Pathfinder for Savage Worlds vs Skies Above

Compare Pathfinder for Savage Worlds and Skies Above side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.

	Pathfinder for Savage Worlds	Skies Above
Genre	Fantasy	Fantasy
Tags	Heroic, High-Fantasy, Character Building, Tactical, Fast-Paced	JRPG, Cinematic, Tactical, High-Fantasy, Heroic, Character Building, Mana Points, Theater of the Mind, Lore-Heavy
Core Mechanic	Roll a trait die (d4–d12) plus a Wild Die (d6); keep the highest. Dice 'explode' (ace) on their max value. Beat a Target Number (usually 4) to succeed; each raise (4 over) improves the result. Playing cards determine initiative. Bennies let you reroll or soak damage. Class Edges capture Pathfinder archetypes as progressive talent trees.	Roll d8 + two Attributes + modifiers against a Target Number (typically 10, increasing in steps of 4 for harder tasks). Natural 8s explode, rolling and adding again; every additional 8 raises the Critical Level, scaling damage and effects. A natural 1 is an Epic Fail that halves the character's Defences until their next turn. Critical hits dealt and taken generate Overdrive: once eight stacks accumulate, characters spend them to take an additional action that round, modeling the limit-break payoff of classic JRPGs.
Dice	d4–d12	d8
Complexity	Medium	Medium
Availability	Paid	Free quickstart
Runnability	5 of 5 book tools	4 of 5 book tools
License	Savage Worlds (Proprietary)	All Rights Reserved
Third-Party Publishing	Not yet researched	Not yet researched
Publisher	Pinnacle Entertainment Group / Paizo	Lost Haven Studio
Year	2023	2026
Languages	English	English
Best For	Groups who love the Pathfinder world of Golarion but want faster, more cinematic combat: Savage Worlds' exploding dice and Bennies replace Pathfinder's tactical crunch with pulp-action heroics.	Groups who want a JRPG-inspired tabletop adventure: picking from twelve jobs like Dragoon, Dark Mage, or Engineer, channeling elemental magic blessed by eight goddesses, and journeying by airship across floating sky-islands in the aftermath of a magical cataclysm.
Highlights	Fast combat compared to standard Pathfinder, Golarion setting fully supported with ancestries and deities, Class Edges capture iconic Pathfinder classes, Bennies keep heroes in the action, compatible with Savage Worlds Adventure Paths	Exploding d8 with stacking Critical Levels: multiple natural 8s in a row cascade into larger crits and bigger effects, so heroic moments scale rather than cap. Overdrive accumulates from critical hits dealt and received, and spending eight stacks grants an additional action that round, giving combat a JRPG limit-break rhythm. Twelve job roles span melee, magic, ranged, and support archetypes, and characters add a second job at level 12 to cross-pollinate abilities and weapon ranks. Eight elemental goddesses anchor both magic and the bestiary: every Skyfolk lineage is blessed with resistance to one element, and creatures carry specific elemental weaknesses that double incoming damage.
Considerations	Requires Savage Worlds familiarity: not standalone for new SW players, some Pathfinder depth lost in translation, not compatible with standard Pathfinder adventures without conversion	Combat is the most heavily detailed pillar of the rules, with conditions, elemental damage, front/back row positioning, and an optional battlefield grid: investigation, intrigue, and downtime get coverage but less mechanical depth. Light and Dark Mages cannot learn from the opposing path, locking each spellcaster out of half the elemental spell list and pushing magical variety into multi-job characters. The exploding-d8 swing is wide: consecutive 8s can demolish encounters while a natural 1 halves a character's Defences and opens them to brutal counters. Setting and mechanics are tightly woven: Skyfolk lineages, the eight Goddesses, and post-Breaking lore are baked into character options rather than presented as swappable flavor.