Pathfinder vs Shadow of the Demon Lord
Compare Pathfinder and Shadow of the Demon Lord side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Pathfinder | Shadow of the Demon Lord | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Fantasy, Horror |
| Play Style | Tactical, Crunchy, Character Building, High-Fantasy, Dungeon Crawl, Lore-Heavy | Grimdark, Fast Sessions, Beginner-Friendly, GM-Friendly |
| Core Mechanic | 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. | Roll d20 + modifier vs. target number 10. Boons and banes (d6s) add or subtract from the roll, canceling each other out. |
| Dice | d20 | d20 |
| Complexity | High | Low |
| Accessibility | Very High | High |
| Runnability | Very High | High |
| License | ORC | Forbidden Rules SRD |
| Cost | Free (ORC) | $$ |
| Publisher | Paizo | Schwalb Entertainment |
| Year | 2023 | 2015 |
| Best For | Groups who want deep character customization, tactical grid combat with meaningful turn-by-turn decisions, and a richly detailed fantasy setting with free rules. | Groups who want fast, dark fantasy with streamlined d20 mechanics and a sense of impending doom. |
| Highlights | 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. | Fast character creation, quick sessions, single boon/bane mechanic replaces most modifiers, 11 levels keep campaigns short |
| Considerations | 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. | Dark horror tone limits genre range, setting tightly coupled to core rules |