Saturday, January 30, 2010

Initiative And Attack Priority

My earliest gaming experience with combat initiative in Dungeons and Dragons was of the semi-random variety. Both sides (the party and the DM) rolled a d6, and whichever side rolled higher had initiative that turn.

As we became "more sophisticated" gamers, we turned to individual initiative, with each player rolling a d10 and adding their Dexterity bonus. The DM would also roll a d10, and attack priority would be granted from highest to lowest number, with the monsters attacking at the same time, based on the DM's roll. At one point, we even applied weapon speeds to our initiative rolls, so that players with faster weapons had a better chance of striking first.

I find this table (from the Ready Ref Sheets) to be very curious. It suggests that, after "Glance", "Breath" and Missile weapons, the longer and slower weapons have priority during combat. To be sure, a character weilding a faster weapon can modify the timing of their attack by having high Dexterity and wearing light or no armor, but the table still suggests that on balance it is the longer, slower melee weapons that act first.

For me, the attack priorities proposed in this table only make sense during the first round of combat, when the combatants first come to blows. After that, i'm not sure I would use this table to determine attack priority. I might still give Glance, Breath and Missile weapons the advantage, but would then reverse the order of the melee weapons, so that the short weapons would have earlier attack priority.

In modern Dungeons and Dragons, i'm not sure it really matters who strikes first (particularly when your characters have advanced several levels). But in Chainmail's Man-To-Man Combat section and Fantasy Supplement, attack priority is of critical importance. That is because, before the innovation of Hit Points, a successful hit resulted in an automatic kill. Therefore, whoever gained attack priority possessed a huge advantage, since, if their attack was successful, they would kill their opponent, thereby avoiding being killed themselves.

This could explain why attack priority and initiative was taken very seriously in early versions of Dungeons and Dragons.

7 comments:

  1. Please watch Captain Alatriste, to see how the longer weapons matter more in 'melee' than individual weapons wielded by fast and master fighters in little to no armour.

    http://www.google.com/search?q=Captain+Alatriste&hl=en&sourceid=gd

    The film is excellent, if a bit long.

    That said, I think that cool/fun factors shouldn't be overlooked in gaming even by those of us who prefer a bit more verisimilitude--oops, I mean, historicity. ;)

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  2. Unless, I'm DM'ing a detailed combat/gritty RPG (Rolemaster/HackMaster) which both have continuous initiative btw, I much prefer group initiative.

    Players get together and figure out what they will try to do. At same time DM figures out what the baddies will attempt. After players tell DM their plans, the DM adjudicates the whole round. Deciding pacing and order of events for maximum suspense/excitement.

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  3. I recently tried a hybrid of the Group Initiative, where one player rolled for the Party, but each character's Init. mods. were added to that single result. It tightened things up a bit and seemed to help with tactical-teamwork.

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  4. Oooooo, Timeshadows just said that naughty "V" word!

    :D

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  5. Timeshadows: I checked out the trailer for Alatriste, looks like a really cool movie. I liked the pike formation and the artillery blasts. I agree it convincing puts the argument for missile and extreme length weapon advantage!

    This looks like a really cool movie. Viggo Mortensen as the titular character doesn't hurt either.

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  6. Weapon Speed... that's a term I havent heard in a long time. Wow, talk about a flashback to 2nd!

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  7. Now imagine taking a flashback to OD&D, or even Chainmail ... make your head spin, don't it?

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