Pathfinder vs Tales of Argosa
Compare Pathfinder and Tales of Argosa side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Pathfinder | Tales of Argosa | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Fantasy |
| Play Style | Tactical, Crunchy, Combat-Heavy, Character Building, Dungeon Crawl, High-Fantasy, Grid-Based, Heroic, Ascending AC, Exploration, Classic Fantasy, Lore-Heavy | Deadly, Gritty, Sandbox, Exploration, Combat-Heavy, Low-Prep, Dungeon Crawl, One-Shot Friendly, Atmospheric, Roll to Cast, Open Source, Random Tables |
| 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 under attribute to succeed (roll-under). Luck saves deplete your Luck attribute with each success, ratcheting tension. Combat uses Nat 19 effects, Exploits, Fumbles, Crits, and Trauma tables. Dark & Dangerous Magic risks madness and Veil monsters when casting spells. |
| Dice | d20 | d20 |
| Complexity | High | Low |
| Accessibility | Very High | High |
| Community | Very High | Very Low |
| License | ORC | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
| Cost | Free (ORC) | $$ |
| Publisher | Paizo | Pickpocket Press |
| Year | 2023 | 2024 |
| 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. | Sword & sorcery fans who want fast, brutal combat with diminishing Luck, dark & dangerous magic, and rich emergent sandbox play — group or solo. |
| Highlights | Complete rules available free on Archives of Nethys. Three-action economy gives every turn meaningful tactical decisions. Character customization through ancestry feats, class feats, skill feats, and general feats at every level. Four degrees of success on every roll add granularity to outcomes. | Distinctive diminishing Luck mechanic, combat with Exploits and Trauma is consequential, large GM toolbox (hexploration, oracles, hirelings, mass battle), solo rules included, Creative Commons license |
| 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 requires selecting feats from multiple categories at every level, which can overwhelm new players. | Diminishing Luck mechanic means characters weaken as they succeed, limited magical options in core rules, requires GM comfort with sandbox hexcrawl prep |