Base Initiative and Tidal Initiative

On The Initiative System
by Shea C. Reinke

Originally posted on the Wizards of the Coast website
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19572374/Base_Initiative_and_Tidal_Initiative?post_id=332690494#332690494

The act of determining who goes first, who goes last, and who gets what done before who is called Initiative. Like attack actions, Initiative is an IF roll that all meta-games have some kind of rule for. The rules for Initiative interact with all of the concepts of time in the game. How you use Initiative, how you rule Initiative, has a significant impact on how your games are played. There are many, many, many ways to play with Initiative, in this article I will review the basics. I will also play with the rules a little bit, with optional rules and a tidal Initiative

SRD D20 Core System Initiative

In SRD D20 Initiative is determined on one of two very similar ways. Like most systems you have a collective Initiative IF roll. IF, or Interactive Function, being my term (a very short term) for an opposed or contested roll. A roll that does not have static DC. Your D20 Initiative IF is: 1d20 + Dexterity Modifier + Initiative Bonus. All participants in the combat situation must roll before they can take an action in the turn sequence. If, they do not roll Initiative, then how are you supposed to know when they go?

The core system uses a static Initiative method that requires all characters in a combat situation determine their Initiative at the start of a scenario with an IF roll, and then places all of the participants in to a sequence. Most dungeon masters use some sort of table, either impromptu or pregenerated, to record this sequence for easy reference throughout the scenario. Once this sequence is generated, in the default method, it stays static. The sequence set at the begging of the scenario is maintained throughout, and only the special Initiative actions, delay and ready, allow participants to change their place in that sequence.

Dynamic Initiative is an optional rule that has all of the participants in a combat event roll Initiative IFs prior to the first action of every round. Using dynamic Initiative creates a sense of unpredictability in combat that many groups enjoy, however you must sacrifice the simplicity of static Initiative and some of the utility of the special Initiative actions. With static Initiative you can spend one turn delaying, putting yourself at a particular place on the sequence, and expect to retain that position for the remainder of the scenario. With dynamic Initiative you are "wasting" a turn to go first on the next round with no assurance of going first on the round after.


Ties, Surprise, and Special Initiative Actions

Ties and Surprise are the most commonly faced Initiative issues. If one or more of the participants in a combat scenario are unaware of what is going on at the beginning of combat (or round with dynamic Initiative) you find yourself in a Surprise round. The Surprised characters roll initiative, but they remain flat-footed until their turn. If the Surprised participants are still unaware of what is happening around them when it comes to their turn in the sequence they may attempt to observe, and figure out that their in combat, or they may continue to act as if nothing is happening (remaining "Surprised" and flat-footed). Combat actions happen at a much more rapid pace than non-combat actions. So a character that does not know that that they are in combat is not likely to take a combat worthy action. Particularly move at a their full combat rate.

A tie in Initiative sequence is resolved by comparing the total Initiative bonuses of the tied characters. If those numbers are equal then they must IF against each other. The IF does not effect their place in the larger Initiative sequence, only their relative Initiative sequence. Its like rolling Initiative just for that one turn in the round. Later in this article I will suggest an optional rule for dealing with ties in a different manner, but the core systems work very well to resolve Initiative ties simply. Of course, with dynamic Initiative resolving ties must be done every round, further multiplying the number of Initiative rolls that you need to make to get through a round.

Delay and ready are the two, very similar, special Initiative actions. Both delay and ready allow you to designate another spot on the Initiative sequence to take your turn. Delay is a free action, and ready is a move equivalent action. To delay you must state a specific point in the sequence that you are going to act, whereas with ready you can declare a specific event that will trigger your action. There is a common optional Initiative action called observe the scene. Observing the scene is a full round action that allows you to reroll your initiative with a +10 or +20 Initiative bonus to the roll. A simpler method that achieves a similar result in both static and dynamic Initiative is to delay until the bottom of the round, aka the top of the next.

Optional Initiative Rules

Reroll Ties Every Round

In static Initiative, instead of resolving ties at the beginning of the scenario, you can allow the ties to remain a point of contention. Every round the tied characters declare the action they want to do, and if one of their actions needs to happen before the other (say they are opponents in melee) then they IF roll. If their actions do not compete for timing (say they are flanking a shared enemy) it is simple enough to allow them to take their actions at effectively the same time. Courtesy and player readiness should be enough to determine which player will actually declare and roll first.

"I'll get him next round, you'll see! Somebody cast cat's grace on me!"

Damage allocation at the End of the Round

Six seconds is a very short time. In a number of movies we have seen a character take a mortal blow and continue to act for a moment. It takes a few seconds for the body to realize that it isn't working anymore. In that light you could have the effect of damage (in this case a character dropping below 0) be delayed until the end of the round. With this rule characters will not change their mind as often in combat. There are many times when I have been planning on hitting a monster, but the turn right before mine an ally has killed the beast. The dungeon master promptly declares "and he falls" leaving me with the opportunity to, in a split second, switch tactics and strike another character. Damage allocation at the end of the round adds a little bit of suspense to combat.

"34 damage!? That one should take him down, right?"

Declare First and Act at the Same Time

The first suggestion I have for alternate Initiative rules is actually not very different, as far as the rules are concerned. The difference is in the playing. I call it declare first and act at the same time. The idea being that six seconds is not a very long time. Part of having a higher Initiative is the idea of the idea that your character is more "on top of things" than the other characters. Declare first and act at the same time is a method that gives the high Initiative spot a better view of what they want to do on their turn by forcing the participants with lower Initiatives to declare their actions first.

