Shield master on twitter

[jaelis]

Sounds like JC has reversed his ruling on the timing of bonus actions:

Clarification about bonus actions: if a feature says you can do X as a bonus action if you do Y, you must do Y before you can do X. For Shield Master, that means the bonus action must come after the Attack action. You decide when it happens afterward that turn.

https://twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/994993596989300736

Of course, everyone should ignore that and play as you like. But I guess it's good to know the official position.

 

[cbwjm]

This is pretty much how I would run bonus actions that rely on another action happening anyway so no changes here.

 

[Mistwell]

That's a very 4e type "Don't rely on the books or sage advice as either can be errata'ed for minor balance reasons at any time" type ruling. Very bad precedent to set.

 

[Gladius Legis]

Yeaaaaaaah ... I'm ignoring that. You don't get to officially rule it one way early on and have everyone play it that way for years, then all of a sudden change it via a tweet.

 

[lkj]

Sounds like it's a change he made a year ago and realized today that he hadn't changed an old tweet on shield master that was contradictory. And while it's annoying, I'd rather if he realizes he made a mistake that he go ahead and let us know. I don't have my books with me, but my impression is that the change makes it more in line with the book wording.

AD

 

[Mistwell]

Sounds like it's a change he made a year ago and realized today that he hadn't changed an old tweet on shield master that was contradictory. And while it's annoying, I'd rather if he realizes he made a mistake that he go ahead and let us know. I don't have my books with me, but my impression is that the change makes it more in line with the book wording.

AD

His stated reason was he felt it was "cheese".
He did not start out saying it was a mistake he said it was a "clarification". As if his prior ruling was somehow "unclear".

This really is the first time I am thinking OK, Crawford is going down that 4e road for minor balance reasons. It leaves me with a sense of mistrust for his decisionmaking now.

 

[lkj]

His stated reason was he felt it was "cheese".
He did not start out saying it was a mistake he said it was a "clarification". As if his prior ruling was somehow "unclear".

This really is the first time I am thinking OK, Crawford is going down that 4e road for minor balance reasons. It leaves me with a sense of mistrust for his decisionmaking now.

I understand what you're saying, and I appreciate why you feel that way. But, for myself, it doesn't seem like a big deal. He does mention 'cheese' in one of his tweets. But it's a response to someone about the feat and not a justification for the change. He's pretty clear that he'd already made the change before he considered shield master (and I'm sure the old tweet is around there somewhere, so I believe him).

I'll agree with you on this though-- I wish he would have avoided using 'clarify', since changing a ruling isn't 'clarifying'. He does say it more clearly in his lat post though:

"In 2017, I changed the ruling on bonus action timing because the old ruling was illogical. The original ruling failed to account for the fact that X relying on Y is a form of timing. The new ruling corrects that oversight."

https://twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/995069135905161216

That makes it pretty clear that he's acknowledging a mistake and calling his own ruling illogical.

Anyway, I don't think it had to do with balance. I think he realized that his ruling kept contradicting the wording in the game and finally decided it was silly to hang on to it.

AD

 

[lkj]

And this tweet sums up his reasoning further:

"Curious why I changed my ruling on bonus actions? When there's a gray area in the rules, I lean on general rules or exceptions to determine a ruling. My original ruling relied on the general rule, but over time, the weight of the exceptions swayed me to a more logical ruling"

https://twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/995016512497840134

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[Bardbarian]

This changes everything! Now DMs will have to decide whether or not to use Sage Advice rulings when running their own games.

 

[Jester David]

The tweet is how I would rule it. That’s the natural language.
If X then Y, means X comes first. If you take the Attack action, you can do something as a bonus action. That means the action comes first.