When comparing Dungeons & Dragons v3.5 / Pathfinder RPG vs Savage Worlds, the Slant community recommends Savage Worlds for most people. In the question“What are the best tabletop RPGs?” Savage Worlds is ranked 2nd while Dungeons & Dragons v3.5 / Pathfinder RPG is ranked 29th.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Enormous pool of source material
The D&D v3.x family was published under an Open Game License which encouraged third-party material. Two editions later, there is still a thriving market creating new 3.5-compatible resources.
Pro Actively supported via Pathfinder RPG
When Wizards of the Coast discontinued D&D v3.5 development in favor of 4th Edition, Paizo took advantage of the Open Gaming License to publish an updated revision of the 3.x rules under the title Pathfinder RPG, which is still their flagship product. Notably, Pathfinder RPG has consistently outsold 4th Edition.
Pro Modular system encourages creativity
The D&D v3.x family is designed around building characters, monsters, magic items, etc., from small simple pieces. For each piece, any of countless others can be substituted, allowing near-infinite customization and variety.
Pro Many easy to comprehend books and other resources
Pro Perfect balance of DM storytelling and deeply granular rules.
All of the deep-dive rulebooks provide the option for endless complexity - go as far as you want, and you'll never run out of opportunities. However, the basic mechanic of "roll a d20 and add your bonus" is simple enough that the DM can tell stories, create worlds, and build adventures with their party.
3.5e is the perfect edition.
Pro Fast-paced play
Pro Generic rule-set
The rules cater to multiple genres, and offer additional rules for GMs (or players) to create their own races, powers, etc.
Pro Companion books with expanded rules to support 4 major genres
Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Horrer, and Super Heroes. Each of which can be portrayed in a basic sense with only the core book.
Pro Classless
( Not a Class Based System ) This is also listed as a con, but it can be very refreshing to build you character from scratch. You can make whatever sort of archetype you like, and many are available pre configured for you.
Pro Easy to learn / teach
Pro General machanical similarities to d20, d6, and conventional RPGs
Cons
Con Encourages character optimization outside of play
With so many options available to the player, and the almost unlimited ability to combine them, certain "character builds" are patently superior to others. Players who spend a lot of personal time poring over the rules can often create characters so powerful that players who don't optimize feel useless in games with those who do.
Con Casters are significantly more powerful than non-casters
Con Detailed simulation slows down gameplay
Due to countless situational modifiers, players and DM alike have to put a great deal of thought into decisions about position, order of actions, etc., to the point that six seconds (one combat round) of "in-game time" frequently takes half an hour or more of play time.
Con Very easy to build broken (overpowered / underpowered) characters
Con No combat rating guidelines
No guidelines exist in the game to advise the difficulty of combat encounters. It is generally assumed in the rules, that the opponents will be reasonably proportional to the narrative situation, and that players will use ingenuity, retreat and avoid combat, or muster the villagers into a militia using the rules for Extras (mooks) as necessary.
Con Medium complexity
Straddles the space between lightweight games like Fate, and heavyweight games like d20 System.
Con Classless
Characters are developed completely independently of any sort of D&D-esque class framework. This allows players to make more free-form characters, but as a result characters which are less focused may be generally weaker. The book does provide a number of "archtype" partial-builds, which can generally serve as an alternative to classes, and Savage Rifts offers the Iconic frameworks, which more closely resembles classes.