What are your thoughts on DnD’s Bonus Action? Let us know, down below!

bonus actions themselves aren't a problem, they're a good mechanic, i think the problem is how the design around them was used which i think has two major points:
1-once the bonus action existed the designers were over-eager to use it as an activation cost for too many minor abilities that didn't really need it.
2-there was no default basic selection of bonus actions for the classes/characters who didn't get their own unique bonus actions.

the "what does this mean in-fiction?" test remains undefeated.

I always found the name "Bonus Action" to be a little weird. It's name would imply that it would be an advantage or reward for good play, but it's just another action. I think 1st edition pathfinder called it a "Swift action" which is honestly a better name

pathfinder made them self concious

I think having three “action” buckets isn’t a bad idea in theory and it feels really good when you are playing say, a rogue where you can reposition, attack and then do something that gives utility like hiding or using an item.

The problem is that DnD is so damage focused that optimization became weirder and weirder as more content came out while not properly give every class equal access to interesting bonus actions. You typically need to use your action to do damage to feel like you are accomplishing something so anything actually cool that isn’t a spell needs to be shoved into bonus actions

I really like Lancer. You get two actions and movement. But the two actions can't be the same action, with some actions taking both.

I've said it before but I hugely prefer PF2e's "you have one bucket of actions and different things cost different amounts" - And find it simpler - to D&D's "You have multiple different buckets and need to remember which things are in which bucket" (And I am fully aware that 5e simplified it from earlier editions). But that might be because I got used to the concept of AP in board games and PF2e's 3 action economy fits into that model.

Legend's in the Mist's momentum system sounds similar to how combat works in Ironsworn, where weather you're on the backfoot or have the edge in combat determines what sorts of things you can do in combat, but for a game designed for a group rather than largely around solo play.

Technically in 4e there’s like 3 different kinds of “reactions”. Two types of “Immediate Actions” that you can only use one per round kinda like the 5e reaction: Immediate Reaction which you use after a triggering condition, and Immediate Interrupt, which you get to use before a triggering condition. Then there’s the Opportunity Action which is essentially just opportunity attacks but you can use an Opportunity Action on EACH turn (basically you can use multiple opportunity attacks in a round but only one per enemy turn)

The other thing with 4e's 'No Actions' was just that, they weren't actions, meaning if you were prevented from performing actions by some ability or condition, you could still do things that weren't actions.

As someone who's only had fun in the 4e campaigns I played.
I reqlly love the mechanic being able to convert your actions from major to move to minor and really missing it in 5e.
Havent had any problem with free actions but thats probably something in higher levels?
What I'll probably try in my next 5e campaign is letting PCs give up an action to get +1 on a check they do before the end of their next turn. So you could get +1 on your next turns attack if you dont end up using your bonus action this turn or you could give up your turn to get a +3 on a reaction  like counterspell if you think you might need it.

Happy to see another podcast from y'all. Love your takes on ttrpg's as a whole. Keep up the stellar work guys! 😤

I think the best patch to bonus action would be the thing you first suggested: make every class have a signature bonus action. That at least would eliminate the biggest problem, which is indecision. It would need a lot of balancing to be good, but I think it would be a good base-line.

I think if you can make it so that either there is/are some basic bonus action(s) available to all, and/or each class has its own, and either way it's something that's always useful as a base if no other cool/useful bonus action makes sense at that point, that would help resolve a lot, because you'd never worry about filling your bonus action, you can always default to that, at most you may occasionally wish to use your bonus action for something else when it makes sense.

Creating a JRPG menu for my build on the back of my char sheet made things a lot easier for me. I broke all my spells and abilities into offense, defense, movement, misc., and added symbols that told me what they cost in terms of slots and action types. It got to the point that when my DM gave me an item that let me cast ANY spell in the game I had a slot for (I don't know why he did that...) my turns were still generally average length for the table.

Yes to all of this. I get why the initial design mandate of "we need a special resource that's not your capital-A action that only some select features make use of in order to limit and keep it balanced" BUT.... when everyone gets Bonus Actions, it becomes the slowdown we see now. And when only a couple characters do, it feels lousy to everyone else who doesn't get one.

15:30 Mike's solution sounds like adding more complication to the system, now the people who don'tknow what to do with a bonus action don't know what COMBINATIONS to create for their action

Give every class something like a Prepare Bonus action to lets say do more damage or chance to hit next turn so that if you can't do anything significant with the Bonus action you can "no-brain" use Prepare action to set yourself up for the next turn.

My RPG has a main action, minor action, and maneuver. the maneuver includes moving as an option but also shifting to get advantage on an attack or mounting a steed. the minor actions have a list available to everyone as well like an offhand attack and grapple on the precondition of an unarmed strike.

A fun one I worked with is you have one action and then movement. You have the choice to cut your movement in half to add a bonus effect to your action.