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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KarinsDad" data-source="post: 6366547" data-attributes="member: 2011">I see the exact opposite.Initiative is now King compared to 4E.In 4E, combats tended to last 4 to 6 rounds (more in grinds). So yes, order was important, but not critically so.In 5E, combats tend to last 1 to 3 rounds. Now, initiative is crucially important, even beyond round one.The reason is that combat is so short and monsters are often killed in one or two blows. As an example:PCs have 80% chance to hit. Monsters have 50% chance to hit. Two hits kill a PC or a monster. Both sides focus fire.Every full two points kills a foe. So, one foe is killed at 2.0, a second at 4.0, etc. 1.9 is just injured.All PCs win init:Round one:P1 through P5 attack. 4.0 total hits. 2 of 5 monsters are down.M1 through M3 attack. 1.5 total hits. 0 of 5 PCs are down.Round two:P1 through P5 attack. 8.0 total hits. 4 of 5 monsters are down.M1 through M1 attack. 2.0 total hits. 1 of 5 PCs are down.Round three: Last monster dead.Compared with all of the monsters winning init:Round one:M1 through M5 attack. 2.5 total hits. 1 of 5 PCs are down.P1 through P4 attack. 3.2 total hits. 1 of 5 monsters are down.Round two:M1 through M4 attack. 4.5 total hits. 2 of 5 PCs are down.P1 through P3 attack. 5.6 total hits. 2 of 5 monsters are down.Round three:M1 through M3 attack. 6.0 total hits. 3 of 5 PCs are down.P1 through P2 attack. 7.2 total hits. 3 of 5 monsters are down.Round four:M1 through M2 attack. 7.0 total hits. 3 of 5 PCs are down.P1 through P2 attack. 8.8 total hits. 4 of 5 monsters are down.Round five:M1 through M1 attack. 7.5 total hits. 3 of 5 PCs are down.P1 through P2 attack. 10.2 total hits. All monsters are down.In the first encounter, 1 PC went down, none others injured. In the second, 3 PCs went down, 1 other PC injured.Now, this is a very simplistic example and heavily extremed with regard to init, but it illustrates the point. The more PCs win init in 5E where they have a high chance of hitting and the monsters typically have less of a chance of hitting, the PCs wipe up encounter.Sorry, but Init is King in 5E. Along with Group Stealth checks and surprise. Adding a surprise round to this is huge.Hence, Dex is huge.The Starter Set should have taught a lot of people this about 5E.</blockquote>

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