Inscription

Inscription is the scribe's craft: copying spells you know onto blank scrolls, and binding the books every adventurer carries — spellbooks, runebooks and songbooks. On UO Sagas only the eight circles of Magery exist, so every scroll recipe is a Magery spell scroll. See the Crafting Overview for the general crafting model.

Tools and workplace ↑ top

All you need is a scribe's pen on your person — no station. Pens are made by tinkers (see Tinkering) and wear out with use like all crafting tools.

The scribe's pen ↑ top

A pen holds 100 uses, or 150 if it was crafted exceptionally. Scrolls have no quality or magic to roll, so a pen tinkered from colored metal helps the way a scribe actually needs: flat success chance on every scroll and book —

	Scribe's pen	Success chance	Runebook charges
	Iron	—	10
	Shadow Iron	+2%	13
	Copper	+4%	16
	Bronze	+6%	19
	Verite	+8%	22
	Valorite	+10%	25

On grimoire crafts the pen additionally acts like the other magic-craft tools: +5% exceptional chance per tier and up to +12 points on every magic roll (damage, enchantment and durability alike).

The bonus needs a real attempt behind it — a circle you have no chance at without the pen stays at zero. On 8th-circle scrolls, where every failure burns reagents, essence and a blank scroll, a Valorite pen pays for itself quickly.

The last column is a scribe specialty: runebooks bound with a colored pen hold more charges. An exceptionally crafted runebook holds +5 on top, and the scribe's Luck can add a few more.

What you need to scribe a scroll ↑ top

Scribing a spell scroll has four requirements, checked every attempt:

1. The spell — it must be in a spellbook you are carrying. You cannot scribe a spell you don't own.
2. A blank scroll — one per attempt. Blank scrolls are sold by mage and scribe vendors and stack freely.
3. The spell's reagents — one of each reagent that spell uses when cast.
4. Mana — a fixed amount per circle (see below). Meditate up before long scribing sessions; high circles drain you fast.

A failed attempt ruins the scroll and consumes the materials.

Spell scrolls by circle ↑ top

Each circle is one group in the menu, containing all eight of its spells. Success starts at 0% at the minimum skill and climbs to 100% at the maximum:

Scrolls have no quality roll — a scroll either succeeds or is ruined; there is no exceptional scroll.

Books ↑ top

The book recipes need no reagents or mana, only blank scrolls (plus two scrolls for the runebook):

	Item	Skill	Materials
	Spellbook	50 – 80	25 blank scrolls
	Songbook	50 – 80	25 blank scrolls
	Runebook	45 – 95	8 blank scrolls + 1 Recall scroll + 1 Gate Travel scroll
	Scribe's Spellbook	110 – 120	64 blank scrolls — requires a learned recipe
	Grimoire	90 – 120	25 leather (colored leather sets the magic tier) + 25 blank scrolls — requires a learned recipe; its own Grimoires category with the leather selector

Books can come out exceptional — cosmetic for the spellbooks, but an exceptional grimoire deals +10% spell damage. The Songbook is the bard's tome — see Barding and Songs. The Scribe's Spellbook is the profession's prestige item: it needs elder-scribe skill and a rare recipe drop.

Raising the cap to 120 ↑ top

Inscription reaches 120 via Crafting skill scrolls. Going past Grandmaster pays off directly:

• 7th and 8th circle scrolls only hit 100% success at 125 skill — at 100 skill you succeed half the time, at 120 you're at 90%. Every point matters for expensive high-circle scrolls.
• The Scribe's Spellbook (110–120) can only be attempted above Grandmaster.

Training path ↑ top

You need the spells in your own spellbook first, so training Inscription usually goes hand in hand with building a mage. Watch your mana at the top end — 8th circle scrolls cost 50 mana per attempt, so high Intelligence and Meditation keep the sessions moving. Since 2026-08, every 8th circle scroll also consumes 8 Magical Essence on top of its reagents.

Skill Mastery ↑ top

The Inscription Skill Mastery makes scribed scrolls stronger in your own hands: perks boost scroll damage and healing, give a chance to preserve a scroll when cast, and harden the scribe against magic.

The Inscription skill itself adds no spell damage — the bonus known from AOS-era shards does not exist on UO Sagas. Its offensive value comes entirely from the mastery's Scroll Amplification perk (PvM); in PvP, Inscription is a defensive mage skill, raising the capacity of your Reactive Armor and Magic Reflect pools (see the PvP overview and the spell damage pipeline).

What you can craft ↑ top

Grimoires

	Item	Skill	Resources
	grimoire	90 – 120	25 × Leather or Hides, 25 × Blank Scrolls

Miscellaneous

	Item	Skill	Resources
	Runebook	45 – 95	8 × Blank Scrolls, 1 × Recall Scrolls, 1 × Gate Scrolls
	Spellbook	50 – 80	25 × Blank Scrolls
	Songbook	50 – 80	25 × Blank Scrolls
	Scribe's Spellbook	110 – 120	64 × Blank Scrolls

Town Quests for scribes ↑ top

Related ↑ top

• Town Quests — the Scribe's crafting quests
• Crafting Overview — the shared crafting rules
• Magery — the spells behind the scrolls
• Skill Scrolls — raising the cap past 100
• Inscription Mastery — the Inscription mastery perks
• Skill Masteries — how the mastery system works