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Sage Advice Compendium Update 1/30/2019
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<blockquote data-quote="Hriston" data-source="post: 7575430" data-attributes="member: 6787503"><p>But you <em>are</em> given one by virtue of having the feat. That's my point. Saying, "you can't get a bonus action until given one", is a paraphrase of the section I quoted, which is about "class features, spells, and other abilities" letting you take one. It's a clarification that bonus action is not a default part of the action economy that a player should be thinking about filling on every turn, like similar things are in previous editions. If you have Shield Master, then you <em>do</em> have a bonus action to take. And sure, the condition needs to be satisfied, but that's not what this passage is about.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>But X <em>is</em> true at the same time as Y because it's true of your entire turn. You can't both take the Attack action on your turn and not take the Attack action on your turn. It's one or the other.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Okay, I was ignoring the bonus action part of the example because of the weirdness, but what I've been saying about Shield Master still holds. The rule you're citing says you don't have a bonus action to take unless "a special ability, spell, or other feature of the game states that you can do something as a bonus action." Shield Master states (with conditions) that you can shove a creature as a bonus action. Alternatively, [MENTION=6987520]dnd4vr[/MENTION]'s example states (with conditions) that you can go to the bookstore and buy a book as a bonus action.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Right, and my argument is that it's current because of the "on your turn" language. Perhaps an interpolation would help: If you [<em>do</em>] take the Attack action on your turn, you can use...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>It's different than that, though. Until satisfaction of the condition can be checked for (which, <em>at the latest,</em> is at the end of your turn), all that has happened is a shove-attempt. Once the moment of your turn is reached in which you take the Attack action, then the condition for using a bonus action is met, and the bonus action is assigned to the shove-attempt. Now, that may seem like a retcon, or "going back in time", but to me it isn't because it doesn't change any established events in the fiction.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I’m really glad you asked me this. Here’s the story as far as I can reconstruct it. On July 6, 2015, Jeremy Crawford answered this question on twitter:</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px"><strong>Does the “when” in the Eldritch Knight’s War Magic feature mean the bonus attack comes after you cast the cantrip, or can it come before?</strong></p><p></p><p>This response, an expansion of his earlier tweeted response, appears in the "RULES ANSWERS: JUNE 2016" Sage Advice article:</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">The intent is that the bonus attack can come before or after the cantrip. You choose when to take a bonus action during your turn, unless the bonus action specifies when it must take place (PH, 189).</p><p></p><p>I want to stop right there to note that here we have the statement of RAI for bonus actions like the War Magic weapon attack, of which the Shield Master shove is one. I’d also like to note how highly unlikely it is that Crawford was drunk and in line at Trader Joe’s when he tweeted both this response as well as the one he tweeted on January 21, 2015 about the Shield Master shove. </p><p></p><p>In the August, 2017 Sage Advice Compendium, however, Jeremy Crawford changed his answer to that question from his previous RAI answer to the following RAW interpretation: </p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">The bonus action comes after the cantrip, since using your action to cast a cantrip is what gives you the ability to make the weapon attack as a bonus action. That said, a DM would break nothing in the system by allowing an Eldritch Knight to reverse the order of the cantrip and the weapon attack.</p><p></p><p>After that, on May 11, 2018, someone asked him on Twitter if the same principle applied to his 2015 ruling on Shield Master, which led to him changing that ruling as well. </p><p></p><p>So the Eldritch Knight’s War Magic is really what kicked this all off, and I suspect the reason Crawford decided to abandon his RAI ruling had something to do with the fact that while Shield Master, Two-Weapon Fighting, Polearm Master, etc. all grant bonus action attacks conditioned on taking the Attack action (with possible additional conditions), War Magic grants a weapon attack conditioned on casting a cantrip (presumably by taking the Cast a Spell action). And while Crawford acknowledges in his revised War Magic ruling that it breaks nothing to reverse the order established by his ruling, it does bring up the issue that if you make the weapon attack first and are then prevented from casting your cantrip, it changes your action from Cast a Spell to Attack. That isn't necessarily a problem either, but it might have been something that swayed him.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I agree with your three points above. This post wasn't so much meant to advance my general position, however, as it was to call into question the particular reading of this passage that I've seen come up in this thread to support the idea that "you do not have a bonus action until given one." You yourself have used this argument several times in the post to which I'm responding. The case I'm making in this respect is that Shield Master is the game-feature that lets you use a bonus action (with conditions) according to this passage, so if you have the Shield Master feat, you do have a bonus action to use, and that taking the Attack action on your turn is merely concomitant with using your bonus action.