What are you actually doing while you make a spell scroll

craftingdnd-5emagic-itemsspells

I am newish to D&D and I have been wondering about how spell scrolls are created.

I know how to make a spell scroll mechanically, but I want to know what my character would actually be doing during the time that they are crafting the item.

Best Answer

The DMG describes scrolls on page 139:

Whatever its contents, a scroll is a roll of paper, some­ times attached to wooden rods, and typically kept safe in a tube of ivory, jade, leather, metal, or wood.

A spell scroll bears the words of a single spell, written in a mystical cipher.

Spell scrolls are created by crafting a magic item like other magic items, as described on page 129 of the DMG. The crafting rules are abstract and leave the specific procedure to the DM.

The description of the scroll would indicate that as part of the process to create it, you need to write words onto the scroll in a mystical cipher.

Encoding using a cipher usually includes supporting aids, such as counting trackers, code books, or diagrams. It would not be out of place to envision the entire scribe's desk cluttered with such ancillary materials (suggested by GcL).

You could also include additional activities and rituals to prepare and infuse the paper of the scroll magically so it will be able to hold the spell. None of this is official rules however.

Xanathar's Guide to Everything provides alternative, optional rules to scribe scrolls on page 133. Xanathar is describing the process as scribing a scroll, which again would indicate that the process of creation consists of writing on it.

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