D&D 5E Calculating a fist-sized diamond

[Dioltach]

Of course all this is assuming a fixed value for gold coinage too...

It's beginning to sound like an exam question at Wizarding School. "It is the 7th year of the Great Strife. Calculate what size diamond is needed (assuming the minimum usable clarity, colour and cut) to successfully cast Raise Dead. Your calculations must allow for the interruption of trade to the Dwarven kingdom of Digdeep, the burning of the College of Diamond Cutters during the Guild Wars, the debasement of the Old Warhoonian kaching and the recent death of the dragon Xroodj."

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Of course all this is assuming a fixed value for gold coinage too...

It's beginning to sound like an exam question at Wizarding School. "It is the 7th year of the Great Strife. Calculate what size diamond is needed (assuming the minimum usable clarity, colour and cut) to successfully cast Raise Dead. Your calculations must allow for the interruption of trade to the Dwarven kingdom of Digdeep, the burning of the College of Diamond Cutters during the Guild Wara, the debasement of the Old Warhoonian kaching and the recent death of the dragon Xroodj."

I can't believe they've dumbed down Wizarding school so much now that exam takers get reminders of what relevant historical events happened in the 7th year of the Great Strife on a basic gem components question.

 

[Maxperson]

If we go by supply & demand, diamonds able to be used for resurrection would have be highly sought after. Therefore, a 5,000 gp diamond would commonly be worth more than 5,000 gp. Introduction of supply and demand instead of god-mandated pricing was Archdevil's Mammon claim to fame and through it, it removed resurrection from the Realms.

Once upon a time Resurrection only took a 100gp diamond. 5000 is just the current value for a diamond that size.

 

[Maxperson]

some further thought on the issue - AND something to ponder on the value of a very large gem in D&D.

Based on the work of Tolkien, 1937, a very large gem (the Arkenstone) is worth 1/14 of a LARGE dragon hoard. I honesty think that this value has a LOT to say for it .

As far as the value of a "nice" diamond, I remember the old commercials which were implying that a good diamond to give as an engagement ring would be 3 month's salary.... which, if you are a "modest" aristocrat, is about 30 gp....

the Arkenstone was a unique gem far rarer and far more valuable than any other gem. AND it was huge.

 

[Dioltach]

I can't believe they've dumbed down Wizarding school so much now that exam takers get reminders of what relevant historical events happened in the 7th year of the Great Strife on a basic gem components question.

Yeah, in my day, INT 18 actually meant something!

 

[Maxperson]

Diamonds are not exactly "exceptionally common". They are far more common than certain other gemstones, but most things in the universe are. But yes, they do have an inflated value because the De Beers cartel both monopolized production and advertised heavily in the 20th century to convince everyone that they both needed a diamond specifically to get married and had to keep all their family's existing diamonds as heirlooms forever, lest they re-enter circulation and spoil the monopoly. That monopoly instead fell apart in the 1990s as more diamond mines began to become exploited and the De Beers Group were not able to buy or merge with all the new competitors.

It is clearly a direct grafting of our own cultural preoccupations that led to diamonds being so important in D&D, which isn't "weird", just the expected result of worldbuilding done without a high level of sophistication in a particular subject. Nevertheless the resulting mechanics make the value actually make a lot more sense in a D&D setting. The diamonds are both actually necessary for what, to most ordinary people, would be the most important spells, the ones that undo premature death, and actually consumed rather than being a durable good that people have to be convinced to hang on to. The fantasy equivalent of the De Beers Group would actually have a far more straightforward and lucrative business, given that, as much as real people will pay through the nose to conform to a bourgeois tradition invented by 1920s ad men in the service of an international cartel, it pales in comparison to what they will pay to bring a loved one back to life, and you don't need to advertise to convince them that they need that product, people have been desperate for it as long as there has been people.

A quadrillion tons of diamonds lurk deep inside Earth

The sparkly gems are even more common than thought, based on the latest estimates.

www.nationalgeographic.com

I dunno. There are a quadrillion tons of them on Earth.

 

[Maxperson]

Yeah, in my day, INT 18 actually meant something!

You had to think uphill in the snow.

 

[Maxperson]

I have a gem book and this is the weekly production from one mine only.

 

[aco175]

Yeah, in my day, INT 18 actually meant something!

Not enough kids were graduating at that level. Needed to lower expectations to let us 12s graduate.

 

[Ancalagon]

the Arkenstone was a unique gem far rarer and far more valuable than any other gem. AND it was huge.

A fist-sized diamond of good gem quality is unique and huge