Examples of Magical Experimentation and Innovation

[unseenmage]

An exchange over here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22527446&postcount=326) got me to wondering about examples of experimentation and innovation in the D&D-verse.

What classes, feats, creatures, rules, etc are there that are said to have come into being thanks to mortal magical innovation, experimentation, etc.

For the sake of arguement we'll say everything else was made by the gods etc wholecloth.


I'll start with some easy ones...

Custom Magic Traps, Magic Items, and Spells

Gelatinous Cubes (according to some older fluff IIRC)

Half-Golems (MM2)

Owlbears

[BloodSnake'sCha]

Half-Minutor have a text about them being made by wizards

Elan.

[Fizban]

Isn't that basically everything though? I'm pretty sure most mortals are described as having advanced their way up from primitive tribes to their current standing, which would make everything past basic humanoid hit dice a mortal advancement. So that'd be all magical classes unless you're deliberately excluding Clerics for being godly, Sorcerers for being "born", and Warlocks for being "pacts" (Oh and Ursinals take away Wizardry too). And by extension all magical feats not printed on a monster, all spells not listed on a monster, all created magical creatures not explicitly created by other monsters, and so on. This list is going to include a lot of splatbook stuff thanks to relative book-independence, and in particular every prestige class.

Unless you want a detailed accounting of that stuff, which is highly dependent on setting. Forgotten Realms has multiple monsters with innate casting who are supposed to have had huge magical empires before humanoids rose to power, so they can claim basically all magical advancements not explicitly given to others. Eberron does the same with giants, and default DnD is obsessed with giving dragons credit for everything. Dragonlance makes wizardy a divine art. But there's also a ton of things which it would be silly to say mortals didn't invent just because a monster somewhere had it before them- parallel research.

If the list is simply meant to be things which are called out as mortal "innovations," I'm afraid I'll have to bow out, as I usually find those lines sickening and unevenly applied. Oh look, Duskblade is an elven class, because elves invented the idea of learning magic and stickfighting at the same time. Oh look, the Netherise invented everything because of course they did. It only comes up when the writer decides to make this special thing belong to this other special thing based on their preference, not for any serious reason.

Maybe ask afro? He might know some of what the books agree on for the overarching fluff.

Edit- well okay, what you probably want is stuff that's specifically called out as mad-sciency, but I think the question has a broader import.

[unseenmage]

...

If the list is simply meant to be things which are called out as mortal "innovations," I'm afraid I'll have to bow out, as I usually find those lines sickening and unevenly applied. Oh look, Duskblade is an elven class, because elves invented the idea of learning magic and stickfighting at the same time. Oh look, the Netherise invented everything because of course they did. It only comes up when the writer decides to make this special thing belong to this other special thing based on their preference, not for any serious reason.
Which is exactly the sort of thing I am looking for.
It is pixel-click-ey and irritatingly dependant on widely dispersed specifics, which is why I'm trying to croudsource it some while my molasses-like memory struggles to recall what few are stored therein.


Maybe ask afro? He might know some of what the books agree on for the overarching fluff.
Last I asked them to a thread they didn't know why they were there...



Edit- well okay, what you probably want is stuff that's specifically called out as mad-sciency, but I think the question has a broader import.
Agreed, which I am all for discussing. Kinda why I gave it a thread. :smallsmile: