Linking Initiatives?

[HasturCarcosa]

Hello everyone! Is there a way in the 5E Combat Tracker to have a certain amount of initiatives linked to another? Currently I've got a person who summons all the things and we play with Re-Rolling Initiatives at the end of every round so you can imagine that gets to be the headache of headaches. I'm curious as to whether or not it's possible to link initiatives together because it's driving me up a wall! I've searched and deconstructed all that I can and have found no answers!

[damned]

Hello everyone! Is there a way in the 5E Combat Tracker to have a certain amount of initiatives linked to another? Currently I've got a person who summons all the things and we play with Re-Rolling Initiatives at the end of every round so you can imagine that gets to be the headache of headaches. I'm curious as to whether or not it's possible to link initiatives together because it's driving me up a wall! I've searched and deconstructed all that I can and have found no answers!

Welcome HasturCarcosa

Write yourself an extension!

[HasturCarcosa]

Welcome HasturCarcosa

Write yourself an extension!

Thanks for the welcome!

I'm assuming that's a no then as far as you know?

[Kelrugem]

Welcome :)

Maybe this esxtension, https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?43430-5E-Change-Initiative-Update-Effects, is the one you are seeking? :)

EDIT: although I do not know if that is suitable to your situation :) May misunderstand your situation :)

[Zacchaeus]

Short answer is no, there isn't such an extension. You can have initiative set to group initiative but I think that is only for NPCs.

[HasturCarcosa]

This calls for sad trombone noise. Womp womp. Thank you for the information though! Perhaps I'll try to bring that up in a feature's request or something then at some point, if its not being worked on already!

[damned]

This calls for sad trombone noise. Womp womp. Thank you for the information though! Perhaps I'll try to bring that up in a feature's request or something then at some point, if its not being worked on already!

It is the only time Ive ever seen it mentioned...
Generally these are good times to experiment with or learn some coding :)

[HasturCarcosa]

It is the only time Ive ever seen it mentioned...
Generally these are good times to experiment with or learn some coding :)

I mean you're not wrong but I'm already learning how to sew, how to craft foam boffer weapons, and how to 3D model so I just don't have the time to jump back into coding as much xD

[Valhingen]

Just to mention...I also ended up here looking exactly for that, linking summoned creatures and similiar to a particular PCs initiative. Too bad its not possible directly within FG though :(
The problem might also be related to our rather large party size - a "typical" (somewhat serious) battle involves 8 PCs, maybe 20 enemies and now you add Conjure X or Animate Dead...familiars, occasional allies (last session they had 3 rescued allies fight alongside the group). This means in FG you have to scroll a lot up and down the combat tracker at times and it would be better if a certain player can just do his/her stuff completely at one point, say, the necro has her action, rolls for all zombies, decides on familiar etc rather than to spread it out (we also play with new random INI each combat round).

[Kelrugem]

Just to mention...I also ended up here looking exactly for that, linking summoned creatures and similiar to a particular PCs initiative. Too bad its not possible directly within FG though :(
The problem might also be related to our rather large party size - a "typical" (somewhat serious) battle involves 8 PCs, maybe 20 enemies and now you add Conjure X or Animate Dead...familiars, occasional allies (last session they had 3 rescued allies fight alongside the group). This means in FG you have to scroll a lot up and down the combat tracker at times and it would be better if a certain player can just do his/her stuff completely at one point, say, the necro has her action, rolls for all zombies, decides on familiar etc rather than to spread it out (we also play with new random INI each combat round).

I guess this is due to that rolling initiative every round is not that common in D&D (?). The automation of FG mainly (not only) is for the standard rules and stuff, for other and additional rules one has to write extensions then, the highest priority of coding stuff is of course first focused on the main rules :) (but I can of course understand that one personally wants it when one rolls INI each round)

(and now I understand that it was about summoning creatures, I completely misread that line, sorry for my first answer)

[Valhingen]

Thanks for your reply :) Personally I don't think its the rolling every round as much as it is combat "size"/number of actors..sure, if INI would be fixed we could manually overwrite INI on all such NPCs once which wouldnt be ideal but an option.
(btw, we adopted the roll each turn also for our live, at table session - so far most prefer it)

[damned]

Im curious why you want all the allied entities to act on the same turn.
If you do have particular players who are controlling lots of actors then their turn could/would take a long time with them being the only focus of attention.
Why not have the actors act on their own initiative?

On the main track - how would you propose - as far as the GUI is concerned - to link the additional actors to the main PCs?

[Kelrugem]

Thanks for your reply :) Personally I don't think its the rolling every round as much as it is combat "size"/number of actors..sure, if INI would be fixed we could manually overwrite INI on all such NPCs once which wouldnt be ideal but an option.
(btw, we adopted the roll each turn also for our live, at table session - so far most prefer it)

Ok, that is right, hight number of actors will always result into a slow down :) (never tried out the option of rolling initiative each round, could add some nice randomness :) )

@Damned, in 3.5e summoned creatures always act on the initiative of the summoner (of course one could drop that rule) :) Seemingly the same for 5e :)

EDIT: But, when one already rolls initiative at every round (and so already dropping some standard rule), then I would also drop the rule that summoned creatures act on the initiative of the summoner; simply to avoid readjusting the initiative :D

[Valhingen]

As to why, I suppose thats a subjective (for our group) way to look at things but most would rather have one player use 5+ minutes each time its her turn than to "act" 4 times during each round. I do agree that if we wouldnt
prefer that, we could ignore those places where its actually in the rules like for summons.

The GUI...tough question because I'm not really all that deep into coding when it comes to FG so I am not sure what the limits really are. Ideally I'd hope for something like an effect maybe like "Owner: X" which would then equalize the INIs in one direction everytime INI is rolled? Just a thought...nice to have and all that :)

[Kelrugem]

As to why, I suppose thats a subjective (for our group) way to look at things but most would rather have one player use 5+ minutes each time its her turn than to "act" 4 times during each round. I do agree that if we wouldnt
prefer that, we could ignore those places where its actually in the rules like for summons.

I also had that problem in my group that others complained that someone has much more time in a round due to companions etc. (EDIT: and when someone acts more than once in a round it "seems" like that that player needs more time each round than doing everything in just one act although both methods shouldn't differ in their time usage of course, at least this is how I read that :D how people feel has not always rational reasons :D at least my players... :D). Therefore I started to control the creatures as the GM and the players were allowed to decide as a group what the creature(s) should do :) Depends on your group of course, but might help in that situation then to implement the house rule that summoned creatures act on their own initiative :) (and then the initiative of summoned creatures would matter, something I never liked about the "act on the same initiative of the summoner")