Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Ipecac Feb 17, 2015 3:48:42	Hey guys,   A PC in my campaign has just leveled his monk to level 3 and taken "water-whip" as his elemental dicipline. I told him that he could use the bonus action to pull an opponent close and then use his attack to hit him.  Is this an okay thing to do, or does the bonus action have to come after the attack?
#2 Macv12 Feb 17, 2015 4:22:14	As per the Bonus Actions section on PHB 189, you can take a bonus action any time during your turn. With Water Whip, you don't even have to make an attack to use it, so there's no reason it can't be used before or after it.
#3 Talreign Feb 17, 2015 11:43:02	You can take anything as a Bonus Action at any order in your sequence as long as it doesn't specify that the Bonus Action has to follow something else, like it does in two-weapon fighting, or the monk's flurry of blows, where these bonus actions must follow the entire attack sequence (for two-weapon) or at least one attack (for flurry of blows). Although in the case of flurry of blows, it specifies "attack action," but not that you actually have to conclude an attack before you can make the bonus action... Meaning it might be that you can declare an attack, and then flurry before the first attack.   tl;dr Check to see what bonus action is specified. In the case of the Last Avatar's water whip, it specifically says "You can use a bonus action to...", and doesn't specify that something has to precede the bonus action before you can take it. In 5e, you can use actions in any order, attack -> move -> bonus, or combination of the three, unless the bonus action you're attempting to make specifies an order.