Old Bard trick that has not seen shared in a while ... so.....
RAW, Flash of Genius " ...you make an ability check or a saving throw, you can use your reaction to add your Intelligence modifier to the roll." and Initiative "When combat starts, every participant makes a Dexterity check to determine their place in the initiative order."
A Dexterity check is an ability check. The initiative uses the Dexterity Ability for the check. Flash of Genius adds Intelligence to that roll as well.
Yes, this works with Jack of all trades (test it for yourself on a character sheet), Bardic Inspiration, Guidance, and others. FoC is the only reaction one that I know of.
Reactions do not have to be part of the turn order but depends on the "Trigger moment.". Shield and Hellish Rebuck spells are examples of reactions against attacks, Opportunity attacks are reactions to enemies' movement.
For Flash of Genius, the Reaction moment is "When you or another creature you (the who) can see within 30 feet (the range) of you makes an ability check (the trigger)". This example is rolling for Initiative (an ability check.). Note that this happens AFTER the roll as the reaction happens once the trigger completes.
I would say that as long as you aren't surprised, you can, but you lose your reaction until your first turn. If you are surprised, you aren't able to use your reaction until after your first turn, so you wouldn't be able to use it in that case.
I would say that as long as you aren't surprised, you can, but you lose your reaction until your first turn. If you are surprised, you aren't able to use your reaction until after your first turn, so you wouldn't be able to use it in that case.
This seems to be the correct interpretation. It seems that per the PHB surprise and position to be are determined before initiative is actually rolled. surprise removes actions, movement, and reaction until that creatures first turn ends.
PHB pg 189.
“COMBAT STEP BY STEP 1. Determine surprise. The DM determines whether anyone involved in the combat encounter is surprised. 2. Establish positions. The DM decides where all the characters and monsters are located. G iven the adventurers' marching order or their stated positions in the room or other location, the DM figures out where the adversaries are-how far away and in what direction. 3.Roll initiative. Everyone involved in the combat encounter rolls initiative, determining the order ofcombatants' turns. 4.Take turns. Each participant in the battle takes a turn in initiative order. 5. Begin the next round. When everyone involved in the combat has had a turn, the round ends. Repeat step 4 until the fighting stops.”
“If you're surprised, you can't move or take an action on your first turn of the combat, and you can't take a reaction until that turn ends. A member of a group can be surprised even if the other members aren't.”
I’m convinced it’s permitted RAW. Given that at most you have 5 uses a day of Flash of Genius, you’d better make it count if you use it on initiative. When would it make tactical sense to do this?
The situations I thought of were to lead off with a control spell like Web or Wall of Fire against a mob, buff your allies in a boss fight, or try a save-or-suck spell. It’s probably not worthwhile just to move up to melee first or take ranged attacks. Other ideas?
I would say that as long as you aren't surprised, you can, but you lose your reaction until your first turn. If you are surprised, you aren't able to use your reaction until after your first turn, so you wouldn't be able to use it in that case.
This seems like the correct way to run it in RAW to me.
I prefer to think of the out of combat game as still being composed of rounds where each player has the same one action, one bonus action and one reaction, it's just that you're given more freeform in how you resolve multiple turns, i.e- you can fully resolve one player's 10 minute activity then jump back to what the other players were doing at the same time. So just because you aren't in an initiative order yet doesn't mean that you don't have a "turn" beforehand, you just haven't established a concrete order to them.
Put another way; in combat you are forced to resolve everything in simultaneous six second intervals, in a particular order; outside of combat the same six second intervals exist, but the DM can resolve as many of those turns as they want and in whatever order is most convenient. But events still happen simultaneously, and everyone still had a "turn" before the initiative order was set.
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Old Bard trick that has not seen shared in a while ... so.....
RAW, Flash of Genius " ...you make an ability check or a saving throw, you can use your reaction to add your Intelligence modifier to the roll." and Initiative "When combat starts, every participant makes a Dexterity check to determine their place in the initiative order."
A Dexterity check is an ability check. The initiative uses the Dexterity Ability for the check. Flash of Genius adds Intelligence to that roll as well.
Yes, this works with Jack of all trades (test it for yourself on a character sheet), Bardic Inspiration, Guidance, and others. FoC is the only reaction one that I know of.
Enjoy
Cool idea. But do you have a reaction before the initiative order is set? No turns have happened yet.
well yes...
Adjudicating Reaction Timing DMG 252
Reactions do not have to be part of the turn order but depends on the "Trigger moment.". Shield and Hellish Rebuck spells are examples of reactions against attacks, Opportunity attacks are reactions to enemies' movement.
For Flash of Genius, the Reaction moment is "When you or another creature you (the who) can see within 30 feet (the range) of you makes an ability check (the trigger)". This example is rolling for Initiative (an ability check.). Note that this happens AFTER the roll as the reaction happens once the trigger completes.
Sage advise cleaning up this in 2017 podcast
I would say that as long as you aren't surprised, you can, but you lose your reaction until your first turn. If you are surprised, you aren't able to use your reaction until after your first turn, so you wouldn't be able to use it in that case.
This seems to be the correct interpretation. It seems that per the PHB surprise and position to be are determined before initiative is actually rolled. surprise removes actions, movement, and reaction until that creatures first turn ends.
PHB pg 189.
“COMBAT STEP BY STEP
1. Determine surprise. The DM determines whether anyone involved in the combat encounter is surprised.
2. Establish positions. The DM decides where all the characters and monsters are located. G iven the adventurers' marching order or their stated positions in the room or other location, the DM figures out where the adversaries are-how far away and in what direction.
3.Roll initiative. Everyone involved in the combat encounter rolls initiative, determining the order ofcombatants' turns.
4.Take turns. Each participant in the battle takes a turn in initiative order.
5. Begin the next round. When everyone involved in the combat has had a turn, the round ends. Repeat step 4 until the fighting stops.”
“If you're surprised, you can't move or take an action on your first turn of the combat, and you can't take a reaction until that turn ends. A member of a group can be surprised even if the other members aren't.”
I would say you can because the Bard's Jack of All Trades feature also works on initiative rolls.
I’m convinced it’s permitted RAW. Given that at most you have 5 uses a day of Flash of Genius, you’d better make it count if you use it on initiative. When would it make tactical sense to do this?
The situations I thought of were to lead off with a control spell like Web or Wall of Fire against a mob, buff your allies in a boss fight, or try a save-or-suck spell. It’s probably not worthwhile just to move up to melee first or take ranged attacks. Other ideas?
This seems like the correct way to run it in RAW to me.
I prefer to think of the out of combat game as still being composed of rounds where each player has the same one action, one bonus action and one reaction, it's just that you're given more freeform in how you resolve multiple turns, i.e- you can fully resolve one player's 10 minute activity then jump back to what the other players were doing at the same time. So just because you aren't in an initiative order yet doesn't mean that you don't have a "turn" beforehand, you just haven't established a concrete order to them.
Put another way; in combat you are forced to resolve everything in simultaneous six second intervals, in a particular order; outside of combat the same six second intervals exist, but the DM can resolve as many of those turns as they want and in whatever order is most convenient. But events still happen simultaneously, and everyone still had a "turn" before the initiative order was set.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.