[CONAN] Stealing the Nish

[Supplement Four]

Am I reading the Delay option correctly? By giving up an entire round, a character can take the nish (be top initiative) on the following round?

Pg: 206, 2E. If a player comes to his next action and has not yet performed an action, he does not get to take a delayed action in the next round, though he can delay again. If he takes a delayed action in the next round, before his regular turn comes up, his initiative count rises to that new point in the order of battle and he does not get his regular action that round.



If I'm reading that correctly, Conan is supposed to go on 7 during the first round. At his action (7), his player announces that Conan is delaying.

Now, the combat finishes with all the other actors in the round and Conan still hasn't gone. He basically loses his action this round, and we go into the next round. The first actor in the second round acts on 2, the second one acts on 4, the third one on 6, and Conan should go on 7, but, inestead, he decides to go 3, so that now, Conan is second to act in the round.

Or, Conan could decide to go on 1, which becomes his new nish count, and he all of a sudden has initiative over everyone else.

Is this correct and how you read the rule?

 

[Kev]

Yeah, that's pretty much how I read it, S4.

Delaying allows you to choose to act later in the current round (i.e., at a lower initiative count*) or earlier in the following round (i.e., at a higher initiative count*).

The adjusted initiative count sets your place in the combat order in subsequent rounds, unless, of course, you delay again or ready an action.

*relative to your original initiative

 

[Supplement Four]

If so, it would seem to take the oomph out of having the initiative--if it can, indeed, be stolen away like that.



EDIT:

And, what exactly does this mean: he does not get to take a delayed action in the next round, though he can delay again.

 

[Kev]

Well, having your initiative "stolen" isn't really that big a deal since the initiative count itself is simply a convenient way for us players to track which characters go when in a given combat round.

Going first or before other opponents is really only important during the first round of a confrontation, IMO. I think of it as "getting the drop" on someone (not to be confused with surprising them).

After that, things are happening, as far as the PCs are concerned, rapidly enough that it all seems one long flow of actions not divided into conveniently short time periods that have a discernible beginning and end. We players, however, totally see it as cyclical and repeating, going action by action, round by round.

But that flow isn't static, just as in real life; a combatant can hesitate to swing or anticipate a foe's strike and, thus, give or gain initiative.

As for "he does not get to take a delayed action in the next round, though he can delay again", that just means that if a character delays his action on one round but, by the time his original initiative count comes up on the following round, he has yet to take it, it's effectively lost. He acts on his original count and can delay again or perform any other legal action. Delayed actions won't stack up if you don't use 'em to be unleashed later all in a flurry, I think is what they're trying to get at.

Hope this all makes sense. I'm at work and so, by necessity, I'm thinking and typing quick...may not have explained myself too well.

 

[Supplement Four]

Well, having your initiative "stolen" isn't really that big a deal since the initiative count itself is simply a convenient way for us players to track which characters go when in a given combat round.

Yeah? Tell that to the guy that loses nish, has the Vanir approach him, swing, and kill him in one blow. That guy never gets to act. :shock:

Going first or before other opponents is really only important during the first round of a confrontation, IMO.

Again, let's look at the guy who, in the third round, is going second after his opponent, and his opponent rolled a critical on him, taking him out. In the entire three round combat, the guy got to act twice while his opponent acted 3 times.

Going first in the round can certainly be a huge advantage.

 

[Kev]

Yeah? Tell that to the guy that loses nish, has the Vanir approach him, swing, and kill him in one blow. That guy never gets to act. :shock:

Killing blows are a bitch, I'll admit.

Again, let's look at the guy who, in the third round, is going second after his opponent, and his opponent rolled a critical on him, taking him out. In the entire three round combat, the guy got to act twice while his opponent acted 3 times.

Going first in the round can certainly be a huge advantage.

And I agree, it can be, with the qualification that it's much more of an advantage in the very first round of a combat and less so on subsequent rounds.

Your example highlights only one possible outcome of that particular combat situation. It could most certainly go a number of different ways, depending on dice rolls and other factors, that could result in one or the other opponent's demise by the end of the third round.

My two cents worth, anyway.