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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Man in the Funny Hat" data-source="post: 9378911" data-attributes="member: 32740">1E initiative is a quagmire.  That said, the initial, most basic step to determining initiative by the book in 1E is that each side rolls 1d6.  The side with the higher die roll has the initiative.  The number indicated on the die then OSTENSIBLY indicates the segment on which your opponent will act.  So if the PC's roll 5 and the monsters roll 2, the PC's have the initiative and will act on segment 2, while the monsters act on segment 5.  That, then gets totally fudged in a hundred ways for a hundred different reasons which man was never meant to understand - but you WILL have established overall which side has initiative regardless of what individuals on either side may or may not do, or who might ultimately end up acting/attacking first despite having won or lost initiative.  If the T/A then is on the side which won initiative, then they ARE using their evasion ability.  If their side lost initiative then they are NOT using their evasion ability.  If you didn't WIN initiative because it's actually tied then, again, evasion won't be getting used.Note, however, that it does take 1 segment to perform any evasion and that IS going to have consequences in specific instances once you get further into the DEEP pile of junk that is the rest of 1E initiative.  Simply winning initiative isn't the end of it - the other specifics of 1E initiative might apply if an opponent has some means of advancing their attack so that it happens prior to the ACTUAL final initiative result for the action being performed.  Also, evasion is not certain in any case, it's still a percentage roll for success.So, assume we have rolls: PC's 4, enemies 3.  PC actions that aren't otherwise having their initiative priority changed by more specific procedures happen on 3.  The evasion takes 1 segment so it'll take place on 4.  If an opponent has an action that takes place on or before segment 4 that evasion still won't be in time to avoid it.  Most of the time it won't be a real concern because, simply by losing initiative we know that the opponents are highly UN-likely to have actions that COULD be adjusted to happen prior to the T/A's evasion. But unlikely doesn't equal impossible.But 1E initiative is FIENDISHLY hard to understand and apply reasonably and consistently because of all of it's special procedures and exceptions.  MOST people don't actually use it as-written.  They have some other way of handling initiative in 1E.1E initiative is also not cyclic - it is re-rolled every round and is actually only at its most complex when the d6 rolls are TIED, so yes, it is going to change every round whether evasion is going to potentially apply at all.  Overall it's roughly a 41% chance for a side to WIN initiative, and then the T/A has to make the % check to succeed at evading.  That definitely limits the chances of it ever happening, but when it does happen it makes the character flat-out untouchable by weapon attacks and most spells in that round, and that's incredibly powerful.</blockquote>

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