D&D 5E or Pathfinder?

Because Summoner doesn't exist, amirite?

Depends on what you're looking for

PF has waaaaaaaay more options and you can literally build whatever you can imagine. It's also more of a superheroes in high fantasy system. But is imbalanced as fuck.

5e is simple as fuck with very few options, system is dirty farmer to rusty knife tier. But is pretty balanced, easy to learn and fast.

Pathfinder takes much more time and effort to learn well than 5e does.

My experience in trying to teach newbies:

>Pathdiner
>Player wants to be a wizard, we get into the big list of spells, all the rules of casting, and that's just in addition to all the concepts associated with class and race, bonuses, saves and things like that, try to come up with list of equipment
>He acts awkward and unsure throughout the first session
>Player never comes back

>5e
>Player wants to be a wizard
>Explain the ability scores and skills, the idea of proficiency, and take some stuff from the Quick Build section
>Have a grand ol' time

I know this is just anecdotal evidence and therefore not definitive, but it's my two cents.

In regards of your PF comment, I'll only say this as counterargument: Druids and Summoners, what now?

>Pathdiner

Pathfinder has more of a difficulty curve in character building, but more variety and the options are all super easy to find online. There are guides that explain it to you though, any what is a good/bad option and why.

5e has less difficulty curve in building, but less variety in character concepts and characters can do less stuff. Also, no decent online tools.

I sat in on a 3.5 session, and when I eventually joined the game had stumbled through and awkwardly made it through my first few games; but the challenge of learning the mechanics and rules are what excited me about it. Its not for everyone, someone might never come back, for others what you mentioned is exactly why we come back or move on to pathfinder. I liked that there were piles of rules to show the differences in having a custom and unique character whether good or bad. 4e i couldnt make a character that felt special to me or have the mechanics reflect what i was trying to do properly, and dropped it after a few games. Still havent played 5th ed

Yeah, I heard a story about how a guy went back to GURPS because other systems just don't have good enough rules for everything. A rule for digging holes was a huge plus for him in GURP's flavor. I don't know if I will ever understand you guys.

Summoner is a shit class for twats though. Not because it's bad, the fluff is just garbage and I hate it.

5E

Pathfinder is bad, it has a terrible ratio of complexity to stuff actually happening. You'll end up looking through pages and pages of rules and the result will be the same as if you played some rules lite OSR clone.