Creating diamonds

I have noticed that many of the most powerful and useful spells in the game have diamonds as material components. In a world with enough high level spellcasters, the world supply of diamonds could be used up fairly quickly as they are destroyed in spellcasting. Most games handwave this "problem" away (on the assumption that there are always diamonds available for sale if you have enough money to buy them).

But if we want to be a bit more realistic about it -- is there any metnod for magically producing diamonds that can be used as spell components? The method does not have to be cost effective (a method that requires sacrificing 100,000 GP of something else to get 10,000 GP of diamonds would be acceptable, for example) -- but it would provide a way around the potential end of powerful magic in a given game world.

So -- is there any way to make diamonds in Pathfinder?

Iron Golems dropped from about 10000 feet into a pile of coal might do it.

By rules text no.

Besdies diamonds aren't THAT rare, especially in low quality. Or more to the point, ressurrection isn't that common, given that at a minimum, you have to be a 9th level divine caster.

Also there's pretty much infinite gems coming in from the Plane of Earth.

Also bear in mind that for most spells, the requirement is diamond dust, which is far more abundant than whole diamonds. (Wish and True Resurrection being exceptions; even Miracle only needs dust.)

I wish diamonds were abundantly in my Pocket!

Looked at in the right way, any given world would have a VERY long time before this would ever become an issue. The spells involved require a diamond worth X gold (where X = "some large but fixed amount"), without specifying exact size or clarity of the diamonds. As the supply of flawless diamonds decreases, the size required for them to be worth X gold goes down as well. Simple market forces drive up the value of hitherto less valuable diamonds. Voila! Now those smaller diamonds can be used in those spells as well.

Also, what Ataraxias said above.

The lack of availability is what is supposed to balance the super powerful casting and abuse of powerful spell casting.

This question has come up before, I remember distinctly because it was hilarious. There were a couple of methods that came up, the quickest being a spell combo.

I unfortunately don't remember the name of the first spell. Blood... Something. I'm going to go with Blood Sacrifice for now; essentially what it does is allow you to use your own blood to mimic any component you want with a worth of up to 100 gp.

Said component needs to be used in the next round/minute (don't remember), or it turns back to blood. Anyway, using this spell you use your blood to mimic a very cheap diamond, and use that as the component of a fabricate spell, and poof. 100gp diamond.

Do it 500 times and you can fabricate those diamonds into a 50k gp diamond.

Other than that, the only suggestion I remember well was exceedingly high Knowledge (Geology) + be very long lived.

Looked at in the right way, any given world would have a VERY long time before this would ever become an issue. The spells involved require a diamond worth X gold (where X = "some large but fixed amount"), without specifying exact size or clarity of the diamonds. As the supply of flawless diamonds decreases, the size required for them to be worth X gold goes down as well. Simple market forces drive up the value of hitherto less valuable diamonds. Voila! Now those smaller diamonds can be used in those spells as well.

Also, what Ataraxias said above.

I'm afraid we have to look at the price of the diamonds as being inconsequential to the actual quantity or quality of the diamond. It really must be a simple matter of knowing that the spell requires a flawless clear diamond of X carat weight with no inclusions. The spell needs it, the caster knows it, and there's no getting around that - but in game terms, we just say that diamond is worth 25,000 gp because it's easier than dealing with carats, clarity, inclusions, and the Kimberley process.

If not:

Wizard: Ah, my apprentice. Have you brought the diamond I sent you to market to buy?
Apprentice: Yep, here it is, one 25,000 gp diamond. And here's 5,000 gp back, they had a sale, 20% off. I saved you a small fortune!
Wizard: What! What have you done? I'm ruined!!!
Apprentice: Wait, what?
Wizard: I CAN'T use this worthless diamond for my Wish spell! I need a 25,000 gp diamond, this is only a 20,000 gp diamond!
Apprentice: But, it's exactly the same size, same carat weight, flawless, clear diamond as the other ones I bought for you last month. It should work.
Wizard: THOSE diamonds were 25,000 GP diamonds. THIS diamond is only a 20,000 GP diamond. See the difference?
Apprentice: They were all exactly the same!
Wizard: No, they looked the same, they weighed the same, but they don't cost the same so this one is garbage. Pure garbage! Take it back!
Apprentice: All sales are final...

