Tactical Initiative

Rather than each player character and creature acting on their own, two or more allied creatures can instead choose to act tactically and work together using this initiative variant rule.

Rolling Tactical Initiative

When combat begins and initiative would be rolled, two or more allied creatures can choose to work as a unit, provided they can see or hear and understand each other. When they do so, they each roll initiative separately, adding any modifiers as appropriate. Once each individual party has rolled their initiative, the group then acts using the lowest result. Once a tactical group is formed, each character's initiative is set to the lowest result, even if the tactical group separates.

For instance, if three players want to use tactical initiative, and they roll a 17, an 11, and a 14, all three players will instead act on initiative 11.

Multiple Tactical Groups

The party can use multiple tactical groups rather than all working in concert. For instance, a party of five might split into a tactical group of three and a tactical group of two, each group rolling their tactical initiative separately. A character can only belong to one tactical group at a time.

Acting in Concert

When a tactical group's turn comes up in the initiative order, each member of the group acts together. Their turns and actions can come in any order, though each individual tactical group member is still limited to what actions they could normally take. Additionally, actions that could normally be broken up, such as when a fighter takes the Attack action and has the Extra Attack feature, can be broken up during the turn.

For instance, a 5th-level fighter might take the Attack action and make their first attack. Before they make their second attack, however, the operative ally in their tactical group might then take the Help action to grant them advantage before the fighter makes the second attack.

Separating a Tactical Group

When a tactical group loses contact with each other, or if the tactical group chooses to break up on their turn (no action required), the tactical group becomes separated. When separated, each member of the former tactical group acts on their own, though they retain the initiative of the tactical group. The order of any active members of the former tactical group acting on the same initiative is determined randomly.