Why is Cassia always first?

[Quitch]

This isn't her rolling well, it's literally every combat. I have her with a pretty sweet perception (95 after Ebb & Flow), but her agility is only 35, and so Yrliet actually has a higher initiative score. Yet Cassia is still first every combat.

It's so reliable that I assumed I'd overlooked a talent, but I can't find anything. Pass Unscathed allows her to use Perception instead of agility for Dodge, is that causing it to get used for initiative checks too?

What am I missing here?

[reevestone]

I assume you made her into a Grand Strategist. Grand Strategists have an innate passive in their base ability that has them always go first in combat.

[Hidetsugu]

Besides Grand Strategist, the other possible thing is the Officer trait Seize the Initiative, which makes officers take an extra turn with half mp/ap at the start of combat (super OP if you know what you are doing). Anyways, these are the only 2 possible things.
And I guess a vendor accessory that appears in ch4.

[reevestone]

Originally posted by Hidetsugu:

Besides Grand Strategist, the other possible thing is the Officer trait Seize the Initiative, which makes officers take an extra turn with half mp/ap at the start of combat (super OP if you know what you are doing). Anyways, these are the only 2 possible things.
And I guess a vendor accessory that appears in ch4.

Possibly, but if it was Seize The Initiative I would assume it would be mentioned that Cassia's first turn has fewer MP and AP than normal and she can only use her Officer abilities and not Navigator abilities or weapons. Plus Seize The Initiative says openly that it gives you a first turn right at the start of combat, same with the Chrono, so I figured that was less likely to be overlooked than a single part of a broader block of text about Grand Strategist's innate ability. I also assessed that if the OP is referencing Yrliet the OP is far enough into the game to have somewhat-recently unlocked Tier 2 Archetypes.

[Hidetsugu]

True, GS is most likely. Some people miss the line that makes the class OP. I am just covering all the other possibilities.

[Quitch]

Thanks, she is indeed an SG. I completely forgot about that last line in the passive and on re-review only saw the stuff about the zones. At the time I think it was a key reason I chosen it.

Originally posted by reevestone:

Originally posted by Hidetsugu:

Besides Grand Strategist, the other possible thing is the Officer trait Seize the Initiative, which makes officers take an extra turn with half mp/ap at the start of combat (super OP if you know what you are doing). Anyways, these are the only 2 possible things.
And I guess a vendor accessory that appears in ch4.

Possibly, but if it was Seize The Initiative I would assume it would be mentioned that Cassia's first turn has fewer MP and AP than normal and she can only use her Officer abilities and not Navigator abilities or weapons. Plus Seize The Initiative says openly that it gives you a first turn right at the start of combat, same with the Chrono, so I figured that was less likely to be overlooked than a single part of a broader block of text about Grand Strategist's innate ability. I also assessed that if the OP is referencing Yrliet the OP is far enough into the game to have somewhat-recently unlocked Tier 2 Archetypes.

I'm kinda in love with this deductive reasoning, and it's all on the money. I've actually been Tier 2 long enough that I had completely forgotten she didn't always go first.