Hey guys,

We had a weird 4th ed initiative conundrum in our last game.
How do modifiers work during the initiative roll?

I understand the initiative score is basically Intuition + Reaction.
Do modifiers from wounds & sustaining subtract from the dice pool or the final initiative score?

If you take damage during combat, that penalty subtracts immediately from your Score - but since you've already rolled - it's not a dice pool modifier it's a score modifier.

It was my impression that, like damage soak tests, initiative tests are always rolled at full dice - with wound and sustaining penalties subtracting from the final score. Your initiative score is always Intuition + Reaction because modifiers don't change your attributes.
(e.g. Rea 6 + Int 6 = 12 Initiative base --> Roll 12 dice + 12 base / so let's say...5 hits + 12 base = 17 Final Initiative Score)

Let's say you are sustaining 1 spell and have 6 boxes of stun damage (-4 modifier).
Assuming you have a 12 initiative base, do you now roll 8 dice or do you still roll 12 and subtract 4 from the end result?

I feel like I should know this, but for some reason it's unclear.

Wound penalties subtract from the final initiative score.
I hadn't thought about the sustaining penalty, so I'm not sure.

From SR4A: "For each sustained spell the magician maintains, she suffers a -2 dice penalty on all other tests." Since it says "dice" and "tests" rather than "actions", I would interpret it as sustained spells removing dice from your initiative pool. It makes sense, since people tend to react to things slower when they're distracted.

Yea, I guess so. And upon further reflection, that's how wound modifiers would work as well, by RAW, if you are rolling after you are wounded.
But to keep it simple, I've always played it as a modifier to the final number. Otherwise, you have two different rules for the same thing, depending on exactly when it happened.

True, and there's no reason you couldn't just house-rule it that way. Actually, making it a modifier to the score instead of the dice pool seems like it would help things run more smoothly instead of having to re-roll every time someone casts a spell or has their wound penalties change.