Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 Edition vs Mage: The Ascension
Compare Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 Edition and Mage: The Ascension side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 Edition | Mage: The Ascension | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Fantasy, Modern, Horror |
| Tags | Ascending AC, Character Building, Classic Fantasy, Crunchy, Dungeon Crawl, Tactical, Vancian Casting | Freeform Magic, Character Building, Crunchy, High-Power, Roll to Cast, Skill-Based, Lore-Heavy, Fear & Stress Mechanics |
| Core Mechanic | Roll a d20, add relevant modifiers, and compare the total to a target number. An equal or higher total succeeds. Ability checks, skill checks, attack rolls, and saving throws use this framework. Combat uses initiative and defined action types, while damage dice are rolled after a hit. | Build a d10 pool from an Attribute plus an Ability and count each die that meets or exceeds the difficulty, usually 6. Each rolled 1 cancels a success, and a roll with no successes and at least one 1 botches. Magick uses Arete instead: the highest Sphere plus coincidence or vulgarity and witnesses establishes the base difficulty, with situational modifiers applied afterward. Successes determine the Effect, and vulgar casting risks Paradox. |
| Dice | d20 | d10 dice pool |
| Complexity | Very High | Very High |
| Accessibility | Medium | High |
| Runnability | Very High | Very High |
| License | OGL v1.0a (SRD); core books proprietary | All Rights Reserved |
| Third-Party Publishing | Not yet researched | Commercial publishing allowed — Storytellers Vault |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Cost | $$ | $$ |
| Publisher | Wizards of the Coast | Onyx Path Publishing |
| Year | 2003 | 2015 |
| Languages | English | English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish |
| Best For | Groups running fantasy campaigns that want class-based character advancement, prepared-spell resource planning, and position-sensitive combat. It also supports GMs who want encounter construction, monsters, treasure, and campaign procedures in the core set. | Groups who want long-form modern occult campaigns about reality-shaping power, ideological conflict, and the consequences of imposing belief on the world. |
| Highlights | Class levels, skills, and feats create distinct mechanical advancement paths for characters. Grid combat combines initiative, movement, action types, attacks of opportunity, and special attacks into positional decisions. The Dungeon Master's Guide and Monster Manual supply encounter, campaign, and creature-construction procedures alongside player rules. | Nine Spheres combine to build open-ended Effects, allowing the same capability to emerge through different paradigms, practices, and instruments. Coincidental and vulgar classifications make subtlety a tactical choice because conspicuous magick raises difficulty and accumulates Paradox. Focus ties belief to procedure, so a mage's worldview determines the tools and rituals used to alter reality. |
| Considerations | Character creation requires choices across race, class, ability scores, skills, feats, equipment, and spells. Spellcasting uses separate class lists, spell levels, daily spell counts, and preparation rules. Encounter design requires the GM to reconcile challenge ratings, creature statistics, treasure, and adventure procedures. | Improvised Effects place frequent adjudication on the Storyteller, who must apply Sphere permissions, focus, required successes, and consequences consistently. Vulgar magick generates Paradox even on success, so overt power can punish a mage through injury or metaphysical breakdown. Faction choices can make a cabal internally hostile, so character concepts need shared motives before play. |