Comparing the D&D 5e and Pathfinder 2e Starter sets

I've never played D&D but looking at this I have to ask, why is D&D more popular than pathfinder? It seems that pathfinder does a much better job teaching you the basics but for D&D you need someone that knows how to be a DM

When my friends and I first started playing D&D they managed to convince me that their hit dice were for rolling to hit. It was incredibly funny that they did this because it completely screwed them for like 2 rounds until we were like "this is not right" lol

Using two fighters isn’t that weird tbh, since the basic rules include four classes, and since fighters are the easiest class to play, it makes sense to have two of them for variety and so that two inexperienced players can both have fighters if they want.

Something worth mentioning is that the Beginner Box is designed to be run out of the box with zero prep. While the Starter Set is easy to run compared to other 5e adventures, the DM should definitely read through the whole adventure beforehand.

Also, the very first combat encounter in LMoP is somewhat likely to end in a TPK if the players are actually inexperienced or the dice don't go their way. While this is a general 5e issue, it really doesn't make for a great first TTRPG session.

I didn't know this starter box existed till finding this video, and seeing how much stuff is in there to help newer players, I'm certainly going to be picking this up... just not sure if I should do so before or after they make all the changes from them dropping the OGL

Down down down

I keep putting on these comparison videos, because I’m in the choir to which you preach.
I’m always disappointed by how you stack the deck against D&D.

“Let’s not compare the adventure content itself” is the biggest copout; Phandelver is a great little adventure with a slow build up to a villain and final dungeon that are fun (on paper). Beginner Box on the other hand is insanely short and relies on Pathfinder having superior combat gameplay. The story of the beginner box is wafer thin and the GM has to do heavy lifting to make it interesting for players not solely focused on combat.

Let's also note the starter box is 3x as expensive. Which imo invalidates the comparison in terms of value added.

Yeah the first Starter Set is pretty Bare-bones and pretty awful.

I was thinking of how to break PF2E to my friends and was already building a homebrew small adventure for them.

Gosh, it just has so many more concessions that I wouldn't have ever considered by myself.

Starter set dragon of icespire peak is THE box set for beginners, it had everything I needed to dm and play my first game, has absolutely everything you need ❤️

There is also official version of this for Foundry VTT.. Pathfinder really is amazing value when compared to anything WotC does..

I'm not a huge fan of either game.. I'd rather play a B/X retroclone like Old School Essentials, Swords & Wizardry, Lamantation of the Flame Princess ot Basic Fantasy for example, cleanly modernized rewrites of original 1970s and 1980s D&D rules. more authentic D&D action closer to the original spirit and tone of the game, much easier to run and play, extremely modular, tone neutral for those of us who don't like the Saturday morning anime cartoon style kitchen sink D&D and Pathfinder settings, has 50 years of material and adventure modules to play and explore. OSR is the best option for a D&D experience particularly for beginners if you get the right set imop

Wonderful review, completely agree that the PF2 Beginner Box is far and away ahead of anything that D&D has put out...feels like WOTC has been resting on they laurels while Paizo has tried really hard (and succeeded) in creating a new player experience that shines!

That DnD starter box is built on hubris, they expect their market share to do most of the heavy lifting. I wonder if that will change now that wotc has cratered their own credibility. Maybe they will make a starter set that looks like some actual effort went into it.

Thanks for this. I do think that for a fair comparison it the Pathfinder kit should have been compared with the Essentials Kit for D&D since the prices are pretty different and thus also the content. Ofcourse the intro-function plays a role but I think in terms of content it's a bit unfair :)

I haven’t used Pathfinder 2’s starter box, but I found 5e’s starter box extremely easy to use. The fact that it only has a short preamble up to running the game means it’s easy to jump into, and the first encounter walks the GM through how to run the system basically step by step. It’s definitely disposable, but it also feels very good for jumping in and getting your feet wet immediately with very little buy-in.

The PF2 starter box costs (nearly?) as much as a book, so it feels like it needs to be meatier to justify it, and the system is a lot denser, so it needs to be a heftier box in order to be usable and sensible.

Great vid bro! Thank you for taking the time to make it.

I will definitivly let you down. :)

D&D just doesn’t seem to care anymore… and it shows.

Love this video and the path finder stuff would help begginers so much

The reason they doubled the Fighter class is because newbies want to jump in swinging swords. It is also smart because they deal a lot of damage and soak up damage better than a Wizard, Ranger, or Rogue. Then again, they could have doubled up on Barbarians but that would have left everyone else with nothing to do...
Usually, in video games of Eye of the Beholder, I had a lot of success with 2x Sorcerers, 2x Clerics, 1x Rogue, 1x Misc. The Sorcerers dealt massive damage and the Clerics could heal each other (they couldn't heal themselves in that game), the Rogue picked locks, and the other one was support.

Edit: The support was actually a Shield Tank that absorbed damage and aggro'd monsters away from the party. The Sorcerers did AOE attacks that destroyed swarms, the Clerics also did AOE healing which helped against a boss's AOE party killer attack. While the boss is occupied with the Tank, the Rogue sneak attacks from behind. Perfect party setup.

Going to be running the beginner box for the first time this Sunday! Thank you again for this overview, it's so interesting the differences between the two beginner boxes. Not just the amount of information but also the visual presentation. Every page in the Pathfinder books has at least one to two pieces of art for every two-page spread. It really makes the reading experience more visually exciting and helps to ignite the imagination.

