D&D (2024) Mike Mearls “…it’s now obvious how to live without Bonus Actions”' And 6th Edition When Players Ask

With all due respect to Mike Mearls, he is wrong. The action economy in 5th Edition is beautifully designed, and I wouldn't change a thing about it.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

We're not even 3 years into and so far WotC have released a 1-2 player focused books (depends if you count Volo's as a player or a DM book) outside of the PHB.

With that in mind, I'd much prefer if Mearls didn't start making 6E comments just yet. I know he didn't say 6E is coming, but there wasn't even a need to mention it.

 

[Zardnaar]

You don't really need the bonus/minor actions in D&D and it basically complicates the game.

 

[Fandabidozi]

This is what house rules are for. No new edition WotC!

 

[machineelf]

Bonus actions work fine, and I don't like his initiative system proposal. There are some things that can be improved, but these are not them.

 

[machineelf]

You don't really need the bonus/minor actions in D&D and it basically complicates the game.

Sure it complicates the game. Having magic in the game as opposed to just martial fighting complicates the game. The question is, "what's the right balance of complication?"

Bonus/minor actions allow you to not waste a whole action on something that shouldn't take that long. They give more space in the rules to allow classes to do more interesting things and combos of things. I'm willing to listen to any suggestions, but I'm worried taking out bonus actions would remove too many interesting options.

 

[Dausuul]

Thanks, at least it has context now, other then jumbled text with red letters...

Right, it's a Twitter conversation. That means it's jumbled text with black letters.

(Seriously, I cannot fathom how anyone can bear to follow anything on Twitter. I am deeply grateful to y'all who follow Mearls and repost his stuff here, because otherwise I'd never know about it.)

Bonus actions don't necessarily have to be eliminated, but they are massively overused. If I were in charge of overhauling 5E, I would make a list of all the bonus actions, and think hard about whether each one really needs to be a bonus action or whether it could be reworked to be part of a standard action, or not an action at all.

Two-weapon fighting is the poster child for bonus actions gone wrong. It could be trivially merged into the regular Attack action (if you have two weapons, when you make the Attack action, you can attack once with the off hand), and having it as a bonus action is a major penalty for dual wielders. That one would definitely go.

Bonus action spells would be trickier, though. Those might have to stay.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I guess the college of swords blade flourish is some kind of playtest for that. And I do like it. I even like it competing with TWF. (Until level 6 but that is a different problem). It has about the same effect as TWF competing with cunning action. A little bit more limited but still ok.
If the rogue had a special attack that allows him to disengage dash or hide again it would still work well.

 

[Leatherhead]

The action economy is complicated. But that's mostly because it's obfuscated with Natural Language.

Bonus Actions are a good game-play element, at their core. The concept of being able to do something important on your turn and still attack is a good idea. It's just that some of the auxiliary mechanics attached to them are lacking (yes, everyone is looking at you, Two-Weapon fighting). It may be a better idea if Bonus Actions ever granted attacks to start with, but it's a bit late for that.

 

[Yazgan]

there is no need for a 6th edition right now.

 

[Kor]

With all due respect to Mike Mearls, he is wrong. The action economy in 5th Edition is beautifully designed, and I wouldn't change a thing about it.

Indeed he is wrong... in fact I would greatly disagree with everything he has suggested lately. His Initiative system is a ridiculous idea -- taking us back in time where we have to pre-declare actions. 6th Edition? No... 5th is working perfectly fine thanks (with a little room for tweaking here or there). Bonus actions are also working fine. Maybe its time for Mike to retire because he has clearly lost touch with what makes the game great again.