katzazi's page

It's about "a full round has passed". Even if the initiative doesn't come back to you, your decision to delay is still an event that can be tracked in relation to the initiative order / a round.

You decided and declared to delay between whoever was in initiative before you and the one who was in initiative after you. Even if that is in another round.

This is still an action, that can be tracked and it may in theory trigger other things. In theory there could be a free action or a reaction to.

Even if a round is not a specific amount of time, a full round has passed, if the one before you has acted again and the one after you hasn't acted yet. (Assuming, that their position in the initiative order were not changed.)

If this couldn't be tracked the last part of the Delay-Action wouldn't be possible at all: "If you Delay an entire round without returning to the initiative order, the actions from the Delayed turn are lost, your initiative doesn't change, and your next turn occurs at your original position in the initiative order."

To return to your "original position" this position must be able to be tracked within the round even if you are currently out of the initiative order.

So while initiative may not "come round to you again", it still "comes round to your original position in the initiative order". Where you reenter if you delayed until this point.

This point will be in the next round, regardless of who delyed "for one round". And as the check, if you did or didn't return to the initiative order before that point, it only makes sense that you should be able to enter the initiative after any other creatures turn between your Delay-Action and "your original position" when it comes up in the following round.

If this wouldn't be the case, then the formulation would be something like "until the end of the current round". (But then why would anybody who wasn't last, be able to enter at their original spot when they didn't act until the end of the current round and what happens to their reactions during the next round until their original position comes up?)

I don't understand the reasoning of the idea that somebody with low initative couldn't delay, because they were so slow.

Yes, the character is slow to get into the action (by default, to realize that there is a fight). That's why they usually cannot do anything until their first turn.

But as soon, as it's their first turn, they have gained the "same speed" as everybody else. Es they can do up to 3 Actions every 6 seconds like everybody else and also can directly (even within their own turn) react.

Also being "slow" doesn't change initiative order, it changes how many actions one gets per round.

So if everybody else can wait until they act for a part of the 6 seconds of their choice, also the perseon who was lowest in initiative should be able to wait the same amount of time and act delayed.

There is also the Swashbuckler feat "After you": "You allow your foes to make the first move in a show of incredible confidence. You don't roll initiative; instead you voluntarily go last. You gain panache. [...]" It implies that if you choose to wait, it's actually a daring thing to do. It would be weird if that swashbuckler wouldn't be able to delay even longer until others could even act twice and then decide to act within any given point during the second round.