D&D 5E Group initiative every round in 5E

[aramis erak]

I use PC's roll individually, once per combat. Monsters roll in groups (often by type of monster) once per combat. It goes plenty fast.

I never cared for the roll initiative every turn of certain editions.

 

[Tormyr]

The issue I have with initiative order changing every round is the effects that are supposed to be in effect until a certain creature's next turn. Depending on how the initiative goes from one round to the next, an effect can not take effect at all, or it can affect the target twice.

 

[dagger]

We are doing this in 5e, using average of the dex.

 

[Viking Bastard]

Our group prefers group initative and we experimented on a few variations (d6 on both sides, PCs alternating rolling, one PC/NPC on either side rolling based on marching order/circumstances) until we arrived at a simple group check against a static enemy DC.

I really like rolling group initative every round, and we tried doing it in our first session as that's what we did in our previous game (heavily house ruled S&W), but keeping track of durations and such quickly became confusing, so we abandoned it a few combats in and instead we just roll once at the beginning and alternate between sides after that.

I would like to bring back that mild sense of chaos rolling every round brought, but ultimately we didn't find it to be worth the bother.

 

[steeldragons]

Use d10.

DM roll, add modifiers, if necessary.
1 roll for the party. Individuals add Dex. and/or other modifiers, if any.
Those that beat the DM# go first. Those that don't go after the DM/monsters all go.

Rinse. Repeat each round.

 

[doctorhook]

We tried that, it has the dynamic that I want, but slow down combat to much. I want combat to be fast and furious.

I really like rolling group initative every round, and we tried doing it in our first session as that's what we did in our previous game (heavily house ruled S&W), but keeping track of durations and such quickly became confusing, so we abandoned it a few combats in and instead we just roll once at the beginning and alternate between sides after that.

I would like to bring back that mild sense of chaos rolling every round brought, but ultimately we didn't find it to be worth the bother.

I've long wanted to use a "roll initiative every round" variant in modern D&D, but a moment of forethought always made me reconsider. It seems like the kind of thing that would only be worth it if the table is using some kind of digital tool to calculate initiative on the fly and track durations for the DM.

The issue I have with initiative order changing every round is the effects that are supposed to be in effect until a certain creature's next turn. Depending on how the initiative goes from one round to the next, an effect can not take effect at all, or it can affect the target twice.

Good point; those kinds of durations are mostly a post-3E phenomenon, so it's probably not a coincidence that they mix poorly with initiative rolled every round. That said, I'd be willing to call that a feature rather than a bug, as long as the DM is judicious about it.