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SaMoCon
Senior Scribe
USA
403 Posts |
 Posted - 12 Jun 2015 : 21:47:18
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Couple things. Alchemical items require magic as part of their construction which makes them non-mundane items (somewhere less than magic but more than extraordinary). Mr. Science at the other end of that link is using modern knowledge & understanding of substances to retroactively apply to a Dungeons & Dragons setting. Give consideration to the information at these links when making your determination: Craft Skill, FR Alchemical Items & Extraordinary Items, Minor Creation. I would rule that since magical power is required in the ordinary creation of alchemical items that the minor creation spell cannot duplicate any of those items because they require magic other than the minor creation spell which still takes the same amount of time as just crafting the items normally with the Craft Alchemy skill.
As for the more outlandish stuff Lokiyn was suggesting, quite simply, characters do not have that knowledge nor the basis for thinking in such ways. We are living in a world built upon centuries of the scientific method, trial & experimentation, and mass education of the discoveries. The Forgotten Realms is not this world and the 4th edition made that point clear by wiping out all the nations that had education for the masses (Lantan, Halruaa, Nimbral) in a contrived event. I have young players (24 and under) all excited about using their own science knowledge to create bombs and firearms and aircraft in my games and I have to shut them down because their fighters, thieves, and wizards do not have the appropriate skills at the levels necessary to understand even the most basic principles of such things let alone the testing required to make the foundational experiments to open those pathways of discovery. People spend their lives making a single advance, often with tremendous expenditures of resources and with rivals that threaten to steal their thunder. I give my players the option of their characters becoming researchers and laboratory scientists for the games but they always decline in favor of action & adventure. Go figure.
Now, if your players built characters with knowledge of chemistry (not alchemy), botany (not nature or survival), biology, poison crafting/distilling, medicine (not healing), and then healing & knowledge nature - only then would I allow such since the character is clearly built to do such things from the beginning. But without very specific and way off the game setting skills, most everything Lokiyn put up outside the volume charts is just a useful "what if" for having D&D magic in a modern world setting. |
Make the best use of the system that's there, then modify the mechanics that don't allow you to have the fun you are looking for. |
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Minor Creation 3.5
