So some of my gamer friends posed this question. "Should you reroll initiative every round to simulate the chaos of combat?" "Not a bad idea." I responded with a happy tone in my voice.
What do you guys think? As a house rule reroll initiative every round to make combat more chaotic as it should be or leave it as is.
Also one of my GM friends rolls initiative on d10 instead of d20s. Reason behind it is for those creature and PCs that are built to be fast. I.e. A will o' wisp has an initiative of +13. If he rolls a 1 his initiative is 14 right while the full plate 9 dex tin can fighter rolls a 16 and ends up with a 15. I agree and so do other players that it makes high and low initiative more important and makes feats like improved initiative more powerful.
What do you guys think?
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I see initiative lost all the time. I'd rather not have to see dice rolls like that if I don't have to. Takes a while to collect initiatives too.
but say you use the initiative tracker in hero lab where one click and reroll?
saying you have tools like that or something similar. Would you do it then?
It is how we used to play the game in the 1st and 2nd Edition AD&D game. We played 10 second rounds, with 6 rounds / minute. Only initiative modifiers we used were Dex or Haste affects(back before feats). We also used the casting times, when arcane spells were usually took 1 second / level, cleric spells a bit longer. You started casting on your initiative, and counted down until it went off.
It worked well for us, made the game seem more realistic. Although the PF system works as well, if for no other reason than it saves a little bit of time.
Oh, if there was a tool that rolled for everyone and reput it in iniatiave? Yeah, so long as you players are attentive and its visible to them. I like simplicity myself.
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Rolling every turn is tedious and takes more time than it's worth.
Maybe after a certain number of rounds? Say, every five rounds reroll initiative. That gives enough time for the effects of combat to actually change the initiative significantly.
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The problem with rerolling initiative is that many effects last for exactly one turn, defined by the initiative order. If that order changes, those effects might double in duration or fade to nothing. So you'd need to redefine the round in some fashion, though that's not likely to be too hard.
Some might observe that it increases randomness (of course) and randomness is bad for PCs. I doubt it would be that bad in this instance, as it actually decreases the overall variance in initiative order over the course of one fight.
Other than that, it's just the inconvenience. If you can automate it, well and good. It does make a fight feel more organic and real to reroll.
I wouldn't bother rerolling after 5 rounds; the fight is probably over by then anyway.
I have strongly considered doing this, too. It sounds like a really fun idea at first. It would definitely simulate chaos better and definitely boost the relevance of initiative and its accompanying feats, traits, etc.
As for effects measured in rounds, you'd just have to count duration from position, not the player in that position. You'd cast the spell while in 3rd position and it would last until 3rd position the following round, regardless of who holds the position. No biggie.
The biggest problems I see are: first, it would be a major time sink without a program that does it for you. Now, there are computer programs and smartphone apps aplenty that do this, so no biggie for the technologically savvy. Second, because initiative is Dex based, a boost to the importance of initiative also boosts the importance of Dex, the attribute most commonly considered overpowered. I've read many posts in which people argue that Dex is the most important attribute, by far, and this magnifies that. If you don't subscribe to that opinion then have at it. I think it sounds cool enough to try out.
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The problem with rerolling initiative is that many effects last for exactly one turn, defined by the initiative order. If that order changes, those effects might double in duration or fade to nothing. So you'd need to redefine the round in some fashion, though that's not likely to be too hard.
This is I think the most significant reason to not do it, but also time and tedium. In theory is may sound nice because characters with high initiative that roll low are punished less, but think about it: Every round you have to ask the table what their initiative scores are, write them down, and then reorder them in turn order, and then proceed to do each turn.
As a GM I would get irritated quickly by having to do this, and as a player I would be bored waiting for turns and really upset if I went first in the previous round and then last in the next, which means I have to wait essentially 2 full rounds before I get to make my next turn, and then right after that, initiative again...
The app "Pathfinder Toolkit" is free (I have Android) and has an initiative tracker. Push one button and initiative is re-rolled for everyone. Every group has got to have at least one person with a smartphone these days.
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So some of my gamer friends posed this question. "Should you reroll initiative every round to simulate the chaos of combat?" "Not a bad idea." I responded with a happy tone in my voice.
What do you guys think? As a house rule reroll initiative every round to make combat more chaotic as it should be or leave it as is.
Also one of my GM friends rolls initiative on d10 instead of d20s. Reason behind it is for those creature and PCs that are built to be fast. I.e. A will o' wisp has an initiative of +13. If he rolls a 1 his initiative is 14 right while the full plate 9 dex tin can fighter rolls a 16 and ends up with a 15. I agree and so do other players that it makes high and low initiative more important and makes feats like improved initiative more powerful.
What do you guys think?
My group has always rolled every round and it works fine you just need to be able to remember your previous rounds roll so you know when effects with a 1 round duration end or just make them last until then end of your next turn.
It helps prevent metagaming if you don't know if you go before or after your enemies.
I have done a Re-Roll every Minute of Combat in Game Time. It was actually pretty interesting.
So some of my gamer friends posed this question. "Should you reroll initiative every round to simulate the chaos of combat?" "Not a bad idea." I responded with a happy tone in my voice.
What do you guys think? As a house rule reroll initiative every round to make combat more chaotic as it should be or leave it as is.
Also one of my GM friends rolls initiative on d10 instead of d20s. Reason behind it is for those creature and PCs that are built to be fast. I.e. A will o' wisp has an initiative of +13. If he rolls a 1 his initiative is 14 right while the full plate 9 dex tin can fighter rolls a 16 and ends up with a 15. I agree and so do other players that it makes high and low initiative more important and makes feats like improved initiative more powerful.
What do you guys think?
I've always given my players the option at the beginning when I call for initiatives. They may chose to do one roll, or roll for then next 10 rounds now. I jot down their initiatives in the excel grid through 10 rds as they call them out. However once they've chosen to roll every round they can't change back. It gave those who got a Low number like 4, on initiative in the sequence to try and better it through out the game. It doesn't really take more than 30 secs to do. I cut and paste everyone else's static numbers and run the combat.
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There is also the issue of effects that can be sustained from one turn to the next. If they last until your next turn, it is a major waste if you get two turns in a row (which can happen when you reroll initiative every turn). If they last until the same initiative count on the next round, then you could fail to sustain an effect because of getting a high initiative rolls one round followed by a lower initiative roll the next.
Rerolling initiative worked pre-3E because at that time the game had no sustainable effects.
I can see the chance of getting 2 turns in a row will be great for some classes:)
It may be worth a try. please come back and tell us how it goes:)
I think I might go back to rolling each round. I might even try incorporating weapon speed as well.
It was easy back when we played 2nd edition D&D. We just used a numeric tally counter. Players roll and keep it to themselves. The GM starts from the bottom and counts out 1, 2, 3 when your number came up you went.
We used the honor system.
You could probably find a tally counter app now days.
-MD