Or even better:
Wizard: Ah, my apprentice, Have you brought the diamond I sent you to market to buy?
Apprentice: Yep, here it is, one 25,000 gp diamond.
Wizard: Wait a minute, what are you trying to pull? That diamond is way too small. And it's so cloudy that it's almost yellow. What have you done?
Apprentice: Well, you see, the jeweler was all out of 25,000 gp diamonds. In fact, there was a run on diamonds and this is the only one had left, a little, tiny, ugly diamond he was trying to sell for 25 gp.
Wizard: I sent you to get a 25,000 GP and you brought me a 25 gp diamond? Are you an idiot!?!?!?
Apprentice: No way, I came up with a plan. See, I told the jeweler that I would pay him 25,000 gp for this piece of crap. He thought I was crazy, but I talked him into it. Clever, huh?
Wizard: YOU WASTED 25,000 GP ON THAT CRAPPY DIAMOND?!?!?!
Apprentice: No, wait, don't Baleful Polymorph me into a toad! Wait, think about it. Now this IS a 25,000 gp diamond because that IS what it cost.
Wizard: Hmmm, yeah, come to think of it, that should work just fine.

Since both of those scenarios are absurd, the only conclusion is that the spell requires a specific quality of diamond and it won't work with anything else, but for our convenience, we just attach a price in GP and don't worry about the rest.

Which means, if the world starts running out diamonds and the price starts rising, spell casters will have to pay the new inflated prices to buy the right kind of diamonds, no matter how expensive that gets.

@ Mortalis: It was Blood Money. But casting that 500 times would drain you of all the blood in your body, I would think. Spells per day notwithstanding, I should think there's a limit on how much you're able to bleed before passing out becomes an issue. (Or at least there ought to be.)

Personally, I like Ataraxis's suggestion, since it raises ideas for quests to send higher-level characters on. The diamond supply is running low, so go to the Elemental Plane of Earth and retrieve some!

Would a blood mage get bonus' to this "amount of times before you pass out" check? :)

On a more serious note, the spell itself does Strength damage IIRC, and aditional strength damage based on how expensive the material was.

So if you drained yourself down to one strength, and cast Restoration, in theory, the spell would return your blood.

(or maybe fortify the blood cells to be super efficent, allowing your body to function with so much less blood your strength returns to full, whatever you prefer flavor wise. :)
)

Would a blood mage get bonus' to this "amount of times before you pass out" check? :)

On a more serious note, the spell itself does Strength damage IIRC, and aditional strength damage based on how expensive the material was.

So if you drained yourself down to one strength, and cast Restoration, in theory, the spell would return your blood.

(or maybe fortify the blood cells to be super efficent, allowing your body to function with so much less blood your strength returns to full, whatever you prefer flavor wise. :)
)

The problem of that idea is the fabricate spell. The material component of fabricate is the target of the spell too. So it persist after the next round. As it is transformed blood it revert back to blood the next turn, transforming your diamond in a puddle of blood.

Sunder bits of diamond off of incredibly large diamond, cast make whole, repeat as needed?

@ Mortalis: It was Blood Money. But casting that 500 times would drain you of all the blood in your body, I would think. Spells per day notwithstanding, I should think there's a limit on how much you're able to bleed before passing out becomes an issue. (Or at least there ought to be.)

Personally, I like Ataraxis's suggestion, since it raises ideas for quests to send higher-level characters on. The diamond supply is running low, so go to the Elemental Plane of Earth and retrieve some!

Ah, thank you for that. I couldn't remember the name, but I was also much too lazy to look it up, so you can see the conundrum I was in.

Anyway, my point was never to use it that many times a day, it would still take quite some time. But, it would still take much less time than waiting for them naturally.

The problem of that idea is the fabricate spell. The material component of fabricate is the target of the spell too. So it persist after the next round. As it is transformed blood it revert back to blood the next turn, transforming your diamond in a puddle of blood.

Actually you're wrong there.

You've used it as a material component in a spell, so it stays.

Also you can apparently make diamonds even faster than I thought. For the cost of 1d6 damage and 6 STR you can make a 2.5k diamond. Restoration (maybe some healing), and repeat

• A 10th level Pathfinder Chronicler can convert 1000gp into any material of the same value every day.
• A Well-Prepared Halfling can produce any diamond his Sleight of Hand check permits.

I like the Blood Money spell -- it does provide a non-cheesy workaround. In a world where no diamonds are available, casting a powerful spell would require giving yourself superior strength (so that you can remain conscious after taking a ridiculous amount of strength damage) and then immediately casting the powerful spell.

It looks as though an expedition to the Elemental Plane of Earth is the best approach if you want to find actual diamonds that you can save for later use -- I would have to imagine that that plane has some sort of diamond creating process going on.