Races"... Racism."HERE which allows other races to have Dragonmarks not normally available to them (look at side bar 'Reincarnation in Eberron'). With this it is possible to be, for instance, a Human Unbound Scroll. If you manage to convince your DM to let you be Reincarnated, then I suggest going with the preferred race for your class. Not all DMs will let you use this obscure options though, so be ready to get all Gnomey.
Rock Gnomes {SRD}Standard Gnome, and nothing to amazing. For some reason you can talk to animals that are burrowing mammals 1/day, but with a scroll you can talk to any animal. Weird regardless.
Forest Gnomes {SRD}Similar to Rock Gnomes overall, but are far stealthier. Instead of being able to talk with burrowing mammals once a day they have Pass without Trace at will on themselves, making them virtually untrackable. They also have a +4 to Hide (or a +8 in forests) so your average Forest Gnome is better at hiding then most Human Rogues, once you account their Size. Oh, and they hate reptiles. Get a Lizard as a Familiar!
Bigger, badder Gnomes whom live in the Underdark. They have some strong bonuses to losts of their defenses and come with the usual Gnome fair of Racial Abilities, but their racial ability modifiers are really bad, with a -4 Charisma being the worst, making it extremely difficult to use Scrolls as Artificers. And they have a LA +3 on top of it all. Unless you are playing in a game where You get levels to LA or are actually forced to play a Svirfneblin, skip this and NEVER look back.
Aquatic Gnomes {SRD}Arctic Gnomes {SRD}Rock Gnomes, but suck at Alchemy and are better at seeing through lies. They also have Fortitude bonuses against cold weather and such. Okay if you are stuck in the snow.
Desert Gnomes {SRD}As Rock Gnomes but have social skills instead of Alchemy and Listen, and Fortitude bonuses against Hot Weather. If you are going for a more social character, this is superior to the standard.
Jungle Gnomes {SRD}Air Gnomes {SRD}Instead of hating Kobolds, Goblins and Giants, you hate the Earth Subtype. Slightly more broader I suppose, but you also take a -2 penalty to Saving Throws against them as well so it is not all good. Instead of a +2 to Con, you have a +2 to Dex, which means you are not as hardy but harder to hit. But the best racial ability is being Breathless, making you immune to suffocation and effects that require you to breath. Overall very worth it.
Arcane Gnomes {D#291}River Gnomes {D#291}Ice Gnomes {FB}Lose Ghost Sound 1/day and the ability to speak with burrowing mammals once per day and be able to use Ray of Frost 1/day and Speak with Artic Mammals 1/day. No bonuses against cold environments as far as I see as well. (-_-) Ghost Sound is actually useful and I can use a Crossbow to do better damage then a Ray of Frost. Also, if my Logic is correct many Artic Mammals (not all, but many) burrow anyways right? What am I saying, we can make a scroll to talk with any animal. Skip this really hard.
Whisper Gnome {RoS}Chaos Gnomes {RoS}The usual for Gnomes and then some. Have +2 to Dex and Cha in addition to the usual (which helps with UMD), a slightly different Spell-Likes list, a +1 bonus to Caster Level with spells with the Chaos descriptor, as well as Immunity to Confusion Effects (probably because these poor souls are already confused). And most importantly, the ability to Reroll a dice roll 1/day. With that Artificers have a real easy time with this race for crafting and using UMD. There is one thing though. LA+1. This makes it less than optimal. But if you are playing in a game where LA buyoff is allowed, this is probably one of your best choices.
Tinker Gnomes {DLCS}A little different from the Standard Gnome, but has its own merits. These Gnome do not hate anyone, so no racial bonuses against Kobolds, Goblins or Giants. No Con bonus, but a +2 to Dex and Int to a -2 Str and Wis. Bonuses to either all Craft, Profession, or Knowledge checks, (chosen when making your character), and a bonus to Will Saves. It is actually great overall, getting rid of the situational and easily emulated stuff for decent bonuses. I hate Krynn and Dragonlance with a burning passion, but I would play one of these over a Rock Gnome if I had the choice.
Mad Gnome {DLCS}Classes"Wizard in the process of casting Fireburst from a scroll."Base ClassesThese classes are the preferred and best users of Scrolls, and if you want to at least be making effective scrolls everyday, these are for you.
ArtificerWizardThe iconic Spellcaster. Wizard gets Scribe Scroll as a bonus feat 1st level, so right out the gates is able to make scrolls. It also has a massive spell list full of the best spells in the game. Gathering all the spells will be tough for one, of course, but once you have a decent library of scrolls available to you they will become a great help.