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Hriston, post: 7575430, member: 6787503"] But you [I]are[/I] given one by virtue of having the feat. That's my point. Saying, "you can't get a bonus action until given one", is a paraphrase of the section I quoted, which is about "class features, spells, and other abilities" letting you take one. It's a clarification that bonus action is not a default part of the action economy that a player should be thinking about filling on every turn, like similar things are in previous editions. If you have Shield Master, then you [I]do[/I] have a bonus action to take. And sure, the condition needs to be satisfied, but that's not what this passage is about. But X [I]is[/I] true at the same time as Y because it's true of your entire turn. You can't both take the Attack action on your turn and not take the Attack action on your turn. It's one or the other. Okay, I was ignoring the bonus action part of the example because of the weirdness, but what I've been saying about Shield Master still holds. The rule you're citing says you don't have a bonus action to take unless "a special ability, spell, or other feature of the game states that you can do something as a bonus action." Shield Master states (with conditions) that you can shove a creature as a bonus action. Alternatively, [MENTION=6987520]dnd4vr[/MENTION]'s example states (with conditions) that you can go to the bookstore and buy a book as a bonus action. Right, and my argument is that it's current because of the "on your turn" language. Perhaps an interpolation would help: If you [[I]do[/I]] take the Attack action on your turn, you can use... It's different than that, though. Until satisfaction of the condition can be checked for (which, [I]at the latest,[/I] is at the end of your turn), all that has happened is a shove-attempt. Once the moment of your turn is reached in which you take the Attack action, then the condition for using a bonus action is met, and the bonus action is assigned to the shove-attempt. Now, that may seem like a retcon, or "going back in time", but to me it isn't because it doesn't change any established events in the fiction. I’m really glad you asked me this. Here’s the story as far as I can reconstruct it. On July 6, 2015, Jeremy Crawford answered this question on twitter: [INDENT][B]Does the “when” in the Eldritch Knight’s War Magic feature mean the bonus attack comes after you cast the cantrip, or can it come before?[/B][/INDENT] This response, an expansion of his earlier tweeted response, appears in the "RULES ANSWERS: JUNE 2016" Sage Advice article: [INDENT]The intent is that the bonus attack can come before or after the cantrip. You choose when to take a bonus action during your turn, unless the bonus action specifies when it must take place (PH, 189).[/INDENT] I want to stop right there to note that here we have the statement of RAI for bonus actions like the War Magic weapon attack, of which the Shield Master shove is one. I’d also like to note how highly unlikely it is that Crawford was drunk and in line at Trader Joe’s when he tweeted both this response as well as the one he tweeted on January 21, 2015 about the Shield Master shove. In the August, 2017 Sage Advice Compendium, however, Jeremy Crawford changed his answer to that question from his previous RAI answer to the following RAW interpretation: [INDENT]The bonus action comes after the cantrip, since using your action to cast a cantrip is what gives you the ability to make the weapon attack as a bonus action. That said, a DM would break nothing in the system by allowing an Eldritch Knight to reverse the order of the cantrip and the weapon attack.[/INDENT] After that, on May 11, 2018, someone asked him on Twitter if the same principle applied to his 2015 ruling on Shield Master, which led to him changing that ruling as well. So the Eldritch Knight’s War Magic is really what kicked this all off, and I suspect the reason Crawford decided to abandon his RAI ruling had something to do with the fact that while Shield Master, Two-Weapon Fighting, Polearm Master, etc. all grant bonus action attacks conditioned on taking the Attack action (with possible additional conditions), War Magic grants a weapon attack conditioned on casting a cantrip (presumably by taking the Cast a Spell action). And while Crawford acknowledges in his revised War Magic ruling that it breaks nothing to reverse the order established by his ruling, it does bring up the issue that if you make the weapon attack first and are then prevented from casting your cantrip, it changes your action from Cast a Spell to Attack. That isn't necessarily a problem either, but it might have been something that swayed him. I agree with your three points above. This post wasn't so much meant to advance my general position, however, as it was to call into question the particular reading of this passage that I've seen come up in this thread to support the idea that "you do not have a bonus action until given one." You yourself have used this argument several times in the post to which I'm responding. The case I'm making in this respect is that Shield Master is the game-feature that lets you use a bonus action (with conditions) according to this passage, so if you have the Shield Master feat, you do have a bonus action to use, and that taking the Attack action on your turn is merely concomitant with using your bonus action. [/QUOTE]
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