Oofta
Legend
The +0 to initiative is what made the Rabbit of Caerbannog so terrifying.It was based on the size of the creature. Tiny +0, Small/Medium +3, Large +6, Huge +9.

The +0 to initiative is what made the Rabbit of Caerbannog so terrifying.It was based on the size of the creature. Tiny +0, Small/Medium +3, Large +6, Huge +9.
Still doesn't mechanically allow them to go through the portal together (assuming it's big enough for two to pass at once).You could simply allow two characters who haven't gone yet to swap their turns, assuming both are willing.
The description could be something like this. Imagine that the party needs to retreat. It's the fighter's turn, but the wizard is at the bottom of the order and the fighter is unwilling to leave him behind.
Joe suggests to Bob that their fighter and wizard characters swap turns. Bob agrees. "Seeing Bob's wizard hesitating, Joe's fighter grabs him by the arm and shoves him through the portal. Go! I'll keep them busy!" Bob gets to take his turn now (so his wizard can retreat) while Joe takes his turn on Bob's turn. Next round they return to their normal places in the turn order.
Yeah tbh I’ll skip combat mechanics for a lot of stuff. The assassin wants to drop bear a mook? Okay. There’s no reason to roll init for that. Skill check to see how efficiently and quietly they can get it done, narrative, done.The one thing I do that aids in things is to not be completely dogmatic about the game mechanics when it comes to combat, and instead be more than willing to do narrative depending on what players/monsters wish to do.
Case in point, retreating. If the players want to retreat the game mechanics are set up such that the player moves, the monster moves and become adjacent, the player moves again and the monster gets an opportunity attack, the monster then move adjacent again, etc. etc. etc. And in "theory" the PC gets killed and can never get away if you stay strictly with game mechanic combat above all else.
Which is why I don't. If a PC runs off to retreat, I might have a monster move once to try and engage... but often I'll just zoom out narratively and say the monster watches the retreating PC, maybe fires a ranged attack at them if they have one, but otherwise the PC can just get away. And I can make that decision just as the DM for what makes sense to the narrative of the fight we are in, and thus never have to create these complex "house rule" systems for retreating in order to let PCs get away within the context of the game mechanics.
The game mechanics for combat are fine and all... but they aren't so great that I care to keep every single fight within their ruleset. At some point just waving my hand and saying "what makes story sense here?" trumps any need for an enslavement to the miniature combat rules.
One of the things I've been doing... probably since 2016... is that whenever two or more players have consecutive turns without any monster initiative between them, I not only let the players go in whatever order they'd like, but I also let them intermix their turns.Still doesn't mechanically allow them to go through the portal together (assuming it's big enough for two to pass at once).
This basically reflects my experience, although I guess I assume that it's not that the "indecisive" half don't know what to do, it's that they want to see what actually succeeds to use that to inform their action.Weird. I’ve done both individual and side-based for decades and never once has side-based go slower. About half the players typically race to go first. They have a plan and want to execute it. The other half have no idea what to do and flail while everyone else goes. By the time it’s their turn, they’ve figured it out and get on with it. The result being the players just go with minimal if any delays between them.
I think my favorite house rule is to do a hybrid. Everyone rolls for initiative (the GM one roll for all monsters). Then the GM calls out, "Everyone above X, (where X = monster's turn) can go." Then GM goes. Then whoever is left. That allows some flexibility to the players, but only those who went faster than the monsters, and then those who went slower.