OpenQuest vs Pathfinder
Compare OpenQuest and Pathfinder side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| OpenQuest | Pathfinder | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Fantasy |
| Play Style | Skill-Based, Classless, Beginner-Friendly, Deadly, Sword & Sorcery, Mana Points, Roll to Cast, Theater of the Mind, Open Source, GM-Friendly | Tactical, Crunchy, Character Building, High-Fantasy, Dungeon Crawl, Lore-Heavy |
| Core Mechanic | Roll d100 equal to or under a skill percentage to succeed. Doubles on a success (11, 22, 33) are critical successes; doubles on a failure are fumbles. Modifiers apply in meaningful increments of ±20% or ±50% only. Opposed tests have both sides roll, with the highest successful roll winning. Fortune points allow rerolls and can prevent character death. | 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 | d100 | d20 |
| Complexity | Low | High |
| Accessibility | Very High | Very High |
| Runnability | Very High | Very High |
| License | CC BY 4.0 (SRD) | ORC |
| Cost | $ | Free (ORC) |
| Publisher | D101 Games | Paizo |
| Year | 2021 | 2023 |
| Best For | Groups wanting a streamlined D100 fantasy system that retains the feel of classic BRP (deadly combat, three distinct magic systems, and percentile skills) without hit locations or fiddly modifiers. | 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 | Three magic systems (Personal Magic, Divine Magic, and Sorcery) each with distinct mechanics and progression. Simplified modifiers (±20% or ±50% only) reduce bookkeeping without sacrificing impact. Social combat subsystem handles fast talk, oratory, and intimidation with mechanical structure. Full SRD released under CC BY 4.0, which has spawned commercial derivatives like Jackals (Osprey Games). | 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 | No hit location system: groups wanting granular wound tracking should look to Mythras or RuneQuest. Low hit point totals make combat swingy from single lucky or unlucky rolls. Non-human character options (Ducks, Elves, Dwarves) are optional rules only. | 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. |