Yakk
2021-05-10, 09:45 AM
This houserule attempts to untangle the bonus action rules of 5e. I find they confuse less adept players with not that much benefit.
So I'm removing most restrictions, except a few cases where things are easy to abuse.
Bonus Action Unlimited
Various feats, features and spells grant the ability to take bonus actions. On your turn you can do as many bonus actions as you want, with certain limits. You can do a bonus action at any time on your turn, as limited by the feature that grants you the ability to do the bonus action.
Only one of your bonus actions can grant an attack, and for each class feature or feat you can only do one bonus action granted by it. So a Rogue's Cunning Action permits the Rogue to Dash or Disengage as a bonus action on their turn, not both, but it does not interfere with other Bonus Actions like two weapon fighting.
Bonus actions granted by all spells count as being granted by the same feature for this purpose; so only one bonus action granted by spells on a given turn, even if you have 2 spells that both let you take a bonus action for some purpose.
As an additional rule change, the rules for Bonus Action spells are replaced with: You can only cast 1 spell with a level of 1 or greater on a given turn.
This replaces the complex and confusing rules around bonus action spellcasting.
So you cannot cast a bonus action healing word and a cure wounds spell on the same turn. You also cannot counterspell a counterspell of your fireball, because that would be two spells of level 1 or greater on a turn.
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How badly does this simplification of bonus actions break D&D?
There are a bunch of classes where the bonus action gets clogged up, the simplest and most well known of which is the two weapon fighting ranger. This attempts to unclog it without opening up any serious exploits.
To get a pile of bonus actions chained, you probably have to be high level and/or be multiclassed. Like, a Sorcerer 3/AT 3/Bladesinger 6 who can on one turn:
1) Quicken flaming sphere *
2) Enter bladesong *
3) Cantrip and attack (bladesinger 6)
4) Two weapon fight *
5) Dash/Disengage OR use Mage Hand *
6) Ram a target with flaming sphere *
5/6 of which are bonus actions. Note that the mage hand bonus action refers back to cunning action, so you can't do both.
So I'm removing most restrictions, except a few cases where things are easy to abuse.
Bonus Action Unlimited
Various feats, features and spells grant the ability to take bonus actions. On your turn you can do as many bonus actions as you want, with certain limits. You can do a bonus action at any time on your turn, as limited by the feature that grants you the ability to do the bonus action.
Only one of your bonus actions can grant an attack, and for each class feature or feat you can only do one bonus action granted by it. So a Rogue's Cunning Action permits the Rogue to Dash or Disengage as a bonus action on their turn, not both, but it does not interfere with other Bonus Actions like two weapon fighting.
Bonus actions granted by all spells count as being granted by the same feature for this purpose; so only one bonus action granted by spells on a given turn, even if you have 2 spells that both let you take a bonus action for some purpose.
As an additional rule change, the rules for Bonus Action spells are replaced with: You can only cast 1 spell with a level of 1 or greater on a given turn.
This replaces the complex and confusing rules around bonus action spellcasting.
So you cannot cast a bonus action healing word and a cure wounds spell on the same turn. You also cannot counterspell a counterspell of your fireball, because that would be two spells of level 1 or greater on a turn.
---
How badly does this simplification of bonus actions break D&D?
There are a bunch of classes where the bonus action gets clogged up, the simplest and most well known of which is the two weapon fighting ranger. This attempts to unclog it without opening up any serious exploits.
To get a pile of bonus actions chained, you probably have to be high level and/or be multiclassed. Like, a Sorcerer 3/AT 3/Bladesinger 6 who can on one turn:
1) Quicken flaming sphere *
2) Enter bladesong *
3) Cantrip and attack (bladesinger 6)
4) Two weapon fight *
5) Dash/Disengage OR use Mage Hand *
6) Ram a target with flaming sphere *
5/6 of which are bonus actions. Note that the mage hand bonus action refers back to cunning action, so you can't do both.