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<blockquote data-quote="Amaroq" data-source="post: 5066583" data-attributes="member: 15470">Hmmm - group initiative has a drawback, too:An encounter featuring several Gray Wolves (L2) and one Dire Wolf (L5) is of a much different difficulty if the wolves all go at the same time - you get this &quot;okay, the first wolf moves to get Combat Advantage. It hits; now you're prone. Every other wolf piles on doing double damage as they savage a prone target&quot; effect.If the wolves each have their own separate initiative, interspersed with the PCs, you get a much more tactical encounter as the players can use zones, push, pull, marking, etc, to try and screen the other wolves off the downed player .. nothing like the pressure being on a character who isn't built for it trying to play the defender to give the bloodied fighter a chance to get back on his feet!!Seriously - I kid you not - giving each wolf a separate initiative changed this encounter from a near-TPK to a fairly easy party win when I ran my testbed party through it.I'm sure there are lots of other monsters that benefit massively from the synergy of getting to go all in one clump (even if they have to survive a round of the PC's going nova on them to get their turn).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Amaroq, post: 5066583, member: 15470"] Hmmm - group initiative has a drawback, too: An encounter featuring several Gray Wolves (L2) and one Dire Wolf (L5) is of a much different difficulty if the wolves all go at the same time - you get this "okay, the first wolf moves to get Combat Advantage. It hits; now you're prone. Every other wolf piles on doing double damage as they savage a prone target" effect. If the wolves each have their own separate initiative, interspersed with the PCs, you get a much more tactical encounter as the players can use zones, push, pull, marking, etc, to try and screen the other wolves off the downed player .. nothing like the pressure being on a character who isn't built for it trying to play the defender to give the bloodied fighter a chance to get back on his feet!! Seriously - I kid you not - giving each wolf a separate initiative changed this encounter from a near-TPK to a fairly easy party win when I ran my testbed party through it. I'm sure there are lots of other monsters that benefit massively from the synergy of getting to go all in one clump (even if they have to survive a round of the PC's going nova on them to get their turn). [/QUOTE]

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