Can diamond dust be substituted for diamonds for material components?

Question

Some spells have expensive material components. In the case of restoration(s) it takes the form of 100-5,000gp worth of diamond dust, which seems to be a common spell casting material component. Now resurrection requires a diamond worth 10,000.

They both require diamond, just the form of it changes. Would it be acceptable to use diamond dust worth 10,000 since that should be much easier to acquire than a single diamond worth 10,000? Its also more versatile since you can just keep pouring diamond dust until you run out or have enough than having diamonds.

Answer 1

A diamond worth 10,000 gp is a grand jewel; diamond dust is just diamond dust

An uncrushed diamond can't substitute for diamond dust nor vice versa. That is, the diamond dust that's needed as part of the the material component for the spell stoneskin, for example, can't be sifted, put in a big pile, and used instead of the lone diamond needed as a material component for the spell resurrection et al.

As an aside, Dungeons and Dragons, Third Edition mandated a lone diamond as the material component for the spell resurrection et al., but 3.5e changed this material component to diamonds collectively worth a certain amount because randomly rolling such a lone valuable diamond was too rare. Pathfinder returned to the lone diamond but, instead of random gem generation, uses DM-placed gems, recommending that gems valued at 5,000 gp or more be rare.

Answer 2

No

Restoration has a listed material component of diamond dust, so you need to have diamond dust on hand to cast it.

Resurrection has a listed material component of a single diamond worth 10000 gp, so you have to have a single diamond worth 100000 gp on hand to cast it.

A 100000 gp diamond can likely be ground down into 100 or 1000 gp worth of diamond dust (at huuuge loss since the value of a large high quality diamond is much greater than its weight in tiny diamonds) but that'll take time, tools, and likely some expertise to produce. Assuming you've got those available and are willing to take the loss you could likely get away only carrying around large expensive diamonds.

Answer 3

If the diamond dust used to be one single diamond, then with a generous interpretation of the rules, it might be possible to use the Mending spell to turn it back into a complete diamond.

This spell repairs damaged objects, restoring 1d4 hit points to the object. If the object has the broken condition, this condition is removed if the object is restored to at least half its original hit points. All of the pieces of an object must be present for this spell to function.

A generous DM might let you turn a pulverized diamond back into a diamond. But I could also very well see that a more strict DM denies it on the basis that "All of the pieces of an object must be present", so just one missing grain would be enough to cause the spell to fail. And unless the diamond was destroyed right now under very controlled conditions, it's just not plausible that you did not lose even a single grain.

Answer 4

It has a value of 100gp. Don't give it too much thought. Although it is true that converting a precious diamond into powder would diminish its total value, D&D/Pathfinder does not model luxury item pricing in such detail.