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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Crazy Jerome" data-source="post: 5811607" data-attributes="member: 54877">As a tangent to a 5E discussion, I promised to post this house rule here after this weekend, when I'm formally trying it out.  We had been using something similar, earlier, but not formally--i.e. the players didn't know any of the adjustments.  However, might as well put it out here for comments in case anyone that has tried similar ideas sees a problem. This is a mixture of how I ran a hybrid cyclic initiatiive with some ideas that were discussed here last fall. The intention at the moment is to change all durations to "save ends"--dropping all "end of your next turn" and other such formulations.  This isn't technically required by this model, but is an experiment for other game design.  Also, I'm not entirely sure how I intend to handle marking with these rules, and am currently planning to experiment as problems develop.  In our rotating cast of players, this week we have the paladin, with a warden potentially arriving late.  Other characters are a rogue, a warlord, and a wizard.  All are 10th level. The rules thus far: Basic Combat Sequence1.       Each player rolls an initiative check versus the lowest enemy creature initiative +10.2.       Each player that makes the initiative check takes all actions.3.       All enemy creatures take all actions.4.       Each player that fails the initiative check now takes all actions.5.       All creatures attempt saving throws versus any effects.6.       Apply any continuing effects to the creatures.Repeat this sequence until one side has died, surrendered, fled, or otherwise finds itself incapable of resisting.Simultaneous ActionsAll the creatures that act in a step are assumed to act simultaneously. If two creatures target the same enemy, some of the damage or other effects may be effectively wasted, with one of the creatures sufficiently injuring the creature to remove it from the combat. This is deliberate, mitigating factor to slightly discourage the tactic of ganging up on a single enemy.Delaying ActionA player character that succeeds in the initiative check may choose to delay acting until after the enemy creatures. This allows all the enemy creatures to go first, but lets the player react to the actions of those enemies and allied characters that went earlier.Applying Damage and Other EffectsWhen a creature succeeds in an attack, the effect of the attack is applied immediately. If the effect has continuing effects, these are also applied immediately. Thus, all such effects are guaranteed to apply at least once before a saving throw can remove them.Complex Combat SequenceThe complex combat sequence is used when important creatures fight for the enemies or the party has relatively unimportant allied creatures on its side. The sequence is otherwise the same as the basic combat sequence. Important EnemiesDivide all the enemies groups, roughly by initiative modifier. Two or three groups will usually be sufficient. Make no particular effort to include the same number of creatures in each group, or group by power. For example, if a single leader enemy has a +10 initiative modifier, while the other six enemy creatures have modifiers ranging from +4 to +6, then those six creatures will make one group, and the leader will stay in a group by itself. However, if a relatively weak creature had an initiative modifier of +9, place it in the group with the leader rather than its fellow weak creatures.Individual creatures that have borderline initiative, and thus could easily go in either group, should usually go into the lower initiative group, so as to maximize the differences between the groups.Allied CreaturesAllied creatures act as a group, using the lowest initiative modifier, much as enemies do. With a great number of allied creatures, use multiple groups, however preferring to use fewer groups.Important AlliesAn important ally can be treated as a player character for initiative purposes, at the discretion of the game master. In particular, the game master may prefer to do this to stay in the basic combat sequence when a few important allies are the only reason that the complex sequence would otherwise be used.Multiple Groups of Enemies and AlliesWhen more than one group exists, the players now have multiple target numbers for their initiative checks. The character goes before all groups that it beats, and after all groups that it fails against. That is, the initiative order of the enemies and allies is fixed based on the initiative modifiers. Then the players roll to determine where they act in that order.</blockquote>

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