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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Charlaquin" data-source="post: 9775338" data-attributes="member: 6779196">As for methods of handling initiative, I think they have much less impact on the pace of combat than keeping up narrative momentum does, but they do have some impact. I’ve long been a fan of initiative variants that involve re-rolling initiative at the top of each round, to keep the action dynamic instead of falling into a predictable cycle. However, the one major flaw of such variants is that they usually require the players to declare their action at the top of the round, which can be a challenge for a lot of players, and introduces the risk of losing your action if it becomes impossible before your turn comes around, which is a real bad feeling for the players. But I recently had the revelation that instead of declaring the actions at the top of the round and rolling for when to act on that round, you I could treat a player’s action on their turn as functionally their action declaration and have them roll then for their initiative on the next round, with the roll essentially representing recovery time rather than wind-up time. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m excited to take it for a spin in the next campaign I run for my regular group. Here’s the full writeup of the system if anyone is interested, or finds my summary here too abstract to grokk.[spoiler] Order of CombatAny effect that would normally occur at the start of a creature’s turn occurs at the start of the round on which that turn will take place. Any effect that would normally occur at the end of a creature’s turn occurs at the end of the round on which that creature’s turn took place.InitiativeAt the start of the first round, roll a die based on your character’s size to determine your Initiative. <table style='width: 100%'><tr><td>Size</td><td>Initiative Die</td></tr><tr><td>Tiny</td><td>1d4</td></tr><tr><td>Small</td><td>1d6</td></tr><tr><td>Medium</td><td>1d6</td></tr><tr><td> Large</td><td>1d8</td></tr><tr><td> Huge</td><td>1d10</td></tr><tr><td> Gargantuan</td><td>1d12</td></tr></table>Creatures take turns in ascending order of Initiative. If two or more PCs have the same Initiative, the players decide what order their characters take their turns in. If two or more monsters or NPCs have the same Initiative, the DM decides what order they take their turns in. If any PCs have the same initiative as any monsters or NPCs, they take turns in descending order of Dexterity scores, with PCs winning ties.Your TurnOn your turn, you can move up to your speed and take one action and up to one bonus action. The actions and bonus actions you take during your turn determines your Initiative on the following round.AttacksWhenever you make an attack on your turn of the weapon used to make the attack, or 1d4 if the attack was an unarmed strike. The highest result rolled this way on your turn becomes your Initiative on the next round.SpellsWhenever you cast a spell on your turn, roll 1d4 if the spell requires verbal components, 1d4 if it requires somatic components, and 1d4 if it requires material components, and add the results together. The total is your Initiative on the next round.ItemsWhenever you use an item or activate a magic item on your turn, roll 1d6. If the item had to be retrieved from a pack or other container, roll another 1d6 and add the results together. The total is your Initiative on the next round.Other ActionsIf you take any other action during your turn, or end your turn without taking an action, roll your Size-based Initiative die. The total is your Initiative on the next round.Other ActionsIf you take more than one of the above actions on your turn, use the highest result rolled as your initiative and ignore the rest.[/spoiler]</blockquote>

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