Can I take a second bonus action in place of my action during a round?

[CapnZapp]

Generally, being able to spend your action on a bonus action would be balanced, since it's almost always (or "always always") a downgrade.

In combat, for instance - sure, spend your action to hex or mark an enemy and pay the huge cost of not actually attacking.

But that's not what the OP is fishing for...:

Let's say I'm a Hexblade, and I have one round to cast support spells before the enemy is within reach. Ideally I want to cast hex on an enemy and then use Hexblade's Curse on that enemy. The issue is that both of those are bonus actions, and I'm not sure whether you can use your action to do something that should take a bonus action. It would make sense if you could, but I've not seen any rules that confirm or deny that.

This applies similarly to Oath of Vengeance Paladins who want to Vow of Enmity+Hunter's mark on the first round, since those are also both bonus actions.

In this case, combat hasn't yet started, and so the value of your action is much lesser.

In this case it's clear that what the OP wants to do is to perform two rounds of buffing in just one round.

But (one of) the main idea(s) of having bonus actions is that you can only do one per round. This allows you to designate something you should only be able to do once per six seconds as a bonus action, even though you don't want to make it cost your real action.

So, my answer remains no, that's not allowed by the rules. And it's not that it makes sense either - what makes sense is that you're only supposed to pull off one "something extra" per round. The fact you don't have a use for your normal action is irrelevant. I suggest that each round you're not actively doing something with your action, what you're really doing is actively making a Perception check to look out for danger.

If you allow it as a house rule is another matter. Sure it allows better/faster buffing in these specific circumstances, but it's hardly broken or anything. But be aware having "an unspent action" is a purely mechanical construct, because in "reality" you never don't use your action - it's much better if you always are considered to spend your action on something, even if that is Dodge or Percept or something "passive".

 

[Harzel]

In this case, combat hasn't yet started, and so the value of your action is much lesser.

Erm, if they're casting hex how can combat not have started?

 

[jaelis]

Yes, outside of combat I would not be tracking actions that finely anyway. But you could cast hex out of combat, that can be quite effective in a social situation. But whether it takes a bonus action or an action seems pretty irrelevant.

 

[Ancalagon]

Well that was very concise

Brevity is the soul of wit.

 

[CapnZapp]

Erm, if they're casting hex how can combat not have started?

Ask the OP.

 

[Warmaster Horus]

By RAW, no. I like it this way as it makes your special abilities take a little bit to truly spin up.

 

[Gavin O.]

Erm, if they're casting hex how can combat not have started?

Combat has started, but you're more that 30 feet away from the enemy, which means even if you use all your movement you can't reach them and thus can't make a melee attack this turn, so instead you want to cast hex and activate hexblade's curse which both have long range.

 

[epithet]

There are two kinds of ability a character can use as a bonus action. One requires a specific thing to be done as an action, for example to use Two Weapon Fighting requires that you take the Attack Action. The other is just a thing that takes less than a full action, like granting Bardic Inspiration or casting healing word. The latter category might be thought of as a "swift action" by people who spent some time with Pathfinder. While I would generally limit those "swift actions" to once per turn each, I think it would foolish in the extreme to say that you couldn't use a "standard action" to perform a "swift action."

It is not unlike the "Interacting with Objects Around You" rule--you can interact with an object as part of your movement and action, but the rule specifies that you can also just do so as a action by itself. You don't need to run around in a circle swinging your sword in order to open the door.

Use common sense. Some folks will tell you that if there isn't a rule that specifically says you can do a thing, then you can't do that thing. I'm telling you that's a load of crap. Your job as DM includes providing coherent rulings for things that aren't specified in the rules, or even contemplated by the game designers. If you get hung up on silly things like whether the rules "allow" a character to use a full action to do something that specifies that it takes a shorter, faster bonus action, then you're gonna have a difficult time doing that job. By the way, the rules don't allow anything--they offer guidelines to the DM, who makes the ruling on whether a thing can be done and how hard it will be to do it.

 

[Harzel]

Ask the OP.

The OP did not say that combat had not started. And they have now confirmed that that is not what they meant.

 

[Harzel]

Yes, outside of combat I would not be tracking actions that finely anyway. But you could cast hex out of combat, that can be quite effective in a social situation. But whether it takes a bonus action or an action seems pretty irrelevant.

Interesting. It would not have occurred to me that one could cast hex "out of combat", since I would have considered casting hex to be in the same class of actions as shooting an arrow at someone, that is, if something else hadn't already started combat, that would certainly do it. OTOH there certainly are spells that are at least potentially detrimental, such as charm person, that I would not assume initiate combat. I guess I hadn't thought very hard about where to draw the line.

I guess if you assume that the target of spells like hex and bestow curse does not know they are being debuffed, then maybe they would not initiate combat.

Is there a rule or Sage Advice on this that I have overlooked?