Posts from Expedition: general discussions. Auto-translated

In that case, initiative shouldn't be tied to perception or agility, even though they seem like the most obvious choices. These characteristics are already important for most, if not all, game characters. But it's also difficult to tie it to faith or beauty. Perhaps intelligence could be used somehow, which would also give warriors a good reason to consider increasing their intelligence. However, in my opinion, this shouldn't make the mages overpowered. In previous systems, they were generally quite weak. At least now they can spend their first turn on something other than just using a necessary defensive buff.

The main problem with initiative is balancing it against the other stats, especially if it's based on core attributes, because in many systems with this approach, such a stat is considered one of the most important, if not the most important. Even if initiative is the only benefit of this stat, it will still be a very high priority. It's also worth avoiding abilities that give you additional bonuses based on this same stat, so as not to create a "Dexterity 2.0" from the old system, only even more broken. And if the core of the new system is old or similar to it, it is necessary to ensure that the character's action points do not increase exponentially and the possibilities for increasing them are extremely limited. Otherwise, this will only exacerbate the problem of solo terminators deciding encounters.

That makes sense. Of course, there are usually other must-have stats in the game (health, for example), but if initiative becomes a problem, I suggest simply increasing the base value.
For example, the minimum initiative = 5, and characters can increase it by 1 to 10, but anything more is practically impossible. Then it seems like it won't be so broken.

It would be better to tie initiative to charisma, so there would be fewer ugly characters with a charisma of five.

Of course, there are usually other must-have stats in the game (health, for example).

Health is certainly an important parameter, and you shouldn't forget about it, but it's rarely a priority for most players. Initiative, on the other hand, will be important for every combat character, but especially for assassins. And, unlike health, it can easily compete with critical stats for a build. If a player can choose, say, between doubling their strength or doubling their initiative, they will, with a high probability, choose the latter. The actual damage from this will hardly decrease, and may even increase. One very powerful attack is almost always worse than two less powerful ones. Exceptions are only situations involving things like "Colossi." This is not to mention that additional actions give the character more flexibility in terms of behavior and will most likely help them recover faster from all sorts of stuns. With a sufficient speed stat, melee opponents can simply be kited. But surely the creator of Erephir knows this? The aforementioned assassins will be able to attack and then go invisible, making them even more overpowered than before. Especially if they still have abilities with instant kills. However, this rather suggests that these abilities, as well as the ability to become invisible during combat, should be taken away from them (and from others as well).

Added 13 minutes later

It's better to tie initiative to charisma, so there are fewer ugly characters with charisma 5...

And were there characters with beauty -5 and charisma 10?

There is a speed stat.

In that case, I think it would be better to decouple speed from it, otherwise the kiting strategy described earlier will be the only viable option.

I want to completely decouple movement speed from character stats; I've always found it annoying that some units move at 3 and others at 20.

Well, I remember suggesting you do that a long time ago. In Heroes of Might and Magic III, this (as well as dodge and accuracy) was handled better. A sound decision.

it would be better to determine initiative randomly, or have a tactical skill, like in Heroes... although there it doesn't affect the turn order, but what difference does it make?

Thus, in Revan, the initiative determines not only the turn order but also the number of turns a character has. Otherwise, if there were only a turn order, randomness, like in D&D, would be a good option. That is, it would seem to be without guarantees, but characteristics, feats, and class abilities would influence the result of the roll.

triple

Corpse.

Enough with the triple posting...

Revan, I still don't understand, are you working on an expansion or not?

Triple experience.