Opportunity Cost

In the last section we discussed the use and importance of actions in combat.  In this part we will focus on and discuss the actual value of individual actions and how this knowledge benefits the group.

The value of any given action versus another action is referred to as opportunity cost.  Nearly all actions have an associated opportunity cost with them such as the inability to take a move action or standard action after performing a full attack action or the inability to use a swift action on the turn following the use of an immediate action.

Understanding what each action costs allows us to make informed decisions that make the most out of each characters turn.  Through this we get effective actions which can turn the tide of battle in our favor every time.

Three factors go into the value of an action; character build, character role, and group strategy.

Character Costs

The first determining factor in calculating an action’s opportunity cost is the character’s actual build.  That is, the combination of race, class, and feat choices that encompass everything a character can mechanically accomplish.

It’s impossible to entirely quantify what any individual costs can mean for characters.  The game is simply too big with too much variety even among heavily optimized characters.

However you can make some good guesses while creating and leveling a character to ensure that you do not run into the dilemma of having to debate between abilities that cost the same action or otherwise limit the amount of effective actions you can take.

Start by looking over the main features of the class, you usually get these within the first three levels and these continue to grow in efficiency and power over the course of the game.  These features tend to be ones that you want to use all the time and thus you need to consider their use in how they affect your overall strategy.

As a brief example consider the Magus’s arcane pool ability. As a swift action it allows you to spend a point to enhance your weapon with enhancement bonuses or weapon enhancements based on your level.  As a class expected to wade into melee with ¾ BAB and hit with their chosen weapon it’s obvious that this ability is an important tool in the growth of a character who uses this class. Looking at the level three ability, the Arcanas, it’s easy to see that very useful and important options for this ability like arcane accuracy, and hasted assault all devour a magus’s swift actions.

From this we can determine that taking a feat such as Arcane Strike, while seeming a natural fit for us, is actually a waste of a feat.  Since we will more often than not be spending swift actions activating various arcanas, arcane pool, and possibly even using it for other magus abilities it’s actually better for us to consider alternate means of improving our damage such as power attack, weapon specialization, empower spell, and other such feats.

As another example of opportunity cost considerations in the early levels consider the barbarian rage ability.  While being a free action that costs essentially nothing in and of itself the ability prevents you from taking certain actions.  Namely, it prevents spell casting, abilities that require concentration, and a number of skills.  Therefore, a barbarian will try to make minimal use of such abilities and focus instead on abilities that can be used in a rage.

Understanding interactions between a characters abilities helps us make good decisions with our actions.  Knowing the conflicts and synergies allows us to craft our turns into sensible actions.

Character Role

Forge strategy calls for each member of the group to take on one or more roles during combat.  These roles help shape our individual goals.  Anvils want to control the pace of the fight, hammers want to end the fight, and arms want to enable the other two so knowing our role and how our abilities play into that role is key to making sure we don’t make too many bad decisions over the course of a tough fight.

For many this will be easy. Barbarians, for example, have few abilities that allow them the luxury of being an anvil or an arm so they easily fit into the role of a hammer.  So, few decisions they make with their abilities in a fight will be bad ones as they all tend towards dealing damage or making it easier to deal damage.

However, forge strategy does not suggest concrete roles for every character.  Characters that switch roles depending on the changing situation often find that decisions can be difficult in part because for the variety of options they have available to them as well as the necessity of learning how to read a combat to determine what role you should be taking.  Fueling the Forge goes into depth about the phases of a combat and is suggested reading for any player whose character often takes multiple roles in a group.

Group Strategy

The final determining factor in finding out an actions value is the overall strategy a group employs in combat.  If a group is particularly savvy with the system an overall strategy can be easily found and worked with to ensure success.  If not then not only is it difficult to win encounters efficiently but it’s hard for individual characters to craft their abilities and their actions in a way that best synergizes within the group paradigm.

Take for consideration the popularity of such spells as haste, enlarge person, and, fog cloud. Most newer players who have done little more than read guides without understanding the context will believe that these spells are good ideas at all times, regardless of what the group wants to do.  Enlarge person is rarely useful in a group that employs lots of ranged tactics and summoned monsters to pin down and eliminate threats.  Likewise haste only provides a moderate to weak bonus to characters that rely heavily on mounted charges and spell casting.

Individual actions should do everything to not only provide an effect on the enemy or to support your allies but also to prevent them from losing out on potential actions caused by your own poorly thought out actions.  It’s important to take other party members into consideration whenever you take an action.  Can you move to allow an easier flank for an ally?  Can an ability you possess allow your party’s hammer to succeed against a tough opponent?  Is your positioning compromising another characters ability to do their job?  Such decisions can only come with experience and often honest discussions about each individual’s needs and expectations from the group.

Actions on the Field

The last thing to note regarding opportunity cost is that even considering in all three of the aforementioned factors not every combat will be so clean as to find a concrete value on every possible action.  Dice rolls, unknown variables, individual game master quirks, and other vague, random factors can dramatically alter the value of an action.  In the next article we’ll discuss risk assessment and how they alter the way we value actions.