D&D 5E Ideas for Initiative house rules

[Morrus]

I like this idea, and in many cases would even take it a step further to say - given that combat is all in reaction to the launching event - the launching action always happens before initiative is even rolled.

Well, you can see somebody go for their weapon, and get in first if you're fast enough.

 

[Lanefan]

I would be careful where you can use this. A lot of combats start with some verbal back and forth where you could avoid combat. If there is an advantage on starting the murder-hobo action, the players will act on it.

Of course they will. And so, sometimes, will the opponents.

Also, there are encounters where the door is opened and both parties see each other knowing there is a fight. There would always be a player who shouts "I attack" first trying to get advantage, when the situation would likely be neutral.

I wouldn't allow it in this situation. This idea seems to be more for quasi-surprise situations where you're trying to get the drop on someone, be it from ambush or during a conversation or whatever.

Would this lead to things like in 4e where it was justified to have mages use Intelligence to attack and clerics use Wisdom. 5e only has Str and Dex, but I was more relating to Initiative more where the wizard would thing to use his logic to anticipate the start of combat and the bard would want Cha to use his relations with people to determine it.

That sounds like a bit of power creep, if so many classes can use their best stat as an init modifier.

As Int doesn't seem to have much going for it in 5e, maybe make that the initiative stat for everyone?

 

[Crimson Longinus]

I wonder how broken it would be if your place in the initiative order would be the earliest time you could act, but you could always freely postpone your actions to occur later (without just readying a single specific action)? This wouldn't affect your actual initiative rank and you would retain it for following turns.

 

[Zaukrie]

I wonder how broken it would be if your place in the initiative order would be the earliest time you could act, but you could always freely postpone your actions to occur later (without just readying a single specific action)? This wouldn't affect your actual initiative rank and you would retain it for following turns.

That's pretty much the system where you determine initiative, everyone delays. Everyone. The worst roll goes, but can be interrupted at any time by a higher roll. I've not tried it, but it is a real system (don't recall the game), and I've read good things about it. That's currently found on page 26 (of 71 so far) in my doco documenting systems.....

 

[Lanefan]

Well, you can see somebody go for their weapon, and get in first if you're fast enough.

True - if a weapon is used. A fist is (quite literally!) already in hand, however, so if I want to start a brawl by sucker-punching the guard my punch should go first. Ditto a short verbal-only spell in some cases. and ditto again if it's the opposition trying to do the same to me/us - it works both ways.

Another situation where this often arises is ambush, where someone wants to open proceedings with a sniper shot (or a spell) from concealment, where that person's concealed or hidden status has already been mechanically established.

 

[Zaukrie]

True - if a weapon is used. A fist is (quite literally!) already in hand, however, so if I want to start a brawl by sucker-punching the guard my punch should go first. Ditto a short verbal-only spell in some cases. and ditto again if it's the opposition trying to do the same to me/us - it works both ways.

Another situation where this often arises is ambush, where someone wants to open proceedings with a sniper shot (or a spell) from concealment, where that person's concealed or hidden status has already been mechanically established.

IMO, some situations should be handled outside initiative completely, ambush being one example. The more I look at systems, the less I like cyclical systems and D20+Dex+xyz being the order......

 

[darjr]

I’ve tried narrative initiative with initiative contests for conflicts.
I narrate what’s going on and the players narrate their action. If I think they can go they take their turn, otherwise they have to win an initiative contest. Winner goes. Once all participants have gone I declare a new round.

it requires a TON of trust. But when it works the contests are few and often dramatic. When it doesn’t those tests bog down the play, a lot, to much. Thinking of having passive initiative scores. But really I’ve abandoned it.

Ive also tried a modified party init. I roll initiative for all the bad guys and go all together and kinda do party initiative. The players still roll. I guess the home rule is allowing individuals to break up their turn. For example a player can move, let another attack, then they can attack. But that gets weird in strange ways.

So I roll one init for each group of bad guys and key bad guys. The players roll. Almost bog standard.

The big win for me was how I record it for keeping track.

 

[darjr]

Here is one of my recorded combats. I record init as reported in any order, the dot next to their names on their turn, also keeping track of rounds. Then I count the HP the monsters lost.

 

[Lanefan]

As for how I do initiative, and my thoughts behind it:

First off, I really dislike cyclic initiative where particpiants act in the same order every round; as it does nothing to replicate the chaos of battle and also leads to far too many meta-game decisions being made based on the turn order, which the characters wouldn't know. So, it's always going to be re-roll every round.

Second, I try to avoid stat-based modifiers of any kind on initiative; as that stat - particularly in a re-roll system - immediately becomes the most important stat in the game.

Third, I don't mind simultaneous initiatives; as in reality things can and do happen at the same time.

Fourth, every action (excluding reaction-type things e.g. AoOs) from every participant gets its own independent initiative. Yes, this means if you have, say, multiple attacks in a round you roll a separate initiative for each one to determine when they occur.

Fifth, in a re-roll system with (sometimes) many participants, using d20 for initiative is cumbersome in various ways not least of which being I-as-DM don't own enough d20s to roll and leave in front of me for all the monsters; never mind I need one or two for rolling attacks, saves, etc. However, we all own loads of d6s (if not, they're dime-a-dozen to pick up at the dollar store). D6s are also convenient in that you can leave them on the table in front of you once rolled and they're way less likely to get knocked over than is a d20.

Sixth, spells take time to cast; and this is reflected by you starting to cast on your rolled initiative and resolving a certain number of initiative counts (i.e. segments) later, with this time amount set by the specific spell you're casting.

So, d6 for each action or attack, re-rolled every round.

There's a few quirks and modifiers we've developed over time, but none are essential.

 

[BookTenTiger]

Initiative Tokens:

You receive a number of tokens at the start of combat equal to 2 x your Hit Dice + Dexterity or Intelligence bonus. At the start of each round, you place forward a number of tokens. Order in combat starts with the combatant who put forward the most tokens. When you run out of tokens, you always go last. Ties always go to the combatant with the highest Passive Perception.