D&D 5E Scientist background

UngainlyTitan · Mar 28, 2019

Greenstone.Walker said:
Magical darkness. Heavier than air creatures able to fly without corresponding wing surface area. Flying castles and carpets and mages. Temperature variations of hundreds of degrees in less than a second, then reverting back with no residual effect. Variable gravity. Cursed locations that are actually cursed (not just Hollywood Haunted Houses). Gods that exist and affect the material world in response to who-knows-what. High-, low- and wild-magic zones. Flaming swords that consume no fuel or oxygen. Creatures that can change your atomic makeup simply by looking at you. Storms that pay no attention to meteorology. Stars that follow their own path. Astrology that actually works.

Nature in D&D is not stable.

How do you formulate laws of physics in a world where the outcome of experiments is subject to random factors (the whim of the gods, wild magic) or factors you can't perceive (a curse applied to an ancestor of one of your lab techs, an auspicious day in a religion you don't follow)?

Physical laws that include "might completely change or become irrelevant based on the items you are attuned to" and "might not work based on how the nearest god feels about the situation" aren't all that great at being predictable or testable.

All the above means, is that the fundamental physics of our universe does not apply. Magic as described in the D&D manuals is actually evidence that science is possible in the average D&D 'verse. You do not do the incantations for fireball and get a cloud of butterflies or icecream in most D&D games. Astrology is a science if it works.

UngeheuerLich · Mar 28, 2019

A feature should not give you any numerical benefit.

So my take would be:
Skills: nature, investigation
Tools: alchemist's supplies, herbalism
Feature: scientific knowledge.
Since you are schooled in physics and chemistry and the art of doing experiments, you might have better insight into complex contraptions that don't use magic.
When you do a short rest you can "identify" any nonmagical technical object or contraption. By using math and experiments you can get a general sense of the purpose and how to activate such a contraption.
You might also get insight into which is the probable better way to take by finding clues like fresh air and so on.

UngeheuerLich · Mar 28, 2019

ardoughter said:
All the above means, is that the fundamental physics of our universe does not apply. Magic as described in the D&D manuals is actually evidence that science is possible in the average D&D 'verse. You do not do the incantations for fireball and get a cloud of butterflies or icecream in most D&D games. Astrology is a science if it works.

It especially does not mean that someone who had the chance to do experiments in a stable system wirthout magic etc. can use the knowledge thereof to solve problems. Maybe some traps you would think work by magic just use magnetic fields. Would be a nice twist in a story.

abe ray · Mar 28, 2019

Anybody use science period in there adventures?

abe ray · Mar 29, 2019

W/could a scientist study magic on a scientific level? If so would they be able to help wizards come up with stronger spells in the same level as lower level spells?

abe ray · May 18, 2019

What scientific specialists would you fine people create?

Cap'n Kobold · May 19, 2019

abe ray said:
Anybody use science period in there adventures?

Quite regularly. Science is just looking at what happens when you do something, thinking about why it happens, and then checking your conclusion by doing something else and seeing if that matches what you think will happen.

abe ray said:
W/could a scientist study magic on a scientific level? If so would they be able to help wizards come up with stronger spells in the same level as lower level spells?

That is almost the entire basis for the Eberron setting. Magic and its application is studied scientifically and leads to improvements over time.
I wouldn't generally allow a character to make a breakthrough of a scale that allows a higher level spell to be cast in a lower level slot however: That sort of innovation probably happens once a millennia or so.

But Eberron magical science has determined that wands/spell focuses made of specific magically active materials give a damage bonus to certain energy types in cantrips for example.

abe ray said:
What scientific specialists would you fine people create?

That would simply be represented by the skill and tool choices of the existing background.

abe ray · May 25, 2019

Would a scientist be able to read wizard writing,or would they have their own writing methods?

jaelis · May 25, 2019

First, what is wizard writing? Second, a scientist would presumably be literate in whatever languages they speak, just like anyone else. I don’t think they should have any special language benefits. Unless they are a linguist, but I was picturing more of the physical sciences here.