Scaling initiative

[the Jester]

You do already get an initiative bonus as you advance- it's called iterative attacks.

 

[Thia Halmades]

That's not an intiative bonus, and you need to use your full attack to do it. The question here is more "Who goes first?" not "Who hits more often?"

LCpt. Thia Halmades

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

Or, put another way: in movies and literature, how often do the mooks catch the heroes flat-footed without using surprise in some fashion?

The system models this just fine IMO. As PC's advance in levels, pretty much by definition the opponents they face are NOT mooks. Thus their opponents maintain a reasonable parity of reaction time compared to the PC's except where the PC's higher dexterity, feats, or whatnot continue to give them an edge.

In those encounters where they DO face mooks (9th level PC's versus ordinary CR1 orcs) the much better reaction time you'd expect of PC's becomes less and less important in demonstrating their clear superiority over the mooks as the gap in power increases.

In other words, yes, you could institute a system that will give 9th level PC's a great initiative advantage over CR1 orcs - but what will it matter?

 

[the Jester]

I also have a feat imc called Quick-Strike that lets you act as if you'd rolled a natural 20 on initiative on your first round of combat. Requires Quickdraw and Improved Initiative.

 

[Kynn]

Yeah, I really don't see the point or what problem you're trying to solve.

If you're worried about being caught flat-footed by guys much lower level than you, well, that's why you should take 2 levels of Barbarian or 4 levels of Rogue. Or, if you're not one of those classes, you just absorb the damage and then destroy whoever dared to attack you.

Thia --

I don't know what problems in your campaign you're trying to solve, but hey, if you want to say "you get initiative bonuses when fighting someone lower level than you," go ahead. It means you either have to calculate this bonus in your head, as the DM, or else tell the players when it applies, and of course that's problematic.

In fact, consider this:

Players: Level 14 Fighter, Level 10 Wizard.
Opponents: Level 12 Cleric, Level 9 Rogue.

Fighter has 12 Dex, rolls a 14. What's his initiative score?

Is it 15, or it 17 because he's fighting a level 9 rogue?

Wizard has 16 Dex, rolls a 13, so his init is 16.

Rogue has Improved Initiative, 19 Dex, rolls an 8. He's also got a 16.

Cleric has 10 Dex, rolled a 16 as well.

Does the Wizard go before the Fighter? Does the Rogue go before the Fighter? Does the Cleric? What's the Fighter's initiative, under your rule?

--Kynn

 

[maggot]

Rather than add +2 if you are four levels higher, why not just add +1 every two levels. Thus if you are four levels higher you will effectively get +2, if you are six, you'll get +3.

I don't like tying it to Reflex save as that gives rogues even better initiative than everyone else, but giving everyone across the board +1/2 levels (or +1/3 or +1/4) doesn't favor anyone except the high level guys (and that is what we are trying to do).

 

[genshou]

what's your point. i have posted in this thread already, although i stated in my post that i wasn't going to follow it through. i personally think that bow damage is okay as is. if you REALLY want me to look through the entire post for some hidden away comment about longbows and firing rates per minute, you may find yourself dissapointed. next time, simply quote, and then post a link. i am not going to waste (well, use up un-needed amounts thereof) my time.

i dont mean to sound harsh; but honestly > what is your point?

I do believe his/her point was to educate the masses, not necessarily you personally. Besides, it's difficult to keep track of who posted what where. Give the guy/gal a little credit here.

anyways, as for the original idea for this thread, of scaling init, i dont think that that is too important. the combat system as is is very non-realistic. Archers can not fire as many arrows a minute as D&D Archers can, and para-phrasing one of the Sigs on En World says (sorry, foget the screen name) when does a gaem become unrealistic? when a 20' lizard with wings breathes fire on your fighter, and all you do is subtact the appropriate amount of hitpoints, its kinda odd that you dont act like you are . . . i dunno, on fire, or something . . .

Those would be the words of BiggusGeekus, and you can see the quote in this post, or just click the spoiler button in my sig (top quote).