No treasure hoard is complete without a set of gemstones to catch an adventurer's wandering eye. These precious jewels are highly sought after—for trade, for crafting, and for magical components. But how do you determine the value of your gemstones?
This chapter introduces gemstone qualities and rules on how to use them in your campaign.
Gemstone Qualities
A gemstone comes in one of six qualities—cloudy, clear, pristine, royal, lucent, and astral. The higher the quality, the more valuable the gemstone is.
To appraise the quality of a gemstone, you must succeed on a DC 20 Intelligence (Investigation) check.
Gemstone Qualities
| Quality | Description | Uncut | Cut |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudy | Visible imperfections. | 2 gp | 10 gp |
| Clear | Minor imperfections. | 10 gp | 50 gp |
| Pristine | No visible imperfections. | 20 gp | 100 gp |
| Royal | Rare sparkles of light. | 100 gp | 500 gp |
| Lucent | Persistent sparkles of light. | 200 gp | 1,000 gp |
| Astral | A persistent, inner glow. | 1,000 gp | 5,000 gp |
- GM:Inside the chest, Clanda, you find 100 silver pieces and a red, cut gemstone of unknown quality.
- Clanda:Unknown? We'll see about that... (rolls 22).
- GM:A spark catches your eye—this is a royal ruby.
- Clanda:Ah, a royal ruby for a royal sorceress—perfect.
- Valiant:...Uh, there's three of us in the party, Clanda.
- Clanda:Your point being...?
Jeweler's Tools
Jeweler's tools can help you to appraise, cut, and polish gemstones. If you are proficient with jeweler's tools, add your proficiency bonus to your appraisal check.
If you are also proficient in Investigation, you can make your appraisal check with advantage.
Crackle is proficient with both Investigation and jeweler's tools. When appraising gemstones, she adds her proficiency bonus once and rolls with advantage.
Cutting Gemstones
You can cut a gemstone to improve its value and unlock any latent, magical properties. It takes around eight hours to cut and polish a single, tiny stone.
Make a Wisdom check against a DC determined by the quality of the stone—if you fail, the gemstone shatters and turns into arcane dust worth half of its uncut value.
Cutting Gemstones
| Quality | DC |
|---|---|
| Cloudy | 15 |
| Clear | 15 |
| Pristine | 20 |
| Royal | 20 |
| Lucent | 25 |
| Astral | 25 |
Crackle wants to cut a clear sapphire. After eight hours, she makes a Wisdom check (DC 15) using her jeweler's tools—and rolls 17. The sapphire is cut.