Cairn vs Pathfinder
Compare Cairn and Pathfinder side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Cairn | Pathfinder | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Fantasy |
| Play Style | Rules-Light, Exploration, Classless, Deadly, Dungeon Crawl, Attacks Always Hit, Open Source, Gritty, Inventory Management, Fiction-First, Dark Fantasy, GM-Friendly | Tactical, Crunchy, Combat-Heavy, Character Building, Dungeon Crawl, High-Fantasy, Grid-Based, Heroic, Ascending AC, Exploration, Classic Fantasy, Lore-Heavy |
| Core Mechanic | Roll d20 equal to or under one of three attributes (STR, DEX, WIL) to make a save; 1 always succeeds, 20 always fails. Combat is simultaneous and attacks always hit — the attacker rolls a weapon die, subtracts armor, and applies the rest to HP. When HP reaches 0, damage spills into STR and triggers a Critical Damage save. | 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, d4–d12 | d20 |
| Complexity | Very Low | High |
| Accessibility | Very High | Very High |
| Community | Medium | Very High |
| License | CC BY-SA 4.0 | ORC |
| Cost | Free / $ | Free (ORC) |
| Publisher | Cairn Press | Paizo |
| Year | 2024 | 2023 |
| Best For | Groups who want a fast, classless fantasy game where equipment defines the character, expeditions into the Wood are tense and lethal, and the GM can roll most of their prep from tables. | 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 | Inventory and Fatigue share the same 10 slots, so every spell cast, wound, or burden taken on competes with the equipment that defines a classless character. The Scars table turns surviving a near-death hit into permanent character development — a hit that drops a PC to exactly 0 HP rolls a unique injury or trait that often raises an attribute, making advancement a consequence of surviving danger rather than an XP track. Dungeon turns and three-watch wilderness travel each have their own resolution loop and event table, giving the Warden a structured procedure for both exploration modes instead of freeform improv. The Warden's Guide bundles procedural setting, faction, dungeon, and forest generators alongside the bestiary, so prep can be rolled rather than authored. | 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 | Starting HP is rolled on 1d6, so first-session characters can be killed by a single hit — Cairn assumes attrition and replacement rather than long heroic arcs. Combat is deterministic: attacks always hit and damage is rolled by the attacker, removing the to-hit decision space some tactical players want. There is no Charisma or Intelligence attribute and no fixed spell list — social conflict resolves through WIL saves, and a character's magical capability is shaped by which spellbooks the party finds rather than choices made at creation. Advancement comes through the Scars table rather than XP or milestones, so growth is a byproduct of surviving damage rather than a steady level-up curve. | 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. |