Thanks to a heist of mixed success, I have in my possession a single diamond worth roughly 550 gold pieces. If I use this diamond to cast Revivify, will casting the spell consume the whole diamond? I know that I could also use the diamond to cast Raise Dead, but that comes with drawbacks and is a bit overkill if the target has been dead for less than 10 rounds.
In my understanding, the worth of diamonds IRL comes from their ability to refract light, so even if Revivify doesn't consume the entire diamond, would the remaining piece of rock be of significantly less value?
Best Answer
RAW speaking, it wouldn't work to begin with
In the description for Revivify, it states that the material component is:
So you have two problems; it's stating diamonds as a plural meaning that it is expecting more than a single diamond, and it is giving an exact amount.
If you compare this with say, Raise Dead, it has a very different description:
In this case, it calls out that it must be a single diamond, but that one diamond can be worth 500 gp, or more. That "at least" wording is missing from Revivify.
That being said, I'm sure most DM's would allow some leeway against RAW, but not consume.
As a DM, I'd say that for Revivify, if you happened to have a single diamond that was worth at least 300 gp, I would allow it. But it would always consume the whole diamond. Magic doesn't give money back...
As an example, the Find Familiar spell asks for "10 gp worth of charcoal, incense, and herbs that must be consumed by fire in a brass brazier." If you put in 15 gp worth of charcoal, incense, and herbs, would you expect the extra 5 gp to not burn?