This is a neat Dungeons & Dragons story about a character named Jerry the Alchemist. This was posted in response to the question: “Have you ever played as an alchemist? Or any character who uses chemistry to his advantage?”
(via: r/DnDGreentext)
Jerry the Alchemist – Dungeons & Dragons Story
Lever-action crossbows figure prominently in the “Nantucket Trilogy” by S.M. Stirling. 1990s Americans stranded in the bronze age apply their mechanical engineering knowledge to produce superior crossbows with a lever action.
Lever action crossbow is just ok but it’d be low poundage, you could get mechanical advantage but the string end wouldn’t move very far, you’d have to work the lever a few times and have a ratchet. So a light or hand crossbow for the weight of a medium crossbow.
I’d allow the gas but unless they used something to warm the gas it would just make a fog along the ground. But then the gas is a magical effect, so how long would it last but it would be fun, to fault the Paladin the poison is used, poison use is generally considered evil.
Lastly I’d ask the simple question how did his character learn about batteries. (“I saw a spark with the metals in the cube”) I’d allow him to spend time with experiment for a few years and some good rolls. But the windmill generator requires over a hundred years of technology and science.
Tell that to DaVinci, you absolute vogon.
Leonardo da Vinci lived in the early Renaissance, probably 300 to 500 years, after the most D&D campaigns, which would be set in fantasy medieval times (middle ages.) This of course depends on the DM and the campaign setting though, because some campaigns could be set in the renaissance or even later. So, technically, you’re both right.
And you called him a vogon? You mean those aliens in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy who demolished Earth to make room for a hyperspace expressway? lol
D&D is set in the early renaissance. At least by default.
He could have read about the ark of the covenant being a battery or other electrical weirdness :
AI : The Ark’s gold-wood-gold layering could act as a capacitor, storing charge between conductive surfaces separated by an insulator (acacia wood).
• A Leyden jar of similar size can store enough charge for a painful or lethal shock (e.g., a few microfarads at thousands of volts).
You know electricity is well known if not understood in DnD right? There are settings like Eberron that have a whole magical industry with working tech that uses arcane lightning.
Magic users can use Lightning Bolt, Shocking Grasp, Call Lightning to name a few spells that use raw electricity.
There are engines powered by elementals and general magic as well.