Group Initiative

The variant rule for Group Initiative provides a method for having all of the players act on the same turn, alternating with the DM controlled creatures taking actions all at the same time. Using this method would be most beneficial for “play by post” games where the players are not all able to be present at the same time (but can provide an interesting alternative in traditional games by redefining the usefulness of certain tactics). Taking turns one at a time in initiative order when each player is given 24 hours or more to declare their actions could result in a single round of combat for a 4-player party taking an entire week; the goal of this variant rule is to provide a faster method for resolving turns in games that have significant waits between player turns.

Under this method, have each member of the group (meaning all of the players together, and all of the DM controlled creatures together) roll their initiative, add the results together, and then divide by the number of creatures in the group. This average number is used to determine which group acts first. Any groups involved should then take their group turns in order of the average initiative (if the DM is controlling more than one faction, each may act as a separate group).

The group turn is broken down into 3 phases: Declare Actions, Resolve Actions, and Final Actions.

On the player group turn, these phases would involve the following:

1. Declare Actions
   Each player declares their actions, essentially taking their turn as normal except that this is declaring the intent to perform those actions. Because the group is acting as a whole, each player should pay attention to what other players are intending to prevent conflicts (such as ending their movement in the same space). Players should make an effort to be clear about conditional actions, such as “if my attack slays this monster, I will move beside my ally, but if it does not I will stay where I am and retrieve a potion from my bag”.
   All players are acting at the same time, so they may do things such as wait for another player’s action to complete before their own begins. Doing so may be handled as a Readied action if it is beneficial to do so. Likewise, players may take portions of their turn or their movement, allow another player to act, and then use the remainder. Any player actions not completed by the end of the group turn cannot be carried over and completed on another group’s turn.

   If a dice roll is required (such as an attack or damage roll), the players should make them during this phase.

   If the declared actions do result in a conflict (such as two or more players stating “I want to attack that creature” but it would be slain after the first attack), rather than wasting an action or requiring the players to come to an agreement, use the individual initiative roll for each player to determine priority. If the action of the player with priority would invalidate the action of the other player or make that action impossible, that player should be given an opportunity to re-declare (such as choosing to attack another creature, or choosing to move to a different space).

2. Resolve Actions
   The second phase is where the DM answers the declared intention of the players. Determining whether attacks hit, applying damage, downing creatures that are reduced to 0 hit points, etc. This is also where the DM would declare any reactionary out-of-turn actions (such as opportunity attacks) and make the appropriate rolls.

   If the player actions created a conflict that was not predicted (such as a creature no longer being a valid target for an attack, or an opportunity attack knocking a player unconscious before they could complete their action) the DM should determine now whether any players will have their actions refunded so that they can be re-declared in the third phase.

3. Final Actions
   The third phase is where players spend any remaining actions they have, whether this is using their remaining movement, taking any free actions, or re-declaring an action after a conflict arose. If necessary, the DM may need to take a second resolution phase following this to make appropriate rolls and announce results.

   To avoid having a fourth (or fifth, or sixth) phase to bog down the turn, players should try to avoid the temptation to hold their actions until this phase.

On the DM controlled creature group turn, these phases would involve the following:

1. Declare Actions
   Similar to the player turn, all creatures controlled by the DM belonging to the same group act at the same time. Because the DM is in control of every creature, there is no conflict to be resolved during this phase. The DM may have creatures take turns in order, or may have creatures use portions of their turn and then move on to the next before exhausting all of that creature’s actions. Like with players, any actions not completed by the end of the group turn cannot be carried over into another turn.

2. Resolve Actions
   The second phase of the DM controlled creature turn is where the players declare any out-of-turn actions they may wish to use, and make any called-for rolls (such as saving throws). If a player action during this phase would create a conflict (such as tripping a creature as it tries to move past), the DM should determine whether any creatures will have any actions refunded to be re-declared in the third phase.

3. Final Actions Similar to the third phase of a player turn, this is where creatures may use any remaining actions, re-declare any actions that were interrupted, and use any remaining movement for the turn.

Optional: Because this can feel like it devalues individual contributions to the group initiative (such as from the Improved Initiative feat), additional flat bonuses from sources to initiative from non-ability-score sources (such as a feat or class feature) should instead provide half their bonus to the final group initiative score (rounding up) rather than contributing to the sum total before dividing it by the number of group members. Spells and abilities that can modify a target’s initiative should apply to a group as a whole (such as imposing a -1 penalty or a +1 bonus), but some (such as the ability to trade initiative with another creature) do not mix well with this modification and should be avoided.**