Mistwell
Crusty Old Meatwad
It’s the scope. In combat they are limited. Out of combat they never run out.
Like has already been said. All spells require and action, reaction or bonus action to cast. IF you don’t get actions out of combat you can’t cast any spells out of combat. Is that really what you believe?
What I believe is it's a meaningless term out of combat. No DM asks you to spend an action, and no player need say they are spending an action, out of combat (or I should say out of combat or those rare situations where fast action is relevant).
But you know darn well it's a very limited resource for a large portion of this game. What even is your point in arguing it's not? I mean, NOTHING in the game is a limited resource if we cannot even talk about actions being a limited resource. Why would you view spell slots as a limited resource in that context? You get as many spell slots as you want, if days are not an issue, right? Much like you get as many actions as you want, if rounds are not an issue. Where are you going with this argument that actions are not a limited resource?