Yep, the instant either party decides to become hostile, even if the other party is still peaceful. That could be miles apart if one of them has a way to be aware of the other one and decides to become hostile (yeah, it might not be practical to start them miles apart and spend the first hour of the battle tracking all their movements as they get closer - in weird cases like this I just begin the initiative when one of them with hostile intent gets close enough to actually do something about it, e.g., take that first long range arrow shot, or whatever).
New to PF, and wondering what sets off an initiative roll? For example, if a group of creatures are 120 feet away and running towards the party, when would you roll initiative to determine who can take actions in order in the round?Basically, as soon as one party realizes the other has hostile intent, or decides to initiate hostilities.
Good general rule, though do try to keep in mind the mechanical implications of calling for initiative and how that can greatly affect someone.
I'm currently playing a sneak attacking character with a high initiative. My first turn is the only round I can for-sure get sneak attack generally, by acting before the other guy can. The DM has been really starting to annoy the hell out of me by calling for initiative super early. Like, from a distance where I have no hope of closing to SA range and actually getting an attack off. Or worse, before an enemy has actually surfaced from the pond in front of us, or from the ground below, etc... Ideally, the monster would "show up" to attack, and THEN you'd roll initiative to see who actually attacks whom first. Instead, he calls for it as soon as we notice the monster's coming for us, and I often find myself in the position of, "Well, it's round 1, I won initiative...I can't do anything, so I delay and contemplate how the roll was pointless, monster gets to 'go first' by default and the entire system's a sham." I haven't said it that explicitly yet, but...I'm getting to that point. :(
One of the most egregious examples was monsters swimming to the surface of a body of water we were next to. I *rocked* my perception roll and thus heard them coming well before they were actually within sight or even in range to attack us. So DM took that to mean it was initiative time, and I got screwed out of sneak attacking, yet again. When he explained why we "started combat" so early, he said it was due to noticing them coming so early. So I asked him if next time my character could willfully unsee and unhear things until they were right upon us, so as to not unwittingly gimp himself.
TL;DR: Rogue types greatly rely on when and at what range you decide "combat starts" and what may seem like a largely inconsequential and intangible decision of "when do I start tracking actions by initiative?" can have very noticeable mechanical effects on rogues and other classes. Please keep that in mind.
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Conversely, I play a conjuration based character, and I hate it when the GM makes the Init roll when the bad guys are 10 feet away without even painting the picture there might be danger afoot. Completely gimping me and my +15 initiative. Hell no I am not going to spend a full round casting when I am in the barbarians charge lane and he is only 20 feet from me, but thanks for asking! Now, when he was charging up on his horse, I would have loved to create a hungry pit between me and him, then throw a silent image of turf over it, and perhaps if he was moving slow enough, or I rocked my perception well enough (by me, I mean my familiar) even had the extra time to launch a grease spell at his saddle. But now that you started combat with everyone within range of melee, I suppose I will cast vanish, then cast fly, then cast . . .