D&D 5e

[Duck Whitman]

So, like, I'm kinda dipping into a lovecraftian madness over here because I don't understand how this game can have so many copy pasted spells and mechanics from D&D 5e.

I know Path and D&D share an origin, but can someone explain this to me?

[starkmaddness]

You answered your own question. Pathfinder started as a copy paste of D&D 3rd edition. An actual intentional copy, not just a copycat 'inspired by' sort of thing.

[jokerjesterknave]

Pathfinder was developed as a new version of D&D 3.5. D&D 4.0 was pretty drastically different and D&D 5e is closer to 3.5. So, it's copy-pasted 3.5 spells, not 5e spells. :)

[Crustypeanut]

Pathfinder and D&D dont' share an origin, D&D -is- pathfinder's origin.

[Asmor]

D&D had classically had two magazines published for it, Dungeon and Dragon. During D&D 3rd edition, WotC licensed Paizo to publish those magazines. At some point WotC ended the license. Paizo started publishing a new magazine called Pathfinder, which was more D&D content under their own brand. When WotC announced D&D 4th edition, Paizo decided to continue supporting 3rd edition by creating their own offshoot of it, called Pathfinder. This was all possible because one of the major innovations of 3rd edition was the OGL and the SRD; the former a license that allowed anyone to make products compatible with D&D without WotC's permission, and the latter a set of nearly complete rules for playing the game which anyone could use under the OGL (the SRD was missing some specific things; notably, it lacked the rules for leveling up, and it lacked many iconic D&D monsters like beholders and mindflayers).

D&D 5th edition, while significantly different from 3rd and 4th editions, does indeed have some similar mechanics, and there are lots of spells which have crossed over many editions of D&D.

TL;DR: D&D 5e and Pathfinder both have their roots in 3rd edition (and from there older editions), and this is allowed because of a license the owner of D&D put out during the 3rd edition era.

[Duck Whitman]

Originally posted by starkmaddness:

You answered your own question. Pathfinder started as a copy paste of D&D 3rd edition. An actual intentional copy, not just a copycat 'inspired by' sort of thing.

Interesting.

[xmd1997]

Originally posted by Bryy Miller:

Originally posted by starkmaddness:

You answered your own question. Pathfinder started as a copy paste of D&D 3rd edition. An actual intentional copy, not just a copycat 'inspired by' sort of thing.

Interesting.

Yup. It was back during a time when there was alot of controversy about the new DND 4E. Alot of people didn't like the changes(too gammy) and turned to Pathfinder as an alternative.

[R0GUE]

Originally posted by Bryy Miller:

Originally posted by starkmaddness:

You answered your own question. Pathfinder started as a copy paste of D&D 3rd edition. An actual intentional copy, not just a copycat 'inspired by' sort of thing.

This brings up even more (legal) questions in my head.

Ah well. I wanted a 5e CRPG, but from all the negatives that I'm hearing, I'm wary.

Most of your legal questions can be answered if you know about OGL, or the Open Game License. Wizards of the Coast decided wisely when they created 3rd Ed. D&D to make most of the actual rules be open to anyone who wanted to publish their own stuff. In other words, as long as you didn't use any of their Trademarked material like character names, place names, god names, etc. you were allowed to make modules, or even new sourcebooks, using anything that was OGL. The intent was to "grow the game" by letting 3rd party publishers create a wide variety of RPG products that Wizards couldn't or wasn't interested in making themselves. Once, Wizards moved on to 4th Ed. Pathfinder took advantage of OGL to continue the spirit of D&D version 3.5 for those that preferred that edition. It's perfectly legal.

[Woeful]

A lot of D&D mechanics have had the same names (althoguh very different functions) since the 70s. The d20 system, meaning D&D 3.0 and 3.5, were published under an Open Game Licensce, which meant you could use the mechanics (including stuff from spells to classes) as long as you didn't use stuff considered to be owned by WotC, like the various settings (Forgotten Realms, Dark Sun, Greyhawk) or unique creatures like mind flayers or beholders. So it's not copied from 5E (I have no idea if 5E has any sort of OGL for 3rd party content).

Beyond that, a lot of D&D stuff would be impossible to defend from a copyright standpoint, since D&D; A, lived in copyright hell during one of the most prolific periods of its life, and B, made it's money stealing from Tolkien