D&D General Magical Science (Ecologies, Treatises on Magic, etc)

[Hexmage-EN]

I'm trying to put together a list of what I'm calling "magical science resources" for D&D. By this I mean that an attempt is made to try and explain aspects of D&D in a way that mirrors scientific literature. I'm especially interested in Dragon and Dungeon magazine content and content from 2E and earlier if anyone has any leads.

To help illustrate what I mean, I'm including sources such as "The Ecology of..." articles (for miscellaneous monsters), Draconomicon (for the anatomy and biology of dragons), Libris Mortis and Open Grave (for explanations on undeath), and the 4E Heroes of x books (which include sections on different forms of magic, such as arcane, divine, and psionic, while name dropping Evard and other mages).

 

[el-remmen]

"The Laws of Magic" from Dragon #106 (February 1986) by Charles Olsen jumped to mind b/c I wrote about this issue for HOW.I.RUN.IT.com back in May.

Personally, I have little to no use for that kind of article/info (and by "that kind," I mean totally theoretical - not the more practical stuff found in the Ecology of articles) - but there are lot of examples of it in early days esp.

 

[Hexmage-EN]

Personally, I have little to no use for that kind of article/info (and by "that kind," I mean totally theoretical - not the more practical stuff found in the Ecology of articles) - but there are lot of examples of it in early days esp.

I've suddenly developed a bit of an interest in this kind of lore because I think it would help add some more flavor to the world.


The 4E book Open Grave included in its section on undead anatomy the idea of a split between the body, animus (or spirit), and the soul that I use to this day. The idea is that the animus sustains the body and is suffused with necrotic energy in undeath. As a general rule, undead like liches, vampires and mummies have souls, while skeletons, zombies, and ghouls don't.

Speaking of undead, I don't remember exactly where this was, but I recall reading an old Dragon magazine article that stated zombies were able to quickly rise through the soil above their graves due to an initial burst of energy. I found the fact that someone felt the need to explain that in the faction kind of amusing.

 

[Richards]

There's an AD&D 1E product called Lords of Darkness that does a pretty good job explaining how the various main types of undead work along those lines.

Johnathan

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

3.5's Lords of Madness did a pretty outstanding job of this with various aberrations - easily on par with Liber Mortis and Draconomicon. Weird how it tends to go unmentioned when those two get brought up.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

While I have no useful resources for you, I can at least impart my preferred term: Esoteric Philosophy.

That is, "regular" philosophy is the study of thought, structure, and category (axiology, mathematics, ethics, etc.), and "natural" philosophy is the study of what things exist in the world and why they exist that way, hence "esoteric" philosophy is the study of the rules of magic and why they exist that way. I have had more than one character who graduated with a "Bachelor's of Esoteric Philosophy" meaning that he studied magic theory.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I'm trying to put together a list of what I'm calling "magical science resources" for D&D. By this I mean that an attempt is made to try and explain aspects of D&D in a way that mirrors scientific literature. I'm especially interested in Dragon and Dungeon magazine content and content from 2E and earlier if anyone has any leads.

To help illustrate what I mean, I'm including sources such as "The Ecology of..." articles (for miscellaneous monsters), Draconomicon (for the anatomy and biology of dragons), Libris Mortis and Open Grave (for explanations on undeath), and the 4E Heroes of x books (which include sections on different forms of magic, such as arcane, divine, and psionic, while name dropping Evard and other mages).

2e's Monstrous Arcana series was all about this. In fact, a lot of 2e products were framed this way. One more thing I love about it.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Ravenloft's Van Richten series is another stand-out.

 

[bloodtide]

Way back in 2E was Volo's Guide to All Things Magical: it is crammed full of 'magical science'

The 2E Complete Wizards handbook and Complete book of Necromancers have some.

The 2E Tome of Magic and Players Options: spells & magic and DM Option: high level campaigns has some

2E Planescape touches this a lot in: The Planescape Campaign Setting, The Planewalkers Handbook and On Hallowed Ground.

Each of the Encyclopedia Arcane books from Mongoose Publishing does a deep dive into each magic School......but the BIG one here to look for is the book: Components and Foci.