Don't make me roll for initiative.........again

[KarinsDad]

Dont think I havent considered it but unfortunately I have no other game at the moment.

Don't quit. Talk the fellow players into changing this one bad rule. There are a lot of reasons it is bad, we have given you some here. But, if you can convince the other players, then the DM will fold.

PS. Get rid of the Defensive Refocus and Refocus rules while you are at it. They too are bad rules.

 

[Goldmoon]

Refocus is a poor man's Delay.

The start of a round is not much of a concept in DND. So, who cares if you go first in any given round? There are no effects that occur at or until the end or beginning of a round. With a circular initiative system (i.e. not rolling every single round), beginning and end of rounds in DND no longer matter.

For example:

If A delays, he can go:

BACDE or BCADE or BCDAE or BCDEA

If A refocuses and C has the first init (and assuming A beats C on the refocus), his only option is:

ACDEB


Delay does everything that Refocus does and more. Even if you roll init every round (or not). So, why have a silly Refocus rule?


PS. I have never heard of Defensive Refocus. When used with rerolling init every round, this is a silly rule too. You get to do more than just fight Total Defensive, you also tend to win init the next round. This totally blows away the Total Defensive rule when rerolling init every round like your DM does since nobody would ever take the Total Defensive action. They would always take the Defensive Refocus action. In fact, they would take the Defensive Refocus action instead of the Total Defensive action every time even if they did not reroll init every round. This sounds like a house rule and a bad one at that.

My point is that with rerolling initiative every round no one can get any use out of any initiative changing rules since no one knows who will go when in the round.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

One word... speed.

3.x combat can be ungainly and slow. Allowing players to know when thier turn is coming up and have a predictable round-robin of actions makes it much faster.

Also, its easier to have NPC's with thier own initiative. I still clump minor characters together based on type. It makes for a more interesting combat when it isn't "bad guys turn". Not to mention this is an unfair advantage for the bad guys to have much more coordinated attacks..

However, rolling each round *is* an option in the DMG , so he has rules to back up his choice. If the group asking for a change doesn't work, and walking out is not an option.. simply be meanspirited and prove that this method slows combat to a crawl.
An encounter that lasts 3 rounds in an hour or so should help him see the light

 

[werk]

What was wrong with refocus?

There is no need for it. Rather than giving up all action for a round and going at 20+bonuses, you just delay until you would like to act. It's better and easier.

I'd show him the initiative entry in the rules: "Initiative Checks: At the start of a battle, each combatant makes an initiative check. ...In every round that follows, the characters act in the same order..."

Failing that, I'd ask him for his perceived benefits of re-calculating intiative every round. I can't think of any real benefits, but try to see his side. He probably doesn't have a side, rather "that's how we played it," so he should be easy to persuade with intelligent arguments.

 

[Infiniti2000]

Don't quit. Talk the fellow players into changing this one bad rule.

I really doubt there's only one.

 

[Goldmoon]

Thanks a lot everyone for the good ideas. Ill let you know how it turns out.

 

[Joshua Randall]

You might also ask him to read the page in the DMG that talks about re-rolling initiative every round as an optional rule. It's certainly not core.

 

[airwalkrr]

My personal feeling on the matter is that rolling for initiative is bad for the players in the long run. It is one of those rules that offers a major setback to players who have to suffer through a "double turn" from the bad guys. The game just moves faster if the PCs get a double turn and whack the bad guys quickly, but the PCs possibly face a TPK and grinding the campaign to a halt if the bad guys get a similiar opportunity.

Now if the DM rolls initiative individually for each monster, then that reduces the impact of the "double turn" effect, but on the other hand it is markedly more complex than keeping track of groups of monsters.

Me? I use group initiative and roll once at the beginning of combat.

 

[TheEvil]

Thanks a lot everyone for the good ideas. Ill let you know how it turns out.

Out of curiousity, does he roll the NPCs each individually, or in groups? I would also add a vote to ask him what he sees as the advantage of rolling every round. Just be prepared to not like or agree with the answer. When I asked my GM why all PCs got the same xp, even in cases where there was a two level difference between characters, the response I got was that he considered it punishment for dying. :\

 

[Whimsical]

Something else to bring up: in 3.5, there is nothing of consequence that occurs at the End of Round. End of Round is no longer relevant for anything in 3.5.