Protection from Magic scroll

[Andrea C.]

I have to disagree.

All green "Protection From" scrolls can be used on any target; this is not a prerogative of the Protection From Magic Scroll (had it been, it would have been a clear nudge toward using it on enemy casters.)

However, Protection From Magic is the only scroll that also prevents the target from using what it protects from—a very clearly deliberate design decision. Without this balancing act, the scroll would have been too powerful: a 2-hour long immunity to all spells at no drawbacks. Compare to the Potion of Magic Blocking, which only grants immunity up to 5th-level spells for a measly 5 rounds, or a Potion of Magic Protection, which for the same duration of 2 hours only grants 50% magic resistance.

The lore-friendly, non-arbitrary way this balancing act is achieved is by making the Protection From Magic scroll create an anti-magic field around the target. This is from the item's description; not making anything up. It is also consistent with the fact that not only does it make the target immune to magic, it also dispels all present magic effects (including from potions) and bestows 100% spell casting failure chance.

So yes, I agree "Scroll of Magic Suppression" would have been a more accurate name—but also one that is inconsistent with the nomenclature for the green scrolls, all of which are Protection From something. Had it been called "Scroll of Magic Suppression", the instinctive thing to do would have been to use it on enemy casters; who wants magic suppressed on their own characters? That would qualify as doing what the scroll does, as you say.

However because it is a "Protection From" scroll, the instinctive thing to do is to use it on your own characters. To use it on enemy casters to exploit the spell casting failure chance speaks to the player's thinking outside the box rather than to BioWare's sloppy design (and, as mentioned, this scroll was coded the way it very deliberately rather than out of sloppy design.)

Edited June 22, 2021 by Andrea C.

[Salk]

My guess is that the original developer's idea with the whole bunch of "green scrolls" (except the cursed ones... ) was to give a protective item for the player's party, and not something to use outside of it. In the case of the Protection from Magic scroll, Bioware may have wanted to introduce some drawback for arcane and divine casters in order to not make the scroll too powerful.

Edited June 22, 2021 by Salk

[subtledoctor]

It’s no more or less than a souped-up version of the classic spell “Antimagic Shell.” Except, for no good reason, it fails to apply any of the usual balancing mechanisms that you usually see in D&D, like saving throws. This latter part is what makes it “cheap.” Not the end of the world... but I’m here to play computer D&D, so I prefer the stuff in the game hew to the D&D system. Frankly none of the green scrolls should really exist. 

11 hours ago, Andrea C. said:

To use it on enemy casters to exploit the spell casting failure chance speaks to the player's thinking outside the box rather than to BioWare's sloppy design (and, as mentioned, this scroll was coded the way it very deliberately

My point is, if it was indeed coded deliberately for that use, than it does not require any “outside-the-box” thinking to use it that way. Such use is very much inside the box. 

[DavidW]

It's not intentional behavior for SCS to let wizards/priests cast through the Pro/Magic scroll. (I think it's a bit of an exploit to use it that way but I don't block exploits.) I suspect there is a bug here.