Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 Edition vs Those Who Wander

Compare Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 Edition and Those Who Wander side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.

	Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 Edition	Those Who Wander
Genre	Fantasy	Fantasy
Tags	Ascending AC, Character Building, Classic Fantasy, Crunchy, Dungeon Crawl, Tactical, Vancian Casting	Heroic, High-Fantasy, Character Building, Classless, Tactical, Worldbuilding, Vancian Casting, Crunchy
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.	Roll d20 + ability bonus + proficiency bonus against a Difficulty Score. Abilities use direct modifiers (−1 to +5) instead of base scores, removing a calculation step from every roll. Character progression replaces classes and levels with a 20-step path: at each step you choose between two or more diverging features, and prerequisites gate later options.
Dice	d20	d20
Complexity	Very High	Medium
Availability	Paid	Free quickstart
Runnability	5 of 5 book tools	4 of 5 book tools
License	OGL v1.0a (SRD); core books proprietary	Proprietary (free Essential Rules quickstart)
Third-Party Publishing	Not yet researched	Not yet researched
Publisher	Wizards of the Coast	Gnome Made Games
Year	2003	2022
Languages	English	English
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 familiar with d20 fantasy who want deeper character customization, inclusive design covering any parentage pairing and accessibility for disabled characters, and long campaigns where each hero's 20-step path diverges from the rest of the party.
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.	Parentage system inherits traits from any two birth parents across 15 peoples (dwarven, elven, human, halfling, avian, celestial, draconic, genie, gnoll, gnomish, goblin, kobold, infernal, orc, plus Complex Parentage) for hundreds of pairing combinations. Accessibility rules treat Blind and Deaf characters as mechanically viable heroes and integrate prosthetics and wheelchairs as part of the character. The 20-step branching progression replaces classes and levels: each step is a choice between two or more features that gate further specializations. Awakening heirlooms (weapons, armor, trinkets) gain new properties as characters take steps, growing in power and personality alongside their owner.
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.	477-page rulebook with substantial mechanical innovation in character creation requires significant reading before a first session. No adventures are included in the core rules: GMs must design their own scenarios or source from d20-compatible content. The steps system departs from familiar level/class structure, so players coming from d20 fantasy must learn a new progression model. No native rolled initiative: the storyteller chooses one of four ability-based turn-order methods at the start of each combat.