Raven Crowking said:
This is not merely an issue of a character getting two turns fairly close to back to back. This is an issue where getting two turns back to back has overwhelming consequences. And, oddly enough (or not so oddly) it hasn't happened in my game yet.
Odd.
One of the PCs in my game is a Dwarven Paladin 1 / Fighter 4 / Kensai 2 with a Dwarven Urgosh and 56 hit points. He averages without criticals 14 points of damage with the primary side of the weapon and 11 points with the secondary end. 34 points with a critical with the primary side of the weapon and 26 points with a critical with the secondary end.
If a duplicate of him (i.e. another 7th level Dwarven Kensai with identical stats and abilities) managed to get two full round attacks back to back and hit with all 6 attacks, he would average without criticals 78 points of damage and kill the PC. He could hit with 5 out of 6 and still kill him. Not make him go unconscious, kill him. He could hit with 3 out of 6 and kill him if one of these is a critical.
In the roll once per battle init system, he would have to critical him twice to kill him out of 3 attacks. Possible, but a lot less likely than doing one critical and two other normal hits out of 6 attacks.
So, the odds of doing in in a single round are not very good, but the odds of doing it with two back to back actions while not great are well within the "it happens and it can happen quite often" range. He has a 50% chance of hitting himself when fighting two weapon with his AC, so he has a 50%/25%/50%/50%/25%/50% of hitting in the back to back scenario. Having 3 of these hit where one of them is a critical happens about 25% of the time (one or more threats with 6 rolls and a 20 is needed to threaten) * 25% (rounds where enemy loses init on round x and wins init on round x+1) * 50% (rounds of 3 hits where one already threatens). This would happen one round in 30 or so. Even if it is one round in 50, it is still one combat in 10 when facing similar ability foes and could easily happen once per every few level advancements. Since it could happen to any PC in the party, it could (and should) happen to somebody in the party maybe once per level advancement or two.
Note: This assumes the PC Fighter is not damaged before these two round. That does not happen a lot of rounds either.
Note: Such a character against himself is threatening. Such a character who could get two back to back full round attacks against a lower hit point character such as a Wizard or a Rogue would be devastating virtually every time since he would only need to hit half as often as against a Fighter type to kill these types of PCs.
So, I find your statement a bit odd if the DM in your game (is that you?) ever challenges the PCs with equal powered opponents. I have seen PC deaths in my games and I do not use a system that allows for back to back turns. Stuff happens. Mathematically, bad stuff has to happen more often in a roll each round system than in a roll once per battle system.
Btw, this is not much different than having multiple opponents against a single PC. The only difference is that if you have 3 opponents against a PC using the normal init system, you could have 3 to 6 unanswered opponent attacks if you roll init each round. How can that not be considered more potent and potentially devastating (i.e. a TPK just waiting to happen)???
