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General Tabletop Discussion
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Mearls On D&D's Design Premises/Goals
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<blockquote data-quote="Maxperson" data-source="post: 7760042" data-attributes="member: 23751"><p>They are not both trying to go first. The goal is just to have the potential to act, I say potential to act instead of act, because you can opt not to act or you can be rendered unable to act by someone else's action or the environment. The success just determines the order of your ability to go. I don't know if you have been in a fight, but when you are in a fight, you are just trying to hit the person, run away, or perform some other action. You aren't thinking, "Boy. I need to go first this swing.", but rather just swinging away and sometimes you happen to go first. There are exceptions of course, such as when two Samurai duel and they are trying to be the fastest, but in the vast majority of instances, going first is just a matter of who happens to be fastest(dex check) and not the goal itself.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>That's not relevant to the initiative roll. For the initiative roll to be a contest, they have to be going up DIRECTLY against each other, per RAW, and that's not what happens with initiative.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>RAW is not silent on the issue. RAW backs up Crawford and myself as it dictates that the opposition must be direct, which doesn't occur with initiative.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The goal is not to go first. The goal is simply to have the potential to act in the round, so there is no DC. Initiative is a special kind of ability check that is neither a contest, nor one where you are trying to beat a DC. You will succeed on both a 25 and a 0.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Maxperson, post: 7760042, member: 23751"] They are not both trying to go first. The goal is just to have the potential to act, I say potential to act instead of act, because you can opt not to act or you can be rendered unable to act by someone else's action or the environment. The success just determines the order of your ability to go. I don't know if you have been in a fight, but when you are in a fight, you are just trying to hit the person, run away, or perform some other action. You aren't thinking, "Boy. I need to go first this swing.", but rather just swinging away and sometimes you happen to go first. There are exceptions of course, such as when two Samurai duel and they are trying to be the fastest, but in the vast majority of instances, going first is just a matter of who happens to be fastest(dex check) and not the goal itself. That's not relevant to the initiative roll. For the initiative roll to be a contest, they have to be going up DIRECTLY against each other, per RAW, and that's not what happens with initiative. RAW is not silent on the issue. RAW backs up Crawford and myself as it dictates that the opposition must be direct, which doesn't occur with initiative. The goal is not to go first. The goal is simply to have the potential to act in the round, so there is no DC. Initiative is a special kind of ability check that is neither a contest, nor one where you are trying to beat a DC. You will succeed on both a 25 and a 0. [/QUOTE]
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