UMD question?

[Isadora]

The wiki describes UMD as the following

If you attempt to use a scroll, staff or wand with a spell that you cannot cast, you must make a successful Use Magic Device or Spellcraft check. The system will compare ranks in the two skills and use the highest of the two for your character. If you have at least 5 ranks in the lower skill, you will get a +2 synergy bonus for the check.

If you are a divine caster attempting to use an item with an arcane spell or an arcane caster trying to an item with a divine spell, one of the following things will happen:
-If you have rogue, bard or assassin levels and ranks in UMD, you will make a UMD check - not a spellcraft check.
-The attempt will fail.

I definitely have more UMD than spellcraft, but when I tried to use a level 3 scroll it rolled a Spellcraft check and I failed.

I have 1 wizard level. I understand the system assumes I am an arcane* caster but the "use the highest skill" option doesn't seem to be applying in my case. Is this a bug or just a feature I'm doomed with?

[Micah]

I'm not entirely certain, but I think it is all in scripts, which means they could be changed. That said, I have no idea how complex the change would be... that's probably a question for Nob.

You can put it in as a bug report, though, and we can see what we can do.

[Isadora]

Yeah, scripts make sense to me, but even if I had like 20 wizard levels, doesn't it claim to still use the HIGHEST of the skills?

[Nemise]

*catches up on old posts..*

As I understand it, the spellcraft check for scrolls is 20 + caster lvl, while the UMD check for scrolls is 25 + caster lvl. If you have more than +5 UMD than SC then yes it should use UMD for scrolls that you can't cast natively.

[Gorgon]

The bug with casters always using spellcraft was fixed long ago by PJ, and as far as I can tell, is still live. Isadora inspired me to rewrite a bunch of the umd code because of this topic (I can already feel Nob grumbling), but that part wasn't too buggy.

This all really should be a report in the bug tracker, since knowing what caster classes you have, the caster levels, and both your base and modified umd/spellcraft scores would really help... along with what you were trying to cast/use and so on.

*edits to add* The current code should give a few lines in the server output window too (including the actual roll and modifier), and all that stuff is really helpful to see wtf? is broken, so do check your logs.

UMD (and the spellcraft bit) are a bunch of checks for different conditions. Eg. if trying to use a scroll, and you have both umd and spellcraft, +5 DC to only the umd check before deciding what skill is best to use. Getting it use the best skill is a tad complex.

And...

I'm not entirely certain, but I think it is all in scripts, which means they could be changed.

More like a single umd_include file, with a function that is checked right before before every single hooked (and even unhooked, but wannabe hooked) spell. At least it can all be traced back to a single file, and you are quite right.