What subclass benefits the most from high initiative?

[Yakmala]

Having recently played a Harengon Oath of the Watchers Paladin, I got to experience firsthand how powerful a high initiative bonus can be for both an individual character and the party. Over the course of a multiple encounter adventure, the amount of health and resources preserved by essentially having a turn advantage over your opponents really added up.

I'm not trying to build some crazy multiclass with a ridiculously optimized initiative stat, but I'm curious about everyone's take on which subclasses benefit the most from going first. My initial thoughts would either be a Wizard, due to the number of encounter altering control options they have at their disposal, or a highly mobile Monk that can reach and stun the biggest threat at the start of a fight.

Even a subclass without a built-in initiative enhancer can take the Alert feat, so I could see a broad range of subclasses that benefit.

[NecessaryWeevil]

I don't know whether they benefit *the most*, but Assassin Rogue is an obvious candidate.

[RogueJK]

Not a subclass, but the Bugbear race gets added damage against enemies who haven't had a turn yet. The Assassin Rogue, as already mentioned, gets Advantage and auto-crits against enemies who haven't gone yet.

And you can combine those two.

Take something like a Level 11 Bugbear with 3 levels of Assassin Rogue, 3 levels of Gloomstalker Ranger, 5 levels of Echo Knight Fighter, and the Piercer feat, who's TWFing with short swords, and triggering Action Surge, Dread Ambusher, and Unleash Incarnation twice to make 9x attacks, with added Surprise Attack, Sneak Attack, and Dread Ambusher damage, and all of those dice are then doubled because they're all auto-crits, and all the auto-crits also add an additional damage dice from Piercer. Hell of a nova strike. And because they're 9 separate attacks, you can split them up between up to 9 different enemies if you want, to take out an entire horde.

You take the Attack Action to Attack + Extra Attack + Dread Ambusher + Unleash Incarnation. (4 attacks)
You then Action Surge to take the Attack Action again, for Attack + Extra Attack + Dread Ambusher + Unleash Incarnation. (4 more attacks, for 8 so far)
You then use your Bonus Action to make a 9th TWF attack with your offhand shortsword.

Each of the 9 attacks is doing:
Shortsword damage of 1d6, doubled on a crit to 2d6
Piercer adds another 1d6 on a crit
And 2d6 Surprise Attack damage on each hit, doubled on a crit to 4d6
Plus DEXMOD

So that's 9 x 7d6, or 63d6
+ 9*DEXMOD

Plus one instance of 2d6 Sneak Attack damage, doubled on a crit to 4d6

Plus two instances of 1d8 Dread Ambusher damage for 2d8, doubled on a crit to 4d8 total

Thus you can be doing 67d6+4d8+9*DEXMOD, which with an 18 DEX, you're looking at an average of 288.5 damage in your first turn, provided you attack before an enemy has a chance to act.

And you'd have a decently high Initiative, adding DEX+WIS (figure roughly +7 bonus from 18 DEX and 16 WIS). In addition, since you have gained two Fighting Styles (Ranger and Fighter), you can use one for TWF and one for Superior Technique: Ambush to add +1d6 superiority dice to your Initiative roll (boosting your Initiative Bonus to roughly +10.5). And you should definitely plan to take the Alert feat next level at Rogue 4 or Ranger 4 or Fighter 6, for another +5 bonus to Initiative (making it roughly +15.5). From there, having a Watcher Paladin, Twilight Cleric, and/or a Wizard with the Gift of Alacrity spell in the party can help boost your Initiative even further.



But beyond wacky damage numbers like that, any caster with access to a powerful Save-Or-Suck spell benefits greatly from going first in combat. You can take an enemy or multiple enemies out of the fight before they even get a chance to act, even at relatively low levels, using stuff like Hypnotic Pattern, Banishment, Sleep, Suggestion, etc.

[Samayu]

Not a subclass, but the more battlefield control you do, the more important it is to get that set before your allies start moving in and getting in the way, or before the enemies get their plans in motion.

[da newt]

I'd have to agree that the most impactful turn a PC can have for the party is getting off that one BIG control spell before the baddies can act. Gaining surprise really helps for counter spell defense or acting from greater than 60' away or subtle spell or being unseen etc to ensure that the big battle field shaping spell sticks.

Druid, Wizard, Sorcerer, etc are most likely candidates to really influence a battle (once they are at a high enough level to cast BIG spells).




My number 2 choice would be a NOVA PC like a smite happy pali or an action surging gloomstalker bugbear w/ SS, but even then the NOVA is usually limited to just damage and often just to one foe. More often than not, the one big spell is more impactful.

[Mastikator]

Not a subclass, but the bugbear chief (from monster manual) adds 2d6 damage to anyone who has the surprised condition.

[Chaos Jackal]

Everyone benefits a lot from initiative, as you've already noticed; it is effectively one turn less for the enemy if you beat their rolls.

Your assumption is correct - wizards and full casters in general are the ones who benefit the most from it. Dropping an area disable or a big summon or just a big blast before the enemy gets to think about it or organize amplifies that one extra turn you get by default, since every enemy disabled or dead gets to be irrelevant for the fight right at the start.

Stuff like bugbears, Gloom Stalkers and Assassins get their own perks for moving before an enemy, but while a big burst of damage is nice, a big control effect is nicer.

[Dr.Samurai]

Subclasses specifically?

I'd say anything that can position something on the battlefield; things like the Battle Smith's Steel Defender, the Wildfire Druid's fire thingy, the Scribe Wizard's Manifest Mind, the Echo Knight's OP thing, etc.

Then anything that can debuff enemies, like the Ancestral Guardian's debuff attack which will cut enemy damage in half, or the Mercy monk or Open Hand monk's flurry of blows.

Then there's things that can buff you, like Totem Warrior's Resist All or Berserker's Charm/Fear immunity, OP cleric's Twilight Sanctuary, etc.

As others have mentioned, spells in general are powerful to get off asap, so spellcasting subclasses like Arcane Trickster and Eldritch Knight also apply.

[Frozenstep]

It might be easier to ask about classes that don't benefit from initiative beyond the basic "one turn advantage" it can grant you. I definitely agree stuff like assassin or those who put down AoE control/blasts that could friendly fire benefit more from going first, but even recently playing BG3 as a barbarian, I noticed how much it sucked to lose initiative, and then eat a bunch of damage before I could rage to resist any of it.

[stoutstien]

Barbarian as a whole really want to go first as without rage up they basically don't have a subclass at all.