Starting with the character that rolled the lowest on their Initiative, have each participant declare what their action is going to be and discuss, but do not roll, the DC. This way the characters with higher Initiatives will have the benefit of foresight when declaring their actions. When the highest Initiative finishes declaring their action, everyone rolls at once. All the DCs have already been set so everyone knows what they are rolling for, and hopefully the players will help each other track their successes and failures while the dungeon master makes all the rolls for the NPCs.

If one action interferes with another action saves, concentration checks, or spot Initiative checks can be made to resolve the outcome. In real life sometimes things happen so quickly that you take actions that you wouldn't want to. Giving a character a spot Initiative check to change their previously declared action captures that idea. The DC for that spot check is their own Initiative sequence. They must IF against themselves to change their momentum mid action, in less than six seconds. If the character fails to achieve their set Initiative in the spot Initiative check then they must take the action they were intending as well as they can.

"I was going to hit the orc, but it fell down, so I did 9 damage to the wall by accident."

Tidal Initiative

Somewhere between static and dynamic Initiative is my idea of tidal Initiative. Tidal Initiative requires fewer IF rolls than dynamic Initiative, and creates a more fluid, and unpredictable, combat environment. I use the declare first and act all at once method when I use tidal Initiative, but it is not an integral component. Part of tidal Initiative is the designation of Initiative zones. As you might expect, you want to be in the zone. Tidal Initiative is an option that works well with groups that keep track of higher ground bonuses, and know how to use flanking to their advantage.

To get started, tidal Initiative works the same way that static Initiative does. You roll once for all the participants at the start of the conflict. Any time anything significant happens to alter the scene, such as the entrance of new combatants into the conflict, the group rerolls the open Initiative IF. Tidal Initiative has a number of additional special Initiative actions that make your Initiative sequence more malleable. Such as divide enemies and work together. Zones, zone bonuses, and a tidal Initiative bonus add consequences beyond the order of action to the Initiative sequence.

With tidal Initiative there is an additional Initiative bonuses to keep track of and additional bonuses to actions determined by your Initiative zone. The tidal Initiative bonus is applied to your Initiative IFs. Each participant in a combat scenario receives a tidal bonus to Initiative equal to the number of warm bodies on your side (incorporeals and constructs, while not always warm, are still counted for this purpose). Swarms and hordes will almost always get high Initiative when using tidal Initiative. This is intended to reflect the way that overwhelming numbers can control a combat situation. Hordes and large military forces should be subdivided into combat "squads" of no more than 25, when determining tidal Initiative bonuses.


There are three tidal Initiative zones
The teamwork zone, the pointman zone, and the underdog zone.

When allies are acting on the same Initiative turn they are in the teamwork zone. Characters in the teamwork zone receive a competence bonus on all checks equal to the number of allies in the zone with them, including themselves. This competence bonus applies to all attacks, saves, and checks, and it stacks with any other morale or competence bonuses.

The character that has the highest Initiative total is in the pointman zone. Only one character can be in the pointman zone at one time unless allies are creating a teamwork zone in the pointman zone. If you are in the pointman zone you may take a -4 penalty to your action to influence the flow of combat. If you succeed at the action you attempt (with the -4) you give your allies a +4 morale bonus on their actions that round, alternatively you may give your enemies a -4 on all their actions that round.

If a character has the lowest Initiative total, and no ally shares that Initiative spot, they are in the underdog zone. A character in the underdog zone receives their tidal bonus to Initiative to any social IF rolls they attempt to make. Diplomacy, Bluff, or Intimidation checks are made best when you are following behind the tide. The character in the underdog zone can also choose to take a special tidal Initiative action called break the tide.

There are four special tidal Initiative actions
Work together, divide enemies, race point, and break the tide.

Work Together: When two characters are allies and they are not in a teamwork zone they may attempt to work together. Working together is a move equivalent action that changes your Initiative sequence by two. You move two steps closer to the Initiative spot of the ally you are trying to work together with.

Divide Enemies: You can take a standard action on your turn to disrupt your enemies teamwork zone. When you attempt to divide enemies you take any normal attack, or social IF action that could distract or demoralize your enemies. Apply a -4 penalty to this action, and if you succeed with the action you have also succeeded in shifting your target enemy's Initiative sequence by three in any direction.

Race Point: As a full round action you may attempt to change your Initiative to the pointman zone. You make an Initiative IF roll that is resisted by the current character in the pointman zone's Initiative IF roll. If you win then the Initiative sequence does not change, but your spot in the sequence is considered the top of the round (all "end of round" effects and abilities such as regeneration or full round action spells are delayed or accelerated accordingly). If you fail nothing happens, and your Initiative sequence does not change.

Break the Tide: Only a character in the underdog zone may attempt to break the tide. Breaking the tide is a full round action that is a special level check modified by your tidal bonus. Roll 1d20 + ECL + tidal bonus vs a DC equal to the tidal bonus of your enemies. If you succeed your enemies tidal bonus is reduced by 4, and the entire field must reroll Initiative.

In Conclusion,

There you are, a quick overview of the core system Initiative rules, a few minor optional rules and methods, and a full sail tidal Initiative system. I hope that this analysis of timing inspires, or at least amuses, you and your play group. I have always like the declare first and act later system ever since I read about it in an old D&D 1st ed. book (of course, that set recommended that only one player actually get to talk to the dungeon master). I hope that the tidal Initiative system works as well for you as it has for me. Lastly, I encourage you to not only role play and roll play, but to rule play as well.