D&D 5E Voluntarily taking lower Initiative?

[Guest 6801328]

Is there any RAW way to move your turn further down the Initiative order?

The specific case I'm thinking of is using Shield Master to Shove action to knock an enemy prone. If you are right before the enemy in the Initiative order then it's practically useless; if you can take your Shove action after the enemy's turn it could be invaluable.

(Because it's a bonus action with Shield Master, using Ready Action isn't really a very satisfactory solution.)

 

[Sunseeker]

I don't think 5E has the option to "hold" your turn, you either ready an action or pass.

I let my players hold their turn, mostly because not everyone is as quick to decide what they want to do, and even those that are sometimes get thrown off after something happens before they act. Sometimes I even just let my players arrange themselves as they want and I divide the enemy up evenly around them.

So, that is to say: by RAW I don't believe the option exists, but it doesn't break the game to let people do it anyway.

 

[Ahglock]

I'm sure there is a reason behind it but the lack of delay seems like a oversight to me. To answer, as far as I know, no there isn't. In your particular example, adding a grapple in to keep them down might help.

 

[Patrick McGill]

I don't remember what they are, but there are some alternate initiative rules in the DMG you might convince your DM to use. You could see if s/he'd let you guys do it Star Wars FFG style. (Roll for init as normal, but the "spots" the players roll can be assigned to any player at the start of combat).

 

[iserith]

Bonus action to knock them prone, then action to attack with advantage doesn't seem very useless to me. You can even move away at that point and the creature's opportunity attack will be at disadvantage. It may even need to Dash to get to you on its next turn.

But in any case, no, there is no way to move your turn further down the initiative order by RAW so far as I know.

 

[happyhermit]

Nope, but not an oversight rather a design decision;

Can you delay your turn and take it later in the round?
Nope. When it’s your turn, either you do something or you
don’t. If you don’t want to do anything, consider taking the
Dodge action so that you’ll, at least, have some extra pro
-
tection. If you want to wait to act in response to something,
take the Ready action, which lets you take part of your
turn later.
For a variety of reasons, we didn’t include the option to
delay your turn:
•
Your turn involves several decisions, including where
to move and what action to take. If you could delay your
turn, your decision-making would possibly become
slower, since you would have to consider whether you
wanted to take your turn at all. Multiply that extra
analysis by the number of characters and monsters in
a combat, and you have the potential for many slow
-
downs in play.
•
The ability to delay your turn can make initiative mean
-
ingless, as characters and monsters bounce around in the
initiative order. If combatants can change their place in
the initiative order at will, why use initiative at all? On top
of that, changing initiative can easily turn into an unwel
-
come chore, especially for the DM, who might have to
change the initiative list over and over during a fight.
•
Being able to delay your turn can let you wreak havoc on
the durations of spells and other effects, particularly any
of them that last until your next turn. Simply by changing
when your turn happens, you could change the length
of certain spells. The way to guard against such abuse
would be to create a set of additional rules that would
limit your ability to change durations. The net effect?
More complexity would be added to the game, and with
more complexity, there is greater potential for slower play.
Two of our goals for combat were for it to be speedy and
for initiative to matter. We didn’t want to start every combat
by rolling initiative and then undermine turn order with a
delay option. Moreover, we felt that toying with initiative
wasn’t where the focus should be in battle. Instead, the
dramatic actions of the combatants should be the focus,
with turns that could happen as quickly as possible. Plus,
the faster your turn ends, the sooner you get to take your
next turn.

http://media.wizards.com/2015/downloads/dnd/SA_Compendium.pdf

 

[Guest 6801328]

Ok not "useless" but not nearly as useful as having him still down when the Great Weapon Master Fighter gets his turn....

EDIT: Oh, yeah, changing it during the fight would be bad. I meant at the beginning of combat, when you first roll Initiative.

 

[happyhermit]

Ok not "useless" but not nearly as useful as having him still down when the Great Weapon Master Fighter gets his turn....

EDIT: Oh, yeah, changing it during the fight would be bad. I meant at the beginning of combat, when you first roll Initiative.

You might try to get disadvantage on initiative, probably rather hoakey but possibly RAW.

The ready action is tricky but it can solve quite a few of these "problems" if used creatively.

 

[Tony Vargas]

You could Delay (it may not have been called that, I forget) in 3e, and it was no big deal. In 4e, there were some specific rules for how Delay interacted with turn-delimited durations to prevent abusive shenanigans like 'delaying' to extend an effect that lasted until the end of your next turn, but still allow tactical decisions and coordination (and, incidentally, keep de-buffs that could be un-done on an enemy's turn from being 'wasted,' which seemed to be the OPs concern). Clearly considered too complex for 5e's 'fast combat' mandate. Perhaps they could have done away with turn-delimited durations, instead? Something like:

Duration: 1 round. Effects with a 1-round duration start on the turn in which they're used, and last until the end of the same initiative count on the next round. Even if several creatures share that initiative or none act on that initiative that round.

 

[Kobold Stew]

I would let any player who wanted to voluntarily take disadvantage on their initiative rolls do so.