Initiative

[Pan]

Rolling separate initiative for 15+ enemies? I dont think so. However, if you were to break up your numbers into BBEG, henchmen, mooks and you have 15+ and they all beat your PCs Id expect at least one PC to die if not a TPK. I probably run my baddies a little higher octane though than most. I don't care much for the one hit and out mooks unless I am using zombies.
So I can see where you player is coming from. Not his approach, but his point.

[yeti1069]

I've tried rolling separately for each monster.
I've even tried having everyone reroll initiative from round to round.

I roll initiative in groups, as everyone else in this thread does, because any other way is more hassle than its worth. Tell your player to stop being such a baby.

[Elosandi]

Jiggy wrote:

So... is the player from the OP's story not aware of the "Delay" option in combat? Through use of delay, the party could choose any initiative count they wanted, and have the entire party act on that count, in any order. This would allow the PCs to do all of those "unfair" things the player was complaining about the monsters doing.

The problem with doing that is that it means that they're acting on the lowest initiative of the group, while using a single roll for all of them means that the NPCs are acting on the average of their group.

If it becomes a problem, roll initiative for each enemy individually and then just have them delay (i.e. take the lowest). A few extra rolls hardly slows things down at all, 8 dice is less than the maximum cap of a fireball spell, especially since all you're doing is scanning for which number is lowest instead of adding the values together.

I tried it personally and with a single die it took just over eleven seconds to roll initiative 8 times and determine the lowest roll.

[MendedWall12]

I would be remiss if I didn't offer up a suggestion in any initiative based discussion to use Kyle Olson's Combat Manager software. I realize not everyone uses a laptop or other digital device at the table (he does have the program running for iPad's now), but if you do, or are capable of doing so, I would highly suggest you check out this program. Kyle is a friend of the boards, and frequently posts in a discussion thread that deals with the software. The program can import PC and monster files from Hero Lab or PCGen, and also has a very extensive library of already built in monsters, with an advancer tool as well. It is, at its base, an initiative tool, rolling individual initiative for every creature in a combat encounter, with the ability to delay or ready actions with just a right-click of the mouse. It can also (and this is how I use it which echoes everyone else in the thread) group creatures together either before or after their initiative roll by shift-clicking the group you want to link, and then right-clicking to link their initiatives to another creature. It also has and does so much more, including: a completely searchable database of rules, spells, and feats; a searchable monster database by CR, and or creature type; a random treasure generator; and a powerful dice roller. It has become a tool that I never GM without. The players at every table I run have all seen the time-saving capacity of the program, and don't care at all that with one mouse-click everyone's initiative is rolled and sorted.

I know this sounds like a shameless plug, but this program is FREE. Though Kyle does accept donations. I don't get any benefit for spreading the word about it. I just know how invaluable it is to me, and I am constantly spreading the word to fellow gamers.

[Kazaan]

If you want to split the difference, try this: Roll 3 times for each group, pick one guy to take the lowest roll, one guy to take the highest roll, and the rest of them take the middle roll. Then, you have one fast guy who could, if he wanted to, zip out ahead, wait on the middle guys and leave the slow one to bring up the rear, or they all delay and go together. Or, to put it another way, pick 3 guys out of each group and roll init for them and whoever had the middle value, the rest of the chars in that group default to it.