D&D 3.5 Mechanics Deep Dive: Action Economy
What Is Action Economy?
What in all of the layers of the Abyss is an action economy? Does it have inflation too? Kinda. Let's start with the basics. By default, every creature has the same number and types of actions per turn: one standard action, one move action, one swift or immediate action, and theoretically infinite free actions, only if you want a Dungeon Master's Guide thrown at your head.
So, what's the big idea, then? If everyone gets the same amount of actions, how can there be any such thing as an "action economy"? At its most basic, you weigh the number of creatures against one another. For example, a party of five taking on a mob of five goblins has the same number of total actions per turn. So then they're equal? No.
Turn Order Matters
This is where the first modifier of action economy comes into play: turn order. If all five of the players come before all five of the goblins in turn order, their actions are worth significantly more because, well, they act first. If all of those players attack one goblin at a time and kill it in the first turn, then the number of actions shifts dramatically. Again, this is a blank hypothetical, not even considering what kinds of class features, spells, feats, or crazy maneuvers the players have planned for those poor goblins.
Making Every Action Worth More
Okay, so the number of creatures and order of those creatures matters. That's pretty obvious to most people. What's less obvious is how maximizing what you get out of each action makes you richer in the overall action economy. One of the best examples of this is the Quicken Spell metamagic feat, which turns a spell whose casting time is less than one full-round action into a free action to cast. That means you can cast that spell and do whatever you want with the round, even casting another spell.
That sounds good in and of itself, but to really appreciate it, I believe you should think of it as effectively doubling your turn. If you were going to cast a single standard-action spell and now you're going to cast two, you just took two turns before anyone else. There are dozens and dozens of effects like Quicken Spell that make something take an action of lesser importance, so be on the lookout for these effects when seeking to power up a build.
There are also less obvious versions of this kind of action economy boosting, like increasing your speed, which means you spend fewer actions repositioning. Lastly, there are simply effects that give you more actions per turn, or, as I like to say, more action per action. These are things like the Belt of Battle from Magic Item Compendium or the Hustle psionic power, quite literally granting up to an extra full-round action each day or a free move action respectively.
Action Economy Abuse
A build that takes advantage of this kind of action economy abuse looks like being a Psion who can manifest the power Synchronicity, which allows you to ready a standard action to be taken at any point before your next turn, with the Linked Power metapsionic feat, which allows you to manifest one power normally on one turn and then a linked power automatically on your next turn. Combined, these two effects completely boom the action economy by allowing you to manifest a power linked with Synchronicity. Then, on the following turn, you effectively gain an extra standard action from the free Synchronicity being manifested, which opens you up to spend your move action regaining psionic focus and your typical standard action manifesting another power.
If two standard actions for manifesting powers each turn isn't enough, then you can use Schism, or a handful of other Psion options, to give you another one, for three standard actions of manifesting powers per turn. Keep in mind that the Psion's main source of strength is manifesting. They're essentially spellcasters, so this kind of upkeep is effectively making that Psion three times as effective as they normally are.
Stealing Actions From Your Opponents
Okay, so to make my action economy boom, I make myself go first with a bunch of friends and use boosts to speed up certain actions, is that all? No, not at all. The next thing to consider is that action economy should be viewed in terms of the net number of effective actions being output by both sides of an encounter. Think back to the example with the party and the goblins. When the party kills a goblin, the party gains an entire creature's worth of actions in the net economy.
It doesn't have to be a full kill for you to gain advantages, though, and it's important to often consider the value in taking away small pieces of action economy from opponents. This can manifest in many ways, but the most prominent ways other than death are crowd-control conditions like prone, dazed, and stunned. When an enemy is afflicted with one of those conditions, they're as good as dead in the turn order. It's as though your party has gained an entire creature's worth of advantage.
However, it also doesn't have to be as extreme as wiping one of their turns. Effects that create difficult terrain can be incredible action economy boosters for mages and ranged characters, something I cover more in the handbook on making combat interesting. Increasing the amount of movement an enemy needs to spend closing distance on you can potentially rob a melee opponent of one or more entire turns, just looking at you menacingly and wishing they could fly or shoot lasers from their eyes.
When Action Economy Breaks Down
Alrighty, so: max initiative, recruit an army, buff my allies, debuff my enemies. Is there anything I'm missing? Honestly? I would say no at this point, but it's worth noting that, from a rules-as-written standpoint, the action economy is just as precarious as our real-life economy, on a razor's edge hoping no one realizes it's all fake.
In 3.5, there are hundreds of ways to simply get infinite or functionally infinite actions without much thought or complexity, but those are pretty cheesy methods that 99% of Dungeon Masters are likely to simply respond to with a hurled book or worse. If you're really interested in something so cheesy it'll clog your arteries, look up "Pun-Pun 3.5" and have fun, but I hope this rundown has been informative on how to shift one's mindset on how to maximize their gains in the action economy in 3.5.