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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Zardnaar" data-source="post: 9890369" data-attributes="member: 6716779">In various class tier rankings that come up in don't see much attention paid to initiative manipulation.  In all editions winning initiative is important.  Death is still the best debuff. 5.5 monsters however have a few to many hit points and hit a bit to hard imho to reliably race them for damage vua alpha strikes. 5MWD maybe but you've already won via the 5MWD. In baldurs gate 3 initiative was rolled on a d4. This let you win initiative easily and all the bosses in the game could be destroyed before they got a go. 5.5 this won't work and initiative is rolled on a d20. Theres also lots of ways to manipulate the dice roll at lower opportunity cost than 5.0. Lucky, alert, various class abilities etc.  Some may have noticed I'm not rating damage as high as 5.0. I'm starting to prioritize not getting hit. With the changes to 5.5 encounter rules combined an alpha strike isn't as good as it was in 5.0. I have also said the most efficient way of dealing with things is a nartial/soellcaster combo. Spellcasters wont deal enough damage fast enough even with spells like CME on a dedicated blaster. Blasters were a B tier option in 5.0 imho. Sorry Invokers. Monsters like Death Knights RAW can turn up around level 9 and clobber you with 20d6 uncounterable AoEs with very high initiative modifiers.   I have seen a high dexterity champion fighter with the alert feat do its thing. +9 initiative modifier with advantage. Swap initiative with a spellcaster who then throws a control spell (generally a hold spell slow/fear/hypnotic pattern). A boss getting paralyzed even with good saves is quite interesting. Recurring theme is wisdom saves and generally poor saves in 5.5 (better than 5.0 though). Tashas mindwhip would be MVP vs a large majority of the 5.5MM. Can be twinned just saying.   Another example. A weapon of warning grants advantage to allies within 30 feet. Any artificer can get one at level 6. If DM sells magic items..... Opportunity cost is lower on alchemists and cartographer. Oh look cartographer can also boost initiative.  Champions and Cartographers are better than the internet hiveminds assumptions imho.  Controls has been great since 3.0. Its even better in 5.5 (you want to neutralize monsters avoiding HP need a martial to kill them ASAP due to save each round).  Initiative an dice manipulation are even better imho. Your thoughts?</blockquote>

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