Bonus Action Casting Time

Post/Author/DateTimePost
#1

PoJo72

Jul 25, 2014 15:23:38

Some spells have a casting time of 1 bonus action.  Does this mean you can only cast these spells if you already have a bonus action available?  

 

Or does it mean that if you have used your action for something other than spellcasting, you can still cast this spell as a bonus action?

 

 

 

#2

Saelorn

Jul 25, 2014 15:27:02

If something requires you to spend a bonus action, then you can do it without needing to spend your regular action, but you can only do one thing that requires a bonus action in a given turn.

 

In essence, you always have a bonus action available on your turn, unless you have already spent it on something else.

#3

PoJo72

Jul 25, 2014 15:58:07

I see.  I was thinking that you had to be granted a bonus action by a spell or something.  I must have read something wrong.

 

#4

Saelorn

Jul 25, 2014 17:30:29

Yeah, they worded it kind of strangely. Everyone has the opportunity to spend a bonus action on their turn, as long as they have something to do with it. For many characters, the only thing they can do with it is to make an off-hand weapon attack while wielding two weapons.

#5

Ashrym

Jul 25, 2014 18:18:15

 

There is also a stipulation that casting a spell as a bonus action cannot be done in the same turn as another spell unless it's a cantrip with a casting time of 1 action.   Page 79 of the basic rules.

#6

lawrencehoy

Jul 25, 2014 21:03:33

The thing I noticed is that the rules states you must cast the spell as a bonus action, if you haven't used a bonus action already.

 

Does this mean you can't cast those spells if you have used your bonus action for the round? Or just that you then have to use a regular action to cast those spells.

(Reply to #6)

Overpromises

I don’t see anything stating that a bonus action can be performed using a regular action instead.

 

How often would it come up that somebody wanted two bonus actions and no actions? The intent is clearly for regular actions to be better than bonus actions.

(Reply to #7)

Be3Al2

Overpromises wrote:
(Reply to #8)

Shiroiken

Be3Al2 wrote: