Initiative
Uploaded by
asheraryamInitiative
Uploaded by
asheraryamInitiative
#combat
The DM Lair: The D&D house rules no one talks
about
Alternate Methods of Initiative
Why does dexterity always win in initiative? A perceptive character should
be able to use Wisdom. A character who had time to plan their attack on
an ambush should be able to use Intelligence. A fighter who bull-rushes
the enemy should be able to use Strength. I mean, why not?
So, this is what you do: when your players roll initiative, they may, at their
option, request to use a different ability score modifier to roll initiative with,
as long as they can justify it narratively. And here's the thing: it must key
off something they were doing just before the combat broke out. It must fit
the story, the narrative. Otherwise, you're going to find every player will
always come up with something so that they can just use their best ability
score modifier. That's why it must fit in with something their character was
doing before fists started flying.
Also, for those of you who play Pathfinder 2, you may be saying, "But
wait, Pathfinder 2 uses skill modifiers such as Athletics, Deception,
Stealth, and the like, not ability score modifiers." And you're right, of
course. However, for this D and D 5e house rule, we don't want to do that
for two reasons: first, because of the bounded accuracy game mechanic
differential, and second, because monsters in D and D 5e don't have
special initiative modifiers. They just use their dexterity modifiers and
usually have crappy ones at that. So, the best a monster could hope for is
a +4 or a +5 bonus, and if characters are routinely getting twice or three
times that because they're using their skill modifiers instead of their ability
score modifiers, it is going to lead to a lopsided house rule. This, of
course, leads us to the next point: let monsters do the same thing. If it's
justified narratively, let them use different ability scores for initiative as
well.
Power Word Spill: I stole 14 D&D homebrew rules
and they made my game better 👎
Players elect one player to roll initiative for the players team and DM
rolls for the monsters. Any player can roll and they use the highest
modifier bonus from any player. The DM uses the highest modifier
from the monsters. Whichever team rolled higher elects someone to
go first and then turns alternate between the teams until everyone has
taken a turn. Among your team you can go in any order and it can
change every round. I found that this increases player engagement
between turns because players are discussing who's going to go next
and allows for the players to be more strategic.
I played in a game where the players and enemies “took turns”
as described and it was the worst experience I ever had and
don’t recommend it at all especially if you have players in your
group that struggle socially or with speaking up. So many times
those players got passed over or ignored left for last if they even
got to play. I’ll never play in a game that uses that rule again.
