What is action Economy and why is it important? You won't find action economy listed in any of the books as it is a term that has come about by players and GMs when discussing what PCs, Monsters & NPCs can do on their turn.
The more things you can do, the more likely you are to be successful at winning the fight. Creatures with a "large action economy" can do more, and likewise creatures with a "small action economy" can do less. Essentially it isn't just what you can do, but everything you can do on each of your turns.
I'm going to give an overview of what the standard options are for players and then go into detail after about specific common abilities across the classes.
First is your Standard or Basic Action. This is a list of the most common standard actions.
Attack Action: You make a melee or ranged attack.
Cast a Spell: The spells you have will tell you if you can cast it as an action, reaction or bonus action.
Dash: Effectively just doubling your total movement after any modifiers are made.
Disengage: This action allows you to not provoke attacks of opportunity for the rest of your turn as you move.
Dodge Action: You focus on avoiding being hit at all costs. Your foes have disadvantage to hit you and you can roll dexterity saving throws with advantage.
Help: This action actually has a couple of options to it that have to be stated when taken.
- You can assist another character in some task they are attempting to perform giving that creature advantage on the next check. (IE I help the mage lift the heavy beam off the shopkeepers legs, so they can escape.)
- You can help an ally attack an enemy within five feet of you by being a distraction. The next attack that ally takes will have advantage. (IE I run up and wave my torch at the monster to draw its attention.)
- NOTE: In both cases the person making the check or the attack has to do so prior to your next turn in order to receive the benefits of the Help action.
Ready: Readying an action is effectively setting up a When This Then That move. Essentially you hold off on doing anything else and wait for a specific thing to occur, this triggers your reaction to unleash what you readied as an action. (IE I'm going to wait for the first monster to come through the door and then hit them with my mace.)
It is important to note that when the thing that triggers the readied action happens you don't have to take the action. So in the previous example of readying an action, lets say the PC expected an orc mercenary to come through the door, and instead an elf child comes through first. The PC has the option to not hit the child with the mace.
Search: Effectively looking for something. Depending on the circumstance the DM may have you make a skill check (IE Investigation, Nature/Tracking, Perception Check, etc.)
Use an Object: Certain objects will require an action to use or activate. Reaching into a bag of holding to pull out an item for example would fall under using an object. Typically items will indicate if you need to spend an action to use or activate them in the description.
In addition to Basic or Standard Actions, you also have one Simple Object Manipulation or Simple Interactions on your turn. For example it doesn't cost you an action to draw your weapon. This is assumed to be part of an attack action. But opening a door or blowing out a candle would be considered a simple interaction.
In addition to those you also have Bonus Actions:
Cast a Spell: The spells you have will tell you if you can cast it as a bonus action.
Feature: Use a feature that calls for a bonus action. Typically these are granted to you via your class, such as the Cunning Actions given to Rogues.
Off Hand Attack: Use the attack action if dual-wielding, you can also throw the weapon. For the Off Hand Attack, you do not add your ability modifier to the damage unless that modifier is negative.
Last but not least you have your Reaction:
Reactions are abilities, spells or moves that are responses to a trigger of some kind. These can occur either on your turn or on someone else's turn. When you take a reaction, you can't take another until the start of your next turn.
Common Reactions are:
Cast a Spell: The spells you have will tell you if you can cast it as a reaction. (For example Coutnerspell)
Feature: Use a feature that calls for a reaction.
Opportunity Attack: Take an Attack Action when a creature moves out of an area you threaten. Note that this doesn't apply if the creature took the Disengage action, or if they teleported, or when something moves you without using your movement, action or reaction. For example if you are knocked back out of the enemies range this doesn't provoke an attack of opportunity.
Readied Action (If condition is met): If, on your turn you used the Ready Action and the condition to trigger the action was met, then unleashing the readied action would be considered a Bonus Action.
It is also worth mentioning that Movement is also significant in how things play out in combat.
While not part of the Action Economy itself, your characters movement is also a significant part of your turn. Especially if you are focused on melee combat. Movement uses your speed and can be broke up in any number of segments on your turn. This will be covered in another blog.
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