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<blockquote data-quote="Uller" data-source="post: 7466684" data-attributes="member: 413"><p>It _can_ be an edge. Group init means several NPCs go at once and with only one roll there is a reasonable chance they will go early in the round (and a reasonable chance they will go late....both of which can really effect the difficulty), while the PCs have a greater chance of splitting up. Let's say you have 6 orcs vs 4 3rd lvl PCs...so a "hard" encounter. </p><p></p><p>If zero or one PC goes before the orcs (they go early), the orcs could get 6 attacks at +5/1d12+3....if they focus fire on one PC with an AC of 16, that's a pretty good chance at about 28 hp damage (not counting crits). Easily enough to down most PCs. White rooming things like this is usually not that accurate imxp because it doesn't happen as much at the table as it does in these little discussions...but a DM determined to play his monsters at their most dangerous COULD do this. </p><p></p><p>This is why "do what makes sense" is important (to me). When group initiative rolls around I try to look at each monster and think about what each would decide to do before any of them act in a way that makes sense. Would all 6 orcs mob the halfling rogue with a dagger and none attack the AC 19 Fighter? That seems unlikely. Two or three, maybe. Certainly the two closest orcs would delight in an opportunity to kill a wimpy little creature like a halfling. But they would also see a large well armed and armored fighter as a real threat to themselves and will want to counter that or they might see a caster in the back and think that's a real threat that they need to take down. So each orc should separately prioritize targets before any of them act...Now....if the PCs screw up and put one character in reach of 6 orcs with no other viable targets, then bad things are about to happen...</p><p></p><p>EDIT: Just to add something: Another thing I do to mitigate this is I have monsters "take 10.5" on init (so they get 11 + DEX mod and lose ties). I only roll init for important NPCs or very small numbers of monsters.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Uller, post: 7466684, member: 413"] It _can_ be an edge. Group init means several NPCs go at once and with only one roll there is a reasonable chance they will go early in the round (and a reasonable chance they will go late....both of which can really effect the difficulty), while the PCs have a greater chance of splitting up. Let's say you have 6 orcs vs 4 3rd lvl PCs...so a "hard" encounter. If zero or one PC goes before the orcs (they go early), the orcs could get 6 attacks at +5/1d12+3....if they focus fire on one PC with an AC of 16, that's a pretty good chance at about 28 hp damage (not counting crits). Easily enough to down most PCs. White rooming things like this is usually not that accurate imxp because it doesn't happen as much at the table as it does in these little discussions...but a DM determined to play his monsters at their most dangerous COULD do this. This is why "do what makes sense" is important (to me). When group initiative rolls around I try to look at each monster and think about what each would decide to do before any of them act in a way that makes sense. Would all 6 orcs mob the halfling rogue with a dagger and none attack the AC 19 Fighter? That seems unlikely. Two or three, maybe. Certainly the two closest orcs would delight in an opportunity to kill a wimpy little creature like a halfling. But they would also see a large well armed and armored fighter as a real threat to themselves and will want to counter that or they might see a caster in the back and think that's a real threat that they need to take down. So each orc should separately prioritize targets before any of them act...Now....if the PCs screw up and put one character in reach of 6 orcs with no other viable targets, then bad things are about to happen... EDIT: Just to add something: Another thing I do to mitigate this is I have monsters "take 10.5" on init (so they get 11 + DEX mod and lose ties). I only roll init for important NPCs or very small numbers of monsters. [/QUOTE]
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