Best Initiative System?

[Oni]

What do you think is the best initiative system for Dungeons & Dragons?

The classic AD&D and older style where everyone declares and then you figure out how it all shakes out, or the cyclical initiative that's was used in 3e, 4e, and now in the 5e playtest material? Or perhaps something else entirely?





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I was playing the playtest material last week it got me thinking about the initiative system and how it might influence player behavior. And then again in the my weekly Pathfinder game I was noticing the players tendency to dogpile anything that looked like a threat, and that often I would have monsters that had the potential to be fairly scary or threatening either getting only one or no attacks at all, because the players, as a group, could do so much damage in a round when the focused fire, nothing that wouldn't just flat out kill them would last very long. Now I know that you can focus fire using the older style intiative, but I feel like the certainty that comes with knowing exactly when everyone is going to act promotes this type of behaviors, because it's easier to predict the outcome of a given situation. It's the difference between everyone being able to react to whatever comes before them immediately, versus having to react to the previous rounds actions.

Anyway, I sometimes wonder, even though it's slightly more complicated, if the style of initiative from 2e and earlier wasn't better.

 

[Stormonu]

I like 2E's the best. Declare then roll (each round) and by using d10, the numbers don't get too big to remember.

I always hated it when they changed it to round-robin in 3E/4E.

 

[Stalker0]

I like cyclical initiative, quick and easy and gets the job done.

To address Oni's concerns about stronger monsters, you can use the 4e trick of giving a monster more than one initiative per round. That worked well for solo type monsters.

 

[GX.Sigma]

They both seem good, and I'd like to see them both in D&DN.

 

[CleverNickName]

To be honest, I've only ever used one system for initiative: the one I learned while playing the Moldvay red box rules. I see no reason to change it.

 

[Tony Vargas]

I've always hated "declare" system, whether for initiative or resolution. Maybe if I had a talent for precognition or mind-reading they'd be less frustrating.

Cyclical initiative is OK, but it can be a pain to track, especially with a large group. I find overly-simplistic initiative, such as 'going around the table' easier to keep track of for both the DM and player. The player knows when he's 'up next' because the player next to him is taking his turn. Doesn't work so well for readying or delaying, of course, and smart players will start choosing their seats based on the order they want to go in...

 

[johnsemlak]

Isn't the initiative system for 1e insanely difficult to figure out, in the RAW?

 

[Oni]

Isn't the initiative system for 1e insanely difficult to figure out, in the RAW?

Perhaps, but I'm not really concerned with concentrating on a particular execution so much as the general idea of Declarative versus Cyclical initiative versus whatever.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Isn't the initiative system for 1e insanely difficult to figure out, in the RAW?

Of course not!

DMPrata collated all the rules, so now it's easy to figure out!

-Hyp.

 

[Minigiant]

I prefer Cyclical and Multiple for biggies.