(Spell Mechanics) Blood Money

Self-Interested Preface: Blood Money is a 1st-level spell on the magus, sorcerer, witch and wizard spell lists that allows STR damage to be taken instead of paying for costly material components.  It's useful in a pinch, like being in a dungeon or whatever and not having your normal material components, or just for saving money in general.  This is a partial guide to its use and some examples of its capability.  Blogger fucked the charts up a little, but they should be readable. --- Blood Money (Verbatim) School transmutation; Level magus 1, sorcerer/wizard 1, witch 1 CASTING Casting Time 1 swift action Components V, S EFFECT Range 0 ft. Effect 1 material component Duration Instantaneous

DESCRIPTION

You cast blood money just before casting another spell. As part of this spell's casting, you must cut one of your hands, releasing a stream of blood that causes you to take 1d6 points of damage. When you cast another spell in that same round, your blood transforms into one material component of your choice required by that second spell. Even valuable components worth more than 1 gp can be created, but creating such material components requires an additional cost of 1 point of Strength damage, plus a further point of damage for every full 500 gp of the component's value (see below chart for cost/damage scale).  You cannot create magic items with blood money.
Material components created by blood money transform back into blood at the end of the round if they have not been used as a material component. Spellcasters who do not have blood cannot cast blood money, and those who are immune to Strength damage (such as undead spellcasters) cannot use blood money to create valuable material components.

Cost (GP)	1-499	500-999	1000-1499	1500-1999	2000-2499	2500-2999	3000-3499	3500-3999	4000-4499	4500-4999	5000-5499	5500-5999	6000-6499
STR Dam.	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13

Cost (GP)	6500-6999	7000-7499	7500-7999	8000-8499	8500-8999	9000-9499	9500-9999	10000-10499	-	-	-	-	25000-25499
STR Dam.	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	-	-	-	-	50

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Notable Expensive Material-Component Requisite Spells And Their Expensive Material Components

(Longer-Action) Lesser Simulacrum: 50 GP per HD of creature, powdered rubies
Communal Stoneskin: 100 GP per creature, granite and diamond dust

(Divine) Restoration: 100 GP (1000 GP if restoring negative level), diamond dust
Stoneskin: 250 GP, granite and diamond dust

True Seeing: 250 GP, ointment

(Longer-Action) Simulacrum: 500 GP per HD of creature, powdered rubies

(Longer-Action) Permanency: varies from 500 GP to 25000 GP, diamond dust

(Longer-Action) Clone: 1000 GP[+500 GP for laboratory supplies], special laboratory supplies

Protection From Spells: 500 GP[+1000 GP per creature affected as focus], diamond [diamond per creature]
Limited Wish: 1500 GP, single diamond
(Divine) Greater Restoration: 5000 GP, diamond dust
(Divine/Witch) Raise Dead: 5000 GP, single diamond
(Longer-Action) Binding: 500 GP per HD of creature to be bound, opals
(Divine/Witch) Resurrection: 10000 GP, single diamond

Soul Bind: 1000 GP per HD of creature to be bound, single black sapphire
Wish[/(Divine) powerful Miracle]: 25000 GP, single diamond

Notes

Keep in mind that you always take the 1d6 damage and the spell must be a standard action to cast.

It appears to be possible to empower blood money, increasing its spell level slot to 3^rd but increasing the generated material component’s value by 50%.

Empower Spell (Metamagic)

You can increase the power of your spells, causing them to deal more damage. Benefit: All variable, numeric effects of an empowered spell are increased by half including bonuses to those dice rolls. Saving throws and opposed rolls are not affected, nor are spells without random variables. Level Increase: +2 (an empowered spell uses up a spell slot two levels higher than the spell's actual level.)

