First things first, the initiative system as written is fine. It works. Decoupling it from a separate attribute/skill/feature is nice (though does raise other issues occasionally), but it also further complicates something that doesn't need to be for how little effect it actually has on the game.
More often than not, the initiative order ends up being all my players grouped together and all the enemies grouped together. Maybe with an outlier that breaks this up. To make matters worse, most of the time a PC goes first, followed by all the enemies, they end up doing a holding action or something so the rest of the party has a chance to go and they aren't left on their own/making a target of themselves.
Proposal
Initiative is just a d10 per side in the combat, almost no modifiers, highest number goes first (enemies win ties as RAW), and each side (usually two - PC's and their enemies - but there could be a third party) acts in whatever order they want. Additionally, the Delay action gets removed from the game (you just skip your turn that round if you can't make a decision)
If one enemy would get the drop on another, no roll is necessary. The surprising side goes first.
Rolldown
On the positive side, determining initiative is fast, easy to adjudicate, and an action that only exists because of the way individual initiative works gets removed from the game. Removing Delay is a boon since in all the games I've run, played, or listened to, Delay is almost exclusively used because their waiting for another party member to act/get out of the way or that the character went first, then all the enemies, then the rest of the group and they didn't want to be on their own. Is Delay used for other things? Yes. But it is rare.
The Scout Dedication Feat, Incredible Scout General Feat, and the Ranger and Rogue's Scout's Warning Class Feat are all fine.
There's a bit of rolldown though.
A fighter's Battlefield Surveyor 7th level class feature would need to change. I'd go with "If the enemies go first, the Fighter has the option of using a single action before the enemies, saving the other two actions for the PC's turn as normal."
The ranger's 6th level class feat, Swift Tracker, gets a minor change in that the free Stride action triggers if you were Tracking your prey at the start of combat.
The minor curse for the oracle's Lore mystery would get changed to "You are Slowed 1 for the first round of combat, as trying to process a surge of information about what’s happening around you slows your ability to respond to it." instead of the -4 to initiative.
The oracle's 10th level class feat, Oracular Warning, becomes pointless as is. I'd prefer to just remove it, but there aren't enough options at 10th level if it's removed (maybe when Secrets of Magic comes out). For now, there's two ways I'd go if keeping it. I'd make it a Reaction that triggers when an ally is hit within 30 feet of the oracle, and either give the ally a +2 to AC or make the enemy roll a second time and take the worst result. This could be limited to once per minute if you wanted to keep the spirit of the once per encounter idea of it affecting initiative.
The swashbuckler's 2nd level class feat, After You, can be removed or modified to just skip the swashbuckler's first turn. I favor removal (as I do with the 4th level class feat, Swaggering Initiative).
The rogue's 6th level feat, Anticipate Ambush, would get changed to "If you’re Anticipating an Ambush at the start of an encounter, you roll a Perception check vs the hidden threat's Stealth DC. If you succeed, initiative is rolled as normal."
The rogue's 8th level feat, Tactical Entry, would get it's trigger changed to "You are hidden or concealed at the start of the encounter and neither you nor any enemies have acted yet."
The 6th level wizard feat, Diviner's Sense, gets removed as taking that action would most likely remove the chance of a surprise round for any hidden enemy with any magic items.
The assassin's 4th level feat, Surprise Attack, works if you surprise the enemy or if you were hidden/concealed at the start of combat. This is the same for the Rogue's 1st level class feature.
The 2nd level Battle Planner feat is a conundrum. I believe this should just be removed as it takes away from the player's having to actually plan anything. If you really want this in the game, I'd just keep everything the same, but if the Warfare Lore check is successful (and the information is still accurate), the Party gets the drop on the enemies and go first.
The 2nd level Shadow Mark feat gets modified to remove the mention of initiative. If they don't notice you, you surprise them.
If the Possession spell ends in an encounter, you join your party's initiative.
Zeal for Battle allows you to roll twice for your party's initiative, using the higher result.
Call to Arms affects all your allies, but reduce the bonus given to +1 (heightened 6th: +2, 9th: +3), though I'd rather just remove this or Zeal for Battle and offer one or the other.
The changeling's 1st level Callow May feat... I don't really like this feat, even using RAW. Deception is almost never rolled as initiative and the times it's referenced as an option in the rules, it's about social encounters, not combat.
All other instances of modifiers to initiative can just be removed from the game, either the whole feature (if that's all the feature does) or just the part that modifies initiative.
In Closing
Honestly, that looked like a lot, but most of it is either removing bits, or changing it from "if you roll this while this, you get this bonus" to "if you're doing this, you get this bonus" or just "you get this bonus", which I'm a fan of. Remove needless rolling.
Many aren't going to like this, and that's fine. One of my players hated the idea when I pitched it before I did this bit of work to figure out the mechanical rolldown so I haven't started using it yet (plus, I didn't want to change it up since we're so close to the end of Age of Ashes...well, my version of the end anyways). I will end up trying it out in the next campaign I run though.
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