Is it just my bad luck, or is the chance to learn a spell in BG2 actually a lot lower than what it says on the character info screen? A mage or bard with 18 INT should have an 85% chance to learn a spell but at least one third of the spell scrolls I write fail. If I drink a Potion of Genius I get a 97% chance to learn the spell, but still fail to learn 10% to 20% of the spell scrolls I read.
This is VERY annoying when you spend several thousand GP on a high-level spell. The only solution seems to be to save before you read each scroll, then reload if it fails - cheesy I know, but it saves a lot of gold and frustration.
Am I just unlucky, or are the % to learn stats displayed by the game inaccurate?

If you raise the mage's int to 25 (usually two potions of int), the chance to learn a spell is 100%. Or, you can lower the difficulty to "normal", where the chance to learn doesn't apply.

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"This place will be your tomb."

You are neither unlucky nor are the game stats inaccurate. That's just the way the cookie crumbles. Your best bets are: 1) save before trying to scribe, 2) use the CLUAConsole to create the scroll if you fail the first time, or 3) try to steal multiple copies of the scroll. Or you could use Shadowkeeper to "add spell" to your mage. Any way you go, you'll have the spell. Good luck!

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An intelligent mind is the key to the universe.

The most distressing thing about practicing magic is the fact that even the most learned sorcerers cannot accurately describe what magic *is*....

Yea, it kinda sucks. I just started playing another game through solo, And i have my mage learning scrolls, and not doing so well. With 17 INT, should suceed 75percent of the time, but im keeping track, and so far with 21 scrolls memorized, she only learned 8 of them EIGHT! thats what, 40 percent? That blows!
I don't reload and such when learning them, if i learn them I learn them, if not, ill try and learn them later. I don't try and save/load things like this, takes out the reality of playing.
But its gonna cost me down the road in gold. Oh well we will see how it goes.

Keep in mind that each time you try to learn a scroll that you "gotta roll the dice" so even if you are at 97%, you could conceivably never learn a spell, although the chances of that would be slim to none. Easy out, fill a scroll case with scrolls you need then take a couple in int potions and crank that int to 24 and above for 100% learn spell and no prob. Hell you make so much money in this game 300/400 gold for a potions is cheap compared to losing thousands on a scroll. And it beats the cheesy cheats. Not a knock on editors or folks who use them, cause I use them. Just a suggestion if reloading after a failed spell stroms a guilt cord in you.

Your games difficulty setting also has a lot to do with your success % of writing a spell scroll, so if you have a lot of spells you want to transcribe & don't mind a little cheese do this. Save & quit your game, restart, go to the "configure" option, set the difficulty level to easy, and load the game. AFAIK the success rate on easy is almost 100%.