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Don't make me roll for initiative.........again
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<blockquote data-quote="KarinsDad" data-source="post: 2940729" data-attributes="member: 2011"><p>What if the PCs do exactly as you suggest as best as they can?</p><p></p><p>PCs whomp on NPCs in round one, but the indoor quarters are tight and the PC front line cannot yet get past the NPC front line. NPC Wizard is wounded, so he Fireballs the PCs and then moves into a side corridor where it is more safe. On round two, NPC Wizard wins init, gets to go again, so he moves to the corridor to see what is going on. Nobody has moved, so he fireballs again.</p><p></p><p>Everyone did smart actions. Nobody was an idiot. It just so happens that the NPCs doing smart actions ends up with a TPK.</p><p></p><p>All because of the init system, not because of anything else.</p><p></p><p>This is merely an issue of a character getting two turns fairly close to back to back. Nothing else.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>So basically, your position boils down to who cares if PCs often die? The player can always roll up a new PC or the other PCs can spend a lot of their loot on getting any dead PC raised.</p><p></p><p>That's fine for your game.</p><p></p><p></p><p>It would not be fun for my game, nor I suspect for many other players here.</p><p></p><p>I also suspect the DM of games who do roll initiative every round play a less challenging combat game than I do. I often send equal or more powerful opponents against the PCs because the PCs have more versatility. They can "go to the well" with charged items or blow through their spells in order to sway combat back in their favor when it is going against them.</p><p></p><p>Mathematically, you can only heavily combat challenge the PCs when rolling init every round if you fudge dice rolls or make less optimal decisions for the NPCs because sooner or later, the NPC Fighter will get 6 back to back full round attacks against the PC Cleric just due to init instead of his normal 3 attacks followed by the PC Cleric and/or other PC allies getting a chance to respond.</p><p></p><p>Basic Laws of Probability. In fact, the basic laws of probability indicate that even rolling init once at the beginning of combat, sooner or later one or more PCs will die if the DM is giving them reasonable challenges for their level. But, the difference is that it will occur a lot less often rolling init once per combat than it will once per round.</p><p></p><p>The math is against your POV. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="KarinsDad, post: 2940729, member: 2011"] What if the PCs do exactly as you suggest as best as they can? PCs whomp on NPCs in round one, but the indoor quarters are tight and the PC front line cannot yet get past the NPC front line. NPC Wizard is wounded, so he Fireballs the PCs and then moves into a side corridor where it is more safe. On round two, NPC Wizard wins init, gets to go again, so he moves to the corridor to see what is going on. Nobody has moved, so he fireballs again. Everyone did smart actions. Nobody was an idiot. It just so happens that the NPCs doing smart actions ends up with a TPK. All because of the init system, not because of anything else. This is merely an issue of a character getting two turns fairly close to back to back. Nothing else. So basically, your position boils down to who cares if PCs often die? The player can always roll up a new PC or the other PCs can spend a lot of their loot on getting any dead PC raised. That's fine for your game. It would not be fun for my game, nor I suspect for many other players here. I also suspect the DM of games who do roll initiative every round play a less challenging combat game than I do. I often send equal or more powerful opponents against the PCs because the PCs have more versatility. They can "go to the well" with charged items or blow through their spells in order to sway combat back in their favor when it is going against them. Mathematically, you can only heavily combat challenge the PCs when rolling init every round if you fudge dice rolls or make less optimal decisions for the NPCs because sooner or later, the NPC Fighter will get 6 back to back full round attacks against the PC Cleric just due to init instead of his normal 3 attacks followed by the PC Cleric and/or other PC allies getting a chance to respond. Basic Laws of Probability. In fact, the basic laws of probability indicate that even rolling init once at the beginning of combat, sooner or later one or more PCs will die if the DM is giving them reasonable challenges for their level. But, the difference is that it will occur a lot less often rolling init once per combat than it will once per round. The math is against your POV. ;) [/QUOTE]
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Don't make me roll for initiative.........again
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