Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition vs Pathfinder

Compare Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition and Pathfinder side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.

	Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition	Pathfinder
Genre	Fantasy	Fantasy
Tags	Tactical, Miniatures, Heroic, Character Building, High-Fantasy, Classic Fantasy, Crunchy, Ascending AC	Tactical, Crunchy, Character Building, High-Fantasy, Dungeon Crawl, Lore-Heavy
Core Mechanic	Roll d20 plus relevant modifiers against a DC or target defense. A total equal to or higher than the target succeeds. Combat turns use standard, move, and minor actions, while powers specify their targets and effects.	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	High	High
Accessibility	High	Very High
Runnability	Very High	Very High
License	Proprietary	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	Wizards of the Coast	Paizo
Year	2008	2023
Languages	English, French, Italian, German, Spanish	English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
Best For	Groups who want role-defined heroes, grid-centered combat, and long campaigns with extensive tactical advancement.	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 roles give defenders, strikers, leaders, and controllers distinct tactical jobs in a party. At-will, encounter, and daily powers make each class's available actions explicit at the table. Encounter-building rules pair monster roles with level and XP budgets, giving DMs a repeatable preparation procedure.	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	Grid position, forced movement, marks, and opportunity attacks require continuous spatial tracking. Each character's power list grows across 30 levels, increasing turn options and rules lookups. Rituals, skill challenges, treasure parcels, and combat use separate procedures that the group must learn.	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.