Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Skink 06-19-06, 02:37 PM	So first things first, are there some kind of schools or universities in forgotten realms that is not about magic? I’m thinking of making a scientist character, a wizard, but he started his days as a scientist. He would be the absent minded professor type with a special interest in biology and what would you call a biologist in a fantasy setting anyway? A physician :confused: All help appreciated
Fithero 06-19-06, 10:25 PM	The church of Oghma is all about knowldge and such... but thats about as much as i can help. Just take lots of knowledges and then eventually go into the loremaster class... or something. Later
Limousine_Liberal 06-20-06, 12:55 AM	It really will depend on your DM and what you mean by "biology". Before the Rennaissance, Europeans had only a rudimentary understanding of the internal anatomy, and almost no understanding of what the individual organs did. The notion that blood circulates in the body and that the heart pumps it is 17th century (before then, they thought the heart was the seat of intelligence and the origin of the body's heat and that the brain's function was to help cool the body). The liver was thought to be the most important organ becauise it was the origin of the "humors" that kept you healthy. In an age where surgery meant likely infection and death, there simply was no need to open up a living human being and poke around. You'd almost always do more harm than good. Physicians (also called "physics") didn't really practice "medicine" as we know it. They might brew meaningless potions for you to drink (or bring your humors into balance and thereby cure disease), the might make you breathe in certain aromas (because bad smells were thought to cause disease--hence "malaria" literally means "bad air"--and therefore, they reasoned, good smelling aire must cure disease), and of course they might recommend a course of bleedings by razor blade or by leeches (typically administered by barbers, who also doubled as surgeons if you needed anything amputated). There really wasn't much that we'd today consider "sound". So if your DM is a stickler for so-called "realism", biology of the day would have consisted of "naturalism", in other words knowing lots of stuff about animals. That is a very old science (for example, Aristotle stiudied animals in great detail and was, so far as we know, the first person to realize that dolphins were mammals rather than fish). That's solidly in the Knowledge (nature) category. In fact, much of modern scoence might be subsumed in Knowledge (nature) depending on your DM. In fact, "a physic" mean both "a physician" and "one ho studies the natural world" which is how the modern scioence of "physics" got its name. It's a cool character idea that can work very well, but the rules as written so not fully answer the question of how to pull it off. The DM has a lot of leeway in this area to make science as advanced or as limited as he likes (perhaps, for example, the world has used magic to gain a better understanding of science, or perhaps they are so reliant on magic that the study of science has never gotten off the ground, perhaps for that amtter the world is entirely magical (divine, arcane, psionic and other) and there is no logical natural science as we know it) Perhaps you and your DM can invent an organization (using the rules in the PHB II) that focuses on the study of the natural world and its properties.
Skyrocket 06-20-06, 02:53 AM	Ditto on what Limousine_Liberal said. DaVinci got inspiration for some of his flying machines by studying birds. The earliest work in what we would consider genetics was done by a monk studying controlling the color of peas in his garden. Astronomy is strongly tied with mathmatics and it's surprising how advanced very ancient cultures were in that area. I learned in college that the Greeks used math to figure out the world was round ages before Magellon proved it. So you could just have your guy be someone who's interested in what can be learned about the world that isn't tied to magic. Maybe he wants to prove that many problems aren't caused by gods and demons but by nature. Thus giving people more peace of mind.
Trydan 07-10-06, 03:35 PM	Interesting idea. But don't let yourself be too hindered by real history. Use ideas from it, and add a touch of magic to extrapolate to some new ways of doing things. Consider these developments. Herbalism --> Medicine Astrology --> Astronomy Alchemy --> Chemistry (and later molecular/nuclear physics) Siegecraft --> Mechanics Fortifications/Temples --> Architecture Mysticism --> Knowledge Enlightenment --> Philosophy etc. In each case, there is a "pseudo-science" precursor to the "real-science". (I'm always inspired by the fact that Sir Isaac Newton - probably the greatest scientist ever - was also an alchemist and magician). As another example, as recent as 60-70 years ago, people were still being put into prison in Europe for being witches! So, take one of these and go a bit further. Say, biology. Use herbalism. Use magic. Devise a system of classifications. Have some ideas about how the body works and what can be used for what. Make some deliberate mistakes. Say that, for example, the liver really was the source of the humours and that humours were real, and mix in some spells (whether you believe they are spells or not) to back up your claims. Don't forget an enthusiast doesn't necessarily have to be right.