Pathfinder vs Shadow of the Demon Lord
Compare Pathfinder and Shadow of the Demon Lord side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.
| Pathfinder | Shadow of the Demon Lord | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Fantasy, Horror |
| Tags | Tactical, Crunchy, Character Building, High-Fantasy, Dungeon Crawl, Lore-Heavy | Dark Fantasy, Gritty, Deadly, Fear & Stress Mechanics, Corruption, Character Building, Tactical, Combat-Heavy, Atmospheric, Strong GM Support |
| 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 plus an attribute modifier against 10 for a challenge or the target’s Defense or attribute for an attack. Boons and banes cancel one for one. Roll the remaining d6s and add the highest boon or subtract the highest bane. |
| Dice | d20 | d20, d6 |
| Complexity | High | Medium |
| Availability | Free core rules | Free quickstart |
| Runnability | 5 of 5 book tools | 4 of 5 book tools |
| License | ORC | All Rights Reserved |
| Third-Party Publishing | Commercial publishing allowed — Open and compatibility licenses | Commercial publishing allowed — Community content program |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Publisher | Paizo | Schwalb Entertainment |
| Year | 2023 | 2015 |
| Languages | English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese | English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Polish, Chinese |
| 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 lethal fantasy horror with flexible character paths and campaigns built around eleven adventures. |
| 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. | Novice, expert and master paths combine freely to create specialized characters. Fast turns trade movement for an earlier action. Insanity and Corruption give frightening encounters and forbidden acts lasting mechanical consequences. |
| 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. | Starting characters can die from a single strong hit. The rules include graphic body horror and disturbing effects of forbidden magic. Advancement ends at level 10 after the campaign’s final adventure. |