D&D 5E (2024) Using Action Surge to cast spells in 2024

[Maxperson]

What I want to know, is what the logic is for not allowing Bonus Actions to be readied. It seems to me that if you can cast it on your turn, you should be able to ready it to cast later. Why did they exclude Bonus Actions from the Ready Action?

 

[Charlaquin]

What I did was not in any way bad faith. I was showing how the two ways to get around RAI are the same, and therefore BOTH are bad faith. People can make examples like that without arguing in bad faith.

You COULD set the trigger to be see an enemy and avoid all the negatives. Bad faith.
You COULD try to get around the restriction on casting two spells with action surge by Readying an Action. Bad faith.

Both are cases of trying to get around restrictions.

That’s not what bad faith means.

 

[Maxperson]

That’s not what bad faith means.

Yes it is. Trying to get around what is intended is bad faith playing.

Edit: first, Bad Faith in arguing requires a legitimate attempt to pretend you have a different view than you do, which I did not do. Showing something to make a point is not pretending to hold that view. Second, look up what Bad Faith in RPGs is.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

With repect to "Magic action" this would be the only place they missed it then. They use that term over and over and over again even when it is obvious, it would be very peculiar to leave it out here considering the way the rest of the books are written.

No. Not really. Not peculiar. Because in most cases it does not matter. I guess it was an oversight.

Your opinion is different. But I am not convinced by your reasoning either.

 

[James Gasik]

What I want to know, is what the logic is for not allowing Bonus Actions to be readied. It seems to me that if you can cast it on your turn, you should be able to ready it to cast later. Why did they exclude Bonus Actions from the Ready Action?

That is a good question, especially since, outside of spells, most things that you can use your bonus action for have restrictions on when they can be used anyways, like bonus action attacks typically require you to use the Attack action. There had to be some interaction they were worried about.

As an aside, you could Ready a Minor Action in 4e, so they weren't worried about any shenanigans then. I think it has to do with spellcasting, as I can't think of any bonus action that could be a problem, at least by 2014 rules. But maybe they didn't want Readied Healing Words or something?

-

Beyond Action Surge, has anyone weighed in yet on a Sorcerer using their bonus action to cast a Quickened Spell, then Readying a 1 action Spell to be used off-turn yet to avoid the "no more than one levelled spell per turn" clause? If Readying a Spell = using the Magic Action, then this should be disallowed too, right, since you start casting the spell when you Ready?

EDIT: apparently asked and answered two years ago in a thread I posted in, lol.

 

[ECMO3]

do the items that require / mention the Magic action easily outnumber the ones that cast a spell?

For ones with features to activate, yes easily.

Now if you are including a +1 Sword or a Ring of Resistance than no, because most don't require any action they are just constantly functioning. But if you are talking about magic items that require an action to use/activate yes.

By my count 68 items in the DMG let you cast a spell with no use of the Magic action or Bonus action mentioned in the item description and 128 items require you to use a Magic action to activate one or more of the powers. I counted those manually so they may be off a bit, but it is way more that require a Magic action.

 

[ECMO3]

No. As I said above, nobody was going to think you didn't need to see targets, use the proper distances, etc. without the word normal in there. That it was included means that it refers to the action being taken, not the Ready Action. If it were only the Ready Action, they wouldn't have bothered wasting the space on those words.

I disagree, because the action you are using is Ready and they wasted PLENTY of space saying Magic action over and over and over agin throughout both the 2024 PHB and DMG.

We can say confidently that WOTC regularly and routinely wasted space in both books writing "Magic action".

Looking at the extensive and overly redundant use of "Magic action" in those books the opposite is true - it is abnormal for them not to "waste" space on the words "Magic action" considering how much they overuse it throughout the rest of the books.

 

[ECMO3]

The reason why they wrote "cast it as normal" because writing "cast it only when you not have cast another spell with casting time action" would be redundant, because these are already the normal spellcasting rules for spells with casting time of an action!

But this is not prohibited, there are numerous other clearly legal ways to cast multiple spells with a casting time of an action in one turn and we know from the interviews this is intentional.

The only time you are restricted from using multiple spells with an action casting time is when they both use a spell slot.

 

[mamba]

For ones with features to activate, yes easily.

Now if you are including a +1 Sword or a Ring of Resistance than no

I was thinking of ones that 'cast spells' or otherwise trigger spell-like efects some way, like the Staff of The Python example, not things like +1 sword.

Examples:

Staff of Fire
"Spells. The staff has 10 charges. While holding the staff, you can cast one of the spells..."

Staff of Flowers
"This wooden staff has 10 charges. While holding it, you can take a Magic action to expend 1 charge from the staff"

without going through many examples, the only difference I see is that one has existing spells (Staff of Fire) while the other has a unique effect that is not an existing spell.

See e.g. the Staff of Swarming Insects that has both uses

"Insect Cloud. While holding the staff, you can take a Magic action and expend 1 charge to cause a swarm of harmless flying insects"

"Spells. While holding the staff, you can cast one of the spells on the following table from it"

That seems to be the only distinction, 'cast spell' is used when it is an existing spell I can look up and 'use Magic action' is used when it is a unique effect. Of course a spell usually also requires the Magic action to cast, see the PHB

"Most spells require the Magic action to cast, but some spells require a Bonus Action, a Reaction, or 1 minute or more. A spell’s Casting Time entry specifies which of those is required." So any spell with a duration of action requires the Magic action to cast anyway.

 

[Maxperson]

I disagree, because the action you are using is Ready and they wasted PLENTY of space saying Magic action over and over and over agin throughout both the 2024 PHB and DMG.

We can say confidently that WOTC regularly and routinely wasted space in both books writing "Magic action".

Looking at the extensive and overly redundant use of "Magic action" in those books the opposite is true - it is abnormal for them not to "waste" space on the words "Magic action" considering how much they overuse it throughout the rest of the books.

Apples and oranges. Magic Action, wherever mentioned, does not necessitate the use of "normal" in the Ready Action. Like at all. There's simply no need as nobody is going to try and get around the details of the spell itself just because the Ready Action doesn't say "normal." You aren't going to find people who are trying to get extra range or a wider area or more targets just because it doesn't say "cast as normal."