Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition vs Pathfinder

Compare Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition and Pathfinder side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.

	Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition	Pathfinder
Genre	Fantasy	Fantasy
Tags	Classic Fantasy, Crunchy, Descending AC, Dungeon Crawl, Inventory Management, Random Tables, Tactical, Vancian Casting	Tactical, Crunchy, Character Building, High-Fantasy, Dungeon Crawl, Lore-Heavy
Core Mechanic	Roll a d20 on combat attack matrices to determine whether an attack hits a descending Armor Class. Characters advance by class level through experience, and spellcasters memorize specific spells before using them.	Roll d20 + modifier against a DC. Four degrees of success: critical success (beat DC by 10+), success, failure, and critical failure (miss by 10+). Each turn grants three actions to spend freely on strikes, movement, spellcasting, or other activities. Multi-attack penalty (-5/-10) discourages repeated strikes and encourages tactical variety.
Dice	d20	d20
Complexity	Very High	High
Accessibility	Medium	Very High
Runnability	High	Very High
License	All Rights Reserved	ORC
Third-Party Publishing	Not yet researched	Commercial publishing allowed — Open and compatibility licenses
Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing.
Cost	$$	Free
Publisher	TSR Games	Paizo
Year	1977	2023
Languages	English	English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
Best For	Groups who want a demanding, referee-led fantasy campaign with class-and-level advancement, resource pressure, and detailed combat procedures.	Groups who want deep character customization, tactical grid combat with meaningful turn-by-turn decisions, and a richly detailed fantasy setting with free rules.
Highlights	Class, race, level, alignment, and prepared spells establish distinct adventuring roles. The Dungeon Masters Guide supplies encounter, treasure, dungeon, and campaign procedures for referee-built play. Reference sheets and extensive tables consolidate combat, spell, and campaign data.	The three-action economy gives every turn the same three actions to spend on strikes, movement, or spells, so each turn is a fresh tactical decision. Characters customize through ancestry, class, skill, and general feats gained at nearly every level, letting builds diverge sharply within a single class. Four degrees of success, set by beating or missing the DC by 10, turn each roll into a range of outcomes rather than a binary result.
Considerations	Combat relies on class and monster attack matrices instead of a single universal action procedure. The core delivery distributes rules across three books and reserves substantial procedures for the Dungeon Master. Optional psionics and detailed special-case rules add rules to learn before using them.	New players must learn the trait system, conditions, and four degrees of success before combat runs smoothly. Multi-attack penalty and numerous combat actions can slow turns for indecisive players. Character creation draws feats from ancestry, class, skill, and general pools at every level, making each build a slow step.