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

[Marc Radle]

I always kind of liked Pathfinder’s (and if memory serves, Third Edition D&D) attack actions and move actions …

 

[Christian Hoffer]

Linking to a site that laid off their star D&D journalist and stole his YouTube page so they could hire some marginally cheaper writers is bad form.

 

[briggart]

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.

It's not the first time Mearls expresses his distaste for Bonus Actions. I think already in an AMA several years ago he said he would get rid of them.

My understanding of his complaints is that he and the other designers assumed Bonus Actions would be used sparingly, so to not add significant complexity/time to the typical turn. In practice, enough classes/feats/spells provide BA options that they are a regular part of every turn.

So there's nothing wrong with the BA mechanic in itself, it's just that the designers failed to understand how it would affect actual play.

There were some other complaints to specific BA (e.g. bonus action spells), but then again those boil down to poor implementation rather than an actual issue with BA.

 

[SteveC]

I like Pathfinder's three actions (and imagine Will Smith saying, "What is this, some sort of three-action system?")

Beyond that, I have been playing with Mythcraft's Action Point system. You receive a number of APs on your turn, and can use any you don't spend as reactions. It's more complex but I like what I see so far.

 

[TheRottenPixie]

Linking to a site that laid off their star D&D journalist and stole his YouTube page so they could hire some marginally cheaper writers is bad form.

My apologies I was unaware of that. Will get a different link.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Here’s Mike’s thread on Bluesky.

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

 

[TheRottenPixie]

Here’s Mike’s thread on Bluesky.

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

Thank you!

 

[Christian Hoffer]

My apologies I was unaware of that. Will get a different link.

You're fine! (I'm the star D&D writer who I was referencing )

 

[TheRottenPixie]

You're fine! (I'm the star D&D writer who I was referencing )

Lol! Yeah I looked you up, sorry to hear that happened to you btw. Hope you’re off to bigger and better things!

 

[billd91]

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

The problem with looking at bonus actions as bloat is the alternative - potential bloat in the kind of distinct actions individual classes can take or tons of caveats about what else you can do with the action you're taking (misty step written to allow some other kind of action when cast, rage+something else, rogues and monks can double move... sometimes?). And while that would preserve the one action + move economy, I'm not sure it really gets you any more than that.

Having a distinct bonus action may be more complex but it also allows fairly complex mixtures of action, movement, bonus action that really help keep classes distinct and flavorful.