Gemstone Arcana

Crafting magical items with gemstones is a task often left to proffessionals. Gems are so very precious, and magical engineers, wizards, enchanters, and artificers all enjoy their usage. It is well known each stone has a known rarity in the world and that these scientists are able to enchant incredible abilities into them. It is less known, however, that each stone is associated with a magical school in the Weave. Through empowering them with raw magical energy and catalyzing the enchantment, powers and enhancements can be borne out of the nature of these gems.

Beginning the Process

The Perfect Piece

The first step is to find a suitable piece to set your stones. This can be mundane or magical equipment, or simple items in your possession.

Slotting and Limitations

Most pieces of equipment will have a maximum of 5 gemstone slots that can be fit to it. This would be equivalent to setting gems in the hilt of a sword, along the ridge of a helmet, or even in the collar of a fine cloak. Most mundane equipment does not come pre-slotted, whereas some magical equipment will come with some already fit. Other magical equipment may be too powerful to slot safely. Proceeding to slot and enchant such a piece will result in it become "Overcharged" and can result in dangerous effects.

Setting the Slots

After you find a suitable piece, you will need to have gemstone slots set into it. Slots can be set into your piece for a price that depends on the quality of the gemstone. The rare the stone, the finer the setting must be. Your most common gemstone may be set in material as simple as petrified wood or silver, while the most rarest and legendary stones may involve much rarer metals, and much more time to complete. There is nothing wrong with setting a more common stone in a rarer material setting, it is simply costlier.

Concerning Gemstones

Each stone has a rarity with a standard market price that may fluxuate depending on area, market demand, merchant disposition etc. Gems can be mined, bartered, or quested for as well. Certain baddies such as dragons and bandits may be collecting precious stones for themselves. Each enchantment requires an amount of the gems to activate, for example, a common enchantment needs 3 common gems to work or about 300 gp worth of that gem.

Strange Gems- There are legendary gemstones that are said to be made of odd substance, light, blood shadow, stars, souls. There are few hard facts, however, to their locations or fabrication.

Enchantment Effects

Furthermore, each gemstone has a Primary effect that it can imbue as well as an Alternative effect. Only one effect can be enchanted at a time, however, as long as there are slots available, you may use the same gemstones in a second enchantment to achieve both effects at the same time. Some enchantments will Stack but others may not.

For example: you may enchant 600 gp worth of amber to achieve both the +1 History bonus as well as the Brutal 1 Fire, taking up 2 slots on a piece of equipment. These same two enchantments could be stacked in a way to give a +2 History bonus as well. They may not however be used to Stack the Brutal 1 Fire bonus because ability enchantments may not be Stacked.

Other Gemstone Uses

Fabricating Spells

Some of the more inspiring, and frightening, uses of gems come in the forms of fabrications of magical spell effects that have been stored inside the gemstone. Some spell effects are simpler to engrave into the facets of the stone, others may need sacrifices of magical spell energy, runic enhancements, or triggering catalyst ingredients such as aetherium dust.

The complexity of the enchantment will determine the DC as well as how many skill checks are required to succeed. Without aid, a fabricated spell typically takes half of a day per level to imbue into a gemstone. Triggers, specifics, or focused portions of the spell effects may increase the DC.

Spell Storing

Gemstones may be used to Store spells as well. A Gem of Spell Storing may be created using a simple guideline. Cantrips and Level 1 spells require a day and success on a DC 14 Arcana Check. Levels 2 - 4 require a 2 days and a DC 16 success. Level 5 requires 3 days and a DC 18 success. This gem can be slotted to any piece you own.

Gem Rarity	Gems Required	Required Slots	Skill Checks Necessary	Skill Check DC	Setting / Slot Material	Time Required	Slot Cost
Common	300 gp	1	1	13	Wood, Silver	3 Hrs	100gp
Uncommon	900 gp	2	2	15	Gold	9 Hrs	200 gp
Rare	1400 gp	3	3	18	Platinum	12 Hrs	300 gp
Very Rare	2000 gp	3	3	20	Mithril	20 Hrs	750 gp
Wondrous	4000 gp +	4	3	20+	Adamantine, Drakkenite	36 Hrs	1000gp
Legendary	10,000 gp	5	5	?	Titanite	?	1000gp

