Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Sage Genesis" data-source="post: 6632338" data-attributes="member: 6706099">No, you're looking at it from the wrong direction. They get the same number of attacks.However, they didn't spend the same number of actions to get those attacks. Axechick readied twice, Swordguy readied once. Although they will make the same number of attacks through the combat, Swordguy still &quot;benefited&quot; in some way from a certain perspective.Some people will advice you to make ranged attacks on your turn or otherwise take responsibility yourself to ensure that you don't waste your action. And that's all true but it also evades the root issue: cyclic initiative in the way D&amp;D has used it since 3e is prone to &quot;glitches&quot; and odd timing issues. It tries to condense the mayhem of a pitched battle into a strictly ordered sequence, while also claiming that high initiative is rewarding even though there are situations where this isn't the case. This scenario is one such situation but there are others - think of a brave Rogue who springs forward because he won initiative, only to find that all the monsters are next and now he's all alone on the front ranks. A situation that can happen if the Rogue is careless. His own fault? Maybe, but it's caused by the peculiarities of the initiative system.You and your players need to accept that if you're playing post-3e D&amp;D this sort of thing will happen from time to time. Alternatively, you could consider playing a different game if the modern D&amp;D system doesn't suit your group. There are thousands of games out there, some of which have initiative systems that might suit you better. D&amp;D is a good game but it's not the only game.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Sage Genesis, post: 6632338, member: 6706099"] No, you're looking at it from the wrong direction. They get the same number of attacks. However, they didn't spend the same number of actions to get those attacks. Axechick readied twice, Swordguy readied once. Although they will make the same number of attacks through the combat, Swordguy still "benefited" in some way from a certain perspective. Some people will advice you to make ranged attacks on your turn or otherwise take responsibility yourself to ensure that you don't waste your action. And that's all true but it also evades the root issue: cyclic initiative in the way D&D has used it since 3e is prone to "glitches" and odd timing issues. It tries to condense the mayhem of a pitched battle into a strictly ordered sequence, while also claiming that high initiative is rewarding even though there are situations where this isn't the case. This scenario is one such situation but there are others - think of a brave Rogue who springs forward because he won initiative, only to find that all the monsters are next and now he's all alone on the front ranks. A situation that can happen if the Rogue is careless. His own fault? Maybe, but it's caused by the peculiarities of the initiative system. You and your players need to accept that if you're playing post-3e D&D this sort of thing will happen from time to time. Alternatively, you could consider playing a different game if the modern D&D system doesn't suit your group. There are [i]thousands[/i] of games out there, some of which have initiative systems that might suit you better. D&D is a good game but it's not the only game. [/QUOTE]

Verification