You can add half your Proficiency Bonus (round down) to any Ability Check you make that uses a Skill Proficiency you lack and that doesn’t otherwise use your Proficiency Bonus.
Initiative checks don't use a skill proficiency. Interestingly, Jack of all Trades also doesn't apply to apply to tools (unless the check is one where you can use a skill or a tool and you have proficiency in neither the skill nor the tool), which may not be intended.
As an aside to this I still think the proficiency bonus should add to initiative. A 20th level adventurer should react faster to danger than a 1st level one whether or not Dex is a stat they need to improve.
if your initiative went up every few levels then the more canny monsters you were fighting at those higher levels would likely get an equal boost in initiative every few levels. easier to call it a wash. but there's still always Dex ASI and feats to represent your growth beyond that of your baseline peers.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
unhappy at the way in which we lost individual purchases for one-off subclasses, magic items, and monsters?
tell them you don't like features disappeared quietly in the night: providefeedback!
if your initiative went up every few levels then the more canny monsters you were fighting at those higher levels would likely get an equal boost in initiative every few levels. easier to call it a wash. but there's still always Dex ASI and feats to represent your growth beyond that of your baseline peers.
The reason I don't like calling it a wash is you are not always fighting equal leveled foes. Bosses are higher than you, you can still deal with orcs and goblins at level 10 as actual threats, and its nice to show the growth by having people revisit things that were challenges before. And honestly it just makes sense, when a crisis occurs untrained people take a few seconds to react as their mind grapples with what is going on, trained people react far quicker as their training kicks in.
Honestly, I like many of the HB initiative systems much better than RAW. My favourite that I can't remember where it comes from was:
1) Players roll initiative. 2) Group monsters by CR - if a large number of equal CR monster split into a number of groups equal to the number of players 3) Place the Boss monster at the top. 4) Place the next highest CR group of monsters in the middle of the players. 5) Place the 3rd highest CR group of monsters at the bottom. 6) Any remaining monsters slot them in between players, unless the players tie on initiative.
It works pretty nicely to keep the flow of combat and make it feel dynamic, since weak monsters are interspersed so the turn orders change as they get killed off early. Plus it makes the Boss really feel scary. If it gets repetitive, I just swap around the 1st, 2nd and 3rd highest CR monster turns. And feats / abilities like Alert I reward by letting them jump ahead of the Boss if they also roll the highest initiative of all the players.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
With the revised wording in One D&D and Jack of all Trades, Ability Checks etc, does Initiative still benefit from JoaT etc?
That's easy: no.
Initiative checks don't use a skill proficiency. Interestingly, Jack of all Trades also doesn't apply to apply to tools (unless the check is one where you can use a skill or a tool and you have proficiency in neither the skill nor the tool), which may not be intended.
As an aside to this I still think the proficiency bonus should add to initiative. A 20th level adventurer should react faster to danger than a 1st level one whether or not Dex is a stat they need to improve.
if your initiative went up every few levels then the more canny monsters you were fighting at those higher levels would likely get an equal boost in initiative every few levels. easier to call it a wash. but there's still always Dex ASI and feats to represent your growth beyond that of your baseline peers.
unhappy at the way in which we lost individual purchases for one-off subclasses, magic items, and monsters?
tell them you don't like features disappeared quietly in the night: provide feedback!
The reason I don't like calling it a wash is you are not always fighting equal leveled foes. Bosses are higher than you, you can still deal with orcs and goblins at level 10 as actual threats, and its nice to show the growth by having people revisit things that were challenges before. And honestly it just makes sense, when a crisis occurs untrained people take a few seconds to react as their mind grapples with what is going on, trained people react far quicker as their training kicks in.
Honestly, I like many of the HB initiative systems much better than RAW. My favourite that I can't remember where it comes from was:
1) Players roll initiative.
2) Group monsters by CR - if a large number of equal CR monster split into a number of groups equal to the number of players
3) Place the Boss monster at the top.
4) Place the next highest CR group of monsters in the middle of the players.
5) Place the 3rd highest CR group of monsters at the bottom.
6) Any remaining monsters slot them in between players, unless the players tie on initiative.
It works pretty nicely to keep the flow of combat and make it feel dynamic, since weak monsters are interspersed so the turn orders change as they get killed off early. Plus it makes the Boss really feel scary. If it gets repetitive, I just swap around the 1st, 2nd and 3rd highest CR monster turns. And feats / abilities like Alert I reward by letting them jump ahead of the Boss if they also roll the highest initiative of all the players.