Advanced Initiative
A
dventurers that form bonds over a long The Party with the highest average starts the turn in
journey after a while start to understand their Party Round and the other Parties will follow based
each other better. on how much they scored until the end of the battle.
If and when the members of a party are in The Players can decide in which order they will act inside
harmony and feel that they can trust or at of their Party Round. They can do so dynamically and
least understand each other, they may act again at every round, most of the times acting one at the
as one single front in battle. time unless the DM allows an exception for a coordinated
Player characters are called to collaborate and effort.
communicate, possibly in-character or through actions, A Party Round ends when all creatures in a party had a
while having to decide in which order to go at every round, turn, while a Round ends as always when all entities in all
but still acting one at a time. parties had a chance to act.
The DM may use foes in whatever order he decides In case of two or more hostile parties, the DMs should
during their Party Round until the end of the combat if the use their respective units inside their rightful Party Round
rule is in place. (read Exceptions for further cases and outcomes).
Prerequisites Exceptions
Leveling up together with other characters at least once Also, mind these possibilities for balance and possible
Getting to know each others’ ways of fighting (5 outcomes:
Encounters)
Knowing each others’ ways of thinking (a month If a character faints, they will throw their death saves at
traveling together, a group already established by the start of their Party Round.
background, family bounds, childhood friends, etc.) If a character falls victim of a mind-control or charm
effect and have to act on it, they will always act at the
Range & Duration start of that foe’s Party Round
If the players of the party, or most of them, ultimately
Characters of the group must be able to hear, see and/or decide to not use this feat and proceed individually, it's
communicate with each other (read Usage Conditions). their choice at the start of the initiative check and turns
are regularly cycled with the standard rules.
Usage Conditions If there are two Parties that have the same average, the
smallest group goes first; if they have the same number
When a combat starts, the DM decides if the range or of creatures, the ones who started the fight. If none of
methods of communication allows a clear way to sync up these apply, the DM may decide basing their choices on
between members, otherwise they follow the normal turn the context.
order until the end of the combat.
Also, mind controls, charms, falling unconscious or Links
dying, could prevent or break the coordination of a group,
but the turn order stays the same unless the battle moves *You can find out more about how to use Advanced
in another direction and initiative rolls have to be thrown Initiative (AdIn) in this youtube video https://youtu.be/t-
once again. 3nRb8tWvA
How it works
When initiative check is called, if conditions are met and
most of the group has this Feat, the DM can allow the use
of Advanced Initiative (read Usage Conditions) and players
will decide if the characters at that given moment would
likely collaborate or not.
If AdIn is used, the DM will clump all the entities in
groups (or factions) called "parties" and a Party Initiative
Check will be called, this means that the Initiative
Rolls will be summed up internally between all the
entities that are in a Party and participating to the
battle.
The total result of the sum will then be divided by the
number of the entities that forms the Party ( rounded by
defect, as in the standard rules) to obtain the arithmetic
average of the Party Initiative.
Bard & Butter | Advanced Initiative
This document was lovingly created
using GM Binder.
If you would like to support the GM Binder developers,
WWW.GMBINDER.COM consider joining our Patreon community.
