Team Initiative

[cavalier973]

Has anyone tried doing "team initiative" (having each side roll initiative instead of each character)?

 

[Lwaxy]

Solely in mass battles.

 

[cavalier973]

How did it go?

 

[Lwaxy]

Works great unless you have more than 3 parties. At that point, battle order can get so confusing you better give all the units numbers and then have them keep their initiative.

Luckily I don't do that too often.

 

[the Jester]

I think this is problematic for a couple of reasons. Whose initiative bonus do you use? What happens to pcs who have invested feats and powers in going faster, e.g. Improved Initiative? Is this fair to a rogues' first strike ability?

OTOH a party can certainly delay to their slowest guy's initiative to arrange for a full party grouping in the initiative order.

 

[cavalier973]

I assume that you sum up the individual initiative rolls of each team, and the team with the higher total goes first.

I, too, was wondering about how certain monsters would be handled, specifically the Monster Vault dragons, which get an extra turn at their initiative +10.

I was thinking of using the "team initiative" gambit for small battles (versus a passel of minions, say) and regular intiative for the important battles.

 

[Lindeloef]

I tried to use the average or median of the groups Initiative roll on some tests but I didn't really like it.
Cause every round the group has to rearrange their order in which they act, if they play smart. (with all those "until end of your next turn" bonuses, zones, etc). I don't think (in 4e) this would speed up things (though this, as all 4e combat, depends entirely on the players/DM).

[...]
I, too, was wondering about how certain monsters would be handled, specifically the Monster Vault dragons, which get an extra turn at their initiative +10..[...]

Yeah that was the part where I gave up on the idea on team Initiative. Having such a Monster do all their Initiatives in one go can end badly for the Party.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Has anyone tried doing "team initiative" (having each side roll initiative instead of each character)?

Yes. I do something like that with very large groups (as many as 12 players). I'll call for initiative, and the highest roll (or I, if a monster rolls highest) will go first (or just have the highest-int-mod player roll vs the highest-int-mod monster), with play going around the table clockwise from there.

It sacrifices a lot (delay & ready don't work so well, for instance), but it does speed up play (large groups /really/ slow games down) IMX. You might not see much of a gain with a quite small group, who tend not to go a lot faster, to begin with.


Hmm... I suppose another way to do it would be to let the party roll a 'group initiative check' against the fastest monsters Init mod + 10. If half make the roll, the party wins initiative.

 

[Neonchameleon]

My 4e hack uses Popcorn Initiative which isn't quite the same thing, but close.

 

[sabrinathecat]

For my play-by-post games, I find team inititative to be very helpful.
Really, I just fudge it a bit. Everyone (including the monsters) rolls initiative. All the monsters, however, go in the same spot. If the order is A22, D19, Monster 18, B 16, C12, Monster 11, Monster 8, then the monster at 18 delays.
Since PbP can be slow, this allows the players to effectively kibitz and take maximum advantage of their synergies without spending a month on a single turn.