Feat Review: Improved Initiative

[Starshadow]

I thought I would add Feats to the Skill review. Actually, Einkel suggested it.

And so I will start with my very favorire feat: Improved Initiative.

In older versions of D&D, one might hope to go earlier ina combat round by using a faster weapon. It was rationalized that a dagger could strike much faster than a halberd, but such logic was removed from the newer game system, perhaps in place of a more streamlined, user friendly system.

Initiative is based solely on your Dexterity modifier. Period. The only way to get a reasonably good chance of not going last every time you fight when you have low Dex, is this feat. If your Dexterity is high, you stand a good chance of going first almost all the time. Improved Initiative grants a whopping +4 to initiative, meaning you can strike as quickly as the most dexterous of elves (better if you are one!)

So why is that such a big deal? First of all, at low levels, going first and killing that kobold in a single round means you have a far better chance of not being killed BY it on the same round. I guess you could say the same thing about something like a dragon when you are high level.

Flatfootedness is another reason. We have already discussed that everyone is flatfooted on the first round until they act (unless you are a thief or rogue or have certain feats). If you go first, you are not only NOT flatfooted, you have an edge because your opponent IS.

Despite the simplicity of this feat, I thought I would share my thoughts on my favorite feat first, before I move on to the most taken feat by fighters: Power Attack.

That will be a topic for next week!

[Tarracat]

And once again, thanks for taking the time to expand upon all these things! [img]graemlins/rose.gif[/img]