Greywander
2022-10-04, 11:22 AM
So in 5e, action economy is a major limiter. That, combined with bounded accuracy, allows hordes of weak monsters to still present a threat to high level PCs. Things like Action Surge exist that allow you to break the normal action economy, but the most common ability that bends the action economy is Extra Attack. Extra Attack doesn't directly allow multiple actions, but it does take the most common action and allow you to do it more than once in a single turn. In practice, it will be the same as if you had multiple actions as you would just use those actions to attack, but this restriction prevents you from breaking the game by doing other actions, e.g. casting multiple spells.
In other words, Extra Attack is a compromise that kinda sorta lets you take multiple actions but not really. It's the closest you can get without destroying the game's balance.
For a big overhaul I'm working on, I thought it would be interesting to experiment with giving players (and monsters!) extra bonus actions at higher levels. However, I added the restriction that each bonus action can only be taken once per turn, which should force players to make fuller use of the variety of bonus actions available to them instead of just spamming the best one. Every class, and even every race, will give you things to use your bonus actions on. While your actions are used to make big attacks or cast big spells, bonus actions would be used for more niche tactical purposes, like dashing, drinking a potion, deploying caltrops, investigating your surroundings, etc. To compensate, object interactions are no longer free, using a bonus action instead, but not limited to once per turn unlike other bonus actions.
So of the trifecta of action, bonus action, reaction, the only one that hasn't been touched yet is reactions. But wouldn't it make sense for experienced adventurers to have better reflexes? I feel like reactions are more valuable than bonus actions, though, so I can't give them out as freely.
Currently in my overhaul, all characters get both Extra Attack and extra bonus actions. (Fighters get the ability to attack as a bonus action, since Extra Attack is no longer a class feature.) Characters will alternate between getting another attack and another bonus action every time they advance a tier, with each tier being exactly four levels. This means a 20th level character will have three attacks and three bonus actions. I'm not even sure where I'd fit extra reactions in, but I feel like one additional reaction by level 20 would be appropriate. But I'd also kind of like the symmetry of getting three of everything.
When/where/how would be the best way to fit additional reactions in, and what are some restrictions I could put on them? Perhaps instead of just getting everything, you should get points to divvy up between them (maybe include cantrip/spell scaling as an option, too), but would that mean that all three (four with spell scaling) would have equal value?
In other words, Extra Attack is a compromise that kinda sorta lets you take multiple actions but not really. It's the closest you can get without destroying the game's balance.
For a big overhaul I'm working on, I thought it would be interesting to experiment with giving players (and monsters!) extra bonus actions at higher levels. However, I added the restriction that each bonus action can only be taken once per turn, which should force players to make fuller use of the variety of bonus actions available to them instead of just spamming the best one. Every class, and even every race, will give you things to use your bonus actions on. While your actions are used to make big attacks or cast big spells, bonus actions would be used for more niche tactical purposes, like dashing, drinking a potion, deploying caltrops, investigating your surroundings, etc. To compensate, object interactions are no longer free, using a bonus action instead, but not limited to once per turn unlike other bonus actions.
So of the trifecta of action, bonus action, reaction, the only one that hasn't been touched yet is reactions. But wouldn't it make sense for experienced adventurers to have better reflexes? I feel like reactions are more valuable than bonus actions, though, so I can't give them out as freely.
Currently in my overhaul, all characters get both Extra Attack and extra bonus actions. (Fighters get the ability to attack as a bonus action, since Extra Attack is no longer a class feature.) Characters will alternate between getting another attack and another bonus action every time they advance a tier, with each tier being exactly four levels. This means a 20th level character will have three attacks and three bonus actions. I'm not even sure where I'd fit extra reactions in, but I feel like one additional reaction by level 20 would be appropriate. But I'd also kind of like the symmetry of getting three of everything.
When/where/how would be the best way to fit additional reactions in, and what are some restrictions I could put on them? Perhaps instead of just getting everything, you should get points to divvy up between them (maybe include cantrip/spell scaling as an option, too), but would that mean that all three (four with spell scaling) would have equal value?