Dungeons & Dragons Basic/Expert vs Pathfinder
Compare Dungeons & Dragons Basic/Expert and Pathfinder side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Dungeons & Dragons Basic/Expert | Pathfinder | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Fantasy |
| Tags | Classic Fantasy, Dungeon Crawl, Hexcrawl, Resource Management, Deadly, Vancian Casting, Descending AC, Domain Management | Tactical, Crunchy, Character Building, High-Fantasy, Dungeon Crawl, Lore-Heavy |
| Core Mechanic | Roll 1d20 and meet or exceed the attack or saving-throw target supplied by class, level, Hit Dice, and descending Armor Class. Exploration, reactions, morale, thief abilities, and treasure use their own d6, 2d6, or percentile procedures. | 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 | Medium | Very High |
| Runnability | Very High | Very High |
| License | All Rights Reserved | 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 | TSR Hobbies, Inc. | Paizo |
| Year | 1981 | 2023 |
| Languages | English | English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese |
| Best For | Groups who want a dangerous, referee-led fantasy campaign that starts with mapped dungeon expeditions and grows into wilderness travel, retainers, strongholds, and territorial play. | 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 | Ten-minute dungeon turns connect mapping, searching, light, encumbrance, rest, and wandering-monster pressure. Reaction and morale procedures allow negotiation, evasion, surrender, and retreat to matter alongside combat. The Expert volume expands the campaign into hex travel, naval expeditions, magical research, strongholds, settlers, and rulership. | 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 | The complete level 1 through 14 game requires both the Basic and Expert rulebooks. Descending Armor Class, class-specific tables, and separate procedures replace a universal action mechanic. Low hit points, poison saves, and other severe effects make early play highly lethal. | 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. |