They should be. If you have 3x zombies and 3x skeletons the zombies would act on one initiative and the skeletons on their own.
While it might not be RAW if you only have 3 zombies, it's not going to hurt to let them each act in their own initiative. What you don't want is like 10 zombies acting on their own initiative.
It’s usually a lot cleaner to track the monster types together. The fight can feel more dynamic with each zombie going in a different initiative, but then it’s more bookkeeping for you about which of them goes when as they’re moving around. Keeping them all on the same count is simpler, and keeps the combat moving faster. Aldo, as bthephienix says, if you have different monsters put each group on their own count.
Separate initiatives spread the monsters out, so they don't all get a jump on the PCs (or vice versa)
Unified initiative is way less bookkeeping
IMO, you should separate your major enemies and group your minors ones. If those zombies are the entirety of a fight with first-level PCs, separate them. If they're just some of the minions of a necromancer, group them.
If the numbers get large, consider splitting them into two or more independent groups. Split 12 zombies into three fours or four threes. (and also consider giving the groups some variation)
There's no single answer for what's "right" in this case. Common solutions:
-Group all of the same monster type together (helpful for large groups) -Roll each individually (makes fights more dynamic with lower counts especially)
In the case that I have a large group, I like my third option: I break them into a few groups and roll the groups separately from each other, so that I'm generally only moving 3-5 at a time. Since I primarily use Roll20 as a VTT and play all online any more, I usually put a colored dot on them so each color moves together. The players can tell at a glance what's what, and so can I. I put an extra copy in the corner of the map for each so I don't accidentally delete my initiative tracker token and it also has the dot, so the players can hover over the initiative and see which color moves in which order.
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For example when I roll for initiative for lets says a group of three zombies does each zombie get an initiative roll or is it one roll for them all?
They should be. If you have 3x zombies and 3x skeletons the zombies would act on one initiative and the skeletons on their own.
While it might not be RAW if you only have 3 zombies, it's not going to hurt to let them each act in their own initiative. What you don't want is like 10 zombies acting on their own initiative.
It’s usually a lot cleaner to track the monster types together. The fight can feel more dynamic with each zombie going in a different initiative, but then it’s more bookkeeping for you about which of them goes when as they’re moving around. Keeping them all on the same count is simpler, and keeps the combat moving faster.
Aldo, as bthephienix says, if you have different monsters put each group on their own count.
It can be done either way.
Separate initiatives spread the monsters out, so they don't all get a jump on the PCs (or vice versa)
Unified initiative is way less bookkeeping
IMO, you should separate your major enemies and group your minors ones. If those zombies are the entirety of a fight with first-level PCs, separate them. If they're just some of the minions of a necromancer, group them.
If the numbers get large, consider splitting them into two or more independent groups. Split 12 zombies into three fours or four threes. (and also consider giving the groups some variation)
This is a common sense approach.
If there's a single group of enemies of different types, I might separate by type
If there are distinct groups of enemies approaching from different directions, I might separate by which physical group they are in.
If there's any more than 3 enemy models, I will start to group them in some fashion. The same also goes for any NPCs involved
There's no single answer for what's "right" in this case. Common solutions:
-Group all of the same monster type together (helpful for large groups)
-Roll each individually (makes fights more dynamic with lower counts especially)
In the case that I have a large group, I like my third option: I break them into a few groups and roll the groups separately from each other, so that I'm generally only moving 3-5 at a time. Since I primarily use Roll20 as a VTT and play all online any more, I usually put a colored dot on them so each color moves together. The players can tell at a glance what's what, and so can I. I put an extra copy in the corner of the map for each so I don't accidentally delete my initiative tracker token and it also has the dot, so the players can hover over the initiative and see which color moves in which order.