D&D 5E Panache, Charming and Initiative

[FitzTheRuke]

I'm going to disagree with that a little bit. The out of combat use for this is if you're in a social encounter with folks who are hostile to you but there's a constraint of some sort where you can't attack each other. If you think the other group is going to break that constraint (or you know your own group is about to, which might be more common), you could use Panache before combat to get someone to focus on you just before the fight breaks out.

(Also it's now RAW, but as a DM I'd allow a character in that situation to use it as a kind of taunt or insult in social encounters - if one of the hostile folks is focusing on another party member you could use Panache on them to draw them into an argument with you instead. It has the right feel for the ability, but as I say it's not RAW.)

Actually, I agree with you. I didn't mean that initiative would be (necessarily) rolled because of the Penache, but because of the combat. Whatever started the fight would have started the initiative. Good point.