D&D 5E Scientist background

[Tonguez]

The Scientist background in a DnD setting is a bit pointless really, since DnD doesnt work according to Earth based physics. All you get is proficiency in Analysis and Experimentation. You get to Investigate a substance to identify particular traits and then experiment with those traits ie you can do basic alchemy by guess work.

Much better to take Engineer/Technologist and get the ability to tinker and jury rig machines

 

[Tonguez]

The Scientist background in a DnD setting is a bit pointless really, since DnD doesnt work according to Earth based physics. All you get is proficiency in Analysis and Experimentation. You get to Investigate a substance to identify particular traits and then experiment with those traits ie you can do basic alchemy by guess work.

Much better to take Engineer/Technologist and get the ability to tinker and jury rig machines

Was it Rutherford who said that the only true science is Physics, all else is stamp collecting

 

[abe ray]

How would a scientist handle curses or other evil magic?

 

[abe ray]

"Simple" to a mathematician or physicist doesn't mean quite the same thing as simple to a layperson though. Maxwell's equations are paragons of simplicity and elegance, but they still involve pretty gnarly vector calculus. (You can simplify them even further using tensor notation, but now you're doing tensor calculus!)

Of course mathematics in dnd might look different from our mathematics because the numerals might look different, look at ancient Roman numerals and arbiac numerals After all they look nothing alike & yet they are both numbers.
along the scientist background lines: would a scientist make a good wizard?

 

[Tonguez]

Some scientists do, but not all. You might be thinking of physicists, but botanists are scientists too.

Physics is the only true science, everything else is just stamp collecting

 

[abe ray]

Physics is the only true science, everything else is just stamp collecting

Really??

 

[Garthanos]

 

[Tonguez]

Really??

yes, its a quote attributed to Ernest Rutherford (the guy who split the atom) but it was first reported in 1939, 2 years after his death in a book that made the statement "Rutherford used to divide science into physics and stamp collecting"

 

[Son of the Serpent]

This is going to be lost on almost anyone (even most mathematicians and physicists) but its actually a little unclear whether math or physics is truly the most fundemental and also whether math really is immutable or if thats a grand illusion of some sort. Sounds silly right? Well, at such extremes as the fundement of reality things get a little silly. The reasons it gets a little unclear are...well probably unfathomable in number and scope, but the following will possibly give a little sense of some of them. Currently, its uncertain what the absolute most basic building blocks and units of existance are and whether all of them actually are entirely consistant. Moreover, currently there is reason to believe that information itself is actually somehow a more basic building block than the simplest units of space, energy, and matter and also actually less capable of being created or destroyed in its most basal form. Great, so what's the issue? Well, this actually means its hard to sort out if these most fundemental pieces are fundementally and primarily math first and physics second or vice vs. The "mathiness" of this info may only be an emergent thing. Basic logic works kinda weird all the way down there. Or is it up...there? Point is its a weird time in math and physics and basically the line between the two is getting very blurry.

 

[Son of the Serpent]

Physics is the only true science, everything else is just stamp collecting

See above quote.

Interesting things happening in physics right now and causing the lines between it abd "pure math" to blur