Pathfinder vs Whitehack
Compare Pathfinder and Whitehack side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Pathfinder | Whitehack | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Fantasy |
| Play Style | Tactical, Crunchy, Character Building, High-Fantasy, Dungeon Crawl, Lore-Heavy | Rules-Light, Narrative, Hackable, Mana Points, Freeform Magic |
| 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 your attribute to succeed; the face value of a success indicates quality. Positive double rolls (roll 2d20, pick best) and negative double rolls (pick worst) replace flat modifiers. Characters are defined by Groups (species, vocations, and affiliations) which grant advantage on relevant tasks. The Wise class casts miracles by spending HP, with effects triangulated by their groups and wordings. |
| Dice | d20 | d20 + 3d6 |
| Complexity | High | Low |
| Accessibility | Very High | Medium |
| Runnability | Very High | Very High |
| License | ORC | Proprietary |
| Cost | Free (ORC) | $$ |
| Publisher | Paizo | Christian Mehrstam |
| Year | 2023 | 2023 |
| 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. | Experienced players who want a concise, elegant OSR system that rewards creative play: where freeform character groups replace rigid skill lists and miracles are flexible but costly. |
| 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. | Concise yet deep (~136 pages), Groups system replaces both skills and feats, compatible with old-school modules from 1974 onward, Auction mechanic adds tension to extended contests, miracles system rewards creative description, four editions of refinement |
| 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. | Dense writing requires careful reading: not a quick-start game, assumes familiarity with old-school play, no bestiary or setting included, rare classes may feel underdeveloped |