Rolling higher than a ten-sider for initiative.

[Kayolan]

Ties were becoming way too commonplace with the group I've been running with lately. So I decided to up the d10 to a d100 roll to cut down on the occurrences of having to resolve them, and thus speeding up game play. So far it's worked out great, we use Roll20 virtual tabletop's initiative tracker so it's easy to cue in the numbers.

Anyone else here ever up the die on the initiative roll?

[Tadhg]

Interesting.

In my games, first roll high goes first, followed by the PC that rolls same next. Monsters always follow PCs.

But I like your thought about using a higher die.

[Rigon]

I don't mind the ties. I just assume the PC with the higher Dex goes first. And PCs always win ties with monsters/NPCs.

R-

[Lord Dynel]

My initiative method is (after declaration) is to roll d10, add dex modifier (monsters with Physical saves get a +1 to the roll and sometimes additional modifiers/penalties as deemed necessary). I get ties with some regularity, but not enough to make me move to a different die. For me, I add CT to initiative, so making the initiative die bigger would lessen the impact of the CT in combat (for me, personally). But if it works for you, Kayolan, rock on!

[Buttmonkey]

I went the other direction and use a d6. I also use group initiative and reroll ties. With group initiative, the rerolls are more exciting than pace-killing. Going to a d100 is more fiddly than I would want if I used individual initiative, but it sounds like it's working great for the OP.

[Treebore]

Kayolan forgot to mention he has up to 10 players in the game.

I don't know if I would have jumped all the way up to a D100, but it certainly cuts down on tied rolls.

[Go0gleplex]

Our group of 14-20 would have to declare our actions for the round prior to rolling initiative. Ties were moot since resolutions were considered simultaneous action. But that is certainly another way to deal with it.

[finarvyn]

I've always liked to use a d12 for initiative.

(1) I like my d12's and never seem to get to use them.

(2) The old Judges Guild GM screen broke things into 12 different levels of action priority.

[Captain_K]

Yeah, I thought in 10 seconds order was a way to do things, but everyone got their turn eventually "all simultaneous".. so if I kill the orc because I won initiative, he still gets his swing at me before he dies just before the next round. That was how I think it goes, but I tend not to do that..

[Go0gleplex]

Yeah, I thought in 10 seconds order was a way to do things, but everyone got their turn eventually "all simultaneous".. so if I kill the orc because I won initiative, he still gets his swing at me before he dies just before the next round. That was how I think it goes, but I tend not to do that..

It was only simultaneous for those with the same initiative number. So if your orc had a later initiative in the round and got terminally axed first, no attack could it make.

[Giant2005]

Not a fan of the d100. By reducing the chances of a tie, Dexterity gets devalued.

[jdizzy001]

I use good ol' d20 rolls as used in 3E dnd and onward.

[serleran]

I have considered basing the initiative roll directly on Dexterity. Something like this...

Dexterity ... Die Rolled
<8 ... d6
9 - 12 ... d8+2
13 - 17 ... d10+4
18 + ... d12 + 6

There are merits to it but its not the simplest thing to remember. Alternatively, I have thought "if your Dexterity is 10+ points higher than your opponent, you always go first" and then remembered that monsters don't have Dexterity ratings, without something like rolling straight 3d6 or some other value directly for them.

I've even considered level as a possible adjustment so that, the more combat someone has seen, the more reactionary they are to it. This would definitely help the fighting man classes.