Using Intelligence for Initiative

[N0Man]

I might consider it for a feat, but in all honesty, if it costs a feat then one could take Improved Initiative and get a +4 Initiative, which is typical of what a lower level character with an 18/19 score might have anyway.

However, there are a couple feats (for Deva and Fighter in Dragon Magazine) that allow you to substitute your Wis Bonus for your Dex bonus for Initiative. I suppose it's not completely unreasonable.

 

[Mengu]

We already have Battle Intuition or Wary Fighter that use Wisdom for initiative, plus another small bonus. Could make an Intelligence based feat for it too. I wouldn't mind if it was worded like Battle Intuition except instead of Int, it would use Wis. Or it could be some other benefit for the smart guy.

How about one ally within five squares gains +2 feat bonus to initiative? Artificers and Shamans would love that, and it's not bad for the wizard to tell the fighter to go mark some stuff earlier rather than later. Something like:

Quick Thinking
Benefit: You can use your Intelligence modifier in place of your Dexterity modifier to determine your initiative bonus. Additionally, when making initiative checks, you grant one ally within 5 squares of you a +2 feat bonus to initiative.​

 

[MadLordOfMilk]

Dex doesn't have that much in-combat use outside of stealth, but Int does with covering virtually every skill that identifies monster origins/weaknesses/etc.

I'd say Dex getting initiative, whereas Int revealing stuff about monsters, is a fine system.

 

[Nytmare]

Dex doesn't have that much in-combat use outside of stealth

Well, aside from initiative, AC, and ranged attacks, right?

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Well, aside from initiative, AC, and ranged attacks, right?

Depends on the character. Dex is a total dump stat for a pretty high percentage of builds.

Personally I think init should stay with Dex. Its probably not a really big huge deal but unless you're a bow ranger, rogue, or certain fighter builds you're pretty unlikely to care about dex much. Removing initiative from it would make it truely worthless for pretty near all divine, arcane, and most primal characters. Kind of seems harsh to me.

Int on the other hand certainly is more of a true dump stat for martial etc but at least it has some pretty darn useful skills attached to it.

 

[MadLordOfMilk]

Well, aside from initiative, AC, and ranged attacks, right?

Sorry, I meant relative to Intelligence. Int also adds to AC, and is the basis for a lot of powers. For basic ranged, though, yes Dex has a bonus, but most people who need a ranged attack have another option they can fall back on. For specific examples, heavy thrown weapons for STR, many (most? all?) int-based classes have SOME form of ranged attack(s), etc. Even if they didn't, I can't think of a scenario where I'd put away my implement or melee wepaon or something in exchange for a ranged weapon, unless I had no chance of being in range otherwise - and even then, that's a very rare case (in which case you're really screwed either way).

So, in terms of 1:1 relations, you're effectively comparing possibly going earlier in the round order versus possibly being able to get some information about the monsters you're fighting. *shrugs* Seems close enough to me to not worry about it.