Cost for Symbol of Death?

[Cheiromancer]

How much does the material component for symbol of death cost? Is it a total value of 5000 gp, or 5000 gp for each of the black opals and pearls, for a total of 10 000 gp?

The SRD entry seems to support both readings.

Material Component: Mercury and phosphorus, plus powdered diamond and opal with a total value of at least 5,000 gp each.

[edit] Conceivably it could be 20,000 gp, if you read it as requiring 5000 gp of mercury and 5000 gp of phosphorus as well. But I hope that is not right. [/edit]

 

[dedicated]

Time to request an errata on that one

 

[Sledge]

Total value in this sentence refers to the fact that the powdered diamond, and powdered opal need not be from a single gem each...
5000 of diamonds turned into powder
5000 of opals turned into powder

btw how does one powder some much diamond?

 

[Len]

btw how does one powder some much diamond?

Buy a bunch of diamonds and smash them. Diamonds are brittle.

 

[UltimaGabe]

Buy a bunch of diamonds and smash them. Diamonds are brittle.

Exactly. It's not like they're, you know, the hardest natural substance known to man or anything.

 

[domino]

Hardness and brittleness have nothing to do with each other. In fact, often, they're inversely related.