Cleric w/ Rune DomainArchivistWarlockBinderWith access to Astaroth you can gain access to any crafting Feat. There are two problems with the Binder overall though. A) He still needs access to a spell he needs for crafting, and will need to borrow a party wizard or cleric or find a willing NPC to help him with crafting, and B) He does not have access to UMD, and the one bind normally used with Astaroth can only let the Binder use Spell Trigger items, like wands, not Spell Completion Items like a scroll. If you desire you can probably take Leadership to get access to spells with a cohort, but then you might as well make your Cohort an Artificer at that point. This is doable with Anima Mage and a Arcane Spellcasting class, which will help get access to Unbound Scroll.
Prestige ClassesUnbound ScrollEntry Requirements
Skills: Profession (Scribe) 4 ranks.
Relatively valueless skill, but cost only a few ranks which you will most likely have available anyway. You could also use it to get a few extra gold a week at lower levels during downtime, sense you will be penny pinching for scrolls until later in your career.
Feats: Least Dragonmark (Mark of Scribing-Arcane Mark), Scribe Scroll.
One is essential for the profession and easy to acquire, and the other while useless at lower levels fuels are class features.
Spellcasting: Ability to prepare 3rd-Level Arcane Spells or Imbue 3rd-Level Infusions.
In other words, you need to be 5th level. Do to some of the specific wording, Spontaneous Casters are a no go unless you take the feats necessary to allow them to.
Special: Must have performed a task specified by the Viceroy of the Ninth College
A Flavor/RP requirement that can be met in character background, or ignored entirely in non Eberron Games if your DM is not a total rules Nazi.
Class Features
Spellcasting
You continue progressing your spellcasting ability each level except 3rd. The fact you lose a caster level means slow your progression to be able to create higher level scrolls, but this really does not bother the Artificer at all, and the Wizard can live with it. Better than half progression at least.
Master Scribe (Ex)Scroll Mastery (Ex)
This is more or less directed at Artificers, and makes it that much easier to activate scrolls, almost eliminating any chance of failing your check. Great.
Improved Arcane Mark (Ex)Strong Words (Su)
Potentially helpful for spells with CL dependent effects, like Orb Spells. You have to use a Swift Action to activate However, so only viable in combat if you for some reason have no use for a Swift Action in the round, which is unlikely. Still, Great out of Combat.
Metamagic Scroll (Su)Charged Words (Su)Ghost Writing (Su)
Second only to Master Scribe itself, this Class Feature essentially makes your Arcane Mark/day into free 2nd level Scrolls/day. Note that it has no time duration, allowing you to activate one day, and potentially use the effect sessions into the future. It even appears you can stack Ghost Write on the same scroll multiple times, so you gain massive resources in downtime. This Class Feature Alone makes getting the Lesser and Greater Dragonmark Feats worth it.
Other Prestige ClassesLegacy Champion {WoL}Bloodlines {SRD}Not actually a Prestige Class, but regardless I will put it here. Bloodlines count towards abilities that calculate based off of Class Level, like Caster Level and the like. As far as I can see, this will progress the Artificers maximum CL for crafting, as well as Master Scribe and other Unbound Scroll abilities. It won't progress spells/infusions, but with the Artificer it does not matter anyways. If you don't go Legacy Champion, this a is a decent alternative, at least for Artificers. Fey, Djinni, or Efreeti are probably best, but any Major Bloodline will do.
Maester {CAd}Chameleon {RoD}Chameleons have access to all Divine and Arcane spells of up to 6th level, and have feats which can be changed each day. More for the non caster, as it would be better to stick to your usual casting as a caster to get higher level spells. Overall it has great versatility options and able to capitalize on downtime with crafting items such as scrolls, and remain completely combat effective otherwise. Only available to Humans, Doppelgangers, and human blooded individuals with either the feat or variant rule in place.
Geometer {CAr}With a 1 level dip all your scrolls will have Silent Spell for a 25gp extra price. Just don't use the Spellglyph with spells that have costly material components or else the price will skyrocket. For a 2nd level dip, you can scribe spells into your spellbook on 1 page regardless of the spell level, which will save space and gold in the process. Only useful to Wizards though, but Wizards are pretty much the only casters that qualify to enter this Prestige class so meh. Weird skill requirements for getting in though, so you might have a problem with those.