Age of Adventure RPG vs Pathfinder

Compare Age of Adventure RPG and Pathfinder side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.

	Age of Adventure RPG	Pathfinder
Genre	Fantasy	Fantasy
Play Style	Rules-Light, Beginner-Friendly, Classic Fantasy, Heroic, Player-Only Rolls, Roll to Cast, One-Shot Friendly, Low-Prep, Theater of the Mind, Random Tables, Open Source	Tactical, Crunchy, Combat-Heavy, Character Building, Dungeon Crawl, High-Fantasy, Grid-Based, Heroic, Ascending AC, Exploration, Classic Fantasy, Lore-Heavy
Core Mechanic	Each Hero picks a single Proficiency number from 2 to 5. MIGHT actions (physical, martial) count d6 results equal to or under that number as Successes; MIND actions (mental, complex) count results equal to or over it. Roll 1d6 by default and add bonus dice for being Skilled, Prepared, Helped, or carrying the right Item. Rolling the Proficiency number exactly on a successful check earns a Hero Point, spendable for extra dice, rerolls, +1 damage, or a true in-world answer from the GM. Only players ever roll — enemy attacks resolve as automatic player Reaction Checks against the same Proficiency, with Block (1 less damage) or Dodge (no damage) chosen by the defender.	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	d6 dice pool	d20
Complexity	Low	High
Accessibility	Very High	Very High
Runnability	Medium	Very High
License	CC BY 4.0	ORC
Cost	Free / $	Free (ORC)
Publisher	Adrian Young Games	Paizo
Year	2025	2023
Best For	Groups who want a complete heroic fantasy game they can start playing the same night — everything from character creation to campaign play fits in a twelve-page zine, with classic fantasy races and class archetypes already built in.	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	A single Proficiency number from 2 to 5 defines a character's physical-versus-mental lean in one decision — high favors MIGHT (roll under), low favors MIND (roll over) — so building a Hero is a thirty-second commitment rather than a stat-by-stat exercise. Only players roll dice, even on defense: every enemy attack triggers an automatic Reaction Check from the targeted Hero, so the GM is free to narrate threats while every die at the table belongs to a player. Encounter Levels are calculated as Size × Actions × Challenge plus armor and shield bonuses, then summed across the party, giving the GM an at-a-glance balance number to scale opposition without writing statblocks.	Complete rules available free on Archives of Nethys. Three-action economy gives every turn meaningful tactical decisions. Character customization through ancestry feats, class feats, skill feats, and general feats at every level. Four degrees of success on every roll add granularity to outcomes.
Considerations	Magic is limited to six Arcane and six Holy spells that Wizards and Clerics know in full from creation, with no spell progression, new spells, or list customization across a campaign. Damage caps at 2 points per hit and Stamina maxes at the Proficiency number plus armor, so combats resolve in a few rounds without granular HP attrition or extended tactical play. Character advancement between adventures is limited to gold rewards and a +1 starting Hero Points carryover — there are no levels, experience tracks, or stat increases that meaningfully change a Hero over the course of a campaign.	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 requires selecting feats from multiple categories at every level, which can overwhelm new players.