SIMIC SCIENTIST

Imagine a perfect world: one in which nature and civilization exist in harmony, adapted to each other; one in which life is shaped to match its environment and the environment is shaped to match life. That’s the world you have been trying to grow in the laboratories of the Simic Combine. Nature is all about adaptation, evolution, and balance- but for it to keep up with the pace of advancing civil ization, nature needs some help from biomancers and ter raformers. If, along the way, you happen to create super-soldiers and mutant monsters that can bolster the combine’s defenses against the schemes and ambitions of the other guilds, so much the better.

• Skill Proficiencies: Arcana, Medicine
• Languages: Two of your choice
• Equipment: A Simic insignia, a set of commoner’s clothes, a book of research notes, an ink pen, a bottle of squid ink, a flask of oil (made from blubber), a vial of acid (derived from digestive juices), a vial of fish scales, a vial of seaweed, a vial of jellyfish stingers, a glass bottle of unidentified slime, and a belt pouch containing 10 gp (Azorius 1-zino coins)

CLADES AND PROJECTS

As a Simic researcher, you are part of a clade-a diverse group of individuals combining disparate talents in pursuit of a common goal- or a researcher on a specialized, short-term project focused on addressing an immediate need. You can roll a d6 or choose from the options in the Research Options table to determine your area of research.

RESEARCH OPTIONS

FEATURE: RESEARCHER

When you attempt to learn or recall a magical or scientific fact, if you don’t know that information, you know where and from whom you can obtain it. Usually, this in formation comes from a Simic laboratory, or sometimes from an Izzet facility, a library, a university, or an independent scholar or other learned person or creature. Knowing where the information can be found doesn’t automatically enable you to learn it; you might need to offer bribes, favors, or other incentives to induce people to reveal their secrets.

Your DM might rule that the knowledge you seek is secreted away in an inaccessible place, or that it simply can’t be found. Unearthing the deepest secrets of the multiverse can require an adventure or even a whole campaign.

SIMIC GUILD SPELLS

Prerequisite: Spellcasting or Pact Magic class feature

For you, the spells on the Simic Guild Spells table are added to the spell list of your spellcasting class. (If you are a multiclass character with multiple spell lists, these spells are added to all of them.)

Simic Guild Spells

When your magic causes physical alterations in yourself or others, the result often displays the characteristics of fish, amphibians, or other water-dwelling creatures. Blue-green eddies of magical energy sometimes accompany your spellcasting, forming spirals that reflect the mathematical perfection of nature.

SUGGESTED CHARACTERISTICS

The bizarre science of the Simic Combine attracts a certain type of personality and encompasses a set of beliefs about the nature of life. Simic members’ bonds and flaws derive from their scientific research-including their creation of new life forms, which they can become very attached to.

Personality Traits

• I can’t wait to see what I become next!
• I am convinced that everything inclines toward constant improvement.
• I’m eager to explain every detail of my most intricate experiments and theories to anyone who shows the least bit of interest.
• I assume that everyone needs even the most basic concepts explained to them.
• I describe everything that happens as if it were going into my research notes (and it often is).
• I am insatiably curious about the seemingly infinite forms and adaptations of life.
• I can’t resist prying into anything forbidden, since it must be terribly interesting.
• I employ a highly technical vocabulary to avoid imprecision and ambiguity in my communication.

Ideals

• Guild: My guild is all that really matters. (Any)
• Change: All life is meant to progress toward perfection, and our work is to hurry it along — no matter what must be upended along the way. (Chaotic)
• Knowledge: Understanding the world is more important than what you do with your knowledge. (Neutral)
• Greater Good: I want to reshape the world into higher forms of life so that all can enjoy evolution. (Good)
• Logic: It’s foolish to let emotions and principles inter-fere with the conclusions of logic. (Lawful)
• Superiority: My vast intellect and strength are directed toward increasing my sway over others. (Evil)

Bonds

• I helped create a krasis that I love like a pet and would carry with me everywhere… except it’s the size of a building, and it might eat me.
• In my laboratory, I discovered something that I think could eliminate half the life on Ravnica.
• The other researchers in my clade are my family — a big, eccentric family including members and parts of many species.
• The laboratory where I did my research contains everything that is precious to me.
• I will get revenge on the shortsighted fool who killed my precious krasis creation.
• Everything I do is an attempt to impress someone I love.

Flaws

• I have a rather embarrassing mutation that I do everything I can to keep hidden.
• I’m more interested in taking notes on monstrous anatomy than in lighting monsters.
• Every social situation I’m in seems to lead to my asking rude personal questions.
• I’m supremely confident in my ability to adapt to any situation and handle any danger.
• I’ll take any risk to earn recognition for my scientific brilliance.
• I have a tendency to take shortcuts in my research and any other tasks I have to complete.

Contacts

The fluid nature of clades, whose rosters span different laboratories and change as researchers discover new interests, creates abundant connections among the Simic. The guild members live in watery sinkholes called zonots, and their isolation shelters them from much contact with outsiders. Nonetheless, a fair number of Simic members are former members of other guilds.

Roll twice on the Simic Contacts table (for an ally and a rival) and once on the Non-Simic Contacts table.

Simic Contacts

Non-Simic Contacts

SOURCE

Guildmasters’ Guide to Ravnica