces a spoiled scroll of Animate Dead. When he tries to use that scroll later, he will therefore have to roll a d20 and, on a result of 1-4, critically fail to cast the spell which then turns into a wild magical surge.