D&D 5E Deleting Bonus Actions

[fearsomepirate]

Edit: I will be updating this post based on feedback down-thread.

Mike Mearls is right. They suck. 5e ended up having a pretty similar action economy to 4e, which results in obnoxious things like Rangers being gimped if they chose a two-weapon fighting style. Another thing I've noticed is that players without obvious bonus action choices will hunt through their character sheet to find something to do so they don't feel like they're wasting their action economy. I don't think it's really hard to remove bonus actions from 5e. They can all be fixed in a fairly straightforward way. With the exception of spells, most things could just be done, or "once on your turn." Here are my proposed fixes (which are really just here to argue about, nobody at WotC cares what I say):

Bonus action spells: I think the entire bonus action concept should be collapsed into a special case of instantaneous spells. So, I'd change the Casting Time section:

Instantaneous Casting: A spell with an instantaneous casting time is especially swift. You can cast the spell without using your action, provided that you haven't already cast an instantaneous spell this turn.

Quickened Spell. When you cast a spell that has a casting time of 1 action, you can spend 2 sorcery points to gain a second action. If you cast a spell with this second action, that spell must be a cantrip.

Two Weapon Fighting: Once on your turn, when you take the Attack Action and make an attack with a light melee weapon that you’re holding in one hand, you can make an additional attack with a different light melee weapon that you’re holding in the other hand.

Fighter Second Wind: The Fighter can just do this on his turn now.

Barbarian Rage: Yes, Barbarians can just get mad, they don't need a special action. "I'm mad now!" Congratulations!

Berzerker Frenzy Attack: Once on your turn, you may make a single additional melee weapon attack in addition to your normal Action.

Ranger Beast Master Commands: Just do them. You'll be fine.

Cunning Action (Rogue): "Once on each of your turns you may either Dash, Disengage, or Hide without using your Action."

Channel Divinity, Warlock patron...channel...like...things: Any of them that are bonus actions, you can now just do. You'll be fine.

Crossbow Expert: delete the extra attack, it was dumb anyway.

What about multiclass munchkinism: Genuinely don't care. Multiclassing is lame.

 

[Rabulias]

Doesn't all that just keep bonus actions without calling them bonus actions? Characters with bonus actions can still do all those things (and as you point out, rogues can try twice for sneak attack damage and then dance away without consequence). Characters without bonus actions still get nothing. If players looking on their sheet for bonus actions is what bugs you, just say that looking at your sheet without describing something your character is doing for more than 20 seconds is code for "my turn is done."

 

[BookTenTiger]

I agree with @Rabulias that your house rule just replaces one kind of bonus action with another.

In my own game, I added a Bonus Action Knowledge Check (kind of like in 4e). When a character doesn't have a good bonus action to take, the player often chooses a knowledge check.

I think Bonus Actions really differentiate the different classes. My 9th level Wizard has very few bonus actions, other than when he casts Expeditious Retreat. The Rogue, on the other hand, uses a Bonus Action every round. I think your players will get used to their Bonus Actions and stop hunting around.

 

[Don Durito]

The reason these house rules are better is they avoid most of the action economy annoyances.

Like if the Fighter wants to Second Wind and then do a Shield Bash with Shield Master, but forgets that Second Wind requires a bonus action.

It increases the learning curve to little real purpose as so many abilities are on some kind of rest economy anyway.

 

[billd91]

Yeah, I too have to agree with Rabulias here. Unless you’re letting them d9 each one once per turn, you’re really just recreating the same basic mechanic.
That doesn’t mean, for example, that some things that are bonus actions couldn’t be folded into the main action. Attacking with a second weapon in the off hand comes to mind as an example of one that could be made part of the attack action.

 

[billd91]

The reason these house rules are better is they avoid most of the action economy annoyances.

Like if the Fighter wants to Second Wind and then do a Shield Bash with Shield Master, but forgets that Second Wind requires a bonus action.

The only real annoyance here is trying to get two bonuses in a round above and beyond your normal action. Because a character can shove an opponent as part of their attack option without shield master - it just costs them an attack rather than a bonus action.
Frankly, I think the game should force characters to make choices, not just enable not having to make any.

 

[Xeviat]

You can also make bonus action abilities an action and then stipulate that you can also do something else at the same time.

Two-weapon fighting allows you to make your regular attacks and an extra offhand. Healing word allows you to heal someone and then take an action ... its the same thing but it smooths out the thoughts.

 

[DEFCON 1]

From what I've seen talked about here in the past... it's merely having Two-Weapon Fighting take a Bonus action that has bunched everything up. So if you merely say your Attack action allows you to attack once with each weapon you have in each hand (not including extra attacks you gain from Extra Attack, Haste, etc.) rather than using a Bonus action for the off-hand attack... the rest of your Bonus action issues should fall away. Because there aren't a tremendous amount of other Bonus action actions out there.

As far as your characters searching through their sheets for Bonus actions to do... that's all just on your table to agree to write down on your character sheets any Bonus actions they have available. That way they don't have to hunt for anything. That's actually one of the nice things I've found about using D&D Beyond... they have tabs on the character sheet that separate out all the different actions: All / Attack / Action / Bonus Action / Reaction / Other. So if you want to know if you have any Bonus actions, you just click the tab and it'll show you any and all that your particular PC has coming to them-- and more often than not it'll just say 'Actions In Combat: Two Weapon Fighting'.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

I think it would be a nice idea to try out.

I dont really mind classes being able to do many things in their turn.
A fighter wants to Second Wind then Shove with Shieldmaster? 1) its not ''too strong'' and 2) it already has a cost, so its not like this will lead to using 3-4 features every turn all day long.

 

[commandercrud]

People are going to fret over their "action economy" no matter what you call the choices. Bonus action, free action, whatever, it doesn't matter. Some players just be like that.

To really get rid of it, just allow one thing. One and only one damn thing on your turn. No bonus action, no free action, nothing. One thing and then your turn is over.