I think the pawns alone really make the pathfinder box stand out , you can use them for any table top system. Also I will say for the solo players out there , because most of the beginner box adventure is a dungeon crawl and because the map has hexes, standees etc pathfinder beginner box is much easier to solo than the dnd starter set .

With current OGL shenanigans, I suspect this video is going to see a spike in views (feed the algorithm)! 10,000 views at time of writing.

Recently got the new d&d starter box and still a little unsure of it. Need to play a game tho. But seeing your content on pf2e and seeing the starter box i think i might be joining pf2e

After the wotc debacle, this beginner box already shows how much love and thought was put into this product compared to what were getting w dnd

This video aged well 🙂

Pathfinder 2e Starter set looks great. Thanks for the review.

I love the quagmire that popped in when you said larger package lol

Just for funzies, I downloaded a PDF of the mines of Phendelver. And it is SHOCKING, what the GM is expected to do right away. It's a full real module just about, and the GM is expected to improvise and the monster stats are on the back, it's just a rough intro.

Wife I went to the link to the drive-thru RPG. So I'll probably be ordering your products soon

It might just be me but I think the essentials kids versus the Pathfinder 2E beginner box would be a better comparison it. But I do understand that anyway a market that as the starter set for DND so that's what it is

Who's here after the OGL disaster?

Pathfinder is everything I wanted the D&D starter box to be

TL;DW

D&D's Beginner's Box was designed by a committee and didn't put any real thought or heart into it. Addressing only surface problems and requires not only a group but also someone that is well versed in the system to begin with and introduce new players.

Pathfinder's Beginner Box was designed by sitting down, addressing key issues and questions regarding the system, and TTRPG's in general, then clearly and thoughtfully laid out the easiest on-ramp for nearly anyone with reading comprehension skills higher than an 8-year old child to quickly learn their game.

Got it.

My starter set had a dwarf cleric sheet as well...

To me Pathfinder seems better in almost every way... at least for me.

I appreciate your content, but this is an unbalanced comparison, especially now that the new Starter Set is out. The new starter set for 5e is much better for new players than its predecessor and especially new DMs as a guide. If you want to compare the volume of material you get, you should compare at the same price point: $40 can actually get you the Starter plus the Players Handbook, or really both Starter Sets plus the Essentials Kit. Also, saying you won’t consider the adventure takes away the best thing about the first starter set, which is the included adventure.

Overall, I still appreciate all the other points that make the PF beginner box so good, and I decided to get the Travel Guide in part because of your video. Keep it up, but know that there may be better ways to compare the start for the two systems.

Excellent video, and I agree with you 100%. The D&D 5e starter set is good, and the adventure is decent, but the Pathfinder 2e Beginner Box is so much better. I've got the 2e box, and a few of the books, trying to get a group together to play it, and the box set is superb, although weirdly the pregenerated character sheets in my box set have a few misprints in the 'Actions' section, but it doesn't detract too much from the overall excellent quality.

Should have mentioned pf2e pre-gens have backstory and personality, which is helpful for people who never role played and wouldn’t know how to start

I absolutely love pf2e Hero’s handbook, it’s tremendously useful for all future adventures as a player! The starter dungeon was so fun, I didn’t expect to enjoy that much a dungeon crawl

For me, the pathfinder 2e beginner box is the GOLD standard I hold every other system too.

Icarus: “I’m surprised how they did so well with so little content”

Me: Having Skyrim flashbacks as a sob in the corner

The Pathfinder set is a lot like how a DnD set used to be. A players book, a DMs guide and a module, dice and char sheets.

The dnd starter set is kinda throw away stuff. Good for a kids sleepover or something I suppose. I am not hating on 5e, I guess you can download the core of the game for free, As a kid we had a lot of fun with very little. We intermixed the basic box set stuff we had with the advanced monster manual or whatever we could beg, borrow, steal or photocopy.

Actually, just combine both sets anyway. Simple as that

The amount of love and care Paizo put into their Starter Set is insane. That, alone, would make me want to choose PF over D&D. They truly put their best foot forward with that and took great care to be welcoming to new players.

A few months ago, Paizo had another fantastic Humble Bundle, with all of the important rule book PDFs and the complete Extinction Curse adventure path, with a handful of other goods. But it also came with a free copy of the Beginner Box, just pay shipping through DriveThruRPG. Shortly after the original release, they made a single book to add to the adventure, to take these now lvl 2 adventurers to lvl 5, as they take on more troubles in the small town of Otari. This PDF was also included in the Humble Bundle, but the double sided mat was not, a player was kind enough to buy it for me.

I recently finished this set of adventurers with a few new players to help get them familiar with the rules before I take them through a whole adventure path. These are really well done, but I do notice a terms changed between early P2e and now, mostly calling it "sneak attack damage" instead of the damage type being precision. Its a straightforward adventure, some social encounters, some puzzle, environmental story telling leading to a neat little boss fight in a very cool type of environment. All in all, it gets your characters through a hands on learning experience of the rules.

If I was to make an adjustment to it, I would include another set of flashcards, with actions related to skills. For example, the investigator was having a hard time figuring out how to make good use of their turn, but looking over their sheet, I reminded them of their skills like deception to help them self and the party make more enemies flat footed and land more hits.

The bias in this video is ridiculous. A better comparison is using the 5e Essentials kit or its replacement The Dragon of Stormwrack Isle. Even WotC admit they have learnt lessons since the 2014 Starter Set.

This is the most unfair fight 😂😂 Paizo products wipe the floor with WotC by every conceivable metric.