Gem	Rarity	Magic School Association	Primary Enchantment Effect	Alt. Enchantment Effect
Gold	Common	Transumtation	+1 Arcana	+1 HP
Amber	Common	Divination	+1 History	Brutal 1 Fire
Quartz	Common	Abjuration	+1 Nature	+1 Stealth
Lapis Lazuli	Common	Enchantment	+1 Charisma Saves	+2 Performance
Amethyst	Uncommon	Enchantment	+2 Deception	Absorb Elements / Long Rest
Agate	Uncommon	Necromancy	+2 Medicine	+1d4 Healing From Medicine
Peridot	Uncommon	Illusion	+2 Psychic Damage	+2 Cold Damage
Beryl	Uncommon	Conjuration	+2 Insight	+2 Acid Damage
Jasper	Uncommon	Enchanment	+2 Survival	+1 Vitality
Moonstone	Uncommon	Evocation	+2 Lightning Damage	Advantage on Shove Attack
Obsidian	Uncommon	Illusion	+1 Animal Handling	+1 Deception
Onyx	Uncommon	Dunamancy	+2 Grapple Checks	Advantage against Restraint
Tourmaline	Uncommon	Abjuration	+2 Thunder Damage	Brutal 2 Healing
Garnet	Uncommon	Necromancy	+5 Temp HP / Long Rest	+5 Speed
Aquamarine	Uncommon	Illusion	+1 Intimidation +1 Arcana	+2 Investigation
Bloodstone	Rare	Evocation	+2 Intimidation	Extra Attack While Frightened
Carnelian	Rare	Evocation	Resist Fire	+2 Fire Damage
Fire Agate	Rare	Abjuration	1d12 Absorb Fire / Short Rest	Resist Fire + Immune to Burning
Chrysoberyl	Rare	Transmutation	+2 Initiative	Brutal 2 Physical Dmg
Citrine	Rare	Divination	+2 Insight	Advantage vs Charm
Jade	Rare	Transmutation	+1 Luck Point / Long Rest	+2 Persuasion
Jet	Rare	Abjuration	Lesser Restoration / Long Rest	+3 HP Max
Pearl	Rare	Divination	+3 Perception	+2 Radiant Dmg
Spinel	Rare	Necromancy	+2 Stealth	Advantage Sleight of Hand
Tiger's Eye	Rare	Abjuration	+2 Wisdom Saves	+2 Intelligence Saves
Rose Quartz	Rare	Transmutation	+10 Speed	Zephyr Strike / Short Rest
Malachite	Rare	Conjuration	Advantage vs Fear	Advantage vs Stun
Black Pearl	Very Rare	Abjuration	Resist Necrotic	Resist Radiant
Hematite	Very Rare	Conjuration	Call Lightning / Long Rest	+1 AC
Topaz	Very Rare	Transmutation	+1 Reaction	Quicken Attack / Long Rest
Emerald	Very Rare	Necromantic	+2 Necrotic Damage	Summon Undead / Long Rest
Opal	Very Rare	Evocation	+3 Force	Pulse Wave / Long Rest
Ruby	Very Rare	Evocation	+3 Fire Damage	Treat Fire Immunity as Resistance
Sapphire	Very Rare	Transmutation	Change Damage Type / Long Rest	Elemental Weapon / Long Rest
Celestite	Very Rare	Divination	+4 Vitality	Augury / Long Rest
Diamond	Very Rare	Necromancy	Advantage 1 Death Save	Mindspike / Long Rest
Opal (Fire)	Wondrous	Enchantment	Raise Spell DC by 1	Extra Attack / Short Rest
Sunstone	Wondrous	Conjuration	Sunbeam / Long Rest	+2 Constitution
Diamond (Black)	Wondrous	Dunamancy	Fortune's Favor / Short Rest	Gravity Sinkhole/ Long Rest

Using the Tables

The +1 Longsword

Tibalt finds a +1 Longsword glowing faintly in a chest. He doesn't know exactly what's special about this sword, but he knows it's nice and can be improved.

Tibalt has his friend Mogis Identify the sword and finds that this blade has been outfitted with 2 slots but has no affixed gemstones to it.

Tibalt attunes to the Longsword and begins to plan.

His friend Sarasha can enchant items with gemstones. He goes to her, but he only has 400 gp worth of lapis lazuli and some gold. He requests that she set as many lapis lazuli as she can and fill the rest with gold. He also requests a 3rd slot be made with his limited Gold supply.

Sarasha pulls out some of her own stores of petrified wood, breaks off a good chunk of it and sets to work, using 100 gp worth of the wood to form the 3rd slot. Using 300gp of the lapis lazuli, she expertly passes a DC 13 skill check to set the gems, using up 1 slot over 3 hours.

With plenty of daylight left, Sarasha goes to work on the other 2 slots. It will require 6 gold if she succeeds twice more.

Unfortunately, she fumbled once, scoring an 11. 3 of the gold she was using was damaged somewhat and will take the same amount of time to repair and polish as it does to set a stone. If Sarasha had gold to spare, she could replace it instead of repairing it.

Sadly, she is broke.

So Sarasha begins the repairs.

Future Plans- Should Tibalt ever come into a windfall of Wondrous gems, he should keep in mind, that only 1 Wondrous gem of a single type can be attuned to at once. For examply, 2 Sunstones will automatically reject each other and the attunements will demand that you choose one or the other. Using them to create High-Magic Technology, however, may be doable for a Master or Legendary level Enchanter.

"The Revelator"

Finally, having spent 3 hours setting the lapis lazuli, 3 hours fumbling the first gold slot, 3 hours repairing the gold, and 6 more collective hours setting these two slots, Sarasha will have spent 15 hours setting 3 slots.

She charges Tibalt accordingly.

Tibalt's requests were granted. His +1 Longsword now gives him +1 to Charisma Saving Throws as well as +2 Maximum HP. This Longsword has 3 slots filled.

In the future, he may ask Sarasha to set more slots into his sword. He has some raw Jasper that he would like to get polished so that he can take advantage of the +1 Vitality bonus. Maybe one day, he'll find some Celestite to replace some of his slots. Maybe if he's lucky, he'll find a Gem to make his Longsword a +2...