Initiative - taking 10 and taking 20 for simplicity?

[Plane Sailing]

An idea that I'm considering testing out is a simplification of the initiative process by assuming that everyone takes 10 on their intiative... i.e. they go at 10+dex bonus + any feat bonus in every combat.

The exception is ambushes, where someone has prepared an ambush and is waiting for the targets to come into the prepared position, at which point they are considered to have taken 20, and their initiative point is 20 + bonuses.

The root of this is a system which has worked fine in games like Bushido... some people just react faster than others.

The benefit is that it speeds up resolving the order of combat whenever melee occurs, it means that ambushers normally go first unless slow and facing very quick opponents.

The problem is that high level one-shot-kill spells lose the randomness of "who first first", and a dextrous rogue with improved initiative might be confident that he will always get his sneak attack in.

So are the penalties of such a system so great that it isn't worth considering? Although the initiative roll at the start of combat is only a single roll for everybody, the set up time of getting the intiative order sorted out can take time away from the initial exciting start of the battle

Cheers

 

[Cheiromancer]

Although the initiative roll at the start of combat is only a single roll for everybody, the set up time of getting the intiative order sorted out can take time away from the initial exciting start of the battle

Try rolling initiative at the *end* of a battle, and get the initiative order sorted out then. At the beginning of the next battle, you can start immediately.

When that battle is over, have everyone roll initiative for the next time it will be needed, etc..

That's what we do, and it works fine.

 

[bensei]

1. Why does rolling init take you so long? Everyone rolls at once. Compared to the length of a battle (one goes after an other), this seems negligible to me.

2. 'Taking 10' or 'taking 20' is not justified for initialive rolls by definiton. You probably did not mean it by definition, but anyway...

3. This would make the feat 'Impr. Init' extremely unbalanced.

4.

When that battle is over, have everyone roll initiative for the next time it will be needed, etc..

So you know in advance how good you will react in the next encounter? Weird!

 

[Plane Sailing]

1. Why does rolling init take you so long? Everyone rolls at once. Compared to the length of a battle (one goes after an other), this seems negligible to me.

Well, the rolls obviously take next to no time at all!

It is arranging the initiative order, jotting everyone down in the right order, interleaving the creatures appropriately etc. I've tried writing things down on sheets, using index cards etc. etc. It still ends up causing a big metagaming pause between the announcement of the action starting, and the actual start of the combat per se. Less than a minute real time, but the dramatic imperative seems to stretch this by a significant factor

 

[Crothian]

Having the PC preroll iniaitive. Then jot it down on a sheet, rearrange the numbers so they don't know the order and you're set to go.

 

[S'mon]

I have one of my players deal with the initiative bookkeeping - he takes note of what everyone rolls, including the NPCs rolled by me the GM. Takes a lot of work off my shoulders.
In most battles, rolling initiative does not IMO detract from the excitement of the start of battle. The exception is ambushes and suchlike, but in those cases the ambushing side will likely get a free partial action anyway.

 

[Hammerhead]

When my brother DMs, he prerolls initiative for all the planned battles.