Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set (Holmes) vs Pathfinder
Compare Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set (Holmes) and Pathfinder side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set (Holmes) | Pathfinder | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Fantasy |
| Tags | Classic Fantasy, Dungeon Crawl, Resource Management, Random Character Creation, Deadly, Vancian Casting, Descending AC, Map-Drawing | Tactical, Crunchy, Character Building, High-Fantasy, Dungeon Crawl, Lore-Heavy |
| Core Mechanic | Roll 1d20 and meet or exceed the target supplied by the attack or saving-throw table. Exploration, reactions, thief abilities, doors, and treasure use separate d6 or percentile procedures rather than one universal action rule. | 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 | Medium | High |
| Accessibility | Very Low | Very High |
| Runnability | Low | 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 | Unavailable | Free |
| Publisher | Tactical Studies Rules | Paizo |
| Year | 1977 | 2023 |
| Languages | English | English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese |
| Best For | Groups who want a referee-led, map-and-torch dungeon campaign with low-level adventurers, treasure-driven advancement, tactical table-based combat, and room for improvised rulings. | 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 turns make mapping, searching, light, rest, and wandering monsters central expedition pressures. Worked melee and referee-player examples demonstrate combat, formation, secret-door searches, and encounter pacing in context. The included Zenopus dungeon and removable reference tables provide a ready starting site and consolidated table aid. | 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 rulebook covers only the first three character levels and points longer campaigns toward Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Combat, saving throws, thief abilities, doors, traps, and reactions each use separate procedures instead of one task mechanic. Low hit points, poison, paralysis, and other severe effects can remove characters abruptly, and no current legal complete-core storefront was located. | 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. |