One solution I have heard some people use is to simply reroll initiative every round. It’s potentially time consuming, but it works as it pulls towards the expected averages by not relying on a single roll for each combatant.
I've been using this system for a long time, and it is in my opinion the easiest and most effective way to get a more dynamic combat without over-complicating things. And honestly, I've heard the complaints from people about how long they think it takes, but those complaints are pure BS. It doesn't take that long to make one extra roll per player each round, lol. And players like rolling dice. Let them play with their math rocks as much as possible! :)
The DM collecting all the initiative scores, as well as rolling for each group of monsters, then rearranging the combat order for the next round...
I played in a campaign where they rerolled initiative every round and it slowed down fights massively - and the fights were already slow from being mid-high level PCs with lots of options to choose between on each turn.
Beyond the first turn, a reliable turn order makes for being able to come up with a far better strategy to win the fight than hoping for better/worse initiative each round.
I think it comes down to how you actually track initiative. In my experience the process of rolling new initiative and writing it down takes less than a minute, which I don't find to be very much in combat.
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I think it comes down to how you actually track initiative. In my experience the process of rolling new initiative and writing it down takes less than a minute, which I don't find to be very much in combat.