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Combat Option Initiative
The initiative is the start of combat. It can make or break a fight as going first many times is very important. But can a full book dealing with initiative variants and options work? It seems a little too specialized even for a twenty seven page PDF. The options though seem good and easy to use.
There is one small note that needs to be made. This book was not written for me. I do not much care for combat options in my d20 games. Combat for me is kept simple so while I can see the use of these combat options, they are not something that I would use in my own game. It is all a matter of preference and gaming style and the fact that I do not use them in my personally game does not influence this review.
Combat Options Initiative is a new book by the guys at Emerald Press. The PDF is twenty two pages in length and is a small file under a meg in size. The PDF is not one that is easily printed out. It is full color with bright colors and page borders. The rules information has a green background that makes it easy to find but will take a bit of ink. The art is not that great and full of color. The tables though are well done and the layout is solid. While it has no table of contents or index it does have a fully functional set of book marks.
The book is a combination of story and rules. The story serves the rules talking from the position of a teacher at an academy of combat. It discusses what the rules describes what the rules explain. It starts with the trainer waking up the students really early and explaining some basic tactics to them. Then the book describes in game how the initiative works and starts with the first option of rolling once or each round. It does a good through job of explaining what initiative is as well as providing a few easy to use options. There is the option of allowing a character to reroll his initiative if he sacrifices an action. However, it does not say if the action is a move or standard. There are a few times in the PDF that says action but does not say which type of action it is. The book also has the option of using initiative as a skill.
The book goes on to a very interesting idea, the Art of the Quill?ara. It is a duel of sort to the first blood. The opponents stand back to back and then must turn quickly and attack the other. There are full rules for doing this and I like the idea and how it iss defined. There are seven different levels of difficulty and while they are nicely described they need to have a difficulty value so that it can be done with dice. For instance the Exploration or fourth level fight places a red target on each opponent?s chest and the target must be hit for victory. But the book does not say how difficult it is to strike it.
One of the options it presents is dealing with the type of combat where everyone announces what they are going to do that round before anyone takes actions. They even have a good optional rule for this type of play called adapting. It allows people to change their mind if their action can no longer be performed but the new action suffers a penalty to complete and they are limited to what they can do.
As one can tell there are lots of new options here. There is a new feat called Perception that allows wisdom to help out on initiative checks and a option called the lunge with allows someone to act faster but give them a minus to attack.. A book on initiative options needs to cover weapon speeds, and this book does. The weapon speeds are easy to use as they are given depending on the qualities of a weapon like size, weight, attack type, ect. This allows the weapon speed of any weapon to be determined and makes sure they are all in balance with each other. This is possible the best option of weapon speed I?ve seen. Armor speed is also an option, it is a bit more simple depending on the armor check penalty.
One of the more complicated but realistic options is the Rolling with Damage. Basically when ever someone takes damage there is a chance that their initiative will drop by one. It involves reflex saves and while it will slow down the game a bit with the extra rolls it can also add a little more realism for people who want it. Of all the options there is only one that I really do not like; it is the loosing initiative when falling prone. I think that would make the trip attack of some characters too good since a successful trip will prevent the opponent from acting that round.
Lastly, or first as the book has these at the beginning and the end are the maneuvers. At the front of the book it tells how one gets them and in the back it describes what they are. The way to get them is to spend experience. The first one is only a few hundred but as one gains more maneuvers they get more expensive to buy. Spending XP this way is something some people really like or really hate. It can make determining the true level of a character a little tough as they have spent XP on things other then levels. The Maneuvers could easily be turned into feats if someone wanted to go that way.
Over all this is a solid book of many options that involve initiative. While this is not something that I would use personally, I do know that there are people out there looking for options to make the game a little more realistic and allow them to alter the game to their own needs.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>
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