Can you create scrolls with a caster level higher than your own?

Question

I am aware that other magic items like wondrous are able to be created without meeting the CL by increasing the DC (looking at you pearl of power with CL 17)

Under the magic item creation rules

A creator can create an item at a lower caster level than her own, but never lower than the minimum level needed to cast the needed spell

So its clear that a scroll could be made with a lower CL, but I have not found anything about being able to use a CL you dont have.

I had asked another question about creating a scroll for a level you cant cast, and the only answer so far is saying no due to the casting counting as a pre-req. Would CL also be considered another thing that you MUST posses?

Answer 1

No

It's a rule in an obscure place in the rulebook but under the rules for Magic Item Descriptions it states:

For potions, scrolls, and wands, the creator can set the caster level of an item at any number high enough to cast the stored spell but not higher than her own caster level. For other magic items, the caster level is determined by the item itself.

Answer 2

There're two parts to this. They're taken in the order that they appear in the question and have been restructured for increased clarity.

• "A magic item can be created without meeting its caster level by increasing the Spellcraft skill check DC needed to create the item."

  Almost. Many of a magic item's prerequisites for its construction can be bypassed by increasing the Spellcraft skill check DC necessary to create the item by +5 per prerequisite bypassed. (See here: "The DC to create a magic item increases by 5 for each prerequisite the caster does not meet.") Some prerequisites can't be bypassed, like the item creation feat necessary to create the magic item.

  However, caster level is not typically a prerequisite at all for a magic item's creation. All magic items possess the entry Caster Level (or CL), but this is not a CL that's a prerequisite for their creation; it's only an indicator of their typical caster level. (See here, here, and here.) For instance, many ioun stones like the agate ellipsoid have as a prerequisite for their creation the entry Special creator must be 12th level, and it's this kind of caster level prerequisite that a Spellcraft skill check DC increased by +5 can bypass.

• "On Magic Item Creation, in part, says, 'A creator can create an item at a lower caster level than her own, but never lower than the minimum level needed to cast the needed spell.' Thus a wizard 5 can scribe a scroll of a 2nd-level spell at caster level 4, but could that wizard 5 scribe a scroll of a 2nd-level spell instead at caster level 20?

  To scribe a scroll, that wizard prepares the spell that's to be triggered to create the scroll. Then that wizard, in the act of creating that scroll, triggers the spell (see here). Then there's this gap where magic happens, and a scroll is scribed! It's clear that the triggered spell is the spell on the newly scribed scroll. It seems a really safe assumption that the spell level is also the same as the triggered spell. But caster level? That can be anywhere from the caster level of the tiggered spell to the minimum caster level the caster needs to cast the triggered spell. (For example, a typical wizard 12 could trigger a fireball spell at any caster level from 5 through 12.)

  Part of this issue may stem from the weird phrasing of this passage: "A creator can create an item at a lower caster level than her own, but never lower than the minimum level needed to cast the needed spell." This passage does not mean its partial inverse! That is, this passage does not mean that A creator can create an item at a higher caster level than her own. Instead, this passage means that A creator can't create an item at a higher caster level than her own (i.e. equal to or less than). And this reader totally agrees that this passage would've benefited from having been written that way! This chucks right out the window the idea of just picking an arbitrary (but affordable!) caster level for a magic item. That just isn't usually an option.