D&D General Which D&D Words and Things are Post 1608?

[Paul Farquhar]

Rapiers were invented in 1600s so should not be ubiquitous

I think the reason rapiers were never ubiquitous in real life is they were useless for anything apart from duelling.

5e makes them far too good.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Infravision

I think their point is, Predetetor is science fiction, but infravision is a very real ability possessed by many real world animals. Ultravision too. Bees use it, and many "white" flowers have colours invisible the to humans.

The idea of a "visible spectrum" is human-centric. It's defined by the wavelengths humans can see. There is no reason to suppose anything that isn't human would see the same wavelengths.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Gygax seems to have consumed a massive amount of pulp fiction and 19th century medieval romances as a youth. I think it's equally likely that he accumulated his vocabulary and neologisms from Appendix N and such.

I'm pretty sure he read Lord of the Rings, even if he didn't like it very much.

 

[Azzy]

I think their point is, Predetetor is science fiction, but infravision is a very real ability possessed by many real world animals. Ultravision too. Bees use it, and many "white" flowers have colours invisible the to humans.

The idea of a "visible spectrum" is human-centric. It's defined by the wavelengths humans can see. There is no reason to suppose anything that isn't human would see the same wavelengths.

And it still is a lot less fantasy and more scientific than "sees in dark".

 

[Hussar]

Ninja - at least in the English language - 1964. Sir ian Fleming's "You Only Live Twice".

I remember reading that before and being utterly shocked by it.

 

[Cadence]

And it still is a lot less fantasy and more scientific than "sees in dark".

Would the polymorph spell give wizards the ability to find out that some animals see bluer than blue and others "see" heat as off the red end?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

And it still is a lot less fantasy and more scientific than "sees in dark".

It's more realistic than "sees in the dark". And more interesting. There are a lot of different ways to see in the dark, and different ways to counter it.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Would the polymorph spell give wizards the ability to find out that some animals see bluer than blue and others "see" heat as off the red end?

The ability to talk to species with different sensory capabilities would mean the folk of GenericFantasyland would learn this stuff a lot sooner than real world scientists did.

 

[Hussar]

grimoire (n.)​

magician's manual for invoking demons, 1849, from French grimoire, altered from grammaire"incantation; grammar" (see grammar). Also compare gramary, glamour.

 

[Hussar]

Funnily enough the word Ranger as associated with being mounted is very close:

ranger (n.)​

late 14c. (early 14c. in surnames), "gamekeeper, sworn officer of a forest whose work is to walk through it and protect it," agent noun from range (v.). Attested from 1590s in the general sense of "a rover, a wanderer;" from 1660s in the sense of "man (often mounted) who polices an area." The elite U.S. combat unit is so called from 1942 (organized 1941).