D&D 5E (2014) Scientist background

[abe ray]

Virologists(scientists of disease) would definitely (at least) TRY to cure magical diseases! But how would they go about doing it though?

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Virologist are not "scientists of disease" they are scientist of viral diseases. That is, diseases caused by an infection of a virus. There are diseases that are caused by bacteria and diseases like diabetes or heart diseases that are not caused by microbiological agents.

As to, whether, medical professionals, who are not proficient in magic, are able to treat a magical disease depends on the underlying nature of magic or at least the disease. If the disease has a predictable course and symptoms then doctors could treat the symptoms and keep the patient alive until the disease runs its course.

So, basically, if magic follows patterns and rules and one can learn about it nature by application of the scientific method then magical diseases can be treated and overcome by scientific methods.
If on the otherhand, ,magic is somewhat arbitrary in nature and has not discernible rules then the scientific method is of little help.

At the end of the day, as DM do you want the scientific method to work in you D&D campaign. This also relates to can anyone do magic or only special people.

 

[Derren]

Such a character would be incredibly handicapped

• Most of his scientific knowledge would be of no use as the lacks the basics to implement them
• He would have absolutely no clue about magic, even less than the commoner who has heard stories
• He would not know anything about the politics and culture of the area he is in
• He would likely not even know the language of the area he appeared
• He would likely lack any skills which are seen as normal or common like how to use flint to make a fire

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Such a character would be incredibly handicapped

• Most of his scientific knowledge would be of no use as the lacks the basics to implement them
• He would have absolutely no clue about magic, even less than the commoner who has heard stories
• He would not know anything about the politics and culture of the area he is in
• He would likely not even know the language of the area he appeared
• He would likely lack any skills which are seen as normal or common like how to use flint to make a fire

Yes if a person from our world is dropped with no resources in FR or Greyhawk. Ebberon is pretty close to or already had the scientific method.
However, a universe like Buffy the Vampire Slayer or the Dresden Files where normal physics applies alongside magic is different. Here, if for some reason the knowledge of magic becomes mainstream. The already established scientific facts are the same but there is this whole load of information that was previously unknown. Then the theories would have to be revisited.
Shadowrun is a real kicker, because it appears that one aspect of the universe, magic, sometimes works and sometimes does not. This throws doubt on the assumption that the results of experiments observed on earth would be the same if the experiment was conducted anywhere else in space and time. If that is not true then most of our cosmology and astrophysics is open to question.

 

[abe ray]

Any new thoughts on scientists in a magical setting?

 

[Tonguez]

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

Rutherford said Physics is the only true science, all else is stamp collecting.

In DnD Science is already covered by Lore:Nature and the Alchemy kit. Physics doesnt work

 

[abe ray]

W/could alchemy cover modern chemistry in any way/shape or form?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

W/could alchemy cover modern chemistry in any way/shape or form?

Modern chemistry arose out of alchemy, and many of the practical techniques (e.g. distillation) are exactly the same. What has changed is our understanding of why things work the way they do.

But in a D&D setting, it's probably alchemy that is correct, and modern chemistry that is wrong.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

W/could alchemy cover modern chemistry in any way/shape or form?

Yes and no, the terms Alchemy and Chemistry are really there to distinguish the underlying paradigms. In a world where magic actually works, neither paradigm really holds true.
So, either could be used but would convey different meanings in the game world than the corresponding term meant in the real world.
Unless, of course, you based the game worlds magic on the beliefs underpinning historical Alchemy.
Broadly speaking there are two ways at looking at magic in a fictional setting. There is the Hard Magic approach. That magic has rules, that these rules are fixed an immutable, so a hard magic world could conceivably be amenable to a scientific world view. A Soft Magic world might not have that property.
For a scientific world view, you need to be able to establish facts reproducibly. That is, in principle, anyone could repeat an experiment (or observation) and get the same result as long as they had the right skills and equipment. The other underlying principle is that a theory can be falsified by a test or observation.

 

[Bacon Bits]

Any new thoughts on scientists in a magical setting?

I think a lot of the question becomes... what are the fundamental physics of your D&D world. Like when I run the game, the elements are Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Positive Energy, and Negative Energy because those are the indivisible elements in the D&D world, and magic is basically an additional fundamental force that can affect things in extremely unpredictable ways.

So knowing our Earth's rules isn't necessarily useful. You might think that iron rusts because oxygen in the air reacts with the base metal and forms a ferrous oxide of some kind. But in D&D, the water attacks the fire that was added to the iron during the smelting and forging process or the air reacts with the earth that was purified by the smelting process, and this causes it to begin reverting to the base earth that it originally came from. And that's not an artistic description, that's actually what happens.

In the past I've used this explanation to keep gunpowder unavailable. Even if you wanted to metagame, you couldn't Captain Kirk your way into a bomb because there's no reason for the process to be the same. Sulpher, carbon, and potassium nitrate don't exist similarly, even if they're called brimstone, charcoal, and saltpeter. The formula for black powder doesn't necessarily involve combining those things in any way, shape or form.