Relaying can improve performance of a wireless network, especially when transmission modes with different distance/cost tradeoffs are available. Examples of such modes include data rates or transmission power. This paper geometrically analyzes the probability that a high-cost direct transmission can be replaced by a combination of low-cost relay transmissions. The main result of the analysis is a technology-agnostic characterization of a communication systems amenability to relaying strategies and some recommendations for how to structure such systems