D&D General Redesigning DnD 5e with no Bonus Actions

[TheRottenPixie]

Mike Mearls declared that Bonus Actions in 5e were “hot garbage,” apparently he doesn’t use them in his game.

Mike Mearls (@mearls.bsky.social)

Bonus actions are hot garbage that completely fail to fulfill their intended goal. It's OK for me to say this because I was the one that came up with them. I'm not slamming any other designer!

bsky.app

Just as a fun thought experiment: how would you redesign 5e so it didn’t have Bonus Actions?

Edit: updated the link to the direct source
Edit 2: updated again to the blue sky link cause I don’t like X

 

[Seramus]

Transform it into some kind of three action economy system.

 

[Stormonu]

Mike Mearls is wrong.

 

[TheRottenPixie]

Transform it into some kind of three action economy system.

Lol! I’ve only read Pathfinder 2e, haven’t had the chance to play it yet. I do think a 3 action system could definitely work for current 5e.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Mike Mearls is wrong.

The first playtest of dndnext had what mearls suggested: the war cleric dwarf could cast a spell and attack with one action.

I do agree with mearls. Some playtest packets had no bonus actions. And they were not worse. And many multi attacks were combined in a single attack. I am a bit sad that this did not went through. But I guess that was too much for a game called d&d. People just like juggling around actions and attack more than once in a single turn.

 

[TheRottenPixie]

Mike Mearls is wrong.

Curious to hear more why he’s off base on this. Bonus Actions have tripped up my newer players, but it’s usually figured out eventually.

 

[TheRottenPixie]

The first playtest of dndnext had what mearls suggested: the war cleric dwarf could cast a spell and attack with one action.

I do agree with mearls. Some playtest packets had no bonus actions. And they were not worse. And many multi attacks were combined in a single attack. I am a bit sad that this did not went through. But I guess that was too much for a game called d&d. People just like juggling around actions and attack more than once in a single turn.

My very first edition of dnd was 4e long after its death, so what you and Mearls are describing sounds great to me. Are those old playtests still around anywhere?

 

[Retreater]

I was just thinking about this. I'm considering just bundling them with the regular action, like if they're essential to work for the character. Like a monk can just spend their ki point to do flurry.
Bonus action spells are just regular "action" spells.
I think it would work fine.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Bonus actions are just bloat. His whole thread is about bloat added to D&D for reasons (Like tons on HP).

 

[CreamCloud0]

i would take out bonus actions, and then i'd add a new action to the game called a 'lesser action' which is similar to a standard action but which only a certain set of abilities and spells can be used with it.