Does anybody know what Combat Initiative does exactly.

Does it determine how often you act in a battle or does it simply determine who acts first in a battle. If it is the first then what is the difference with Combat Speed?

I would like to know to determine if it is worth putting skill points in the Tactics skill of my Soldier.

Thanks

I do prefer my Bard to act first in combat to cast a buffing song, but letting the Soldier go first isn't that much of a problem.

The Soldier definitely has skill points to spare but even so Tactics being a 30 point skill just to go first in combat doesn't sound very skill point efficient. I think I'll save the skill points for Learning/Weapon Master/etc.

To be fair, even normal speed characters will act first sometimes. Your initiative is often close to the monster's, enough for a few points in Tactics to be efficient. No need for 30 points, not soon anyway. I stoped at 8 points or so (not sure how much exactly), then only put points again there much later and i'm not even sure that was necessary. It's all about having a tiny bit more than the monsters to land a very useful stun, no need to have twice as much.

I'm gonna second this, Tactic is a useful skill, again you don't need full level 30 skill for tactic just like Gabby2 said a bit to make sure you move first as compared to the moster. Landing first hit instead of getting hit first by the monster does change the flow of battle considerably, especially in Xulima where the monster can and will kill you with status effect and or cumulative damage despite being considerably weaker then your party, being able to land the first hit means usually your party would be able to dictate the flow of battle.

On second note i'm note using bard, so that might be a bit different from your needs.

.........status effect and or cumulative damage despite being considerably weaker then your party, ...




true, happend to me to many times :D

2 or 3 green guys (goblins i think) were laughing with their squeeky voices: hi i hi ,

so i wanted them to zip it... i went for the front guys cause that nasty old shaman dude was in the back healing the little blighters after i had wounded them...

That had the same effect as trying to mop up the water while the leaks arent repaired yet so the water keeps flowing from a tank.

Anyways i finally managed to get rid of these guys.



I progressed an then i saw a little imp.... asking dumb questions, a stupid riddle
so i said i would whopp his butt ... then the motha started to grow and grow... wow
Cool animation how that motha reached out the big hand and kinda 'squeezed' the life out of my front row soldier
his hand kinda 'grabbed' the icon and ' squeezed it , funny animation.

I dont know if i could have won , my party had stats like 64 32 30 40 64 , 300 life or so and still they got mangled
The imps health bar decreased very very slowly ..... 3 members dead.... so i had to do something about it.
Finally i got the life bar to decrease :D.....