What Mechanical Effects Cause Action Economy

[Stonehead]

The comparison should be 5 enemies at 16% of total hps left each vs 1 enemy at 96% of total hps for an AoE. Which makes picking off the enemies with single target damage at 16% of total damage required much easier to knock out 20% of their outgoing damage much easier, instead of needing to do 96% to reduce it all the way to 0. On top of the fact that the single AoE did 20% of total damage required instead of only 4%.

Simple example would be 5* 100hp instead of 1*500 hp, with a 20pt AoE. That leaves you with 5*80hp vs 1*480hp.

(Hit points don't actually scale that way of course, since they're counterbalanced by other action economy factors.)

No yeah, I just mean that you can't both deal your aoe damage to all the enemies, and reduce their action economy by taking some of them out early. I guess in practice you'd probably take out the wizard before you take out the fighter but still, I thought it was kind of interesting.

Also, if we're comparing fighting 1 enemy to fighting 5, I think creatures typically have a single-target attack that deals more damage than their AoE, although, admittedly not typically five times stronger.