The wording is “variable, numeric effects” and not “variable, numeric costs”, which would improve the viability of this spell for more expensive components as noted on the following chart: 

Cost (GP)	1-749	750-1499	1500-2249	2250-2999	3000-3749	3750-4499	4500-5249
STR Dam.	1	2	3	4	5	6	7

 

5250-5999	6000-6749	6750-7499	7500-8249	8250-8999	9000-9749	9750- 10499	24750-25499
8	9	10	11	12	13	14	34

 

In addition, the Ring of Inner Fortitude and its variants reduce ability damage without creating the immunity noted as a disqualifier in the spell’s description.

--- Ring Of Inner Fortitude (altered to comprise effects only) Aura moderate conjuration; CL 7th; Slot ring; Price 18,000 gp (minor), 42,000 gp (major), 66,000 gp (greater) Description A minor ring of inner fortitude reduces ability damage or temporary ability penalties the wearer takes by 2 points and ability drain by 1 point. If an effect targets multiple ability scores, the ring reduces the damage, drain, or penalty for all ability scores. A major ring of inner fortitude reduces ability damage/temporary penalties by 4 and reduces ability drain by 2. A greater ring of inner fortitude reduces ability damage/temporary penalties by 6 and reduces ability drain by 3.

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Presumably, this spell can be used to create partial spell components unless spell component is comprised of a single item.  As such, blood-money diamond dust should be able to freely intermingle with actual diamond dust to reduce STR damage (due to an arcane caster’s typically-low strength).

Currently, this spell is arcane and a first-level on the Magus, Sorcerer, Witch and Wizard spell lists.  Wands and scrolls cannot be activated as the swift action this spell requires to be of use, barring its use in the Restoration, *Raise Dead, and Miracle spells and variants listed above (*unless you’re a Witch).  However, this would be awesome.  Below are the considered and eliminated methods by which this spell could be made available (or the above divine spells could be made available to an arcane caster) for consistent use.

Scroll (standard action)
     (this will only work if the spell requiring the material component is quickened)
Wand (standard action)
     (this will only work if the spell requiring the material component is quickened)
Samsaran Mystic Past Life racial ability (can be used for Raise Dead variant spells which are also on the Witch spell list)

Mystic Theurge prestige class (possible, but generally makes for an exceptionally shitty character)

Limited Wish/Wish (this works, though the material components would have to be paid for both spells)

Limited Wish is a powerful spell requiring a standard action and monetary sacrifice (a diamond worth 1500 GP) to perform an extraordinary feat of magic.

Description A limited wish lets you create nearly any type of effect. For example, a limited wish can do any of the following things. Duplicate any sorcerer/wizard spell of 6th level or lower, provided the spell does not belong to one of your opposition schools. Duplicate any non-sorcerer/wizard spell of 5th level or lower, provided the spell does not belong to one of your opposition schools. Duplicate any sorcerer/wizard spell of 5th level or lower, even if it belongs to one of your opposition schools. Duplicate any non-sorcerer/wizard spell of 4th level or lower, even if it belongs to one of your opposition schools. Undo the harmful effects of many spells, such as insanity. Produce any other effect whose power level is in line with the above effects, such as a single creature automatically hitting on its next attack or taking a -7 penalty on its next saving throw. A duplicated spell allows saving throws and spell resistance as normal, but the save DC is for a 7th-level spell. When a limited wish spell duplicates a spell with a material component that costs more than 1,000 gp, you must provide that component (in addition to the 1,500 gp diamond component for this spell).

Limited Wish duplicates the effects of spells without duplicating the casting time.  Using Limited Wish, which would cost an extra 1500 GP (4 add. STR damage or 3 add. STR damage if empowered) in blood-material components, allows a workaround for Blood Money’s caveat that a spell must be cast within a standard action on the same turn and the material component expended before the next round, when it turns back into blood.
Longer-action spells which can be cast as a standard using Limited Wish now include:
Lesser Simulacrum (Illusion 4^th level)
Restoration (Non-Sorcerer/Wizard, 4^th level)
Permanency (Universal, 5^th level)

Raise Dead (Non-Sorcerer/Wizard, 5^th level)
Contingency (Evocation, 6^th level) (normally requires an ivory statuette focus but does not as a limited wish)