Uh, what. In D&D (PnP) you can delay your initiative to WHENEVER YOU WANT, not just to the end of the round.
Last I checked we talked about a pc game
DnD implementations (Infinity Engine) on PC
never allowed you to manage your initiative within a sub round. Most of the big known DnD games where turn based with real-time on top. BG, IWD, NWN
Also the D&D i know in PnP does not allow you to delay your initiative, you roll a dice for your initiative roll when the enemy checks for initiative, enemy rolls theirs, whoever wins gets to go first in the round. You have absolutely NO CHOICE in that matter. Your initiative roll is fixed for the entire round. And to begin with you *have* to roll it when YOU initiate an action.
You can't just roll initiative to an action and then say "no thanks" once you roll, your action is committed and the order (for all other actions) fixed.
I think you played some very weird house rules ;p
Ps.: Or maybe I played a house rule that changed initiative
Eraser, so you are always seeing all your guys in front first or in back last, but never good guys and enemies sprinkled throughout a round?
Always, either: (G=Good Guy, E=Enemy)
GGGGBBBB
BBBBGGGG
Never:
BGBGGBGB
I always manage my Initiative and since it's a stat you can influence I never moved in mixed order. Either all LAST or ALL first.
Most of the time all first (ie, until hunters rest or what it was called). Because I realized way back in Beta that Initiative for mages is extremely important. When I can cast my big spells early in combat half the enemies would be dead, crowd controlled or in flames while half the battlefield is frozen before I even took damage, and when my warriors move first then what would I do with them at the start of combat? Have them walk in circles? ;P Only time that didn't happen was when the "game" cheated by teleporting enemies in or triggering combat from dialog (which for some reason never actually put it me as first to move, never in the entire game)
;P
Also when you get feather fall moving first is literally a game changing situation. I can TP my melee guy next to enemies with full AP AFTER my mages softened the field and rogue charmed things. This is actually nearly an exploit imo ;P
Ps.: In the end game I actually ended up moving last all the time, which was a bit harsh.. but I gave up getting initiative for moving first because some enemies used spells I had to dispel before the round ENDED or I'd have taken lots of damage
And remember, first strike (even if it's just an ice-wall) always gave me the advantage for the first round anyway.
I actually only had a single fight in the entire game that gave me HUGE problems because of my intiative. That was in Lucella forest, the orc leader you can find to the right side of the map. When you don't first-strike, dialog initiates and VERY evil enemies spawn. And as I said, despite having high initiative in that segment I ended up skipping a turn. Not sure if that was intended or a bug, either way.. it was the only situation that really gave me problems. ^^
