Science In D&D 3.5

[Bartmanhomer]

Is there any science in D&D 3.5?

[Bakkan]

Can you expand upon your question a bit? There are various knowledge skills, so there could be knowledge(physics) for instance. The Heal skill could involve medicinal science, and knowledge(nature) is certainly botany of a sort. Beyond that, there's craft(alchemy), which is just a form of chemistry, and it's common in lore for there to be wizards' colleges which study magic via experimentation and measurement, i.e. science.

[Bartmanhomer]

Can you expand upon your question a bit? There are various knowledge skills, so there could be knowledge(physics) for instance. The Heal skill could involve medicinal science, and knowledge(nature) is certainly botany of a sort. Beyond that, there's craft(alchemy), which is just a form of chemistry, and it's common in lore for there to be wizards' colleges which study magic via experimentation and measurement, i.e. science.

Ok. How does science get involved from a D&D 3.5 perspective? I know that Constructs and Warforged are considered machines and so are Modrons (even though they're outsiders.)

[Vaern]

If you look at the PHB's equipment table for goods and services, the water clock is a very expensive and massive device weighing hundreds of pounds which is carefully calibrated to use the flow of water to calculate time... and not particularly accurately at that. It can tell you the time within 30 minutes per day since it was last set - in other words, if the clock was recalibrated last week, then today it might be running as much as three and a half hours fast or three and a half hours slow. This is likely to be the most advanced piece of technology readily available without the application of magic.

Most of the mechanical creature you see in the books are created by magic. Golems are simply animated; warforged are brought to life with a more complicated cocktail of enchantments that have granted them sentience and a semblance of a soul. Modrons are composed of the essence of Law itself and, as outsiders native to another plane, were not created by the mortals - thus, whether you consider them to be machines ore living creatures is irrelevant, as their existence is completely independent of the material plane's collective knowledge of science and technology.

The water clock should be used as a baseline for the most advanced technology readily available within the world. That isn't to say that it's the most advanced thing that can exist without magic - there may be some genius engineer or gnome tinkerer somewhere creating much more complex trinkets - but anything more advanced than the water clock should not be commonplace. Anything more advanced in function is usually either fueled, assisted, or driven entirely by magic. In a fantasy world, it is sometimes necessary to ask whether the investment of time and money to research and develop a bit of technology is practical when the effect you wish to achieve can already you reached with a spell.

[Anymage]

The DMG includes rules for laser weapons, and many modules out there have included sci-fi creatures instead of purely fantasy ones.

That said, both magitech and actual technology-tech will massively change what your campaign world looks like. Your wizardly sage (with high ranks in tons of knowledge and craft skills) can kinda sorta look like a modern day scientist - or a movie mad scientist - if you squint and look at it funny. Make tech broadly applicable like real-life tech tends to become, though, and watch your game of kings and knights and magic elves look like something very different.

[DMVerdandi]

The question you desire to ask, but cannot due to memespeak is:

"What is the technological/Engineering level of Dungeons and Dragons Settings?"

The answer is, somewhere in between the 14th and 15th century. It's basically the end of the medieval period + VERY reliable magic.
Now, the study of magic IS a science, and spell craft IS engineering, just on the Thaumaturgical field, so in some ways, they would be Far ahead of us in having a system of technology that is post-classical physics.

But as far as the aesthetic style, with using more wood and stone rather than things like glass and cement, and steel, they are behind. They do not have a way for the muggles to transform materials on an industrial level, and your productive power strongly relies on your ability to use magic, rather than ownership of say, a factory.

Economically, it's a cluster. Basically, it is doing everything in setting to NOT become the tippyverse, even though something similar would be the logical conclusion.



Ebberon is different. Ebberon in some ways IS the natural logical conclusion. Magewright is probably the most realistic thing they have going for them. That would be IMO the average citizen. Education and learning without suppression would be easy enough for anyone to come by simply because it makes life more efficient not having complete idiots as a population, that knowledge of spells that aren't that crazy would disseminate.

If anything, it would be most efficient to make most of the population spell casters, and then by aptitude class them by what is would best suit them, then suppress the ability to use certain abilities, through a geas for example.

That is how caste systems come to be. They are a natural outgrowth of having enough people to organize into specific trades/talents/professions.
The open way to do it is with guilds. The closed way to do it is with public colleges.



Anywho. If you are looking for campy mad-scientist white coats, and glass vials, and dexter's laboratory hijinks, look elsewhere, but if you can't ebberon will suffice. But it's just magic being applied as technology, rather than pure engineering.

[shaikujin]

If the rules for guns and lasers in the DMG do not count. A&EG itself has the Ironclad, Submersible, and Zeppelin. There's also the partially magical Ornithopter and Dwarven Tunneler. Eberron has the lightning rail and airships.

Alchemy is like chemistry. All the alchemical gadgets would be akin to mundane science since they are non-magical. There's enough understanding of chemistry to process oleum (a type of petroleum in Sandstorm) and flash powder. Faerun has smokepowder. Stormwrack has gunpowder (and dynamite I think).

There's also an adventure module which contains blasters and powered armor. It's from a crashed alien spaceship though. Which means that while it's not developed by the native world, there exists an advanced race in the game world somewhere.

[Goaty14]

The amount of science that goes into a D&D campaign setting depends how nerdy your group is.

*drops mic*

[DrKerosene]

I think science comes in when you ask "can I swim through lava if I have immunity to fire damage?"

The simplified sciencey answer seems to be "it's like heavy (and very hot) mud, not water".

[Buufreak]

The question you desire to ask, but cannot due to memespeak is:


I came for the science. I stayed for this sentence.

I will, however, expand. What do you define as science, OP? Is it crap you find on youtube that gets labeled as "science?" Or is it anything that qualifies as science? Because really, everything is science. Do characters bleed? Get sick? Lose limbs? All science (mechanics, biology, and physiology, respectively).

What about equipment? Fletching is a science. So is smithing and metallurgy. So is tanning leather. So is literally any practiced and methodical process that produces a predictable and tried result.

See, when you go about asking a vague question like that, I'm simply going to tell you to look in your PHB and find me any sentence. Science is in it, both literally, and on a meta level (because it took "science" to print that book). I will leave you with a thought: how do you define science? I usually go with the standard of "something that follows the scientific method," which can be found here. (https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/science-fair/steps-of-the-scientific-method)

[Arbane]

..... And then there's the stuff you get when you've got physics or chemistry majors in the group, like trying to use spells to conjure up antimatter, using alchemy to make plastic explosives, or just capping the entrance to the dungeon and trying to kill all the kobolds by asphyxiation. (DM: "'Oxygen'? What's that?")