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If we take the following two spells:

Create Dirt or Clay (6 P.P.E.) Level 2 Earth Warlock spell
--creates 50 lbs of dirt or clay per level

Clay to Stone (20 P.P.E.) Level 5 Earth Warlock spell
--transforms 50 lbs of clay to stone per level.

At 5th level, an Earth Warlock can create 250 lbs of stone for 26 P.P.E.

In real life, I know a professor emeritus of Geology. Once, I posed to him the question: “What’s the difference between stone and crystal?” His answer was that there was no difference. Crystals are a type of stone. Since the spell description is unspecific, I could argue that a 5th level Earth Warlock could create 250 lbs of crystals for 26 P.P.E.

Wikipedia says that “The carat weight measures the mass of a diamond. One carat is defined as 200 milligrams (about 0.007 ounce avoirdupois)”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_%28gemstone%29

So, since there are 200 milligrams to a gram, one gram of diamond is equal to 5 carats.
Since there are 453.6 grams in one lb, there are 2,268 carats in one lb.

Ergo, our 5th level warlock can create 567,000 carats of diamonds for 26 P.P.E. RUE p. 133 lists diamonds at 15,000 credits per carat.

Our 5th level warlock can therefore make 8,505,000,000 credits worth of diamonds for 26 P.P.E.

Now this is obviously broken. Please someone tell me how to limit this.

One suggestion:
Clay to Crystal (60 P.P.E) Level 8 Earth Warlock spell
--transforms 50 lbs of clay per level to 1 carat crystal of caster’s choice. Yield is greatly reduced due to the level of complexity needed to obtain the desired structure

Our 8th level Warlock can still make himself rich pretty quickly...120,000 credits for 86 P.P.E., but it's way better than before.

Tell me what I'm doing wrong with my thinking.

According to science, crystals and stone are in the same category, but according to magic they are. At best, he can make marble, but not diamond.

Misfit KotLD wrote:According to science, crystals and stone are in the same category, but according to magic they are. At best, he can make marble, but not diamond.

I believe Misfit means "according to magic they aren't". Specifically, stones have an extremely fine (and sometimes, sloppy) crystalline structure, creating multiple points along which rock it can break. These smaller "crystals" are less capable of storing PPE, and are therefore less active magically.

Yeah, I did. It's been a long day.

Misfit KotLD wrote:Yeah, I did. It's been a long day.

This one is 24 hours, just like the rest of them.

Yeah, but this one's hours have 120 minutes in them.

Mark Hall wrote:

Misfit KotLD wrote:According to science, crystals and stone are in the same category, but according to magic they are. At best, he can make marble, but not diamond.

I believe Misfit means "according to magic they aren't". Specifically, stones have an extremely fine (and sometimes, sloppy) crystalline structure, creating multiple points along which rock it can break. These smaller "crystals" are less capable of storing PPE, and are therefore less active magically.

Fair enough. Thanks guys.

Oh, and how funny. This was just posted as well. Similar concept. I just didn't see it.

viewtopic.php?f=39&t=94054

Take the spell as intended...it can be used to transform clay into things like limestone, granite, marble.

Xar wrote:If we take the following two spells:

Create Dirt or Clay (6 P.P.E.) Level 2 Earth Warlock spell
--creates 50 lbs of dirt or clay per level

Clay to Stone (20 P.P.E.) Level 5 Earth Warlock spell
--transforms 50 lbs of clay to stone per level.

At 5th level, an Earth Warlock can create 250 lbs of stone for 26 P.P.E.

In real life, I know a professor emeritus of Geology. Once, I posed to him the question: “What’s the difference between stone and crystal?” His answer was that there was no difference. Crystals are a type of stone. Since the spell description is unspecific, I could argue that a 5th level Earth Warlock could create 250 lbs of crystals for 26 P.P.E.

Wikipedia says that “The carat weight measures the mass of a diamond. One carat is defined as 200 milligrams (about 0.007 ounce avoirdupois)”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_%28gemstone%29

So, since there are 200 milligrams to a gram, one gram of diamond is equal to 5 carats.
Since there are 453.6 grams in one lb, there are 2,268 carats in one lb.

Ergo, our 5th level warlock can create 567,000 carats of diamonds for 26 P.P.E. RUE p. 133 lists diamonds at 15,000 credits per carat.

Our 5th level warlock can therefore make 8,505,000,000 credits worth of diamonds for 26 P.P.E.

Now this is obviously broken. Please someone tell me how to limit this.

One suggestion:
Clay to Crystal (60 P.P.E) Level 8 Earth Warlock spell
--transforms 50 lbs of clay per level to 1 carat crystal of caster’s choice. Yield is greatly reduced due to the level of complexity needed to obtain the desired structure

Our 8th level Warlock can still make himself rich pretty quickly...120,000 credits for 86 P.P.E., but it's way better than before.

Tell me what I'm doing wrong with my thinking.

Interesting idea, however I think you're missing a few things here. You're essentially taking a REALLY laymen's look at geology.

First off, to correct your math, there are 100 milligrams in a gram, not 200.

As for rock not being the same as crystal, yes and no. They fall into the same class as rocks, yes, however you're forgetting that there are actually 3 classifications of rocks based on the process in which they're created. Almost all crystals that would considered gems are created through the Ignious process (Rocks created through amazing heat and pressure in the earth and earths core, usually brought to the surface by volcanoes), and some in the metamorphic process (Rock that chemically changes over time because of outside forces, such as coal). None, to my understanding are created through the sedimentary process(though some from the other processes may be trapped in them).

Now, the idea of this spell as it seems to be is it turns clay into rock. To anyone who knows geology this screams sedimentary process. When most clays are dried out or compressed, they become sedimentary rock. So while there would be some variables to make them other types of sedimentary rock, just about any rock created from this spell would have to be sedimentary rock.

The key here is that not all rocks are the same and attempting to classify them as such is frankly ignorant. Heck, not all gems are the same and many are created differently or are composed of different things which is what usually results in they're varying colors. Ruby's for example have ferric (iron) minerals in them that give them their red color.

Prince Artemis wrote:First off, to correct your math, there are 100 milligrams in a gram, not 200.

1000, not 100 or 200.

Mark Hall wrote:

Prince Artemis wrote:First off, to correct your math, there are 100 milligrams in a gram, not 200.

1000, not 100 or 200.

I think I meant that there were 200 milligrams to one carat. That was my error.

I should have wrote:So, since there are 200 milligrams to a carat and 1000 milligrams to a gram, one gram of diamond is equal to 5 carats.

Prince Aretemis wrote:you're forgetting that there are actually 3 classifications of rocks based on the process in which they're created.

Nope, didn't know that at all. So I couldn't forget it.

Furthermore, I'll claim ignorance to any level of geology (I'd have a 0%). My fault for asking an expert an extremely simple question and hinging a much larger scope of response on the question.

Alot like my summon and control storm in winter time. 2 inchs of rain a hour and if snow is at least 6 times more volume. Makes 12 inchs of snow an hour times 10 hours that 120 inchs of snow.

Now when the owners of some of thgose valuables that were left touching the ground show up, you are going to be in trouble. An Elemental can not tell an owned piece of srone and metal from natural ores very easily.

AlanGunhouse wrote:Now when the owners of some of thgose valuables that were left touching the ground show up, you are going to be in trouble. An Elemental can not tell an owned piece of srone and metal from natural ores very easily.

So you tell it to only bring back valuables that were found underground away from developed areas such as mines, underground vaults, etc.

That was kind of my point, you have to be very casreful what you ask your elemental friend to do.