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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arrowhawk" data-source="post: 5631240" data-attributes="member: 6679551">Anest1s, I have a question...why doesn't "Rob" use his 28 Init to move first and Sneak Attack the bad guys? I'm curious why you always wait for a flanking maneuver to present itself? Why Delay...why not just strike first and get the advantage of everyone else being FF'd? To answer another question you posed awhile back. I think you were asking why should Delay present you with a trade off, particularly in the first round. Let me offer another perspective... The "trade-off" is the most crucial aspect of what defines an actual decision. If one choice is always superior to the other...then it really isn't a choice. I'm not saying that Delay was unequivocably meant to present you with that choice, if it is meant to be one such as this:  1) Delay - Being FF'd and getting a Full Round action with no trigger, or  2) Ready - not being FF'd, forced to declare a trigger, and only getting a partial action later. ...neither one of those is universally superior to the other. So the better you are at evaluating the trade-offs given your situation, the more you are rewarded as player for figuring out which one to use.  Obviously not everything is meant to be a decision. Sometimes a game doesn't want you to choose and may simply be offering you a reward or forcing you down a path. But when it does, the only way to make the decision meaningful is to present trade-offs or consequences. That's my take on it. EDIT:To address your "first round" trade-off question...consider this: In the first round, a Delay leaves you FF'd. After the first round, you are no longer run that risk. Compare that to Ready, in which you avoid the FF statuts in the first round....but in later rounds, that is no longer a benefit. So in essence BOTH options are changed. The Ready action becomse less attractive and the perceived cost is higher after the first round because you no longer need to avoid being FF'd. Likewise, Delay no longer leaves you exposed so it is a more attractive option.  Strictly in regards to being FF"d, one might say that:Delay is less attractive in the First round, but more attractive in later rounds. Ready is more attractive in the First round, but less attractive in later rounds. Also consider that in most cases, you are only going to use Delay or Ready once or twice in combat. Both lower your init order for the entire combat and you may not have any lower to go after your first use of either. So you really need to think about which one you want to use, the first time you use it. EDIT: EDIT:And this would be in contrast to my previous notion that Delay and Ready were conceived wholly independent of each other.  From a game design perspective, I think it makes more sense that they were intended to provide a player with two options, neither of which was superior to the other.  Obviously that's an opinion.</blockquote>

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