u/Revolutionary-Ad7738

Whenever it’s time to roll initiative, I have 4 players immediately shouting numbers at me at completely different times while I’m also trying to roll initiative for 14 goblins individually, as group initiative is lazy DMing and unrealistic. I am crafting a story for my players and that story includes everyone taking their turn as the rules state.

My players are clueless, despite my best efforts of educating them, and have NO idea what modifier they should add to their die roll for initiative. I don't even know why I haven't cancelled the campaign already.

I think a good solution would be for everyone to roll initiative at the beginning of the campaign and keep that result permanently. If a character dies, the new character would inherit that initiative because death should not be used to manipulate turn order.

For monsters, I’m thinking of rolling initiative for every creature in the Monster Manual before the session and keeping them in an Excel spreadsheet sorted alphabetically.

Has anyone tried this? Or should I simply determine initiative based on how quickly each player answers my texts during the week?

EDIT: Please stop suggesting I use the initiative tracker in a VTT. I didn’t spend $800 on dice to let a computer play D&D for me.

I was looking at the 2024 Monk and thought it was kind of dumb that, mechanically, a Monk can benefit more (especially at lower levels) from using Shortsword (Vex) + Scimitar (Nick) + Bonus Action Fist vs. First plus BA Fist...

It feels very un-Monk-like to me.

But I have never played a monk, so I wanted to get feedback about this idea for a Level 2 Monk feature:

Unarmed Mastery (Homebrew): You learn a number of Weapon Mastery properties of your choice equal to your Proficiency Bonus. After each Long Rest, you may replace one with another. When you make an Unarmed Strike, you can use one of your chosen Masteries that is compatible with the strike.

The idea is that things like Vex, Nick, Push, Sap, Slow, Topple, etc. aren't literally properties of the Monk's fists. They're different martial-arts techniques the Monk has mastered.

I feel like this would give Monks a reason to actually fight like Monks instead of feeling like they should carry specific weapons just for their Masteries.

Do you think this would be not overpowered (and also awesome)?

Edit: Would it actually be more appropriate for a homebrew subclass feature at level 3?

So I told Alexa to set a reminder for me tonight at 10:15 p.m.:
"What would you like the reminder to be?"
"Zepbound"
"Okay, I've set a reminder tonight for zap down at 10:15 p.m."
"ZAP DOWN!" (haha, silly Alexa)
"Okay, I've marked that reminder complete"
"??...Do I have a reminder tonight at 10:15 p.m.?"
"No, your reminder to zap down tonight at 10:15 p.m. has been marked complete...."

For YEARS I've used Alexa as an in-house intercom system. "Alexa, drop in on the office" or kid's room or master bedroom, etc. Never had an issue with it until this stupid Alexa Plus. It replied, like always, "Okay, dropping in" and then I asked my wife a question and it said, "I'm not sure, what is it you'd like me to do?" I reply nothing and continued to talk to my wife and it said "I'm sorry, I don't know how to do that." It continued to have a conversation with me while I tried to get it to STFU. Meanwhile, my wife is wondering what's going on because I'm not saying anything. That makes two of us, because I'm not sure what's going on either.

EXPLANATION OF A NORMAL, INDUSTRY-STANDARD REQUEST FROM EMPLOYER