Balance on this feat: Reflexive initiative

[RolandOfGilead]

Reflexive Initiative:
Your reflexes allow you to react to danger unconventionally.

Prerequisites: Improved Initiative
Benefit: When holding your action or readying an action, your initiative in the next round is 2 higher than it would be otherwise.
Normal: When holding your action or readying an action, your initiative in the next round is equal to the initiative count you held your action until.

Example:
With RI:
Your initiative is 16, your enemy is on 12. You delay until he closes the distance. On his initiative of 12, he charges, and after his attack is resolved, you get your action. Your initiative would now normally be 12, and next round the enemy would again get to go before you. With RI, Your initative is now 14 for the following round.

Problematic? balanced?

 

[Darkness]

Moved to Rules. (Though if you created it yourself, it would belong in House Rules.)

Doesn't seem too strong. Improved Initiative gives +4 init to all init rolls and has no prerequisites, while this feat has a prerequisite and gives only +2 init and only in some situations.

 

[the Jester]

The biggest problem I see with this feat is that it could easily turn into a bookkeeping nightmare. Also, it takes away any drawback to readying an action to disrupt someone since you'll still go ahead of them next round.

Emm, actually, the more I mull it over the more problematic I think it could become because of this. Picture a combat between a rogue and a wizard. Assuming neither one starts out flat-footed (by the time they engage each other) and assuming the rogue has the initiative (very likely imo), if the rogue has this feat he's almost certain to win the fight.

Rd. 1:
Rogue gets initiative of 18, readies to attack the wizard when he casts a spell.
Wizard gets initiative of 12, tries to cast a spell. BUT! The rogue's ready attack disrupts him. Ow, darn it!

Rd. 2:
Rogue's initiative is now 14. He readies again.
On 12, the wizard goes, and if the combat is in quarters closed enough that he doesn't have anywhere to go, he gets nailed again and again.

Granted the situation is different depending on the terrain; but a clever rogue could use his good initiative to get out of line of sight/effect after sneak attacking but before the enemy can react, at least in battles against a single enemy.

Also, think of how much of a pain in the butt it would be to track the initiatives of a room with six guards with this feat- and frankly, this one looks like a great choice to the right characters (no brainer for a rogue).

Another abuse- what about a wizard who readies to magic missile an opposing spellcaster when she starts to cast a spell? Round after round?

One of the balancing factors of the ready action is the fact that you ultimately lose an action out of it. I think this feat sometimes lets you gain one.

That said- I think this might be an okay feat at the top of a large chain. Maybe even epic.

 

[Darkness]

Ah, yes. Readying, not just holding. Missed that. Shouldn't post when I'm sleepy.

Still, when you're constantly readying actions, you can't take full-round actions. Especially when you're starting to get multiple attacks, that's not always an efficient use of your resources.
It also makes you predictable and dependent on your enemy acting in a certain way.

Hm. I don't think it's epic or anything but I'm not sure where to place it. Adding a +6 BAB (or even higher) prerequisite would probably a good idea, though. Or maybe only make it work a limited number of times per day.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Also, it takes away any drawback to readying an action to disrupt someone since you'll still go ahead of them next round.

Uh... you do anyway.

Your initiative changes to immediately before that of the character whose action triggers the Readied action.

So your Rogue gets to do exactly what you describe even without the feat.

-Hyp.

 

[RolandOfGilead]

...but not when you delay an action. whats you opinion on the feat Hyp?

 

[Coredump]

...but not when you delay an action. whats you opinion on the feat Hyp?

(Granted, I'm not Hyp)

So what? Improved initiative pretty much does this already.
Since if you delay, you now go after him this round, and on the same initiative next round...but the one with the highest initiative modifier goes first. So in most cases, if you have imp init, and he doesn't, it imp init will let you delay, attack, and attack again before he goes.

To spend another feat to be able to do this on those rare other occasions, doesnt seem very powerful to me. Unless I am missing something, it is quite underpowered.

 

[Piratecat]

I dislike for the reason that it'd be an administrative pain in the butt... I hate excessively reshuffling initiative cards or rewriting init.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

I dislike for the reason that it'd be an administrative pain in the butt... I hate excessively reshuffling initiative cards or rewriting init.

Agreed.

Unless you can get a laptop to track this for you, it is not worth the trouble to the DM to have this feat in the game.

As for balance, it is on the weak side IMO.

 

[diaglo]

iirc, there is a similar feat in the FRCS concerning +2 init and +2 to something else.