For all that D&D 5th Edition isn’t my game of choice, I have to give credit where credit is due: its designers were quite earnest in looking to the whole of the game’s history for inspiration.
Nowhere is that more true than in 5E’s reintroduction of protection scrolls.
Last seen in AD&D 2nd Edition, protection scrolls (also called scrolls of protection) are the lesser-known cousins of spell scrolls. Whereas the latter have inscribed spells that are just waiting for a spellcaster to unleash them (though certain non-spellcasters can also make use of them), protection scrolls are able to be used by anyone. As their name suggests, they’re entirely defensive in nature, serving to safeguard the user against certain types of monsters, damage, or harmful situations.
Being scroll-specific, but not fitting in with the basic spell-in-a-can formula that scrolls otherwise used, it’s perhaps no great surprise that protection scrolls were dropped when D&D 3rd Edition came out, particularly since it was easy to scribe a defensive spell down and call it close enough. 4th Edition likewise had no use for them (though a ritual scroll for a protective spell effect was vaguely evocative of the same idea). And so that particular brand of magic items were ignored until 5E brought them back.
But what if we wanted to have protection scrolls in a d20 System game? What would they look like? What follows is my take on those questions.
d20 Protection Scrolls
The characteristics of a protection scroll are that they’re single-use items, that anyone can use them, and that they ward the user against (as noted above) some sort of damage, monster, or other hazard.
Fulfilling the first characteristic is fairly simple; the d20 System is full of single-use items, ranging from potions to feather tokens to ordinary spell scrolls. Likewise, the game has a vast array of defensive spells and abilities that can be made use of. It’s that second component, that anyone can activate them, which sets protection scrolls apart from spell scrolls. As written, the Scribe Scroll feat only allows for the latter, and their nature as spell completion magic items (which sets the conditions as to who can activate them) are an issue.
The resolution, therefore, is to simply say that protection scrolls aren’t actually scrolls (i.e. magic items made via the Scribe Scroll feat) at all: they’re wondrous items, albeit in scroll form.
If that seems like a rather convenient leap in logic, consider that there are already several other categories of magic items that are textual in nature and are wondrous items. These include blessed books, golem manuals, and various stat-boosting manuals and tomes. So we’re simply adding protection scrolls to that group.
And with that, most of the pieces fall into place…emphasis on “most of.” Since we don’t need to reinvent the wheel where protective effects are concerned, these are going to be a category of single-use spell effects. To that end, looking at the rules for estimating magic item gold piece values tells us that a single use, use-activated magic item has a formula of spell level x caster level x 50 gp.
Here’s where we’re going to start making a few changes. First, we’re going to tweak the cost modifier to spell level x caster level x 35 gp, and have the activation method be a command word. The command word reflects that, as scrolls, these need to be read out loud to take effects, and so can’t be activated in an area of magical silence, will alert anyone nearby who can hear you speaking (albeit possibly requiring a Listen/Perception check), etc.
A secondary restriction that justifies this lower price is that protection scrolls can only be used in conjunction with spells of the abjuration school. At the GM’s discretion, certain spells of this school are incompatible with protection scrolls (see below).
Safety First
Given the multiplicity of spells in the d20 System, and how arbitrarily some of them can be assigned to various spell schools, it’s possible that limiting protection scrolls to abjuration effects only might not be narrow enough. While protection scrolls are still more expensive than other types of scrolls, they’re markedly less expensive than potions, and have no corresponding cap on the level of the spells that can be used.
To that end, consider imposing the following additional restrictions. These necessarily require some GM discretion, since the d20 game rules don’t systematize what constitutes a defensive effects versus other kinds of powers, but shouldn’t be unduly difficult to adjudicate:
- Protection scrolls cannot be used to attack creatures (including inflict hit point damage, ability damage or drain, or other “debuff” status effects such as confusion, paralysis, negative levels, etc.).
- Protection scrolls cannot restore hit points, negative levels, ability damage or drain, etc.
- Protection scrolls cannot be used to create or summon, or banish or dismiss, any creature or thing.
- Protection scrolls cannot use movement/transportation effects (i.e. avoiding is different than protecting).
- Protection scrolls keep characters from harm, rather than suppressing an enemy’s ability to act (e.g. antimagic field is thematically incompatible with how protection scrolls are supposed to function).
- Protection scrolls serve to defeat incoming damage/conditions rather than overcome them (e.g. they don’t add to Armor Class or saving throws, but would instead grant damage reduction or energy resistance), though spells with multiple effects such as protection from evil can serve as exceptions.
Taking these guidelines into account, here are some example protection scrolls.
SCROLL, PROTECTION FROM ELEMENTS
Aura faint abjuration; CL 3rd
Slot –; Price 210 gp; Weight —
DESCRIPTION
This scroll grants the reader the benefits of resist energy. The type of energy to be resisted is chosen when the scroll is activated.
CONSTRUCTION
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, resist energy; Cost 105 gp
SCROLL, PROTECTION FROM MINOR MAGIC
Aura moderate abjuration; CL 7th
Slot –; Price 980 gp; Weight –
DESCRIPTION
This scroll grants the reader the benefits of lesser globe of invulnerability.
CONSTRUCTION
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, antimagic field; Cost 490 gp
SCROLL, PROTECTION FROM PARALYSIS
Aura moderate abjuration; CL 7th
Slot –; Price 980 gp; Weight –
DESCRIPTION
This scroll grants the reader the benefits of freedom of movement.
CONSTRUCTION
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, freedom of movement; Cost 490 gp
SCROLL, PROTECTION FROM SCRYING
Aura faint abjuration; CL 5th
Slot –; Price 575 gp; Weight —
DESCRIPTION
This scroll grants the reader the benefits of nondetection.
CONSTRUCTION
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, nondetection; Cost 312 gp
SCROLL, PROTECTION FROM VERMIN
Aura moderate abjuration; CL 7th
Slot –; Price 980 gp; Weight –
DESCRIPTION
This scroll grants the reader the benefits of repulse vermin.
CONSTRUCTION
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, repulse vermin; Cost 490 gp
REPULSE [CREATURE TYPE]
School abjuration; Level cleric 5, sorcerer/wizard 4
Components V, S, F/DF (a pair of feline statuettes worth 10 gp)
Range 10 ft.
Area 10-ft.-radius spherical emanation, centered on you
This spell functions like repulsion, except as listed above, and only affects a single creature type as per a ranger’s favored enemy (e.g. evil outsiders, humanoids of a specific subtype, etc.); at the GM’s option, other groups of creatures may be designated (e.g. lycanthropes).
Each creature type counts as a different version of this spell; repulse dragons and repulse elves, for example, are two separate spells that must be scribed separately into a spellbook, count as two spells known, etc.
The takeaway here is that protection scrolls have a narrower range of effects than what standard spells scrolls or potions allow for, but are cheaper and can have higher-level spells than the latter while not requiring spellcasting or ranks in Use Magic Device the way the former would. Judicious use of protection scrolls can help safeguard your PCs from the dangers of your campaign world…or help safeguard your campaign world from them!
Intelligence Check 