Quote Originally Posted by Draz74 View Post
In Core,
  • Improved Initiative

... strike me as the most-balanced.
Maybe I don't get the mechanics of D&D as well as I like, but I don't think that Improved Initiative is that great of a Feat. Perhaps you can convince me otherwise.

As I see it, most combat begins out of direct melee range. So if you are a front-line type, you have two choices (mostly): close the distance or wait for them to close. If you close the distance, you can't make a full attack, and if you wait for them to close, you can. Starting at 6th-level, waiting for them to get into your space makes a lot of sense because it means they get one attack off on you while you get two. All Improved Initiative does is make it more likely that you'll be the one who has to get up to them first to attack.

Furthermore, all Improved Initiative does is make it more likely to act first... for the first round. Once combat goes into the second round, the ability to shape the battlefield by having the opening gambit diminishes. By round two, that Improved Initiative isn't doing anyone squat.

On the flip side, yes, it does mean that it is more likely for your rogue to act first on the first round of combat and get his Sneak Attack damage, or that your wizard will be able to get off a spell before anyone else. I'll give you points for the rogue, but the wizard getting off a spell early isn't necessarily a good thing, or at least, not as good as might be imagined. Going first and popping off a spell might help a lot, or it might cue every other enemy who has yet to go that there is a wizard who needs to die. Furthermore, Improved Initiative only helps out during combat (and again, only really during the first round). A good metamagic feat can be useful both outside of combat and after the first round of combat.

Mind you, this is also something of a problem with the way D&D combat in general works. In real life, getting the drop on someone is deadly, and the closest thing to that is the rogue's Sneak Attack. If combat was such that a single hit could seriously wound or even kill an opponent, stealth and initiative would be much more important in swaying battles.

*Assuming you don't combo them with metamagic reducers.
Yeah, that... is a problem.