D&D combat is the tactically richest it’s ever been in 4e: class synergy is high and team play is greatly rewarded. One simple but important consideration is the initiative or reaction speed of your party by class role.
Certain roles and classes should make a higher initiative bonus a bigger priority than others in order to more effectively fulfill their tactical role and combat playstyle in the party. Keep an eye out during both character creation and throughout your adventures for initiative boosts granted by feats, powers and magic items.
High Priority Initiative
By far, your party benefits most from its wardens and paladins getting their mountain-like selves up into the teeth of the enemy first. Defenders have the hit points and defenses, and in particular, the AC, to withstand a beating more than most classes in other roles. Though they’re not meant to take the entire beating the enemy monsters deliver, they’re certainly built at a core level to take plenty of punishment, including the usually brutal first volley of the monsters’ “best” attacks. Factor in action points along with the enemies’ deadliest encounter powers, and you have all the more reason to get your fighter, battlemind and even swordmage up on the front lines immediately.
When creating and leveling your defender, look at your initiative bonus and seriously consider taking “on-all-the-time” feats like Improved Initiative or Superior Initiative. On a related note, feats that add other helpful and role-relevant bonuses in addition to initiative are worth a look as well, such Thirst for Battle or Bred for Battle. Here, half-orcs gain a healing surge and muls gain a temporary attack and speed bonus, respectively.
For magic items, consider adventuring for or wish-listing a Casque of Tactics, Helm of Battle, Timeless Locket or Ring of Action Reversal. The ring is especially worthy as it boasts a magical property that functions almost exactly like the Improved Initiative feat – except that if you have both, they stack!
Over time, the simple value of your defender going early and closing on your enemy quickly in every combat encounter will pay huge dividends in helping your party’s other roles actually survive long enough to better fill their own roles. So give all those feats and magic items – and the rare few defender initiative boosting powers like the fighter’s Battle Awareness or even the Nature Sense skill power – a long look.
Medium-High Priority Initiative
Controllers and ranged strikers can go either way when it comes to initiative priority – sometimes it’s worth going right away depending on the positioning and distance of a group of monsters, and sometimes it’s better to wait and see what routes they initially take to you, what cover or choke points they gravitate to, or simply have a few extra seconds to get a better sense of their biggest threats or leaders. Generally speaking though, you don’t want to go last here because of the one significant advantage controllers and ranged strikers tend to have in common: range!
Just like archers and artillery have long had the early advantage in wars throughout human history, it’s no different in your D&D combats. As such, an opportunity to possibly bloody the enemy leader with your archer ranger or lay down massive area damage and multi-target debilitating effects with your wizard, druid or seeker shouldn’t be missed, especially if your party’s defender did his or her job and is soaking up most of the enemy’s first wave of attacks.
Low-Medium Priority Initiative
Of all the roles, the leaders and melee strikers are most likely not to need to prioritize initiative.
For leaders, their healing is typically reactive and as such, it’s not so useful to have your cleric or bard go right away. It may sound strange, but you potentially miss a chance to use some healing. You can never get that round back to heal someone who took an early wallop, so for that reason alone, a wait-and-see approach isn’t a bad one for most leaders.
For melee strikers, despite having a tempting offensive punch, it’s often a bad idea to leap into the fray right away. Why? Because even if you do bloody or kill something or multiple things, you’ve now left yourself open to retaliation from your victim or victims’ allies. And since you’re typically not as stout as defenders, the inherent melee disadvantage is doubly dangerous for you. Dead strikers deal zero damage!
So when playing a melee striker, bide your time early on and maneuver into a more advantageous tactical position with your avenger or dual-weapon ranger. Or have your runepriest trace some protective rune magic to bolster one or more of your allies as you and the enemies close in on each other. Either way, more so than the other roles, the delay action may save your melee striker or leader a severe beating, something you typically want to avoid early on in a fight while simultaneously putting yourself in a better position to fulfill your role – in just a moment.
Situational Initiative Boosts: Boss Fights
In climactic adventure encounters or the ultimate encounter of a play tier, solo and elite monsters are more likely. That means heavier and more enduring hitters with nastier applied conditions (often in a wide area), and thus all the more incentive for everyone to bump up their initiative, most especially the high-priority roles. In these cases, initiative boosts of any kind can make a huge difference – and massive initiative boosts through daily powers truly shine.
Finally facing the dracolich ultimately behind all the evil schemes of this particular sect of a Cult of Orcus? Consider tracing a Rune of Meritorious Alacrity, sounding a magical chord of Synchronicity or shouting a Quickening Order to your fellow heroes. By doing so, you create a great opportunity to gain the advantage when you need it most, allowing each character to do what they do best as fast as possible against the deadliest of foes – potentially before this mightiest of villainous monsters can even react!
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